Category Archives: Attitude

Can a kick in the teeth help your career?

Posted on January 2, 2013 | Leave a comment

You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.  (Walt Disney)

Can you believe Walt Disney said that?  He was such a nice guy!

Many of the happiest people I know were ruined at one point.  Some depressed people were also ruined, but they stayed that way.  It can be layoffs, bankruptcy, divorce, a major health problem or a terrorist act that is your personal disaster.  Often it is a combination of them, a major kick in the teeth.

One friend of mine was climbing the career ladder.  There was a disaster and he, his wife and kids all had to come and live in the basement of his parent’s house.  He took a dock worker job at trucking company.  He had no future. He learned that dockworker job and got promoted several times in only a couple of years.  Then he quit and formed a local company that expanded to several states.  He still loaded trucks when he had to… as the CEO helping out.  He won’t tell you he liked getting kicked in the teeth.  Instead, he’ll tell you it was a turning point.  It was the start of a new and exciting phase of his life.

Oh yeah, he got kicked in the teeth again and had the courts liquidate his company three years later.  Now he’s back at it. He didn’t enjoy it, but he just kept moving forward.

Happy or depressed, which will it be?  That depends on how long it takes you to put yourself in charge.  Being in charge is the subject of the next series of articles.  Positive steps you can take to prepare for or recover from disaster.

Something to do today

Talk to the 3 happiest people you know.  Get them alone.  Ask them if they were ever kicked in the teeth.  You may have to push them to find out.  Ask them about the list: layoffs, bankruptcy, divorce, health and terrorist acts.  I’ll bet you are surprised at what they call, “A blessing in disguise.”

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Later:               You vs offshoring

Prepare to be a manager

You are underpaid, right?

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Posted in Attitude, Perseverance

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Why and how to find a good manager to work for

Posted on December 21, 2012 | Leave a comment

A manager is making you happy or miserable.  A recent study by the Society for Human Resource Managers (SHRM) concluded that 79% of people who leave their jobs say that lack of appreciation is a key reason.  Happiness at work is, therefore, the manager’s fault.  People quit because of their managers.  In the end, your managers will make or break your work experience.

The average person who changes jobs only gets a 5% raise according to another study.  That is not a lot of money. Quite often the next raise would have met or exceeded that.  So money is not a major factor

Recognition, praise, rewards and awards are part of a manager’s duty. Yet many managers get so caught up in projects and budgets that they never say, “Well done!”

So, when you are looking for a job or a promotion, you know the most important thing to look for. Find a good manager.

How do you decide who is a good manager?

Find a chance to ask people who have been working for that person how they like it.  Listen carefully for hints of happiness or unhappiness.  Follow through on any hints with more questions.

Think about the managers you have liked.  Haven’t they been the ones who knew how well you did, and recognized you for it?

Something to do today

List your last 4 managers. First rank them by how well they appreciated your accomplishments.  Then rank them by how you liked them overall as managers.  Is there something to this?  What kind of a manager or team leader are you?

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Later:               A kick in the teeth

You vs offshoring

Prepare to be a manager

You are underpaid, right?

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Posted in Attitude, management, Quitting or Fired

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Creative or just a gray person?

Posted on December 12, 2012 | Leave a comment

Some people are remembered because they are sharp, creative, and interesting. Many people are gray and easily forgotten

Call up our office after 6 pm.  Usually no one is there.  Listen to my voice mail message.  (800)239-7037.  Bryan Dilts.  I change the message every week or two.

You won’t be the first person to call just to hear it.  Some of them are great.  Some are merely okay.  I, personally, think each is funny, motivational or thought provoking.  Some other people think my messages are an abomination.  Each message is the real me.

My voice mail is unique.  Each person who leaves a message remembers me.

No committee would ever let me have those messages.  They would strangle the creativity.  I actually had a manager tell me not to be happy when I answer the phone at EDS.  That is the kind of thinking that turns you into a grey person that no one will remember.

A committee is a cul-de-sac down which ideas are lured and then quietly strangled. (Sir Barnett Cocks)

In your job search you need to strike a balance.  You need to build confidence in the hiring managers.  You also need to stand out.  If you come up with a great idea, run it past some friends who can help you refine it.  Then test it.  The key is to refine and improve, not kill the idea.  In the end, take responsibility and do something a little different.  Your friends are not a committee with life or death responsibility. They are helpers.

Figure out what will make your resume better and unique.  Decide a few things you can answer to the standard questions that make you standout in 10 seconds of an interview.  Find the way to network that will set you apart and make you uniquely worthy of help.  Always go for a little better.

Use help to do something better and more unique.  Don’t let a committee kill your genius.  Be sharp and creative, not just a gray person everyone immediately forgets.

Something to do today

So, what is unique about you?  Is it your personality?  Your brainpower? Your 10 kids? (I have that many.) Education?  Sense of humor? Hard work? Soberness? Reliability?

Figure out a way to emphasize your strengths.  Be different.

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Later:              Boomer brain drain

Not 12 seconds, it is 5.7 seconds

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Posted in Attitude, Finding jobs, Focus, Interviews

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Basic job pointers

Posted on December 11, 2012 | Leave a comment

There will be a time when loud-mouthed, incompetent people seem to be getting the best of you.  When that happens, you only have to be patient and wait for them to self-destruct.  It never fails. (Richard Rybolt)

One of the great keys to finding a new job is being good at your old job.

You have to be competent, cheerful, and communicative.

Competent people get the job done.  When they’re assigned a project, they make sure to do it as well and as quickly as possible.  Every manager loves an employee that gets his projects done before the deadline.

Cheerful people get the job done with a smile.  Sure, they may have to put up with a difficult project, a tight schedule, and a team member or two whom they don’t particularly like, but they doesn’t get them down.  Every manager loves an employee with good morale, especially if he keeps the other workers’ spirits up.

Communicative people let their boss know what’s going on while they’re getting the job done.  That doesn’t mean that they flood his desk with memos or his voice-mail with messages giving him information he doesn’t need.  It means they let their supervisor know once in a while that things or going as planned… or that they honestly admit when things have gone awry and need some intervention.

I know a fellow who has been working with his current employer for almost a year.  He’s certainly competent.  He was given a piece of software that hasn’t been working properly in spite of seven years of development by other programmers.  Pieces of that software that never worked before are now running smoothly.

My friend is also cheerful.  He’s put up with a supervisor that sells products the company doesn’t have (and has managed to create several of those non-existent products to save his boss’s hide).  He’s talked an employee out of leaving when his boss yelled at him.  He does a good job of keeping office tensions low.

My friend, however, could use some work on his communication skills.  He’s a college student, and occasionally his schedule changes when he least expects it.  That means that sometimes he’ll have a class or group meeting when he would ordinarily be at work.

What should you do in that sort of situation?  Call ahead, of course, to let your boss know what has happened and try to make sure your employer isn’t left hanging because he needed you.  Yes, that means that you should call in to work at 3 am and leave a message if you won’t be able to contact him in advance any other way.

A supervisor’s job is to make decisions.  By calling him, you let him know what is going on so that he can make those decisions.  If you don’t call, you may find yourself in trouble… and looking for another job.  Finding that job will be extra difficult, because you’ll have to tell them why you left your last employment.

So, be dependable.  Call ahead.  Your boss may not like that you can’t make it in, but he’ll love that you let him know.

Competent, cheerful, and communicative.  Important keys.  Hey, that all adds up to being reliable!  What a concept.

Something to do today

Make a list of the times in the last year that your schedule has changed unexpectedly and kept you from going to work as normal.  What did you do?  Were those things that helped your relationship with your boss or hurt it?

Thank you Jesse, for writing my column today.

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Later:              You, not a committee

Boomer brain drain

Not 12 seconds, it is 5.7 seconds

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Posted in Accomplishments, Attitude

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What do you do while you wait to hear if you are hired?

Posted on December 5, 2012 | Leave a comment

Here in the USA we wait in lines.  We get upset when someone cuts in front.  So we wait back until it is our turn.  We don’t want to be greedy.

Tim was competing with 3 others for a promotion at EDS.  He was prepared.  He was a good choice.  He told his boss, “I do want this promotion.  It is the next step I need to take in my career.  But I don’t want you to choose me for the job if the other guys should have it.  I know it is important to them too.  I don’t want you to feel any pressure to give it to me even though I want it.”  Tim did NOT get the promotion.

Tim also waited a full year to get half of the bonus he was promised for putting in a lot of overtime on a project.  During that year he reminded his boss twice of the bonus.  Then Tim waited patiently with a smile.  Tim was a nice guy.  He was getting beaten up because he was afraid that hustling was uncouth.  Tim was politely waiting in line.

Good things come to those who wait.  But only what is left behind by those who hustle.  (Abraham Lincoln)

Let’s compare that to me.  Same area at EDS, different job.  I wanted to move to a special technical team.  There were 4 openings.  I asked my team leader and manager to help me get in.  I reminded them every few days.  I visited the manager who was leading the new group every other day.  I brought a word of cheer or another accomplishment.  He had no doubt how much I wanted the job. He got an email after every contact.  I got the job with 3 years of experience.  The other technicians were 5 to 20 years my senior.  They were well known and earned twice what I did.  I was nobody in comparison.  And I know I beat out a whole bunch of other folks who had way better credentials than me.

I waited, but I hustled while I waited. I made sure my references were checked.  I offered more proof of my accomplishments.  I never let the manager forget I wanted that job.  Towards the end he would see me in his doorway and grin, “Bryan, I haven’t made that decision yet, but I’m going to.  Don’t worry.  I know you want the job.”  But I kept coming for 3 weeks anyway.  I wanted the job more than I wanted to be polite.  I was willing to out work any of the more senior guys he could hire.  This was my only way to prove it.

There were a lot of very surprised people when I got the job.  They were obviously better than me.  But I hustled.  I made it a big deal.  I got the job.  Unfortunately there was nothing left for the others waiting in line.

Something to do today

If you are job hunting or looking for a promotion, hustle.  The job seeker who offers contagious enthusiasm often gets hired over the guy with experience.  For the job that is a quantum leap forward in your career, refuse to wait in line.  Hustle.

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Later:              The 5 pound call girl

Where to fish

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Posted in Attitude, Focus, Perseverance, Promotions, References

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How to get a great job at your biggest competitor

Posted on December 4, 2012 | Leave a comment

Jason has had 3 promotions in 2 years.  His pay has gone up 50%.  His attitude is a delight.  If there is a tough job, he’ll rally the team and get the job done.  Jason not only gets the chance to fix disasters, he fixes the problems behind the disasters.  No one has ever done that before.  He is having a huge impact. He seems to whistle a magic tune that improves attitudes and gets unbelievable results.

Jason also just quit.  He took a new job that pays a little less than he earns now.

Two things happened.  First, Jason realized his boss would always be a loose cannon and Jason would always get to clean up. Second, with a boss like that it was obvious the company would never go out of business, but it would never get much bigger either.

The best part is that all the things he got done looked great when he applied for a job.  He applied at their strongest competitor.  Jason is going to a company that is really growing.  It is a company with a plan and a history of doing things right the first time.

Wherever you are, whistle a happy tune.  Put an accomplishment list together that will carry you into a better job, and if necessary, get that job in a better company.

Something to do today

Just for the record, all the stories I tell are true, but the names are changed.

Document your accomplishments for each week.  Give a copy to your boss in a format he can use for his reports.  That way you can be sure he knows why you are the best employee he has.

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Later:              Hustle while you wait

The $5 call girl

Where to fish

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Posted in Accomplishments, Attitude, Quitting or Fired, References

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What to say about the horrible people you worked with

Posted on December 3, 2012 | Leave a comment

Our office was small, 5 desks.  We always wear office casual.  Our interview style is casual.  We ask a lot of tough questions, but we try our best to put candidates at ease.

A candidate was making some rather crude remarks about former coworkers.  He shoveled up some really inappropriate dirt on some characters he knew.  Finally he was told, “Saying things like that in an interview is going to keep everyone from wanting to have anything to do with you.”

He replied, “But this isn’t an interview.”

His mistake

You are in an interview anytime you talk with someone who can help you get a job. Use your interview manners when you talk to friends, acquaintances, recruiters, people in Human Resources and when you talk to a company President.  Your friend who knows a manager in another company is interviewing you when you ask him to submit your resume.  A recruiter is always interviewing people.

Some interviewers, like recruiters, require more in-depth information than others.  Give it to them, but don’t show hatred.  Don’t viciously gossip.

That doesn’t mean you should hide things, it means you should get over them.  Let them go.  Forgive. Forget.  At the very least stop bringing horrible things up.

A way to measure what to say

The measure of what you should say now, is what you imagine yourself saying about the situation in 5 or 10 years.

When you are looking for a job in 5 or 10 years you will not say much about the SOB’s at your last job.  They won’t be worth the time.  You may have to say why you left, but it will only take 20 seconds.

When you paint someone with a hateful brush, you expose your hate.  Your hatred, loathing or disgust is never pretty.  Those who see it will always wonder when you will say the same things about them.  A rabid vicious dog is never welcome in any neighborhood.  So, why would someone want you, a vengeful, spiteful, nasty mouthed person, working on their team?

Get on with your life.  Forgive, forget.  Concentrate on the good things you do.  Remember, you are always in an interview.

Something to do today

Think about the negatives that come out of your mouth in an interview. Figure out a way to clinically describe bad things that happened without emotion.  Figure out how to do it in 20 seconds.

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Later:              Whistle while you work

Hustle while you wait

The $5 call girl

Where to fish

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Posted in Attitude, Interviews, Networking

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3 good pieces of career advice

Posted on November 23, 2012 | Leave a comment

Good advice about careers, making stuff, and being happy.  Here it is.

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Why failure is good in your job search

Posted on November 9, 2012 | 1 comment

Not many people are willing to give failure a second try.  They fail once and it is all over.  The bitter pill of failure is often more than most people can handle.  If you are willing to accept failure and learn from it, if you are willing to consider failure as a blessing in disguise and bounce back, you have got the essential of harnessing one of the most powerful success forces.  (Joseph Sugarman)

Why failure is good in your job search

When I was 17 I bragged that I had gotten every job I applied for.  That was 5 jobs at the time.  I set my own expectations and hit them.  I continued to get every job I applied for. Looking back, I was lucky and that luck kept me from doing better.

I always had enough money to survive and my desires weren’t huge.  I was going to college by then and just wanted to graduate.  That is why my luck hurt me so bad.

After I left college I found out that my Geology Department would have gladly given me jobs while I was at school.  I just never asked.  I could have gone on to graduate school and jobs would have been lined up for me so I could afford it.  I never asked.  During the summer break there were jobs available for aspiring geologists, but I had already lined up something else selling books or working in the library.  It was so easy to get the jobs I applied for that I never got the jobs that would advance my career.

Even when I graduated I applied for a job in geology that was being filled by high school graduates at the time.  Of course I got the job.  And I earned less than I could. And I didn’t look for another job until I was laid off.

It took me 3 years after that lay off to get a good job with a bright future.  It took me that long to learn that if I accept every job I can get, I get jobs without a future.

I was a slow learner.  I didn’t start failing until after I was laid off.  I finally learned.  Sometimes getting every job you apply for means you aren’t aiming high enough.

Something to do today

Do you have a real career plan?

I was talking with programmers earning $50,000 per year and others earning $120,000 per year.  They had the same basic talents.  The better paid ones had chosen to work in SAP instead of Visual Basic.  They really had to pay a price to get into SAP.  Now they are reaping amazing rewards compared to the programmers who applied for jobs they knew they could get.

Do you really have a career plan?  Or is it just a downhill career path?

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Later:              Simplicity

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Posted in Attitude, Finding jobs, Focus

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Office politics – is documentation or lunch the way to win?

Posted on November 1, 2012 | Leave a comment

Go for the throat office politics can be won.  The bureaucrats can be defeated.  Here is how I did it once.

I was on a team of outsiders making massive updates to their computer system.  Every time we went around one of their team members, they sent us an email.  If we didn’t do things their way, we got an email.  We got a lot of emails.

The president of the company was a figurehead.  The VP of Operations from out of town was the person who had funded the company.  He wasn’t the head, he was the leader.  He actually had the power to fire the president.

Things finally came to a head when we were about to finish the project one week late.  We had charged an extra $300,000 and were 15% over budget.  All the over budget charges were for taking over jobs that the staff just wasn’t getting done.

The staff figured they had us up against a wall.  They wanted our blood. We were going to be a week late.  We had made them look bad.  They had undeniable documentation of all our failings and our failure to listen.

So we called a meeting with the VP, the staff, and our team of outsiders for 11:30 AM.  The VP had to fly in from out of state to attend.  The staff was sure we would be crucified.

He got in and we sat down.  The head of the staff had a stack of emails 3 inches thick that he had printed out.  Proof!  He handed it to the VP.

The VP asked, “Will the system go live in a week?”

“Yes,” said the staff head.

“Will it work well enough to keep the company running?”

“Yes, but they…”

“Were you able to test the system they put in?”

“Yes, but they…”

“Did they charge us for anything they didn’t do?”

“No, but they didn’t do what they were supposed to.  I’ve got documentation here.”

“But they got done what we needed.  They finished the job that had to get done.  It’s lunch time.  I’m going to lunch.  Who wants to come with me?”

The meeting was over.  How had we won?  Politics.

I kept in phone contact with the VP.  I kept asking him what he wanted done.  I told him, that it would be expensive.  I told him his staff was getting in our way.  Every time I called, I had a solution to a problem.  I also kept reminding him of how expensive it would be if we failed.

The staff just kept sending him emails.

He listened to me because I had solutions to his problems.  He ignored the staff because they just whined. He was also hungry and the meeting was right before lunch, so he had no desire to listen to whining.

Be the person who brings solutions and gets things done, and you will notice that office politics shatter around you.  No one can beat you because you get the most important stuff done.

Think about it.  How does that apply to you?

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Posted in Accomplishments, Attitude, Focus, management

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