Tag Archives: job hunt

9 reasons it’s time to leave your job

Posted on February 15, 2022 | Leave a comment

Other than money, most people have to leave a job because of a major problem. It can be like an arrow wound for some people. This is called a job wound. Money can be the arrow, but it has to be a major problem, not just wanting to leave for 5% higher pay. 

Common job wound in a person’s job search are 

  1. being passed over for promotion, 
  2. a boring job, 
  3. a horrible boss, 
  4. dishonesty around you, 
  5. an abusive environment, 
  6. the company is failing, 
  7. long hours for months on end, 
  8. too much travel, 
  9. or lack of personal growth. 

A job wound is a serious problem. One that can’t be overcome by doing your work a little better. I will always try to find your job wound before I try to place you.  That’s because you are likely to spend a lot of time job hunting, only to stay where you are if you don’t have a painful enough job wound.

Many people will live with a severe job wound for years. A good spouse, friend, or recruiter won’t let you live with a bad job wound. We poke our fingers into the wound to see how deep it is. I use a little rubbing alcohol to help clean it out because it really stings. Then after I know how deep the wound is, I’ll pour in a little salt occasionally. I want someone who is thinking of changing jobs to hurt so bad that they don’t make the same mistake again.

Sometimes you need someone with a vested interest in change to get you to do something about your problems. If you have a severe job wound, it is time for major surgery. You need a job-ectomy.

Something to do today

Show this article to someone who is willing to do some surgery. Ask them to help you probe the size of your job wound. Write down all the details and emotions you bring to the surface. 

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Posted in Finding jobs

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Keep learning, and you’ll never be out of a job

Posted on August 27, 2021 | Leave a comment

My grandfather was a modern farmer in 1930. The local farm bureau agent came by and said, “The government will pay you to rotate your crops.” Grandpa replied, “That is the stupidest thing I ever heard. I already rotate my crops because I can grow more that way. My land doesn’t get worn out. It gets renewed.”

Grandpa was stubborn and wouldn’t take the government’s money to do something he knew he should already be doing. The guys from the conservation bureau had problems with him. He always implemented the latest ideas without waiting for them to come up with a program to get him to do it. Crazy old coot? Really, he was a visionary farmer.

Do you have to be paid to prepare yourself to earn more money? 

Reading about your field, reading books, or even listening to audiobooks on your way to work is the best way to keep current in your field. College courses in the evening are a great way to build the basics you need for a foundation for growth. Enthusiasm will get you into seminars and conventions. Pay for it yourself if you have to. It is worth it.

Don’t wait for someone to come and tell you what you need to do and learn. Go out and learn it yourself before that happens. 

Something to do today

Find new articles, books, or audiobooks in your field and write down a few things that stand out or are new to you. How can you apply that to your work?

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Posted in Finding jobs, Focus, Resumes, talent, Time management, Training

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Your job search is mortal combat: win every time

Posted on June 3, 2014 | Leave a comment

If you job hunt (or go to work) expecting mortal combat, where the other guy must lose, you will fail.  If you have a strong attitude that, “The company, my manager and I are going to win big,“ you will succeed.  In job search mortal combat you must defeat the real enemy every time. You will lose every time if you fight your allies.

I exhort you also to take part in the great combat, which is the combat of life, and greater than every other earthly combat.  (Plato)

Are companies idiots for not hiring you?  Is every interviewer prejudiced?  Let’s look at your job.  Do you assume that your workplace is run by fools?  Do you know more than your boss?  Do you hang around the complainers and whiners at work?  Are you the ringleader?  Are people out to get you?

People really may be out to get you if you have a bad attitude.  A hiring manager wants someone who will help and support him.  Promotions come to people who help raise team spirits and achieve goals.  Raises are given when a person is worth more than they are being paid.  The manager interviewing you for a job will get a feeling how you treat your current boss.  Your attitude will come through in the interview.

So how should you treat your current boss?

She should be your ally.  In mortal combat, you help your allies.

Often you have to train your manager.  She doesn’t have your perspective on problems.  You need to constantly bring things to her attention that she may not know. You need to train her patiently, the way you would like to be trained.

Would you like to get pats on the back for the good things you do along with the occasional pointer on how to correct a mistake?  Do the same with your boss.  Positive reinforcement sets the stage for your negative comments to be heard.  Take an attitude check today.  Are you saying 5 positive things for every negative you voice?  Keep track.

Are you job hunting?

Can the interviewer tell how you engage in destructive mortal combat?  Is that why they are avoiding you?  Do you treat your current manager as your best ally?  If the right attitude shines through, they will hire you.

Business really is mortal combat.  You have to plan on winning every time.  Are you going to defeat stupidity with perfect logic and rapier sharp attacks?  No, you will lose.  Do you plan on patiently helping everyone learn, grow and win?  Your victory is assured.

An attitude of constant improvement will win. Constant carping criticism loses every time.

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Something To Do Today

Keep a notepad with you.  Make two columns.  Put a check in one column for every positive thing you say.  Put a check in the other column for every negative thing you say.  Do the positives outstrip the negatives by 5 to 1?

Every Friday document your week at work in your job journal.  What are your quantifiable achievements and failures?  Make an upbeat report for your manager in a format she can use.  Turn it in whether she asked for it or not.

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Posted in Attitude, Focus, management, Promotions, Raises

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14 ways to job hunt like a kid

Posted on September 18, 2012 | Leave a comment

Kids can be a practically irresistible force.  I have 10 children.  Usually I can resist them.  Not always.  Here’s how they win.

  1. Be totally, irresistibly and eternally committed to a world changing idea
  2. Jump up and down with enthusiasm
  3. “No” means not now
  4. “Not now” means try again in 5 minutes
  5. Laugh, smile and tickle your dad
  6. Run around and get all the other kids excited out of their minds
  7. Ask dad for help to figure out how to do it
  8. Cry if dad is not listening
  9. See if you can turn it into a school project
  10. Ask mom to talk to dad about it
  11. Bring a partially completed task to dad to be fixed
  12. Change your plans and try again in an hour
  13. A small explosion in the yard will get dad’s attention
  14. Make it a game

Kids win because they are too excited to accept defeat.  They are willing to try every possible way around an obstacle.  When I am the obstacle and they are really really determined, they know they can win. One man described that level of enthusiam and determination this way:

The ability to understand a question from all sides meant one was totally unfit for action.  Fanatical enthusiasm was the mark of the real man.  (Thucydides)

Is there a job you really really want?  Why not job hunt like a kid?

Something to do today

Take a pen and paper and translate each of those 14 things into something you can use for job hunting or working for a promotion in real life.

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Tomorrow:     Fingerprint locks and getting hired

Picking up a hundred dollar bill

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Posted in Attitude, Perseverance

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Hiring managers are like giant cockroaches

Posted on September 12, 2012 | Leave a comment

A giant cockroach steals the hero’s gun and swallows it.  So the hero taunts the cockroach until it eats him.  A few minutes later the cockroach explodes and our hero is standing there holding the huge gun the monster ate a few minutes before.  Men In Black was a lot of fun.  In that case the only way to save the world was to survive in the stomach of a giant bug.

There has to be at least 5 great job hunting analogies there.  Create your own, then read mine.  I bet mine is different.

The giant bug wants nothing more than to get into its spaceship and get away.  Of course the earth will be destroyed if it gets away, but that is not the bug’s problem.  So the two puny humans must do everything they can to keep it from leaving.  They taunt it, harass it, insult it, and step on small earthly cockroaches (relatives and friends) to get it to delay its departure.  They figure out what the bug can’t ignore and get it to come back and deal with them.

Don’t show this to any of my clients please.  They won’t like it, but I have to say this.

Hiring managers really are like giant cockroaches. They just want to hide in their offices and get away from you.  You are a waste of their time unless you tell them something that proves they need you.  They would rather have their receptionist shred your resume than take the time to talk to you.  So take three lessons from the way the Men In Black fought the giant bug:

  1. You have to find the right words
  2. You have to engage them in conversation
  3. A relative or friend may be able to get them to talk to you

Over the next three days I will show you how to do each of these things.  The giant cockroach, I mean the hiring manager, will give you all the hints you need.  I’ll show you what those hints are.

Something to do today

There really are at least 5 other analogies from my opening paragraph.  Have some fun and talk about it with a friend.  Just make sure your  manager is not around.

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Later:                    Getting eaten by aliens – the right words

Engage them in conversation

A relative or friend can help

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Posted in Finding jobs

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