Career Opportunities

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It’s not my problem

Too often in our careers, we choose to do nothing about an issue or problem simply to preserve the status quo. We don’t want to rock the boat. We don’t want to cause trouble. We just want to keep our head down, do our work and get paid. Sure, there are times in our lives when the problem really isn’t worth the conflict. Did you find that Joe never feeds the coffee kitty in the break room or Jill takes home a stack of Post-It Notes occasionally? It is socially acceptable to let these offenses slide as the turmoil they would cause would be more damaging than the act itself.

But then there are the big issues — the issues that cannot, or should not be ignored. What do you do then? For most of us, our innate sense of self-preservation kicks in. We ignore the embezzlement that is occurring, the kickbacks, the customer ripoffs and possibly worse. We don’t want to lose our jobs so we simply do nothing, hoping that someone else will do something.

The problem though is that these are not small, social, offenses. These are crimes — usually multiple crimes — and unless you are very, very lucky, those crimes will come to light with or without your action. And once those crimes are discovered, authorities are going to have some very tough questions for you. You are going to be asked why you didn’t report the crimes when you knew they were occurring?  They are going to wonder if you didn’t report the crimes, were you perhaps involved in them in some way. Your inaction has led authorities to wonder, and perhaps prove, that you directly benefited by letting these crimes continue. You might have been simply trying to keep your head down, but you can find yourself directly involved in an investigation that could end your career and may even land you in jail.

What to do?

So what can seem like self-preservation often lands us in the trouble we were trying to avoid the entire time. If we think more deeply about it, reporting criminal behavior is another — and perhaps the best — form of self-preservation. Reporting a crime means that we place ourselves on the correct side of any investigation from the start. We might also find that we are protecting others who also knew and did not report because they were deeply afraid of losing their job. Reporting a crime is never easy, but it is always the right thing to do.

Yes, being a whistleblower can be very difficult and, perhaps, even dangerous. Losing your job can be extremely painful and disrupt your life in many ways, but it will be nothing compared to the destruction of your reputation, even if you don’t go to jail. Reporting a crime might be the most important, and in some cases, most heroic, thing you will ever do in your life. Be ready to stand up when called. Don’t let others be cheated or abused. Stand up for yourself and others just as you hope they will stand up for you.

Culpability

From a more personal view, failing to report a crime, even a suspected one, makes you culpable for that crime continuing. If you don’t take action others will be harmed and a small part of their harm will rest on your shoulders. By failing to take action, you allowed a con man to continue stealing. By your inaction, you allowed an abuser to continue to abuse. By your willing blindness, you allowed more and more people to be hurt. This can be a heavy burden and we should all feel it as such. Our biggest failures, as individuals and as a people, happen when we do nothing about crime, injustice and abuse.

It may sound cliche, but Edmund Burke had it correct when he said, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” We have seen this to be true in the world many times over. I call on you to break this cycle and do something when you see the need. You may be afraid for your job, your career or even your life, but you will have failed, both yourself and the world, if you do nothing.

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Social Media Self Preservation | The High-Tech Career Handbook

Now, of course, I don’t mean that you should start acting like some of our most at risk stars involved in drugs, alcohol  or a highly publicized 27 day marriages. Your goal is a long and productive career, not a a bright shining moment that ends in a crash. In fact, these bad examples can often be more useful than good examples. They warn us of the dangers and pitfalls to avoid.  The good examples then serve to give us a guideline as to how to handle our career paths.

You are on your own

Anyone who works in the various entertainment fields learns a hard lesson immediately. While you may have a manager, an agent, a record label or a publisher, you are truly on your own. No one can ever care as much about your career as you do. We shouldn’t even expect them to care that much. They are most interested in their own career, just as you should be. This means that you are directly responsible for the health, growth and protection of your career. No one else. When Leonardo DiCaprio selects his next movie, he will take advice from his agent and such, but in the end, it is his face on the screen saying the lines. It is his reputation at risk when the movie does well…or poorly. He can’t blame his staff for his failure. All the blame will be laid at his feet.

The same applies to your job no matter what it might be. You might try to blame your staff, your peers, your management, your company, but it is you who will suffer when you make bad choices. If you make bad choices, you have no one to blame but yourself — or more properly stated, no one else will except the blame for you. Forget this lesson at your peril.

Don’t let others make decisions for you. Take their advice. Discuss the possibilities, but when you make a decision, make sure it is truly your own. I see people allowing others to make their decisions every day. The fact is, there are many people who would love to make your decision, if you abdicate that power to them. Once you have made your own, personal decision, accept it wholeheartedly. If you don’t, it will fail. It may fail otherwise, but your waffling will only increase the chances of that failure. An actor may find that a given movie is not what they imagined, but they can’t give up. They need to make sure that their performance is at the same level that their audience expects. At least then they will have the comfort of knowing they did their best.

Your Audience

Actors have an audience. So do musicians and comedians.  So do you. You may never have thought about it in this way, but you have an audience — an audience that may be smaller than Leo’s audience, but is probably much more important. Every person you touch in your work — every client, peer, manager, customer — is your audience and should be treated as such. Your work is your “performance” as much as any actor. Ignoring this fact can be quite destructive to your overall career. If you are constantly disappointing your audience, it is likely that they will walk out of your career theater sooner or later.

Your audience is what will sustain your career over the long term. These are the people that go to the theater to see a movie with a particular actor no matter the subject matter, role or reviews. These are what author Ken Blanchard described as “Raving Fans.” People who will support you in whatever you do. Developing a few raving fans of your own can help you rise to incredible heights in your career. They will be the people recommending you for a new, more prominent position. They will mentor you from their own experience. They may even hire you themselves to present your ideas to their company or organization. Cultivate your audience — your raving fans — at every turn.

How would your favorite actor, musician or comedian face your career choices? Knowing what you know npw, how can you take the reins of your career and build your reputation and audience. The entertainment industry may have some bad lessons to teach us, but it also shows us how careers will be defined in the future. “All the world’s a stage…”, as Shakespeare said, but we need to work carefully and diligently to insure that it doesn’t turn into “…a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” We have many parts to play and being the lead actor in our own career is but one.

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Social Media Self Preservation | The High-Tech Career Handbook

Entitlement

First, a college degree does not entitle you to a great job with great pay. If you were told this by college advisors, or even intimated it, they were wrong. They left you with the idea that creating a lucrative career was simply a matter of paying your money and putting in your time. Sure, there are some unscrupulous sales people at various colleges and tech school that might actively try to deceive you, but unfortunately, in many cases, we also fool ourselves. We want to believe that simply checking all the boxes on the college rubric will lead us to great (and high paying) jobs. We want to believe it is all easy and straightforward, like getting our first Driver’s License. We pass the test and get our license. Careers, however, are nothing like that.

When building your career, it is better to believe that you are entitled to nothing, that you have to earn everything you get. You have to earn every job along the way. You have to earn the pay you receive.  You have to earn your raises, your promotions. Sometimes life will be unfair and you will be denied them even when you feel you are entitled to something better. Whether you believe you are entitled to them means nothing and only leads to deeper frustration. In a case like that you need to redouble your efforts to earn those rewards or make a change to a company that better recognizes your talent and skills.

What is college for?

Attending university isn’t some grand panacea for all your career worries. It is place to learn, to grow,  to explore possibilities. You will learn a lot of different facts, but more importantly, you will learn a lot about yourself. You will start to discover what type of person you are. You will learn how to work with (and sometimes simply tolerate) other types of people. You will learn your career likes, dislikes, goals, and dreams. What you won’t get is a license that allows you to walk into any business and demand a job. It just doesn’t work that way.

Yes, in many ways, businesses have come to see college degrees as a license — a basic confirmation of your viability as an employee. Careers for those without college degrees can be difficult to find and develop. While college degrees may be important in that way, they are also important for what you learn during your education. You may be getting a degree to fulfil some basic business requirements, but what you learn in school and what you do there, is all about you and your career. If you miss this aspect of university life, I think you are missing the largest and most important part. Your college time is about you — plain and simple. It is as much about building the career you deserve as your first — or 20th – job.

Is it worth it?

I think a college education is greatly important for a variety of reasons. As I mentioned above, I think university is a time for learning many different things in many different ways in a relatively safe environment — an opportunity you may never have again. If you see it as a life learning opportunity and not as a “license to career”, I think it can be worth every penny you pay. If, on the other hand, you attend university simply thinking you will then be entitled to a great job, great pay and a wonderful career, you will be sadly disappointed. University is what you make of it, just like your career. You get out of it what you put in and in some cases much, much more. University is the start of your career and it should be treated with the attention you hope to apply to your future work. Learning can be difficult work and is, in a great sense, your “job” for those 4 years – and for the rest of your life. Constantly be thinking of what you can be doing to get the most out of your college education. Don’t expect the doors of opportunity to swing wide just because you have  a diploma. You will soon find out that it is up to you to open those doors on your own.

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Business cards are merely a bookmark

I am sure you have all seen a certain type of person at any networking event you may have attended. They dash from group to group, eager to give out, and take away, as many business cards as possible. They often don’t engage in the conversation much and seem to wait, mentally tapping their foot, until any opening in the conversation where they can proffer a business card, ask for yours and then dash to the next group. I call it “hit and run” networking and it is one of the most ineffective (if not annoying) activities taking place at such events.

Networking is not about business cards — it is about connection, conversation and common ground. To have a true effect in your career, you need to get to know people, not just their business cards. Business cards are merely a bookmark to remind you who you met and how to contact them — they aren’t an end goal in themselves. If you engage in this card-gathering activity all you will have at the end of the night is a stack of cards. When (and if) you contact these people later, they probably will have no recollection of you at all, or worse, they will only recognize you as the obnoxious person who played “hit and run” instead of engaging in the conversation.

Don’t worry about meeting everyone

Some of this behavior arises from the concern that you must meet EVERYONE at a particular party or mixer. Not true! Instead of trying to meet everyone, focus on meeting the right people — the best people — the people most likely to have common ground with you. How do you find these key people? You talk! You meet, you greet, you communicate, you stay in the conversation and allow others to contribute. If the person isn’t interesting to you — or you to them — graciously move on to the next group of people. If, on the other hand, someone strikes a chord with you, keep talking. Explore the conversation further. Then — and only then — after a great conversation, ask for their business card and offer yours. It is no use collecting the business cards of people you did not really come to know. Why waste your or, more importantly, their time. Move on and find someone else.

Yes, of course, you won’t have time to talk to everyone at an event, but that is ok. It isn’t a race or a business card gathering contest — it is a conversation. If you don’t talk to people, it is highly unlikely that you will gain any advantage from contacting that person after the event. In those cases, your email is nothing short of a cold call to someone you have never actually “met.”

Even better, introduce people!

Instead of going on a business card hunt, consider engaging in a very productive networking method. Whenever you meet someone who has something in common with someone else you know — even if you just met them earlier in the evening — introduce them to one another. Become a facilitator of conversations and connections. This is a great way of building your own network. Then, not only are you introducing yourself to people, you are adding value to the event by making sure they meet other people who might be important to them. Any time you can add value, you benefit greatly. People will quickly see that you aren’t only interested in your own networking benefits.  You are concerned with everyone gaining value from the event.  You are facilitating the single most important part of any networking event. You are driving and creating opportunities for conversation.

Remember, business cards alone are not a valid measure of your networking success. Your goal should be to meet people, engage them in conversation and find those that share your interests and/or those who might be able to help you in your business goals. People and relationships are the true goal of any networking event.

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Monsters

When people go looking for a job they almost always start with the large job search sites that everyone knows. Monster.com. Careerpath.com. SimplyHired.com. I am not suggesting you ignore these “monsters” entirely, but that rather you rely on them less. The search for a great job doesn’t end with them it only begins there.

The main problem with these large job sites is that millions of other job seekers are looking at the same job listings you are. You might apply for a job with a large national or multinational company and be competing against thousands of other candidates. If your resume is exceptional, you might stand out against that crowd, but even that is not guaranteed. When your resume is set adrift among a “slush pile” this large, even the best candidates can be lost. Instead of defining yourself as a person, you become a number, a name, a series of ones and zeros to be compared to other ones and zeros. I am sure that doesn’t sound too pleasant, but it is the reality of the large job search sites today.

Niches

So, how do you go about finding those hidden jobs that few people know about? How do reduce the competition to 10-20 other candidates instead of thousands? It all comes down to the concept of niches. Just as the Internet has allowed us to find and engage in niche communities for our interests – knitting, football, music, hiking – it has also provided us with a wealth of niches to find new, and hopefully better, job openings.

Hidden jobs are those jobs that never make it to the monsters. The job openings are often nothing more than a thought in someone’s mind. “Hey, I need a coder on this project now, “ or “We need to get a project manger in here before things start flying apart.” Instead of going the traditional, and somewhat expense, route of placing the job listing on a large job search site, these people contact their friends, both face-to-face and online. These job openings get passed from hand to hand and usually end up in some sort of repository like a mailing list, discussion forum or email newsletter.

Get digging

Your first job, if you’ll excuse the pun, is to locate the most popular web sites and mailing lists dedicated to your particular niche. Look for both formal and ad hoc associations of like-minded people. Look both internationally and locally. Find where people are discussing the hidden jobs of most interest to you. I believe this is dramatically more effective than fighting the monsters of the job search world.

Of course, social media is going to play a large part in your search. Look to your Facebook friends, your LinkedIn connections and perhaps, your own, informal gang of up and coming careerists. You might be surprised, but I can guarantee there are multiple sites dedicated to your particular niche, no matter how small. Are you a left-handed ventriloquist? Check out ventriloquistcentralblog.com. No, I am NOT joking!

Above all, the lesson to be learned is that you need to be talking to as many people as possible who might have knowledge of a job in your area of expertise. Many jobs, I would say even most jobs, never make it to the point of being listed on the larger job sites. They are filled long before, with friends, friends of friends, acquaintances, or members of a particular niche site, mailing list, or discussion forum, that is dedicated to that area of work. You want to place yourself in the position where these jobs are no longer hidden to you.

Don’t ignore the monsters, but today’s job market requires you to look beyond the “easy pickings” of the larger job sites and target your actions where they can have the most impact. Find your niche and find the places where like-minded people come together for discussions and learning. It is there where you will find the job that helps you build the career you deserve.

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A teachable moment is an unplanned opportunity to communicate a very important lesson. These opportunities can come and go in a flash unless you are ready to take advantage of them immediately. Whether you are on the sending or receiving end of a teachable moment, you need to recognize these opportunities when they occur and pursue them, regardless of what other plans you might have. A teachable moment is fate telling you that you need to have this discussion, that you need to share this wisdom, that you need to stop and listen, right now.

Why are teachable moments so important? They are important because you are in a situation or at a moment when the lesson will be most useful or most applicable and certainly the most memorable. Something in the world is conspiring to give you this opportunity when it will do the most good. Perhaps you were having a discussion about something when a perfect example walks in front of you. Maybe your friend is facing a problem you have faced before and this is the moment for you to share your knowledge. Maybe there is simply an important lesson that needs to be related and your current conversation has opened an opportunity to address it.

Teachable moments are important because they show a need and receptiveness to receive a message or a lesson. Sometimes, without consciously thinking about it, we know we need an answer and that this is the time to get that answer. I find this to be the case during any Q&A session I facilitate. The most important questions to be answered are those foremost in the mind of the audience. You may want to talk about A, B or C, but the questions lead you to X, Y and Z because that is what your audience truly wants and needs to know. Denying the needs of the audience serves no one. It is much better to follow the teachable moment wherever it leads. In this way, your audience will gain the highest benefit and so will you. Answering people’s most important questions is never a bad idea.

Taking advantage of teachable moments requires something very important, though. It requires the ability to pause and readjust.  When you are presented with a teachable moment you need to follow it where it might lead. Sure, you can make a note to return to your current conversation, but do not ignore the pull to explore what is foremost in your mind. This goes for both sides of the conversation. Sometimes, as receivers of information, we need ask our teachers to explore something more deeply. These teachers need to be reminded that the information they consider most important might not be the most important to their listeners.

As a teacher, we also need to tell ourselves to pause when needed. We might want to plow forward with the next topic on the syllabus, but if the students will gain more from an ad hoc teachable moment, all the better. Explore that topic and everyone benefits, even if the schedule gets messed up a bit. This is one reason I like the Q&A format so much when addressing a class or an audience. They aren’t there to hear me pontificate on this or that topic, they are there to gain value from my experience by discovering how it relates to their own lives. It can be a bit humbling to let your audience control your presentations, but it can also be extremely effective when your main goal is to help your audience discover something new that can change their lives.

Look for teachable moments in your day and explore them fully when they occur. Whether you are talking with a 13-year-old boy like my son, or presenting to a room full of CEOs at a major conference, look for those serendipitous moments when the outline goes out the window and you start to have a deeper conversation that leaves you all feeling energized and enlightened. Teachable moments occur more often than you might think. If we can all get better at noticing and exploiting them, it can help us greatly in building the career we deserve.

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