Pushing The Career Envelope

move-change-adapt-flex-grow-be-do-richardstep-1a--richardstep-unleash-your-strengths, a photo by RichardStep.com on Flickr.

This time of year a lot of us are contemplating the quality of our jobs—yes, most of us are grateful to have one, but many of us are thinking it might be time to consider a change. There’s a lot that may have shifted in the job-hunting landscape since you last looked for one. You might start to read popular career blogs or accept calls from a few reputable recruiters you know. You decide you will tweak your LinkedIn profile.

But there’s a deeper kind of change in the air that needs to be acknowledged before you seriously consider posting to online job ads. There's a collective change in human consciousness that affects how we should guide how we earn a living. We need to mentally shift into a new awareness that our career paths are no longer linear; that the twenty-year stint at a company with a pension at age sixty seven is going to be as rare as your seventeen year old asking to spend more time at home with you.

Guess what? We can still enjoy our work and find meaning in it--perhaps without even changing our job.

It’s time to challenge our assumptions.  You might be angry about the politics that exist in your company, or the lack of team leadership. The job feels like it’s limiting your growth. Or the culture is not a fit to your personality.

When you shift into job-hunt mode because you are escaping from a bad situation (as compared to a great new opportunity that you are moving toward), SLOW DOWN.

Get to a quiet place and get emotional. Maybe throw a tantrum in a bathroom where no one else can hear you. Then breathe and get really quiet.

Ask yourself if your assumptions about your current job can be challenged:

Could I be happy at this job?

Can I do new things that were formerly impossible?

How would that change look?

Really challenge what you believe. Look at the situation from the eyes of someone who hasn't been disgruntled in the role for a while.

When you walk back to your cubicle, play nice with your coworkers. Then go crazy tapping into what you’re capable of.  

Is Becoming A Contractor The New Norm?

Lavida Cooper, a photo by NASA Goddard Photo and Video on Flickr.

Thirty one percent of America’s workforce is comprised of independent contractors, grown out of corporations’ needs to staff on the fly. With this trend rising, the contract model might become your most likely way of getting hired. After all, it’s easier for companies to end a contract than to terminate a coworker. Firms can successfully outsource their Account managers, Human Resource reps and IT Analysts and reap all of their successes without the obligation of paying for employee benefits and paid time off.

Does working as a contractor make sense for you? Consider these points:

Being independent puts you in the category of Subject Matter Expert. You’re in a position to offer big picture opinions of your business landscape to your client company because you’ve worked in a variety of scenarios. You’re politically neutral when you offer your expertise because, while you are completely professional, you don’t have to drink the company Koolaid. Likewise, you wont be disappointed by the typical two or three percent increase that salaried employees receive at their annual review. You can set your own rates for the duration of the contract—and it's a fact that most contractors earn more than their salaried counterparts.

Looking for job security? Create your own by being great at what you do.  Whether you are in between jobs or you’re looking for a long-term role, contracting might be the way to go if you are really good at what you do. You can charge more for your expertise since you know how to solve your client’s problems. As your paycheck increases, stash as much as you can away for rainy days in between contracts (or for taxes if you’re on a 1099). Stay connected to your network and keep your skills fresh so that you’re poised for the next contract when the current one ends.

You get to steer your own ship.  As a contractor you won’t concern yourself with which rung of the corporate ladder you sit on. Promotional opportunities won’t pervade your thoughts. Corporate politics can be observed from the sidelines. Instead, your focus is on the work itself.

What about benefits and a sense of permanence? It’s true—you won’t be paid for your sick days or vacation time, and it might be hard to carve out time off over the holidays when you’re covering for salaries employees on the team. If you contract through an agency, you may be able to earn benefits and PTO—but given the changes in healthcare benefits, you might be better off funding these for yourself.

I think the biggest concerns a contractor has are those that are focused on the work itself. Often, contractors are hired as a last ditch effort to meet business goals that the permanent staff could not achieve. If you are offered a contract gig, find out early if you’re being set up for success or a failure. Gauge if the client’s expectations for your performance are realistic or not (sell twenty new clients in three months time? You’re an Account Manager, not Houdini).

Remember that when you’re hired on a temporary basis, you are, at first, an expense to the company and not an investment. You won’t receive employee developmental goals and there's not talk of your future. You will, however, be paid well to do what you do best—the work itself. And if it goes well, you’ll be appreciated by the team and be treated well. You might even get picked up as a permanent employee later, if that's your goal.

Contract work is a career lifestyle choice with pros and cons like any other. But it’s a prevailing trend that is seeping into more workers’ lives at a rapid rate. Chances are you will need to explore this option at some point in your career trajectory.

How Loyal An Employee Should You Be?

Loyalty, a photo by geopungo on Flickr.

Most workers these days are content to just be employed. The idea of looking for a better job, within your own company or at outside organizations, seems like a guilt-induced act of blasphemy.

This saddens me because I believe it’s always important to stretch yourself—to learn new skills with the goal of keeping your career fresh, interesting and expanding. And sometimes that means opportunistically changing jobs.

So how loyal should you be to your boss and your company?

First, don’t confuse accountability with loyalty.  Never lose sight of the fact that you must take full responsibility for the job you’re paid to do. That is the definition of accountability. You need to own the good, the bad and the ugly parts of your job—including long hours and backing up your boss. On the other hand, loyalty is about commitment. When you pledge loyalty to your boss, you are differentiating yourself from the fifty other people who have the technical skills to do your job, but may not be as committed as you are.

Loyalty to your boss is great for the boss, but it could kill your career.  As a corporate recruiter, I look for integrity and strength of character in a job candidate. I look specifically for evidence of how you took the opportunity to learn everything you could from each of your roles to grow, develop leadership skills and achieve great results. And believe it or not, whether you have five jobs or fifteen listed on your resume, if the reasons for changing jobs are justified, I won’t hold it against you.

The thing I hate the most is a resume that reveals a candidate whose career was driven by outside forces more than his own.  Your livelihood should be mostly driven by your own choices. When your resume starts to look more like a timeline of the failures of your past companies, you are not steering your own career. Perhaps you’ve been loyal to the wrong people.

Don’t get me wrong—layoffs and mergers have made the employment landscape smaller for all of us. But when I see a twelve-year veteran of a company survive three rounds of layoffs but is now living off the last of the severance her company gave her a year ago, when they finally folded, I believe that her loyalty was a bad personal choice. The signs of the ship going down were there—what was she thinking?

It’s important to treat your career like a small business—the business of you. Dust the cobwebs off your resume and make it current. Keep on doing a fabulous job in your current role, but remember that steadfast allegiance and ridiculous overtime will be forgotten. Instead, doing great work for the right people will be remembered and will take you to your next great role.

Stay accountable on your job but be loyal to yourself. It’s crucial for you to constantly establish new contacts, add new skills and yes—keep your eyes and ears open for bigger, better job opportunities, within your on company and beyond.