Table of Contents Chapter 1 Genesis ............................................................................5 Chapter 2 What Do You Want to Do? (Goals!) ..............................10 Chapter 3 What Do You Like to Do? (Pleasure and Passion!) ................................................20 Chapter 4 What Can You Do? (Restrictions!) ................................29
A Career-Changer’s Checklist Twelve Common-Sense Questions to Find Your Career Warren E. Wyrostek
Chapter 5 What Can You Afford to Do? (Economic Reality! Ugh!!).............................................43 Chapter 6 What Do You Know How to Do? (Knowledge and Experience!)......................................60 Chapter 7 Where Do You Want to Do What You Want to Do? (Location, Location, Location!) ........................77 Chapter 8 Who Do You Want to Do This With? (Community?!) ..............................................................97 Chapter 9 What Is the Expected Life Cycle for What You Want to Do? (Time Is Everything!) ..................................................116 Chapter 10 What Do You Need to Get Started? (Laying a Foundation!)...............................................136 Chapter 11 How Willing Are You to Change? (Flexibility!) .................................................................151 Chapter 12 What Is Your Chance of Fulfillment? (Not Success, but Fulfillment!)...................................165 Chapter 13 What Are You Waiting For? What Is Stopping You? (Lift Off and Enjoy the Ride!) ...........176 Conclusions: What Is Your Call? What Is Your Vocation? What Is Your Purpose? What Is Your Reason for Being? ....................................................................187
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Appendix: “The KEY to Finding a Good Job in IT” .....................194
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
About the Author Warren E. Wyrostek is the owner of Warren E. Wyrostek, M.Ed. and 3WsCertification.com (a portal dedicated to technical training and support). He holds a master’s degree in vocational-technical education from Valdosta State College, a master’s in divinity from New York’s Union Theological Seminary and is currently a doctoral candidate in adult and career education at Valdosta State University. Warren is devoted to technical education as reflected by his list of certifications. He has been a Novell Master Certified Instructor and a Microsoft Certified Trainer for close to 15 years. Warren has been teaching for over 25 years and has taught on the college and secondary school levels. Professionally, his main joy comes as a freelance writer, course developer, and contract trainer for various technologies that revolve around integrated networking. He is the creator of the Master of Integrated Networking credential. He has been a technical editor for over 30 certification titles in the last few years. He currently is employed by Avanade, Inc., as a senior consultant, technical training course developer. Avocationally, Warren’s main interest is the care and counseling of geriatrics and terminally ill adults. At heart, he is a teacher who loves what technical education offers. Many of Warren’s certification articles can be found on InformIT.com, including “Now What?—A Career Changer’s Odyssey.” You can reach Warren at
[email protected].
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DEDICATION
Dedication This is for my mom. Mom, you were here when this series was conceived. When it first appeared on InformIT.com, you were so proud. But you were called home during the writing of this series. I know you are with the Saints and with Daddy, but your presence is surely felt and only you know how much I miss you. I miss our many conversations and all the guidance you provided to my many questions. I love you so much, and I hope I will continue to make you proud. To paraphrase Father Henri Nouwen in his work In Memoriam, you represented a reality of goodness and safety, which was much larger than you. When, even in the midst of turmoil and restlessness, conflicts and failures, I continued to feel that life is ultimately good and benign. I knew that you had been, and still were, my teacher. In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen!
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Acknowledgments When a project of this order is undertaken, there are many people to thank. Without question, the two who I have to thank for all their support when this book was a series of articles on InformIT.com and now in book form are Dustin Sullivan and Jennifer Bortel. These two friends and editors have been supportive of my articles and work since we were first introduced in 2001. I regard them both as friends, and this book would not even be on the radar if it was not for their backing. The other major contributors to this book are the InformIT.com readers who emailed me and the editors their thoughts and suggestions and requested this six-month series be compiled into book form. With the readers’ input, this series would have performed well on InformIT but never made into book form. Many thanks to all who took the time to share their thoughts and reflections.
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CHAPTER 1 Genesis
Chapter 1 Genesis In 2001 and 2004, I had the opportunity to write two articles for InformIT.com that focused on career changers in information technology. Because the response to those brief articles generated much discussion, I have played with the idea of expanding it to a series of articles, which first appeared in 2008 on InformIT.com, and now as a book that would ask those faced with a career change—or for that matter looking for a job—a series of focused, reflective questions illustrated with examples from my own experience. The title for this book is A Career-Changer’s Checklist. The tone for these questions are the same as it was in the first two InformIT articles—conversational and nonthreatening. Professionals in IT and those considering a career in IT are the intended audience. You are the folks who are struggling with these questions: . How do I make a career change? . What do I do for a career? . How do I advance in IT?
Those who are in IT/IS are facing this quagmire, but so are the folks just leaving high school and college and those stuck in non-IT/IS jobs that they hate but who are looking to our sector with
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CHAPTER 1 Genesis hope. People re-entering IT will find this book helpful as well. This text can be used by guidance offices in schools and colleges and by employers in the corporate world trying to keep their employees from getting bored and leaving. If the truth be told, this text was written initially for InformIT readers and those in IT, but it could just as easily have been written for any sector: those in healthcare, education, government, the trades, publishing, and so on. So if you are coming to this book from a non-IT point of reference, welcome! The premise of these chapters is simple: You are being bombarded with reams and reams of data concerning what is hot and what is not, what jobs are paying a living wage and which are not, and which technologies are dying and which are getting ready to launch. Between all the salary surveys, expert opinions, gurus, and talking heads predicting where the sector is going, trying to make a career decision in this sector is mind-numbing. You and you alone are the person who has to make the decision. No one else can make it for you. No guru or expert knows what you know, has lived your history, or has your needs. Only you know that. You are the only one who can say what you want to do, what you like to do, and what you need to live. But to make the right decision, you have to ask the right questions. We often are so emotionally embroiled in the struggle that we might overlook the obvious: the questions that direct us in the correct path. My hope for these chapters is to help you by asking 12–13 focused questions. I give you some ideas based on my experiences and history, and then let you make your own decisions. These 6
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CHAPTER 1 Genesis chapters are not an expert’s perception of the IT landscape, encouraging you to do this or do that. Instead, I am the unbiased coach who hopefully asks you the questions that trigger something to move you in the right direction. Your job is simple. As you read each chapter and reflect on the questions I ask and the experiences I share with you, listen to your heart and mind. Consider what you’re feeling—positive or negative. Write down the ideas that come to you. And then at the end, look back at what you have thought and felt and do the research that is needed to take the first step to your new career. Use these questions as a checklist. When you finish reading this book, you should have responses to these questions written down. Based on your responses to this checklist, you might see a path or a career that you have not even considered. Or, maybe you have considered it but dismissed it because of X or Y. Maybe you asked only one or two of the questions. In my experience, you have to ask all the questions to arrive at the answer that is right for you. For those of you who are familiar with the diagnostic procedures used in healthcare, the only way to correctly diagnose an illness and prescribe a treatment is to subject the patient to a series of tests, which in essence provides data. When the diagnostician has all the data, he can diagnose the malady. What I’m doing through this checklist is subjecting you to a series of questions. You compile the results and come up with a course of action to follow to improve your life. And if you do it well, without bias and objectivity, the prognosis for your career will be excellent. For some of you this sounds like hogwash. For some of you, going to a physician is hogwash. But what does a physician do when you go in with some malady? He asks you a series of questions, which is called “taking a patient history.” 7
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CHAPTER 1 Genesis Then a series of tests is ordered. It is based on good science and good medicine. What I’m doing through this checklist is based on good science and good medicine. You want your career to get better. Instead of going to a doctor, you are reading a book. I ask the questions, order the tests, and you interpret the results and prescribe treatment that is unique to your situation. If all goes well, you and your career will experience remarkable improvement. The layout for the checklist is a series chapters in which the question is the title of the chapter, and the content shares the ideas that have to be pondered when considering this question. It is similar to the method I use with students when they are changing careers and ask me for advice. I heavily illustrate my responses to their questions with experiences and stories from my past. My questions are the “jumping off” point, but you are encouraged to use these questions for research and reflection to focus on how to make the career change. Although the title of this book focuses on career changers, it could easily be retitled as A JobSeeker’s Checklist. Here are the questions that I ask over the course of this book. There is nothing like being prepared! . Chapter 1: Genesis . Chapter 2: What Do You Want to Do? (Goals!) . Chapter 3: What Do You Like to Do? (Pleasure and Passion!) . Chapter 4: What Can You Do? (Restrictions!) . Chapter 5: What Can You Afford to Do? (Economic Reality! Ugh!!) . Chapter 6: What Do You Know How to Do? (Knowledge and Experience!) 8
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CHAPTER 1 Genesis . Chapter 7: Where Do You Want to Do What You Want to Do? (Location, Location, Location!) . Chapter 8: Who Do You Want to Do This With? (Community?!) . Chapter 9: What Is the Expected Life Cycle for What You Want to Do? (Time Is Everything!) . Chapter 10: What Do You Need to Get Started? (Laying a Foundation!) . Chapter 11: How Willing Are You to Change? (Flexibility!) . Chapter 12: What Is Your Chance of Fulfillment? (Not Success, but Fulfillment!) . Chapter 13: What Are You Waiting For? What Is Stopping You? (Lift Off and Enjoy the Ride!) . Conclusions: What Is Your Call? What Is Your Vocation? What Is Your Purpose? What Is Your
Reason for Being? . Appendix: “The KEY to Finding a Good Job in IT”
Conclusion So your career is the patient. I am the person taking the patient history through questions. You are the final diagnostician who takes the answers to the questions and come up with a course of action. The hope is that your career’s health will improve. Now that you know what is coming and what the questions are, it is time to dive in. The next stop is question 1, “What do you want to do? (Goals!)” So start thinking about it. What do you want to do? What are your goals? Now let’s treat your career! 9
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CHAPTER 2 What Do You Want to Do? (Goals!)
Chapter 2 What Do You Want to Do? (Goals!) Here we are at the first question in this diagnostic series. Whether your career needs help or you are just curious, welcome. Whether you are from IT or from some other sector exploring IT—welcome. Even if you are just looking to start a new career— welcome. This book is for everyone. Here is a word that IT folks love to use—this is a generic series of questions to help you introspectively look at your career and help you analyze what you might want to do professionally. I suggest you use the following strategy as you read through all the questions in this chapter and upcoming chapters. Take notes! Record the following: . Thoughts . Feelings . Actions or reactions to the statements and suggestions made (positive or negative) . References you want to research . Anything that comes to mind, no matter how insignificant it might seem
You might want to set up a Microsoft Word document with these notes, broken down by question, so that you can refer to them. These notes do not have to make sense to anyone but you.
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CHAPTER 2 What Do You Want to Do? (Goals!) Based on these notes, when you finish this book (or maybe in the middle), a light might come on that spurs you toward your next career move. These notes might also help you formulate your own set of questions that make sense to you. Or they might help you come up with a question that you want to pose on the InformIT comment portal or ask me by email. That being said, let’s get to question 1 and the follow-up questions it generates.
What Do You Want To Do? What Are Your Goals? This is without question the most fundamental question you have to answer when you are making a career choice. You cannot answer any of the others that I pose if you don’t know what you want to do. This question can be looked at from two points of view: . Life goals—This is how folks who are in the real world market respond when choosing to
change careers. . Job goals—This is how many in our sector (and many other sectors, for that matter) respond
to this question. Let’s take a look at these two viewpoints more closely.
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CHAPTER 2 What Do You Want to Do? (Goals!)
Life Goals When I was growing up, I was often asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” My answer was always the same: a doctor or a chaplain. That was it. I wanted to serve people who were ill. The key to that response is that I wanted to serve. That is an example of a life goal that is formed in childhood. That goal, despite what I do to make a living, has not changed over 50 years. Whatever I do career-wise has to satisfy that goal, or I am completely dissatisfied. Now that I have been in IT for more than 15 years (12 years as an independent contractor), I have a laundry list of answers when I am asked what I want to do. Some of them I can share during an interview; others I don’t share because they are not relevant to the topic being discussed. The key is to know what you want to do as a life goal. Here are some diagnostic questions that might help you figure out what you want to do as you make a career move: . Do you want to make a lot of money? Is money a concern for you? . Do you want to work in a single job that provides the needed income for you and your family
to thrive, or do you care if you work two or more jobs simultaneously? . Do you want to change jobs every six months to two years, or are you looking for stability;
that is, do you want to stay with an employer for 10–30 years? . Do you want to work a fixed schedule, or are your hours flexible? . Do you want to travel in your career? If so, how much? Do you want to be a road rat? . Do you want to get off the road because you can’t stand hotels any more or because you don’t
want to be away from your family for long periods of time? 12
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CHAPTER 2 What Do You Want to Do? (Goals!) . Do you want to relocate to another part of the country or to a new country because of the
opportunities that await you? Or are you trying to get away from something or someone who is annoying you or get closer to someone or something? . Do you want to work for yourself and enjoy the opportunities that are available to the self-
employed, including scheduling freedom? . Do you want to start working for a small company, a midsize firm, or a global enterprise? . Do you want to stop working for yourself so you can enjoy corporate benefits and stability? . Do you want to work in management with a great deal of responsibility, or do you want to
work in support so others bear the responsibility? How important is control to you—whether you control the flow of work or someone else is in control? . Do you want to deal with the politics of a bureaucracy, or with a mom-and-pop business in
which there is little in the way of politics? . Do you want to be in a service industry or in a manufacturing industry? . At the end of the day, the work week, the fiscal year, what is the most important thing you
need to be able to say that you accomplished or did? . What comes first for you: business, pleasure, family, or something else? What do you want to
do for yourself? For others? For your company? For your family? What is driving you to make this career choice? When I reflect on these questions, it is clear why I have chosen to work for myself over these last 12 years. My family comes first when making career decisions. I have not wanted to travel for extended periods of time because I had to be away from my family, which I was not willing to do. 13
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CHAPTER 2 What Do You Want to Do? (Goals!) I much prefer to be in a service industry in which I can provide some assistance to a population with a defined need, and I prefer to work in a small-scale operation with minimal politics. I have little patience for corporate politics. As far as income is concerned, I want to make enough money to not have to worry about finances and to take care of my family’s needs. I don’t mind working multiple jobs at the same time as long as I manage my time well. So when I am making a career choice, these parameters dictate what choices I make. You have to define your life goals when you are considering what you want to do; otherwise, the answer you come up with is not realistic for you. It is sheer fantasy or simply makes your life miserable. And remember that these questions are just a sample of the questions you need to respond to when you want to learn what you want to do. These are the types of questions Human Resources folks quietly ask during an interview. Your responses to these questions help you articulate your job goals. Now it is your turn. What are your life goals? Write them down in your Word doc.
Job Goals Now that you are considering your life goals, you also have to begin considering your job goals. Depending on the sector you are considering, the opportunities are endless when you know which life goals are important. In IT, an increasing division of labor exists. No one can do it all. Twenty years ago, anyone running a network was supposed to do it all. Everything, from programming to running cable to deploying workstations to administering a mainframe was in most job descriptions for IT people. 14
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CHAPTER 2 What Do You Want to Do? (Goals!) That has changed a bit, but in some sectors not as much as is needed. Realistically, today’s programmers, cable installers, network folks, and mainframe gurus all require unique skill sets, but each of these professionals must also interact with those possessing other talents. When you consider what you want to do and what your jobs goals are in IT, you should consider the following: . In what type of environment do you want to work? . Do you want to work in a big shop or a one-person shop? . Do you want to work independently or as part of a team? . What platform or subject has your attention? . What are your strengths and weaknesses?
These five questions can give you a pretty good idea of what direction you should pursue. When I look at my job goals, I can look at the IT sector and pick a job from a list, simply from the title, that might be of interest to me. Why? It falls in line with my responses to the five questions that help define my job goals. For example, because I enjoy working for myself, it is clear that I prefer working independently or as part of a small team. I like working in health care and education. Those have been real loves of mine since I was in high school. I am not at all attracted to the financial sector, the political arena, big business, and the like. 15
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CHAPTER 2 What Do You Want to Do? (Goals!) The subjects that have my attention are teaching, integrated networking, troubleshooting, writing, and course development. My strengths are the following: good researcher, good troubleshooter, open to working with others and interacting with others, well-organized public speaker and teacher, an ability to simplify complex concepts so others can understand the driving point, love of writing, and enjoyment of working. My main weakness is I hate politics—office politics and bickering. I simply have no time for them. I have no tolerance for ego-driven individuals. I also have little tolerance for vendors who believe they own you when you purchase their product, making you (in their eyes) vendor-dependent. More and more IT vendors are developing the mindset that they own you when you deploy their hardware or software solutions. That lack of tolerance alone makes me want to rethink whether I want to stay in IT. From these two lists of questions—life goals and job goals—that help define what you want to do, you can begin to formulate an idea of what you might want to do if you are changing a career. Some thoughts that have crossed my mind as I consider these issues are to continue teaching as an independent contractor; manage a training division; or leave IT altogether and pursue a doctorate in education, where I can assure myself employment stability by teaching at a university. That’s how I would respond to those questions. Now it is your turn. What are your job goals? Write them down in your Word doc.
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CHAPTER 2 What Do You Want to Do? (Goals!)
Questions to Ponder Now that you have a list of potential responses to the “what do you want to do” question, you have to ponder a few other questions that this question generates. They are a bit tougher and don’t require an immediate response. But they are worth thinking about. Think of these as extra credit questions. These follow-up questions include the following: . How long do you want to do what you want to do? Short-term or long-term? Are you looking
for a short-term solution to a situation or a long-term solution providing stability? I am strictly looking for long-term solutions. . Why do you want to do this job? What is your reason for wanting to do what you want to do?
Does it provide you with a better life circumstance? Does it give you pleasure? Do you like the type of work that is involved in this career choice? Do you like to work with your hands, your head, or both? Do you like to lead others or follow others? Has there been some teacher or role model who has inspired you to follow in his or her footsteps? Do you want to work with people or machines? I have had many role models who have made me love to teach, speak in public, and write. Others have taught me to love working with my hands and troubleshooting problems. In that regard my role model was my dad, who was the best mechanic I have ever met. And I have to thank him for the love of working in the trades (for me, IT is a trade). To love to work the way my dad loved to work is a goal of mine.
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CHAPTER 2 What Do You Want to Do? (Goals!) . What do you do if you can’t do what you want?
This is one of the toughest questions of all to answer. When I made career changes in the past, I always knew what I was going to do. But sometimes circumstances dictate that you cannot do what you want. I am not a chaplain today because of ecclesiastical issues that were dominant at the time and completely out of my control. I wanted to be a chaplain to geriatric and terminal patients, but I couldn’t. So I had to find an area in which I could use my skills, talents, and interests to make a living. IT was one solution, and when further refined, an IT trainer was the option I chose—and it has lasted for 12 years. As I write this, I am doing what I am asking you to do: reevaluating what I want to do and asking myself what to do if I can’t. My response has to develop as we move on with this process. I have some ideas, but I don’t really know. The point is to be honest. You might not have all the answers to the questions as I ask them. . What would you do with your career (life) if you could do anything you wanted and there
were no obstacles? This is the big question. This is the toughest for me. This is the question every child is asked and the one with which I began this chapter. I have just asked it in a different way. As adults, we’re experts at compiling all the reasons why we cannot do something we want. What if we ignored all those obstacles and nothing was in the way? What would you want to do if you knew you couldn’t fail? Now that is something to think about.
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CHAPTER 2 What Do You Want to Do? (Goals!) Write your thoughts down in your Word doc. You don’t have to come up with an answer right now. But think about it. Sleep on it. You might be surprised to see what you are really thinking and feeling. Someone who is reading this is saying s/he wants to become the next Bill Gates. Well? Go for it. Who said you can’t? Bill Gates did not know he was going to be such a brand until he tried and decided what he wanted to do—without fear of failure.
Conclusion From this list and from my responses to the questions I have provided for you, you should at this point be able to come up with a short list of what you want to do. What are your goals? Remember this is just the first question. So whatever you say now is simply a hypothesis as we diagnose your career options in the coming chapters. My list is also simply a hypothesis. There are more questions that direct us to the proper treatment.
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CHAPTER 3 What Do You Like to Do? (Pleasure and Passion!)
Chapter 3 What Do You Like to Do? (Pleasure and Passion!) Welcome to the second question in A Career-Changer’s Checklist series. In this chapter, I want to go a step further and ask the following: . What do you like to do? What gives you pleasure? What are you passionate about? . Why do you like it? . When do you like to do something? . What don’t you like to do?
What Do You Like to Do? There can definitely be a difference between wanting to do XYZ and liking to do XYZ. That might seem odd or contradictory, but think about it. You might want to build a deck for your home, but do you necessarily like to build decks out in the elements? Or is building decks just something you want to do? And to take the question a bit farther, does doing XYZ give you pleasure, and are you passionate about it?
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CHAPTER 3 What Do You Like to Do? (Pleasure and Passion!) When students have come to me over the years looking for career advice, I always tell them the same thing, which has not changed in 30 years: Find something you love to do that also allows you to make the income you need to live the life you want. This advice is based on the following concepts: . You can be happy and financially struggling. . You can be miserable and financially struggling. . You can be miserable and financially comfortable. . You can be happy and financially comfortable.
Which option would you choose? Obviously you want to be happy and financially comfortable. So you need to choose a career option that you want, but also one that gives you pleasure and the necessary financial resources. If you don’t love your career choice—no matter if you want to do it—you might see it through for awhile, but odds are you will drop it along the way. You have to love what you’re doing. That being said, what do you like to do generically, for recreation, for a career? Is there really a difference? NO! You have to laundry-list what you like to do. You might be surprised at what you write down. Just take a look at how many folks have established billion-dollar enterprises because of something they simply liked to do—not just wanted to do, but loved to do. Does the name Bill Gates ring any bells? What about Michael Dell? Be like Julie Andrews, who in The Sound of Music sang the song “My Favorite Things.” What are your favorite things? Write them down.
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CHAPTER 3 What Do You Like to Do? (Pleasure and Passion!) Wanting to do something often comes after you have identified what you like to do. In Chapter 2, “What Do You Want to Do? (Goals!),” you identified what you want to do. This might seem that I am presenting these two questions out of order. What you like to do comes second because this is the process that many in the current market use. We don’t first identify what we like; instead, we identify what we want. This can be both good and bad. So to keep with the current market concepts, I asked you to first identify what you want and now to identify what you like. As you consider what you like to do, you also have to ask yourself why you like it.
Why Do You Like It? The question “why” is critical to making the right career choice. You have to know why you like to do something. I like to do XYZ because…. Then you have to seriously consider your motivation. If you are not motivated or if you have the wrong motivation, the results can be awful. Also consider the feedback or payback that you receive. The question “why” became crystal clear to me several years ago when I posed the following question to a class of high school students: Do you prefer working with other students or people or with machines or computers and why? I was absolutely floored by the responses. An inordinately high percentage of the students preferred to work with machines or computers as opposed to working with other students or
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CHAPTER 3 What Do You Like to Do? (Pleasure and Passion!) people. In other words, they liked computer work more than people-to-people work. The reasons they gave (the “why”) were amazing and included the following: . There is an impersonal relationship. . They could be a loner and yet be productive. . It was a nonthreatening relationship. . It was a nonjudgmental relationship. . The student was in control when working with a computer. . The student had a good deal of independence and freedom when working with a computer.
A low percentage of these same students preferred to work with other students or people. The reasons included the following: . They liked teamwork. . They liked collaboration. . They liked groups. . They didn’t like to work alone.
Knowing what you like to do is important, but so is why you like to do it. Because we are talking about why you might like a career in IT, think of why you would want to go into IT. Is it one of the reasons my students gave? Or do you have a different reason?
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CHAPTER 3 What Do You Like to Do? (Pleasure and Passion!) Many go looking for a job in IT for all the wrong reasons. If you decide to pursue a career in IT, please go into it because you have found something you like to do. Do not go into IT for the following reasons: . Simply because you want a job in IT . Simply because of what you have heard about IT . Simply because of the money
If you do, it is just a job. Where is the pleasure in that? If you have identified something you like to do in IT, by all means go for it! There are many options in IT and other sectors. For example, there are options: . For working alone . For working in teams . For collaboration . For making a lot of money . For creating something unique . For contributing to a large-scale environment
Every sector has these options—not just IT. If you are interested in another sector, that’s great.
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CHAPTER 3 What Do You Like to Do? (Pleasure and Passion!) List the reasons why you like to do XYZ. For example, if you are interested in medicine, why do you like to work with patients? Or if you don’t like to work with patients, maybe you like to do medical research. Why? Think about it and write it down. So you not only have to identify what you like to do, but why you like to do it.
When Do You Like to Do Something? One other question related to why you like to do something is this: When do you like to do XYZ? Do you like to do XYZ only at a given time of the year or only for a given audience? Is what you like to do simply a flavor of the month, or does it have some real promise for long-term satisfaction? To return to an earlier example, you can like to build decks in the early spring, but do you like to build them in the dead of winter in the upper Midwest? As an IT instructor, I know the times of the year when there are no classes to teach. For example, from the second week of December until the third week of January, it is virtually impossible to get a class to teach in the United States. Another time that is almost always dead for classes is around the fiscal year turnover (usually from mid-June to early August). Money becomes tight, and no one goes to class. If I love to teach IT classes, which I do, and I am planning a career, I need to take into consideration that there are times when I am working and down times when I am not. When you like to do something is often controlled by external forces, but if you are aware of them, they can be managed. So you have to identify what you like to do, why you like to do it, and when you like to do it. Wow!
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Examples To help you make your list, allow me to offer some examples of what I like to do: . I love to drive because I am not restricted by airlines. I am free on the road. When I was
growing up, I dreamed of being a truck driver, which made my parents bless themselves. But I grew out of that choice for a profession—but not as something I love to do. . I love to write and compose. I love to write articles, books, and music. They are difficult tasks
for me, but I love the process. I love what they bring to others. They are a mode of communication for me. . I love to do public speaking and performing. The opportunity to communicate with a group of
people and have those “a-ha” moments is a real kick for me. In the same way, I love to tell stories. . I love to take care of people. I get a thrill making things better for someone else. . Early in my career, I found I liked organizing spaces. One of my early jobs was at a major
medical college in New York City where I organized the spaces to house all the volatile chemicals according to city, state, and federal standards. I liked making sense out of nonsense. . In IT, I love working on directories and directory services and troubleshooting them. Why?
Because when a directory works, the users are happy, and the administrators are happy. . In life in general, I like to have balance between working with others and working independ-
ently. I can’t have one without the other. I used to think I could, but I have recently learned that I can’t. I can’t stand to work alone 100 percent of the time, nor can I stand to work in a nonstop, don’t-think environment in which everyone talks and no one listens. 26
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CHAPTER 3 What Do You Like to Do? (Pleasure and Passion!) So how could I use what I like to do to make a living and establish a career? To land a job in IT? What does this list tell me about career options? The responses are different for each person. For me, up to this point in my life, what I like to do has allowed me to work as an independent IT instructor and consultant and a writer and editor. I can work with others, yet work independently. I can have those “a-ha” moments and still make a living.
What Don’t You Like to Do? Just as important as identifying what you like to do is identifying what you don’t like to do. How many folks do you know who are working in jobs that they hate? I know a bunch, even some who are in IT jobs with good employers, but they are doing something they hate to do. Remember that you want to be happy doing what you like while making a good living. You need to list what you don’t like to do and what you like to do to get a complete picture and potentially not fall into a pothole. Here are some examples from my career search of what I don’t like to do: . I don’t like to engage in office politics. It is egocentric and a waste of time. . I don’t like to compete in the workplace for attention because it distracts from what I perceive
is my purpose. I am not looking to earn points by making nice with a boss. . I do not like programming or learning foreign languages from a book. I don’t know why; I just
don’t.
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CHAPTER 3 What Do You Like to Do? (Pleasure and Passion!) . I don’t like to talk down to others or speak in a condescending tone or be talked down to or
spoken to in a condescending tone. This by itself in many employment environments makes me a lousy boss. . I can’t take a job where there is an inordinate amount of travel by plane or I am miserable. I
hate to fly. Now it is your turn. Make a laundry list of what you don’t like to do. Then compare what you like to do with what you don’t like to do. Any hints? Don’t ignore this process. You learn a lot by writing it down. Get out that Word doc!
Conclusion You should now come up with a short list of what you like to do; point to why you like to do these tasks and jobs and when you like to do them; and what you don’t like to do. What do you like to do? This is the second question. Now when you look at your responses to the first question and this second question, what are your career directions? Do you see something developing that you did not see before? Remember that whatever you say now is simply a refined hypothesis as we diagnose your career options. My list is also simply a hypothesis. More questions direct you to the proper treatment.
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CHAPTER 4 What Can You Do? (Restrictions!)
Chapter 4 What Can You Do? (Restrictions!) Here we are at the third question. So far you have looked at the following two questions: . What do you want to do? . What do you like to do?
Now that you have explored these key questions, you have to become realistic: . What can you do?
What are the restrictions or obstacles that prevent you from landing your ideal job or career? To phrase it another way: . What’s stopping you? . What’s in the way of you getting the job or career that you like and want? . What are your limitations?
By way of introduction to this discussion, I want to refer to a question I asked you to ponder in Chapter 2, “What Do You Want to Do? (Goals!)”: What would you do with your career (life) if you could do anything you wanted and there were no obstacles?
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CHAPTER 4 What Can You Do? (Restrictions!) This is an idealistic way of considering this question. When reality is brought into the mix and the truth is told, obstacles or limitations get in the way. When you analyze your career options, you have to look at the landscape from an idealistic frame of reference and a realistic one. In this chapter, I am cold, hard, and realistic. We all have limitations, restrictions, or obstacles that get in the way of reaching our goals. In this chapter, you identify some things that can stop you from moving on as you start or change careers. This question is not unique to those pursuing a career in IT. Every sector—and every person in every sector—has things that prevent forward movement. I not only look at what the obstacles or restrictions are, but I also discuss some ways you can combat those pesky issues. The problem is that as adults we are experts at compiling all the reasons why we can’t do something we want. And many of us have major problems seeing past what’s getting in our way. So what is stopping you? Think about it. I want you to confront the obstacles and restrictions. You have to confront your fears and the other obstacles and limitations that are holding you back if you want to move forward. As you move through answering this question, as you did with the earlier questions, write down the things that come to mind in your Word document so you can compile a list of your obstacles or restrictions. We are going to cover a lot of territory in only a few pages. 30
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CHAPTER 4 What Can You Do? (Restrictions!) If you can identify these obstacles, then you can come up with a plan to get past them and move on to a successful career. I am positive about that because I have seen it in my life. Write down what’s stopping you from getting the job or career that you are dreaming about. You can then honestly and realistically answer the question: What can you do? Bring on the obstacles, the restrictions, the limitations!
What Are Your Restrictions? If you want to succeed as you change careers, you have to identify what you can do by coming to terms with your personal limitations or obstacles—those things that are holding you back or stopping you. Limitations come in a number of categories. Some are easily identified, and some are quietly hiding in the corner. Here are two broad categories of career limitations or obstacles: . Actual versus perceived . External versus internal
Some obstacles we encounter as we make a career change are actual real-life issues. No one has a problem identifying them. They are standing in the way of you making the transition to the ideal job.
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CHAPTER 4 What Can You Do? (Restrictions!) You might have already identified what you want and what you like. You have your sights set on this job of a lifetime, but one or more obstacle is standing in your way. On the other hand, sometimes obstacles are not quite that obvious but are perceived. You see the obstacle, but it is not obvious to anyone else. This is a frame of reference restriction or limitation. For example, you have found a great job as a project manager close to your home. This job pays a great salary at a top-notch stable company with a good reputation. You meet all the qualifications except that you do not have the PMP certification, which is an advertised requirement. It’s an actual limitation or restriction that no one can deny. A perceived restriction might be the following. You want to get into an Ivy League graduate school. You have a strong undergraduate degree and have done well on the Graduate Record Exam. You meet all the advertised requirements, but you doubt you will get in because your family is a blue-collar, working-class family. When push comes to shove, the Ivy League school will look for white-collar students. That might or might not be true. You don’t know it for sure, but you suspect it. Perception is often ground in rumor and innuendo. Should you bow to that perceived restriction, or should you give it your best shot to land a place in this school? Is perception everything? Then external forces or restrictions come from outside your sphere of influence and internal forces are often self-imposed. Both can keep you from moving ahead.
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CHAPTER 4 What Can You Do? (Restrictions!) I had an encounter with an external force several years ago when I was running a Novell Gold Training Partnership. I was not only a trainer but also the owner of a training company that was a sole proprietorship. It was great. I was going from client site to client site, offering authorized instruction, and cutting down on the client’s need to travel to a brick-and-mortar building. Then Novell changed the rules and required that I erect a brick-and-mortar establishment to teach their courses. My model was no longer accepted. I had to deal with an external force, a corporate restriction. I went round and round with the person in charge of the program, and he would not budge. So I dropped being a Gold Training Partner and went back to simply being an instructor. The external force won for awhile. But things change, and so did the corporate understanding of what I was doing. I have not returned to being a Gold Training Partner, but I am working closely with a new partner who is offering online classes, virtually for Novell. There are ways to deal with restrictions, especially externally imposed restrictions. Internal forces or limitations are a bit tougher to handle because you have to deal with something that is selfimposed. For example, you might want to go into medicine or become a member of a new club, the Healthcare Informatics. You love IT, and you have heard that healthcare is the place to be. But you cannot stand the sight of blood, sick people, or obnoxious medical professionals. Well! You have an internally imposed limitation that you have to deal with. 33
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CHAPTER 4 What Can You Do? (Restrictions!) The same is true if you’re a doctor who loves medicine but you can’t stand dealing with patients. (And boy have I dealt with a ton of these folks over the years—no bedside manner!) What do you do? You have an internal limitation that prevents you from succeeding in the workforce. One thing doctors like this do today is either go into research in which they can do medicine but not interact with patients, or go into Healthcare Informatics in which they can deal with medical data and equipment but not deal with patients. Another internal limitation example is lawyers who don’t want to be in a courtroom. They can go into journalism or politics and make a good career for themselves. There are always options—just identify the limitations. Based on the discussion so far, write down any internal or external forces that might be stopping you from getting your dream job. Also write down any actual or perceived limitations that you have encountered. This list will help as you begin to laundry-list 10 common things that dictate what you can do as you move toward your new career. Remember as you move through this list, I’m giving you my take on these restrictions. Write down your thoughts and ideas in your own language and based on your experience so you can identify what is holding you back. Above all else, be honest! This list helps you diagnose your situation and your career options.
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Top 10 Restrictions, Obstacles, or Limitations for Career Changers Here are the top 10 career restrictions!
#1: Physical Limitations This first one is not as common in IT as it is in other fields, but it can still get in the way. Do you have some physical limitation that is holding you back from getting your dream job? An example of this is the all-star basketball player who is 4’9” tall and wants to play center in the NBA. Does this person have a limitation? Sure. Is it possible that he gets into the NBA and succeeds? Maybe, but he has a physical limitation. He has a height issue that he has to overcome. Notice I said overcome. Depending on whether he wants and loves it enough might be the difference in whether he has success. He has to overcome cultural and societal bias to make it work, but it can be done. This is only one frivolous example of physical limitations. There are many more serious examples. Do you have a physical limitation that is stopping you from succeeding in your career choice? If so, write it down.
#2: Age, Sex, Ethnicity, and Orientation These are the restrictions that nobody wants to deal with. Do they exist? Yes. Is it OK? No! But bias exists and restricts us in our career choices, so there’s no sense fighting it.
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CHAPTER 4 What Can You Do? (Restrictions!) But come up with a plan to work with it. It is a disgrace that we even have to mention these restrictions, but they are a reality. There is discrimination in all aspects of society (including the workplace), not only in the United States but all over the world. That is a fact. Have you had to deal with it? I know throughout my life I have. When I tried to get into medical school in the mid-1970s, I was told by members of the admissions committees of two well-known medical schools that I probably would not get in because of the quota system that had been instituted. That was a real restriction, and there was nothing I could do about it. I did not get in, although I met the advertised qualifications. One school rejected me because I was from New York. That is a documented fact. It bothered me for awhile but times and situations change. Thirteen years later when I was getting ready to leave a good job at a major hospital in the northeast, I was approached by three admission committee members of a medical college and asked if I wanted a place in the 1988 entering class. I had just bought a home in Florida and opted to turn them down. The quotas no longer had the impact that they had in the 1970s, and I had made a lot of good friends in medicine who knew my skills and abilities. So how do you overcome these obstacles? A great network of friends and a lot of time. If you have dealt with these obstacles, identify them and write down where, when, and how.
#3: Time Time can definitely be a restriction. This can go back to our previous point where age was mentioned.
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CHAPTER 4 What Can You Do? (Restrictions!) But do you have the time to make a career change? Do you have the time it takes to retool your skills to move into a new career? Do you have the time to go back to school for a new degree to get a new job? Do you have the time to pursue certification A, B, and C to land the ideal career? Do you have the time to take away from your family to devote to learning these new skills? A lot of folks who I talk with that want to come into IT cite time as the number one reason why they cannot make the change. They simply are too time-stressed to even consider such a change.
#4: Bad Advice This is an obstacle I think everyone who has ever gone to a school or pursued a career has encountered. There are so many uninformed talking heads out there giving out bad advice that it is maddening. From school guidance counselors who have little real-world experience to universitylevel career counselors who spend their days going from convention to convention, it is so easy to get bad advice. You have to pay attention and do your homework when it comes to accepting advice from someone. Also beware of the naysayers who can tell anyone why he will fail. An example of this is a guidance counselor who told a student that he would never succeed because he was from a “poor county”—and no one ever succeeds coming from this county. This is totally unacceptable and needs to be recognized for what it is: nonsense. Think of all the really successful folks in and out of IT who were told they had no shot and became mega successes. Why? They overcame the obstacle of bad advice. What bad advice have you been given? Write it down.
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#5: Money Money (or lack thereof) is a big obstacle to overcome. Whether it’s the economic condition of the society, the economic demands of your family, the economic requirements to make a change, or simply what you need to earn to satisfy your own economic needs, money is a tough obstacle. Think of why you might not make a career change. You cannot afford to go back to school. You can’t afford to take all the certification tests. You can’t afford to buy a bunch of $100 books that are worth 25 cents in less than a year. You can’t afford the courses you need to do the job you want. This is reality. Don’t fool yourself. Do you have money obstacles that are stopping you from landing your perfect job? Be honest. I know I do. I would love to teach on the university level, but I cannot afford another three years pursuing a doctorate so I can do that. The other side of that economic argument is the fact that a major U.S. university offered me a position as an associate professor if I went for the Ph.D. They were willing to pay me $28,000 per year. The Ph.D. would cost me $40,000 over three years. So I would have to invest $40,000 to earn $28,000 in 2008? That is an obstacle, a restriction, and a limitation. That’s economic insanity!
#6: Education Education can and usually is one of the main obstacles folks have to overcome when they want to change careers. Do you have the right degree? I know I don’t. The CIS and MIS degrees did not exist when I was coming up. They are the degrees that everyone wants now. That is an obstacle. Some of you don’t have any college degrees and want to succeed in IT. Although it’s possible, it’s nevertheless an obstacle to overcome. What are your educational obstacles? Write them down. 38
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#7: Attitude Without question, this internal obstacle is the most difficult to overcome. If you have a bad attitude about your probability of success, then you have virtually doomed your chances. Another way of saying it is this: What is your mindset? When it comes to attitude or mindset, a number of issues and related questions come to mind. . Uncertainty—I don’t know which route to take. Which certification or sector should I pursue?
Which degree should I pursue? This goes back to the education obstacle, but it has a lot to do with attitude. Some will call this confusion. Are you confused? That is an obstacle. A related question is, “What is marketable?” I don’t know what makes me marketable. Will a degree, experience, certification give me a good chance of making it in the IT market? . What are you willing to do?—That’s a real obstacle. You might know what you want and
like, but based on requirements and sacrifices you might have to make, what are you willing to do? Is the sacrifice more than you are willing to endure? Some tough guys have told me, “You do whatever you have to do to make it.” Well…no! You do what you’re willing to do to make it. You have to be the one to make the decision. One person’s sacrifice is another person’s walk in the park. Another way to phrase this question is this: How bad do you want something? How bad do you like what you want? Desire can be a restriction. Maybe you don’t have the desire to succeed that your friend has. That is a personal choice and a commitment. Now take a look at your own journey and ask yourself how badly you want to change careers. How open are you to the sacrifices required? Write it down. 39
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#8: Life’s Circumstances One of the obstacles we all have to face as we change careers is what life is throwing at us. Some family situations often dictate what we can do or what we need to do. Sometimes those situations dictate that we have to change careers; other times a family situation might stop us from changing careers. Have you faced an illness that causes you to change careers? Do you want to change careers because you can no longer leap tall buildings with a single bound? Are you the primary caretaker for a family member, and is this role preventing you from making a career change or forcing you to find something you can do from home (for example, a different kind of career change)? Another type of life circumstance that can frame your career change is family and emotional support. Do you have the support you need to make the change you envision? Take a look at your life circumstance and look at your restrictions or obstacles. What are they? Write them down.
#9: Relocation Relocation is often a requirement for a new career. How open are you to relocating? How open are you to paying for your own relocation? A lot of companies today are not as generous as they used to be to relocating new hires. Can you afford to pay for your own relocation? Also, how open is your family to relocating for a new career for you? Is relocation an obstacle for you? Think about it and write down your thoughts.
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#10: Fear What are you afraid of? Are you afraid of failing? Are you afraid of going broke? Fear is an obstacle. Period. Fear of not belonging in IT or of being too old to go into IT are obstacles. Is fear an obstacle for you? Does it shape your attitude or mindset? Write down your fears. If you face your fears, you can overcome them.
Eight Ways to Overcome Obstacles We have now identified 10 obstacles or restrictions that could limit your ability to change careers. Obstacles are meant to be overcome. Here are eight strategies for overcoming these obstacles as you move toward your dream career: 1. Stop whining! Everyone has obstacles. Everyone has restrictions and limitations. Don’t focus
on them. Identify them and overcome them. Focus on the goal, not on the restrictions. 2. Ask questions. Do your research and evaluate what you are told. There is a lot of bad informa-
tion, but there is also a lot of good advice and information. Most of all, take your time as you make the career choice. 3. Surround yourself with a good network of people who are honest with you and guide you. A
good network, a good community, and a good supportive family make the journey a breeze. Without that network, the journey is bumpy. 4. Don’t be afraid to fail. Failure is inevitable. Learn from your failures and move on. Failure is
not the worst thing on a career journey. The worst thing is not trying! 5. Don’t focus on restrictions, obstacles, or limitations!
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CHAPTER 4 What Can You Do? (Restrictions!) 6. Focus on options and opportunities. Stay focused. 7. Be patient. Walk away when you’re stuck. This is the mantra of the IT troubleshooter. Take
your time. Change your environment when the answer isn’t there. It’s okay to stop and reevaluate. 8. Think outside the box! As you evaluate what you want, what you like, and what you can do,
don’t be stymied by current trends or mindsets. Think about options that are new and different. How can you use what you have in a new and different way in a new career? How can you use what you know in a new and different way? Ask others what they think you could do with your current skill sets. Ask others what you might do based on their understanding of your strengths and weaknesses. Above all, be honest with yourself.
Conclusion We’ve now looked at restrictions and strategies for overcoming those restrictions. Based on these questions and the questions asked in the previous two chapters, you can summarize what you know with this formula: Want + Like – Restrictions/Obstacles = What You Realistically Can Pursue
You should at this point come up with a short list of what you can realistically do. This list, combined with your previous lists, should make the journey a bit clearer. What can you do? This is the third question. What are you career directions now? Do you see something developing that you did not see before? I hope so. Let’s move onto the next question.
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CHAPTER 5 What Can You Afford to Do? (Economic Reality! Ugh!!)
Chapter 5 What Can You Afford to Do? (Economic Reality! Ugh!!) We have looked at three questions so far in this diagnostic journey: . What do you want to do? . What do you like to do? . What can you do?
Now you have to realistically look at what you can afford to do. To quote the theme song from the TV show “The Apprentice”: “Money, money, money, money!!!” It is a topic none of us wants to discuss, but it is a real issue that must be tackled. By way of introduction to this discussion, I want to refer to what I wrote in the last chapter about money as a restriction. Money (or lack thereof) is a big obstacle to overcome. Whether it’s the economic condition of the society, the economic demands of your family, the economic requirements to make a change, or simply what you need to earn to satisfy your own economic needs, money is a tough obstacle. Think of why you might not make a career change. You cannot afford to go back to school. You cannot afford to take all the certification tests. You cannot afford to buy a bunch of $100 books that are worth 25 cents in less than a year. You can’t afford the courses you need to do the job you want. This is reality. Don’t fool yourself.
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CHAPTER 5 What Can You Afford to Do? (Economic Reality! Ugh!!) In this chapter, we look at the top 10 cost-related questions associated with changing careers, the top 10 cost-related questions associated with starting your own business, and the top 5 strategies used to address the costs associated with changing careers. I am speaking from my own experiences and those of my students and clients. I am not an economic expert. I am just a working stiff who is trying to share what I have learned from years of dealing with the economic realities of searching for the perfect career. As we go through the questions associated with money, write down your thoughts in your Word doc and reflect on how money affects your earlier picks for the best career or job and how money has affected your current job situation. And that is key: How has money affected your current situation? Was money an issue that helped you make the decision to take your current position, and is it the issue motivating you to make a career change or stay put in your current job? It is often the catalyst for making a career change, but you have to do it wisely. Will money change your plans or the hypothesis that you have developed based on the earlier questions? Remember, money not only affects your decision if you are considering the IT sector, but also affects every sector—whether it is the financial, medical, or service or manufacturing sectors. It doesn’t matter. Money affects them all. This is so true in these current economic times. So record your thoughts. Now let’s put our nickels on the table and see what job or career wins!
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CHAPTER 5 What Can You Afford to Do? (Economic Reality! Ugh!!)
Top 10 Cost-Related Questions Associated with Changing Careers When you start planning to change careers, as a wise former boss told me, you have to address a lot of unknowns. Ideally, when it comes to the money side of changing careers, it is ideal if you have a boatload of money saved up to keep you afloat for a year or two. But that generally is not the case for most of us. Whether the change is self-imposed or not freely chosen, if you are lucky, you should at least have two or three months of reserve cash to help you through the transition. That is not always possible. If you are in the majority that has financial concerns about changing careers, the following questions will help you flesh out some of the issues you have to deal with before you jump ship. Remember our working hypothesis: You want to find the ideal job or career. Here are some of the key money-related questions you have to consider.
#1: What Will It Cost to Find a Job? Job searches can either be free (if you are using one of the many available job websites) or can cost a lot of money (if you are using a for-profit recruiter). If you are lucky enough to network with the right people, you might be able to avoid job search costs. It is essential to have a good network of people who can get the word out and who might help you land a good job.
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CHAPTER 5 What Can You Afford to Do? (Economic Reality! Ugh!!) Job search costs also are dependent on the sector you are researching and the geographic market where you want to work. In the northeast United States, there are certain protocols you have to follow when looking for a job. As I have learned being in the southeast for the last 20 years, there are a whole different set of rules to follow when job hunting here. Some of the search-related costs to consider include the following: . Costs of newspapers, sector-related magazines, and so on where print ads are posted . Costs of clothing or business attire for your region . Costs of joining sector-related associations and groups in which social networking occurs—a
great way to advertise yourself and your skills . Costs associated with attending sector-related conferences to promote yourself and your skills . Costs of resumé preparation using good paper and presentable digital format and an extra set
of eyes to evaluate your presentation . Costs associated with posting and distributing your resume to job search websites . If client-initiated, costs associated with working with a recruiter or headhunter . Transportation costs to find a good job if you have to self-pay to travel to an onsite inter-
view—airlines, auto, cab fare and so on . Costs of website creation to post your credentials or use of one of the popular social network-
ing sites for business such as LinkedIn.
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#2: What Are the Costs and Associated Costs of Changing Careers, and What Are the Hidden Costs? This is a tough question to respond to, and it requires a lot of research to find the pitfalls and “gotchas” that can pop up. You can believe that Murphy’s Law comes into play here. If you think you know what all the costs are, you will definitely be surprised when an unknown pops up—and one always does.
#3: What Will It Cost to Break In to the New Job or Career? Unless you have a boatload of experience and know your new company inside and out, it takes some time to break in. That alone can cost you money. Some companies start you at a lower wage until you have established yourself. You have to take startup and break-in costs into account. For example, when I moved to Florida, I took a job as a high school chemistry teacher. I knew chemistry, and I was certified in New York. But I had to get certified in Florida to keep my job and had to do it in a certain period of time. I had to take classes and absorb all the costs associated with taking those classes at night to keep the job. Those are startup costs or break-in costs. What are your startup or break-in costs?
#4: What Will It Cost to Maintain Your New Career? Most professional positions today have continuing education requirements that have to be accounted for. Will you have to take classes, take an upgrade exam, or pass any new certification tests? 47
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CHAPTER 5 What Can You Afford to Do? (Economic Reality! Ugh!!) If you answer yes to any of these questions, what are all the costs associated with those requirements (books, test fees, transportation, tuition, and so on)? How often will you have to go through this process? An example comes from the world of IT. I became Cisco-certified in 2001 and held three Cisco certifications. What I did not realize is that every four years I had to recertify by taking one or more exams to prove I still knew the technology. In 2004, when my certifications expired, I opted to let all three certifications drop, including the CCNP, because the benefits of keeping them were not sufficient to justify the costs associated with maintaining them. What are the maintenance costs?
#5: What Will Your ROI Be? You have to consider ROI (return on investment) when viewing the costs of maintaining a career and when looking at changing careers. What will your return be after you have laid out X number of dollars to make the change? ROI is a critical factor to consider.
#6: What Relocation Costs Are Associated with Changing Careers? Are you looking to relocate to another region to change careers? Are you looking to relocate to another neighborhood or another city? Relocation is not cheap.
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CHAPTER 5 What Can You Afford to Do? (Economic Reality! Ugh!!) To find the right job, you might have to move. Do not ignore all the costs associated with making this transition. Will the company pay for relocation, or is it all on you? It used to be that IT companies would pay relocation without a thought. That is not the case these days. Most relocation is paid for by the employee, with the thought being if you want the job, you pay to get there. Some of the costs you have to consider are the following: . Moving costs . Housing costs—not just buying a house, but setting one up and selling one . Commuting costs—considering the increasing costs of gas and public transportation
How far do you want to live from work? How much travel is involved? Can you telecommute? If not, here are some of costs to consider: . Gas and mileage . Car rentals . Airlines and baggage fees, railroads, buses, and taxi cabs . New versus used car purchase . Cost of living—This varies in different geographic areas. Be careful of this expense if you are
looking at changing careers and relocating to a major metropolitan area. You might have sticker shock. 49
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CHAPTER 5 What Can You Afford to Do? (Economic Reality! Ugh!!) A $75,000 salary in one region of the United States is not the same as a $75,000 salary in another. In some parts of the United States, $75,000 is a great salary. But if you move to NYC, my old home, you might have trouble surviving on a $75,000-a-year salary. Check the cost of living calculators that are on the Internet when researching your career move.
#7: What Education Costs Are Associated with Your New Career? Do you have to go back to school to get the job or keep the job? Do you have to earn another degree or upgrade your current credentials? Do you have to earn a new certification or two? What are the costs of doing any or all of these? Earlier I mentioned that you might have to incur education costs to maintain a position. Well, you might have education costs to even get the position. These costs may include the following: . Online classes . Instructor-led classes to get started and to upgrade skills . Books and supplies . Travel to and from classes and/or room and board . Certification tests and travel to take these exams . Lost revenue as you get trained
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#8: What Are the Emotional Costs (Not in Dollars) Associated with Changing Careers? Dollars are only one gauge in which you should view costs. Money does not guarantee emotional contentment. You have to look at all kinds of costs. For example, in 1996, I was offered $250,000 to stay on the road 50 weeks a year. That was great money, but I turned it down. Why? I would have a lot of money, but I would destroy my family. That was too high of a cost. Look at all costs!
#9: What Are the Costs Associated with Getting Good Advice and Counsel? When you are working through this checklist and moving toward your new career, get some faceto-face advice from folks you respect in and out of the field of interest. This advice might come from career counselors, employment experts, or attorneys. You might want to take a series of “interest tests” such as the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) to see what career would be a good fit for you. All these cost money, and those costs have to be calculated into the cost of changing careers. In my opinion, this is some of the best money spent if you are unsure of what direction you want to take.
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#10: What Are the Salary Needs? Finally, here is the question everyone thinks of when contemplating a career change. It is the question every employer wants to avoid in an interview, and the one every candidate wants to ask first when an interview begins. Be honest and be realistic. When you are preparing your answer, think about the following questions: . What is the market paying for your skills? . What is the market paying for your experience level? . What are you willing to accept and be content with? . What do you need to live? . Is there a geographic difference between what is paid for your skills in one region versus
another region? . What base salary are you looking for if you are in sales? . What commissions are you open to accepting? . What bonuses are you looking for? . What financial incentives are you looking for to sign with a company?
One example is stock options. When considering stock options, you have to ask what they are really worth in a volatile market. Look at what happened on Wall Street in 2008. Do some research. How long do you have to stay with a company for the stock options to have the value you are looking for? 52
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CHAPTER 5 What Can You Afford to Do? (Economic Reality! Ugh!!) . What hourly rate are you willing to accept? . What yearly rate are you willing to accept? . What about benefits? What benefits do you need to accept a position?
Benefits cost a lot of money. Have you ever had to locate and pay for health insurance that is not group- or company-sponsored? . How much time off are you looking for? What is the cost of all those benefits, hidden and
revealed? What retirement plan benefits are offered, and how stable is the portfolio being presented? Will the benefits follow you after retirement? If so, how long will you get benefits? To summarize, here are the top 10 big questions you have to consider when changing careers: 1. What will it cost to find a job? 2. What are the costs and associated costs of changing careers, and what are the hidden costs? 3. What will it cost to break in to the new job or career? 4. What will it cost to maintain your new career? 5. What will your ROI be? 6. What relocation costs are associated with changing careers? 7. What education costs are associated with your new career? 8. What emotional costs (not dollar costs) are associated with changing careers? 9. What costs are associated with getting good advice and counsel? 10. What salary is needed? 53
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CHAPTER 5 What Can You Afford to Do? (Economic Reality! Ugh!!) When you answer all these in your Word doc, you should have a good idea if you can afford to change careers. Can you? Now let’s look at the Top 10 questions that you have to face if you are opting to go it alone and start your own business.
Top 10 Cost-Related Questions Associated with Starting Your Own Business The top 10 questions you just looked at apply if you are looking to work for an employer or if you want to start your own business. There are also 10 money-related questions that are unique to going it alone. These questions include the following: 1. What are the startup costs and monthly costs? These include the bank and credit card compa-
nies’ charges if you want to accept credit card purchases. Consider startup and monthly charges for the bank and for each credit card you accept. 2. What are the building and office costs? Will there be construction costs? 3. What are the licensing and permit costs? 4. What will it cost to get financial advice or to contract with an accountant? 5. What will the taxes be, and how will you pay them—yearly or quarterly? What will the sales
tax be, if you are selling products?
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CHAPTER 5 What Can You Afford to Do? (Economic Reality! Ugh!!) 6. What are the anticipated software and hardware costs to manage your company? 7. What are the communication costs? Consider the following: . Internet costs such as firewall installation and configuration, router configuration and
management, and wireless installation and maintenance . Phone system, with or without VoIP . Fax capabilities 8. What are the insurance and retirement plan costs, including insurance for health, life,
disability, worker’s compensation, and liability? 9. What are the transportation costs to visit clients and do other business-related traveling? 10. What do you need to take home at the end of the week to live and be content? This includes
the following: . What profit margin is needed to keep and to grow your business? . How much do you want to save on a regular basis?
When you answer all these in your Word doc, you should have a good idea if you can afford to go into business for yourself. Can you? Is going it alone a financially viable strategy? Be realistic and honest! Now let’s look at five strategies that might help you financially move forward.
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Top Five Strategies to Address the Costs Associated with Changing Careers When you are changing careers and looking at all the associated costs, you have to have a strategy that works for you. Here are five strategies you might want to consider.
#1: Research Ways to Meet the Costs Consider the following: . Grants . Small business loans . Student loans . Credit cards . Family assistance . Accumulating some debt you can pay down in the short term . Savings . Partnership with venture capitalists who think you have a good idea for a business or enterprise . Home equity loans
Note: Be careful with home equity loans. You could lose your home if you fail. 56
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#2: Go Slow Be gracious with your transition period for both financial and emotional reasons. Notice I am emphasizing the word transition. Unless you have been fired or laid off, you should methodically work toward your new career without burning any bridges. For strictly money-related reasons, go slow. If you can come up with a way to transition from your current job to your new career without sacrificing income and lifestyle, you should be at the head of the class. Too many folks just throw caution to the wind and suffer for it. If you go broke making a career change, you are probably miserable. Remember the preferable option is happy and comfortable. That is what you are aiming for. So go slow. Don’t do anything impulsively if you can. As I was recently telling a friend who is looking to make a change, there is a field he could start out in that will give him what he is looking for while still working full-time. He can get his training, some experience off hours, and still support his family. He can also find out if he really likes the new career without losing his current job and benefits and supplement his current income. That is an attractive opportunity!
#3: Get Good Advice and Then Make Your Own Decision Don’t let a so-called expert make your decision. Listen to what she has to say and then you make the decision that is right for you.
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CHAPTER 5 What Can You Afford to Do? (Economic Reality! Ugh!!) In the same way, seek out others’ advice, but when you have all the advice you can stand, you make the decision. That way, you never have regrets.
#4: Invest with Your Head, Not with Your Emotions Just as we are doing in this series, think about what you want and like and how much it will cost. Do the research and come up with answers that work for you. Where strategy #3 emphasizes seeking others’ advice, this strategy puts the burden on you. If you go broke because you did not research the cost-of-living adjustment when you move to another market, there is no one to blame but you. In short, think, do research, and answer the questions asked in this chapter honestly. This is not the lottery! It is your life and career.
#5: Never Invest in a Career with Scared Money If you do not have the money to make a career change now, don’t do it. Accumulate the resources you think you need and then make the move. Once you get started, especially if you opt to go into your own business, work off of your profits, not your principal. Use your profits to grow your business.
Conclusion These are the economic issues related to changing careers. Based on these money-related questions and the questions asked in the previous chapters, you should have a clearer picture of your career goal. 58
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CHAPTER 5 What Can You Afford to Do? (Economic Reality! Ugh!!) What have you been thinking? Write it down in your Word doc. To repeat myself, as you look over your responses, can you afford to make the career change you are considering? Are you totally frustrated after reading all these money-related questions? Don’t be. Everyone has to struggle with them. I have had to, and I am still going. Take the issues one at a time and build a solid strategy that you are comfortable with. Let’s keep moving on to the next important question.
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CHAPTER 6 What Do You Know How to Do? (Knowledge and Experience!)
Chapter 6 What Do You Know How to Do? (Knowledge and Experience!) You now have to come to grips with what you know how to do. You have to examine the experiences you have had that support your plan. In short, what do you actually know? (Talk about a broad question that is wide open!) Do you have any relevant experiences or knowledge to lay a foundation for what you want to do in your new career, or do you have to work on it? This is the age old Catch-22: You need skills and experiences to get a job, but how do you get the job if you don’t have the skills, knowledge, and experience? I have struggled with this question since I got out of college in the mid-1970s. And you know what? It is still not any easier. It is all well and good to want to do something or like to do something, but it sure helps if you know what you are doing—or what you’re getting into. We expect that others have knowledge of their trade, and others expect us to be well-versed in our trade or career. The questions covered in this chapter explore a wide range of issues that envelop the concept of what you know. As I ask the diagnostic questions, record your thoughts, ideas, and feelings in your Word doc. Don’t hold back. In this chapter, I present the top 10 questions that help you define what you know how to do. 60
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CHAPTER 6 What Do You Know How to Do? (Knowledge and Experience!) Then I present you with the top five strategies for leveraging your knowledge, experiences, and skills into a new thriving career. You have some ideas about what your new career should be from the previous questions. Will it be the same after this series of questions? After you come to grips with what you know? Maybe, maybe not! Knowledge and one’s experiences are important when considering a new career. But you will be surprised how they can be framed to present you with a completely different view of the possibilities in front of you. Two people with the same skill sets, experiences, and knowledge base can be in polar-opposite careers. Why? Perception! How do you and others perceive your skills, knowledge, and experiences? Two people have excellent hand-eye coordination. That is a skill set. One is a computer troubleshooter; the other is a cardiac surgeon. Both are mechanics. One operates on computers; the other operates on human beings. So what do you know, and how do you perceive what you know? Put on your glasses—you have some questions to consider!
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Top 10 Questions to Help Define What You Know How to Do When I ask you what you know, I imagine a number of thoughts come to mind. The first might be, “This is a joke.” But according to media reports, that’s the question the late moderator of Meet the Press, Tim Russert, always asked his reporters when he spoke to them on the phone. What do you know? That is an important question when you are a reporter and when you are a career-changer. Tell me what you know, and write down what you know, which is just as important. Not everything you know is relevant to your career search, but you might be surprised to see how something you view as insignificant is golden to a future employer. Employers today want documented proof that you know how to do something. What do you know? Here are 10 important questions to ask to help you analyze what you know and how to present what you know.
#1: What Have You Done? This is the most fundamental question you have to answer when you are looking to change careers. What is your history? If you have ever filled out an annoying application or developed a resumé, the main part of the process is detailing what you have done. What many forget is that you have done much more than comes to mind. 62
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CHAPTER 6 What Do You Know How to Do? (Knowledge and Experience!) Before you fill out another application or revise your resumé for the hundredth time, sit down and write down what you have done. Don’t just think about what “official” jobs you have had, but look at what you have done throughout your life. Think about what you have done in college, church, athletics, social networking, family life, the military, and in your hobbies. What have you done? Have you administered a Windows network? If so, you know something about how to administer a network. Have you done public speaking, singing, or speaking at church? Well, you know how to communicate with large groups of people. Have you used Microsoft PowerPoint to generate a presentation? You can claim you know something about the Microsoft Office suite. Have you volunteered with Habitat for Humanity? You know about working as a team, working in construction, working collaboratively, working toward a goal…the list goes on. Sit down and list all you have done. It will take a while. List the experiences that can be used to document what you know. Do you like to talk with people? Write it down. What has been your experience talking with people? Pretend as if you are writing your ideal job description for a pay raise. Many years ago, I had to do this as a manager for the safety division of a medical college. I was in charge of a new division, and we did not have job descriptions. I had to not only write my own job description but also my employees’ job descriptions so I could justify pay increases for all of 63
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CHAPTER 6 What Do You Know How to Do? (Knowledge and Experience!) us. It was a long, time-consuming, intense exercise that I hated at the time but learned so much from. I had to ask myself and my employees what we individually had done for the college and what we had done as a team. I had to look at all of our experiences. Then I had to present each of us on paper to “wow” the administration. The one thing I learned from this process is to look at even the smallest detail. At the end I could say that I knew the technical aspects of safety and the human resource issues associated with developing a major division. The protocols that I implemented 30 years ago are still in place today. The only difference is that then I had four people to deal with all the issues; now there are 13. And they are paid a lot more! What have you done, and what experiences have you had that document what you know? Write them down. Take your time. You will overlook some things. Act like you are justifying your job to an employer. Details! Details! Details!
#2: What Are Your Skills? Now that you know what you have done, you have to confront what your skills are . What skills do you have? . What are you good at? . What do you like to do? 64
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CHAPTER 6 What Do You Know How to Do? (Knowledge and Experience!) These are typical interview questions that many folks don’t ever consider. When you are looking at a position as a programmer, for example, you have to identify what programming skills you have. As a network engineer, you have to identify the skills that help you to stand out. Consider what your top three or five skills are that make you the ideal candidate for the career you are looking at. As a trainer, my top five skills are the following: . I am able to explain complex concepts in understandable terms. . I am flexible and approachable. Students feel comfortable asking me questions and contacting
me in off hours. . I have a broad field-based knowledge of networking environments and platforms. . I am comfortable working in front of large audiences. . I always try to make the learning environment a place that is fun.
What are the top five skills you should have for your new career? What are the skills you don’t want to share with others? This is between you and you. Be honest. There are skills I have that have nothing to do with my ideal job. I need to come to grips with them, but not necessarily share them with anyone but myself.
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#3: What Are Your Talents? This is a key question that many do not consider. The word “talent” throws a lot of folks, especially IT folks, into a tailspin. To paraphrase Henri Nouwen, think of talents as attributes and aptitudes that help to define “who you are.” What attributes or talents define you in your new role, as a working professional, or as a human being? Now that is heavy stuff. You might also look at your talents as aspects that define you as a person or define who you are. For example, some of my talents that are relevant to a career change include: . A love of openness, honesty, consistency, and stability . A deep love for my family and the life they gave me . A love of laughing and learning
Why is defining talents important? If you are looking for a new career and you are looking at a given sector to know what you know, you have to know your talents, who you are, and what you do. If your talents do not fit into a new career, look elsewhere. There is no sin in not fitting in with a group of folks in a given field. For example, I know that I would fail miserably if I pushed myself into politics. My talents prevent me from doing well in this field. My talents are an aspect of what I know and my experiences. My talents define who I am. They define who you are! 66
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CHAPTER 6 What Do You Know How to Do? (Knowledge and Experience!) When one has a flair for something, you might say that she has a real flair or talent for it. Some folks love interpersonal relationships and that makes them good salespeople, account executives, business leaders, and so on. Some folks hate to work with people but love to work in solitude. Research-oriented folks would have this talent. What are your talents? Write them down!
#4: What Are Your Gifts? Gifts are a whole other ball game. Every one of us has gifts that we bring to every job, relationship, and situation that we encounter. You need to know what your gifts are when you are examining what you know. In IT, some have a gift for troubleshooting. Others in programming have the gift of seeing the logical progressions that are demanded to complete a task. Others have the gift of sealing a deal and making a business grow. Others can manage projects with ease. Others are great followers, while others have the gift for leadership. Others have the gift of being a great teacher. What are your gifts? One of my gifts is the ability to write in a way that makes readers feel comfortable. Another gift is that I can easily interact with medical professionals and feel comfortable with them while at the same time garnering respect from them. This opens up a host of doors as I try to win their business. 67
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CHAPTER 6 What Do You Know How to Do? (Knowledge and Experience!) Write down your gifts. They help you to understand what you know as you search for your new career.
#5: What Are Your Accomplishments? This question is one that always makes me uncomfortable. I feel like I am patting myself on the back, which doesn’t feel professional. But it is an important question when you present yourself for your new career. What have you accomplished? What have been the highs and the lows? You don’t necessarily want to share the lows, but if they are significant to the position, you definitely want to share the highs. Don’t just think of career accomplishments—also include educational and social accomplishments. They are positive bullets when presenting what you know. . Were you in an honor society in school? . Have you had anything published? . What is the name and impact of your thesis or dissertation? . Have you been written up in a favorable way in the media? . Have you been recognized by a professional organization? . Did you accomplish something no one else has been able to accomplish? . Have you been the president or served in a leadership role for a not-for-profit organization? . Have you done hundreds of hours of volunteer work and been recognized for it? . Have you worked with the elderly in nursing homes, assisted-care facilities, or rehabilitation
centers and been recognized for it? 68
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CHAPTER 6 What Do You Know How to Do? (Knowledge and Experience!) What have you been recognized for? Write them all down, and don’t be shy. After you get them all in your Word doc, identify the ones that support your quest for the new position.
#6: What Societies, Organizations, and Groups Have You Been Affiliated With? This is a key question when you are trying to answer some of the previous questions. When you are looking at your skills, gifts, and talents, many of them are a direct result of groups, organizations, or societies—not job-related experiences. I cannot tell you how much email I receive from career-changers and IT folks who have been members of the military and yet feel at a disadvantage when changing careers. Being a member of the military is a group that has earned the respect of countless employers, whether you have worked on a given project type or platform. Employers know how hard military folks have to work and are confident that when faced with a task or project, they will do it successfully. Don’t hide your memberships. I have a buddy who is an ex-Navy Seal. He does not have all the certifications that I do, but I would not hesitate to have him work on any project that I would tackle. Why am I so confident of his talents? He was a Seal. Period. Have you been an Eagle Scout, a YMCA counselor, or a Red Cross volunteer working on one of the latest natural disasters? Have you worked as a deacon in your church or as a member of the Boys and Girls Club of America?
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CHAPTER 6 What Do You Know How to Do? (Knowledge and Experience!) If you are not a member of a lot of groups, that is okay, too. The way to remedy this is to join LinkedIn. As a LinkedIn member, you can connect with many professionals who can help to expand your career options. You can check out the hundreds of groups that are represented by the folks in LinkedIn and simply join those groups to interconnect with like-minded professionals. You never know when one of them will have your next best career option. I was recently introduced to AHRD, The Academy of Human Resource Development, by a colleague. I joined the Academy and then joined the associated LinkedIn group. Because of the members of that group, I am now actively looking into a doctoral degree. It’s absolutely amazing. Write down which groups, organizations, and societies you have been a member. Don’t leave any out. You might be surprised what that will do for you.
#7: What Honors, Awards, Certifications, Degrees, and Classes Have You Taken to Demonstrate What You Know? Just as accomplishments are a bit tough to handle for some when looking at what they know how to do, you need to be aware of all the honors, certifications, awards, degrees, diplomas, and so on that you have to your credit. Each of them, including the classes you have taken, help to demonstrate what you know. Don’t be shy. When someone asks me about my educational background, I simply say I have two master’s degrees and have earned close to 50 IT certifications. If they want to know more, I can provide more details for them, but I prefer to just leave it at that.
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CHAPTER 6 What Do You Know How to Do? (Knowledge and Experience!) List all your awards. Were you teacher of the year? Did you graduate with honors? Did you graduate summa cum laude or as a member of an honor society? What continuing education classes have you taken that will let the hiring manager know what you know? Not every award, degree, certification, or class taken helps you land your new career, but write them down and be the editor. You might be surprised how one honor could open up a door. When I walked into an interview to teach in Florida 20 years ago, the interviewer, who is a great guy, greeted me at the door and introduced me to everyone as the magna cum laude teacher from New York. What got his attention was that I received that honor when I graduated with the bachelor of arts. Wow! Three little words got me a job that lasted eight years. So list your honors, certifications, awards, and degrees—and then list which ones demonstrate what you know for your new career.
#8: Who Knows What You Know? References! So far we have been looking at what you know and what you know how to do by asking you a number of diagnostic questions. But now the real question comes up—who knows what you know? With whom have you worked or socialized who really knows what you know? Can they be used as a reference, or will they give you a recommendation? You and I do not live in a bubble. We might want to or think we do, but nothing is further from the truth. You need to have folks who can validate your claims to what you know. You do this with references and recommendations—whether it is for entrance into a degree program or to get a job. 71
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CHAPTER 6 What Do You Know How to Do? (Knowledge and Experience!) Who are your references? Who can write a recommendation for you? List them and then ask them to write a reference or recommendation for you. This can be a pencil and paper document, or it can be a reference or recommendation that is placed on a business networking site such as LinkedIn. I have been more than surprised in the last few months how many clients and employers are checking my references on LinkedIn. Gather anywhere from three to six references or recommendations from employers and coworkers who know what you know. Minimally, keep these in a folder on your computer for future reference.
#9: How Do You Present What You Know on a Resumé? This question is probably the one that most folks mess up. After you know what you know and have answered all these questions, how do you present it in a way that is attractive on a resumé? That is the million-dollar question. Not everyone is looking for the same skills and knowledge. There is the issue of putting too much or too little information on a resumé. Either way is disastrous. Why? Because human resources folks and recruiters will dismiss you without cause. You have to present your skills, knowledge, experience, awards, and talents in a way that catches the eye and has the right keywords. I have written hundreds of resumés, but I am no expert. In the last few months, I was using several resumés that were not getting any hits. I had a friend look over one the other day, and he gave me six recommendations for edits. I got 19 hits and four phone interviews within six hours of posting this revised resume. No joke!
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CHAPTER 6 What Do You Know How to Do? (Knowledge and Experience!) Have someone else who is objective and has a fresh set of eyes look at your presentation, and then take their constructive criticism. You might not see what others see, and if you want to get your dream job, you might have to change your marketing strategy.
#10: What Is Your Perception—and What Are Others’ Perceptions—of What You Know How to Do? Perception is everything. How you perceive yourself, your skills, knowledge, and experience is one thing. How others perceive you, your skills, knowledge, and experience is something else. You have to take a cold hard look at what you perceive your direction is, what your goals are, and what your dream job is. You then have to take a look at what others might be seeing. One of the nurses’ aides who helped take care of my mom was absolutely dynamic and the most caring person on the planet. She had reasonable expectations for her career based on her own perceptions. When she asked me about career options, I told her about a completely different direction than she was considering, which caught her off-guard. What I perceived she knew and what she perceived were different. I had much higher expectations for her than she did. She had to go back and reevaluate the direction she was going. It made a big difference getting in touch with someone else’s perception. Write down what you perceive your direction is, and then ask others in your family and network. Write down their perceptions. You might be surprised. Now that we have looked at these 10 questions, here are five strategies for leveraging your knowledge, experiences, and skills.
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Top Five Strategies for Leveraging Knowledge, Experiences, and Skills When you are preparing your list of things you know—the things you know how to do, your skills, your experiences, and your perceptions of them—several strategies might help. Here are five that I rely on.
#1: Frame It In your resumé and in interviews, frame your view or perception of what you know and be prepared to defend your knowledge. Some might want to challenge what you know. That’s okay. Don’t be modest and don’t be arrogant about what you know. Have multiple resumés available that frame and emphasize different skill sets. Use verbs and strong words in these resumés to get the employers’ and recruiters’ attention. Finally, as you prepare to frame and defend your view, make a folder for your transcripts, certifications, and other documents. If you can, scan them digitally and convert them to PDF format so you have them ready to go when someone requests them. That is how you frame and defend what you know.
#2: Be Honest Be honest and don’t lie about your skills. If you have not done XYZ and you are asked about them, then say you have not done XYZ but that you are willing to learn. If you are in the position of preparing your skills and earning a degree, tell them that if asked.
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CHAPTER 6 What Do You Know How to Do? (Knowledge and Experience!) Don’t be afraid to apply for a job for which you don’t have all the skills. You might get a lead that directs you to the job you have been looking for.
#3: Take Control When in an interview, phone or in person, ask the interviewer if he likes the job and the company. This changes the dynamic of the interview and allows you to take control of the interview. This also gives the interviewer a different perception of you.
#4: Remember That Rejection Is a Learning Experience Rejection is okay. You reject things and opportunities all the time. You will be rejected more than you will be accepted—that’s a fact. When rejected, move on to the next opportunity. Or you might have to reframe your credentials and what you know how to do. You might also want to get professional advice on your resume presentation.
#5: Do the Research Research how your talents and skills are named in a job. This is a key. You might know what you want to do, but one employer might call it one thing and another might call it a completely different title. I faced this situation just recently. Some folks call what I have done a systems engineer, while others call it a network engineer. They are different based on who is doing the naming. Just like companies, use the following titles for the same job: . Trainer . Training manager 75
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CHAPTER 6 What Do You Know How to Do? (Knowledge and Experience!) . Training and development . Education manager . Technical training manager
Which title works for you and for the company you are looking at? That is the key, so do the research. You might be searching for a job under one title, and it is listed under a completely different heading. At the end of this book, the Appendix, “The KEY to Finding a Good Job in IT,” elaborates on this key. It is a key part of this diagnostic process.
Conclusion Knowledge is funny. It is not only what you know; it is how you frame what you know and what others perceive you know. Those are the keys. You have just looked at the top 10 questions that will help you define what you know how to do and the top 5 strategies for leveraging your knowledge, experiences, and skills. Based on your responses to these diagnostic questions and suggestions, you should have some good ideas of what you know and how to frame it. You also should be getting in touch with how you perceive your skills and how others do. Don’t be afraid to ask for help or for another’s opinion. It is okay to reject an opinion you don’t like. So what do you know? Next let’s look at location. 76
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Chapter 7 Where Do You Want to Do What You Want to Do? (Location, Location, Location!) Here we are at question 6 in this diagnostic process. Let’s recap for a moment. You now know what you know, what you can afford to do, what you want and like to do, and what is holding you back. Take a breath. You have taken good notes on your ideas and reflections, and you have made some educated assumptions on the direction you should take in your career. But you are only halfway home. You now have to deal with the age-old business adage: location, location, location! Where do you want to do what you want to do? The answer you give to this question determines whether you succeed or not. I have learned that it does not matter what you want, what you like, what you know, what you can and can’t do, and what you can afford if you are in the wrong location. You could have the best, most unique idea and thought-out plan that is full-proof on paper, but if you are in the wrong environment it will fail. So what am I saying? All your plans up until now mean nothing if you are in the wrong location.
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CHAPTER 7 Where Do You Want to Do What You Want to Do? (Location, Location, Location!) You have to tackle this key question: Where do you want to do what you want to do? (And deal with all the ancillary questions that involve location.) This chapter presents you with the top 10 questions that help you define where you should go as you contemplate changing careers. What is the ideal location for this monumental move? Then you look at the top five strategies for locating this new environment. The questions covered explore a wide range of issues that envelop the concept of location. As I ask the diagnostic questions, record your thoughts, ideas, and feelings in your Word doc. Don’t hold back.
Top 10 Questions to Help Define Where You Should Go to Do What You Want to Do Location is a key factor when you are changing careers, looking for a job, or presenting yourself for the first time to corporate America. Don’t underestimate what location can do for you. So get out your GPS and let’s navigate to your new career location.
#1: Where Do You Want to Work? This is where all good questions begin. Just as you started this book with the question of what do you want to do, I start this chapter by asking where you want to work. This is a subjective question. All the other responses you give to the following questions are based on where you want to go. 78
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CHAPTER 7 Where Do You Want to Do What You Want to Do? (Location, Location, Location!) You don’t have to give a reason right now. That will come, but you have to have a starting place. Do you want to go to another country, state, province, city, county, neighborhood, or district? Or do you just want to stay put? Be honest. There is nothing wrong if you don’t want to change locations. There might be some limitations to what you can successfully do, but if you can deal with those limitations you’ll be perfectly fine. If you want to expand your horizons or territory, then you might have to redefine where you want to work. A lot of counties in the United States have what is known as a brain drain because students and residents have to leave or relocate to another geographic area to make a living or land their ideal career. So as we begin, write down where you want to go to work or to change careers. An ancillary question that you delve into a bit later is this: Why do you want to work there? Do you have a reason? Is there something you have heard, read, or experienced that makes this location attractive? As I write this chapter, I am in the middle of major shift. I have lived in north Florida for 21 years, having relocated here from New York City in 1988. I moved here because I could afford a home for my family and me. I have been able to do okay as a contract trainer in this area. But the market has changed, and the opportunities in north Florida have definitely altered, too. So I am faced with deciding where I want to go and why: a career change and a location change. Because of my fondness for the east coast of the United States, I am looking at several centers there that have what I am looking for. There are many factors that figure into my decision.
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CHAPTER 7 Where Do You Want to Do What You Want to Do? (Location, Location, Location!) I definitely do not want to continue in north Florida. Apart from the economics and job market, I prefer a climate that has greater variability than I experience in this area. So my response to this question is an east coast center. Why? Because I love the east coast of the United States. Now, where do you want to work—and why?
#2: What Is Your Ideal Location? Do you remember the first question in Chapter 2, “What Do You Want to Do? (Goals!)”? This question is similar to that one, but has different ramifications. All things being equal and you could pick any location in the world for your new career, where would you go? Nothing is holding you back. There are no restrictions and no limitations! It is an ideal world! Where would your career take you? Now I know this is unrealistic, but if you don’t know what your ideal location is, you will never ever be able to define your reality. Here’s another way to ask this question. What location would you never say no to if you were offered your new career, and nothing was standing in your way? Which location is an absolute dream-maker? Conversely, what location is an absolute deal-breaker (or dream-breaker) if you were offered an opportunity to work there? There are places where you would not work under any circumstances.
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CHAPTER 7 Where Do You Want to Do What You Want to Do? (Location, Location, Location!) When I think of this question, I have two answers. If nothing were holding me back and nothing was in my way (money, obligations, and so forth), I would definitely be in New York City. I love the diversity of opportunities and the network of friends and associates that were available to me in the city. I left New York City because the cost of living was too high, and the cost of housing was out of my reach. I loved working in New York City and I have been offered a lot of money to come back on several occasions but turned the jobs down, again because of the cost of living. I would never work in an isolated area in which there was a significant commute to work, to services including hospitals, and to normal everyday conveniences such as groceries. Rural living is great for many people. For me, it is wonderful for a vacation but not for a staple. I have to be within a short drive to an interstate and a transportation hub. Otherwise, I am out of work. Early in my career, I was offered a position in upstate New York that was 1–2 hours from any interstate and a half-hour or better from normal services and supplies. It was a nice offer, but the location was a deal-breaker. So what is your ideal location? Write it down.
#3: How Long Do You Want to Work There? Are you looking at this new area for a short-term or a long-term opportunity? Some contractors move from place to place based on the season. Are you looking at a new location because of the opportunities it offers for two years or less or because you want to settle there until you retire? 81
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CHAPTER 7 Where Do You Want to Do What You Want to Do? (Location, Location, Location!) This brings up an ancillary question. Where do you want to retire? Is this new location your future, hoped-for retirement location? The locations that I am looking at right now are long-term. I hate to move my home and family. I want to go to a place where I can retire and where I can work and enjoy life. I am also looking at some short-term locations for contract work, but they are temporary. Temporary work locations are fine if you can stockpile your income and go back to where you have stability and no stress. How long you are willing to work in your new location can be a major factor. If your current market has dried up, you might have to move somewhere temporarily to get back on a level economic field and then move to a long-term location. Don’t be afraid to have a shortterm location and long-term location. So how long do you want to live in your new location? Write it down.
#4: Why Do You Like the Area? Now for the million-dollar question: Why do you like the location? As I said earlier, I am looking at east coast locations because of my love for the area, but I also have lots of other reasons why I am interested in this region. To determine why you like a given location, let me ask you a number of related questions that drill down into this topic.
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What Are the Geographic Benefits of This Location? Is there some geographical benefit to the type of work you want to do in this new location? Some types of work need to be near bodies of water, or inland, or in high country. Is there some geographic need that is job related that is attracting you? Is there some geographic feature that gives you a sense of well-being and makes you want to work there? Some folks have to work near a beach. Others have to work near the mountains. Others love the plains. So you have to consider the geographic benefits and the attractiveness of the location. I used to want to work near a beach. If I would have been offered a job working near Virginia Beach, I would have taken the job in a New York minute. Now the opposite is true. Because of the hurricanes that have occurred over the last 10 years, I have had to rethink my preferences, and I prefer to not work near a beach or ocean front. What is attracting you to a location? What are the geographic benefits?
Why Is the Area Important to You (or What Is Important to You When Selecting an Area)? This is another key question that we all have to consider. You might like an area for any number of reasons, but is the area important to you? If so, why is it important? What aspect of the area makes it important? Is it near some convenience or service that you need to live or work? This might sound vague, but it is a critical concern for many career-changers. For example, if you have a child who needs a special kind of medical care, you might need to find your next career option near a treatment center where your child can receive the care. Another example might be that the colleges and universities cost too much where you are currently living and working, and 83
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CHAPTER 7 Where Do You Want to Do What You Want to Do? (Location, Location, Location!) you cannot find a job or career that will allow you to pay for tuition. So you are looking for the ideal location—near an area that has good, reasonably priced higher education institutions for your children—where you can earn the salary you want and pay your children’s tuition. So is the area you are considering important to you, or is it just an area where you can find a good job? A secondary question that comes from this consideration is this: What are the top four or five issues that make a location attractive or important? That is a great question to consider. For example, my ideal location has to have the following: . Good transportation . Good medical services . Ecclesiastical diversity . Career diversity . Good variable climate
Those are important location-related points for me. What is important to you when it comes to location?
What Drawbacks Would Stop You from Living and Working in a New Location? Part of understanding why you do like an area is knowing why you don’t like an area. What would stop you from choosing a location? What are the drawbacks in your mind?
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CHAPTER 7 Where Do You Want to Do What You Want to Do? (Location, Location, Location!) When you look at a new area, it is always good to look at it with a friend or family member. Get others’ perspectives. They will see things you don’t see. You don’t have to agree with their point of view, but you should at least hear their point of view. When I have looked at several career locations over the years, my family and friends were invaluable in my decision-making process. I know what I like and don’t like, but I don’t always see it because I am blinded by the discussion or the pitch. Others saw what I had not seen and kept me from some bad options. Know what you don’t like, what the drawbacks are, and consider the perspectives of others. It will help you find a location you like.
Do You Prefer Rural, Urban, or Suburban Life? Why? What is there about each that you like or don’t like for your new career?
How Much Stress Will You Tolerate? What Is the Quality of Life in the Area? You are considering this new location, and you think you like it. But will the stress of living there—or lack thereof—be attractive to you? Will the stress of this new environment harm you? Do you like the quality of life in this new location? What about the quality of life in the new job? If you are miserable because of the quality of life or the environment, the location stinks. Period. You want to find a location that offers a stress level you can accept and work with and a good quality of life, according to your standards. Write down what your perceived stress level and quality of life is in the new location.
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What Is the Cost of Living? How Does It Compare to Your Current Cost of Living? When looking at an area through rose-colored glasses, it is always good to have a reality check and ask this question: You like the area for your new career, but can you afford to live there? If not, why not? The best thing you can do is research the cost of living indicators for the new location and for your current location. Run the numbers; be objective and honest about them. Don’t skew them to get the answer you want. Be cold, hard, and honest. If you cannot afford to live and work there, that’s okay—there are plenty of locations in the country and in the world where you can be successful. And don’t let anyone tell you different. I had a boss several years ago who told me and some others in a meeting that those who succeeded in this region worked for this given industry and did what they were told. If you wanted to pay for your house, you would be a good employee and do what you were told. Why? According to this boss, there were no other employment options in the area. So the key is to know that you can move elsewhere and do well. Don’t let one person’s perspective dictate where you can work and whether you can succeed. When faced with this situation, do as I did—just move on to another, much better job. Do the research. I know I can’t afford to live in some areas where I would love to live and work. Why not? I don’t make enough money to afford the cost of living, and I don’t want to make enough to afford the cost of living. That’s fine. I can do well elsewhere—and I have. Be smart about it. Don’t ignore the numbers.
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What Are the Climate Benefits? A lot of folks look for a location to work in that has a given climate. Remember one thing: Unless you are working in a weather-related industry, the weather does not pay the bills. To be comfortable and live with a minimum of stress, you have to find a location where the weather is acceptable to you. One reason to consider a given climate is a health-related concern. Some folks must work and live in a dry climate. Others need a tropical climate. Don’t ignore health-related concerns when selecting your location. Weather can make or break a location; for example, hurricanes, blizzards, too much heat, or freezing can kill a business. Is there a seasonal influence? Do you like a location in a given season? If so, when and why? When do you like the location? Some of you might want to work up north in the summer and in the south in the winter. If that is what you want for your new job, go for it. I admire you. I have not found that gift yet. Write down the seasonal- or climate-related issues for the new location.
Is the Area Attractive to You? This is often overlooked when making a career choice, but is the location attractive? If so, what makes it attractive? Is the attraction that you can make a good living; is it the hustle and bustle; or is it something external to the job? What is attracting you to this location?
Is there an Ethnic or Cultural Draw to a Location? Many workers in the United States and in other countries migrate to find opportunities. One of the things that makes an area attractive to them is that people from their culture, heritage, or 87
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CHAPTER 7 Where Do You Want to Do What You Want to Do? (Location, Location, Location!) ethnicity are living and working in that area—and being successful! So one of the questions related to why you might or might not like a location has to do with one’s comfort level as a result of the ethnicity, culture, or heritage of the people you live and work with. Is that a concern for you? If it is, that’s okay. Write it down.
#5: Which Vendors or Trades Have Made Inroads in This Location? If you are looking at this series from an IT point of view, this question is key. When considering a location, you have to ask what’s going on in the area. Is a vendor that you support active in the market? Or has it faded out? If you are a professional Java programmer and you love a location but all that is done there is .NET, you need to look elsewhere or start retooling your skills. Not every vendor or trade is big in every area. Everything in the trades and in IT is cyclical. There is a beginning, a middle (where most of the action occurs), and an end. In the trades, this is evident in certain pockets of the east coast of the United States. Years ago, there was a big demand for textile workers in New England and in parts of the southeast. Those pockets have dried up and are now either out of business or retooled to do something else. Many of the auto plants in the United States are being stressed right now to either retool or close. Some American medical workers want to work in rural areas, whereas others want only the major research centers. Why? Preference and demand. You have to look at an area from the work point of view, especially if you’re changing careers. Ask yourself and others what has universal appeal and what the flavor of the day is in this area.
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CHAPTER 7 Where Do You Want to Do What You Want to Do? (Location, Location, Location!) An example is the area where I am now located: north Florida. Back in the early to mid-1990s, most state agencies and school districts were on Novell backbones. That situation lasted into the early part of this decade. Novell was king. Guess what? That is no longer the case. Just as every agency flocked to Novell, they jumped ship when a new flavor of the day came by. Why? Who knows. But many who were trained had to be retrained. Were the networks broken? Nope. Someone who had no idea what worked and what didn’t just made a decision to change everything around. Now the state is primarily Microsoft. Those who are Microsoft are doing well. Those doing Novell are relocating. Another key question you should ask about an area is this: Is there a good job pool in the area? Would you stand out or just be one of the masses? How tough is the competition going to be and what are your chances of finding a good job? Some regions of the United States are IT hubs. Others are bombs. Areas of the Carolinas, the northeast, and parts of California are big in IT. Each area has its plusses and minuses. If you are IT-certified, you have to consider in what areas your certifications have some weight. Is your new location a Microsoft, Novell, Linux, Cisco, or Nortel hot spot? Don’t go into a Microsoft hot spot with a bunch of Novell certifications and expect to succeed. Go where you are in demand. How do you find this out? Research! Use the Internet and job boards.
#6: What Areas Are Hot Right Now? What Areas Are Cold? This question goes hand in hand with the previous question. But to not be so IT-focused, you have to look at which areas are doing well and which are not. You should ask whether the area is stable economically, whether it is stable in terms of the housing market, and whether it is on the upturn or downturn according to the experts. This can be a major factor in determining whether you succeed or fail. 89
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#7: Do You Have to Relocate? When you are looking at location issues in regards to changing careers, you have to consider all aspects of relocation. Do you want to relocate? How far are you willing to relocate? Can you afford to relocate, and if so, where? What are the benefits of relocation? Will the employer pay for your relocation? If not, will you still want to relocate? What are the drawbacks to relocation for you, for your career, and for your family? There is a lot to consider; please don’t overlook this important question.
#8: What Is the Educational Standard of the Location? When you are considering a new location for your career, you have to consider the educational potential of the area. Why? If you have children, you want to know whether there are good schools in the area. Also, if you need to be retrained, you need to know if there are schools or training centers reasonably close by to get the needed training. If you need to get a new degree, you have to know whether the colleges in the area offer what you need. If you are looking for continuing education credits, you need to know whether they are available locally or whether you have to travel to earn those credits. One of the things educational opportunities can tell you about a location is what the potential for advancement is in that community. Does the location believe in the value of education? That tells you a lot about potential if you have to change jobs or if your children are also looking for work. So does your new area have educational opportunities available for you and your family? If so, write them down.
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#9: Do You Want to Live Near Your Family? This is a question many workers are wrestling with today. There is no doubt that family matters, whether good or bad. Every one of us has to answer this question and often it is the deal-maker (or breaker) when deciding on a location. Many folks take off, looking to be independent in a new career and find that the new workplace/current location can be lonely and nasty. The result is that they quit and move back closer to their family. Is that bad or good? Only you can say. I know I always wanted my family close by. Many of my career decisions were based on the location being close to my folks. Some people want to escape from their families. Others are dealing with divorce and looking to start a new life. Some have to deal with their parents getting older. Will that be a consideration when examining a new location? Will your parents move with you, or will you stay near your folks so you can take care of them? If your parents move with you to your new location, will the services you need to help them be available? If you get a great job and your folks are nearby and need your help, but the services they need are nowhere to be found, rethink your location. For many years I have fought the lack of services available to my folks because we lived on a state line, and the services needed were in the other state. I would never opt for this type of location again. Write down the family-related concerns as they affect your new location.
#10. What Are the Unique Benefits and Features of the Location? We have talked about why you like a location, but we have not talked about the benefits and features to the location. 91
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CHAPTER 7 Where Do You Want to Do What You Want to Do? (Location, Location, Location!) Some of the benefits and features you should consider are the following: . Is there good travel access? Is there a major airport hub close by? In IT (and if you are a
contractor), you need to know this. Is there good interstate access? Can you be snowed in? How often? . How much time will you spend traveling to and from work? What is the distance? How much
time will you spend in traffic? How much money will you spend on gas? How much money will you spend on mass transit? . Can you telecommute from your new location? If so: . What are the advantages and disadvantages of telecommuting? . How often do you have to go to the office? . How much travel does going to the office involve? . How close to your job is the new location? . How close to mass transit is the new location? . How close to the services you need is the new location? . How close are you to your house of worship? . How close are you to off-hours recreation? . How close are you to doctors and health care? . How available are needed services such as DSL and cable TV? . How available are support services such as office cleaning companies? 92
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CHAPTER 7 Where Do You Want to Do What You Want to Do? (Location, Location, Location!) . How isolated will you be? How many neighbors will you have? . How is security and safety in the new location? How is the crime rate? . How serene is the new location? . When it comes to the bottom line, what is the cost benefit to changing locations to this new
area? Will it cost more than you will benefit, or will you benefit more than the relocation will cost? Short-term and long-term advantages?
Summary Based on these 10 questions and the ancillaries, you should have a pretty good idea about where you want to go. What location is ideal for you. Yes? No? Here are five strategies to help you compile your responses as you consider a new location for your career.
Top Five Strategies for Knowing Where You Want to Go to Do What You Want to Do Because I am in this boat with you, I give you the advice that I’m taking. This is tried-and-true advice from my experience.
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CHAPTER 7 Where Do You Want to Do What You Want to Do? (Location, Location, Location!)
#1: Go Where the Work Is! This is the first and foremost rule of thumb. If you can’t do what you want where you are because the work is not there, go to where the work is. Don’t complain and whine about it. It does not solve anything. Come up with a plan to make the move and make the move. It takes a lot of planning, work, effort, and money—but if you want to follow your dream, go where the work is.
#2: Go Where You Can Afford to Go! This is the second great axiom when considering a location. If you can’t afford to go where the work is, find an alternative. Just as I said earlier, my ideal job is back in New York City, but I cannot afford to live and work there. So I have to have a backup location. That’s what I am working on. Also go where you can afford a home and where your home has resale value in case you change your mind in a year or two.
#3: Go Where Your Skills Have Value! The next great axiom is to go where your skills have value. If you go somewhere where everything is perfect, but no one makes close to your desired salary, you will not be happy, and you might starve. Go where your skills are needed and where you are compensated in a way that is acceptable to you. Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t make what you want. I have been told that and 94
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CHAPTER 7 Where Do You Want to Do What You Want to Do? (Location, Location, Location!) rejected it out of hand. You know what you know, and you should know what you are worth in the market. Based on that information, go where your skills have value. Also go where you have options in case you want to change jobs or careers. Don’t go to a onehorse town in which there are no options. Keep your employment options open.
#4: Go Where You and Your Family Will Be Happy! There is more to life than work. Wherever your dream location is, make sure you and your family are happy and content. There is nothing worse than coming home from work to a family that is miserable because of the location. You don’t live in a vacuum. You need a supportive community around you to succeed. You also need a supportive family. If your family is miserable, look at another location.
#5: Go Where You Have Options! This falls in line with number 4. There is more to life than work. Make sure you have options for relaxation, retirement, travel, education, and recreation in this new area. If you don’t see these options, look elsewhere. If your new area has them, you are where you should be.
Conclusion Location is so important. We have looked at the top 10 questions that help you define where you should go and look as you contemplate changing careers. We have talked about what is the ideal location for this monumental move. Then we looked at the top five strategies for locating to this new environment. 95
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CHAPTER 7 Where Do You Want to Do What You Want to Do? (Location, Location, Location!) Based on your responses to these diagnostic questions and suggestions, you should have some good ideas of where you want to move to if you want to move. You should be thinking about why you want to move and all the reasons why you might not want to move there. You have to deal with the strengths and weaknesses of each location you consider. There is an axiom that you should bloom where you are planted. I agree with that to a point, but not every soil grows every flower. Sometimes you have to transplant a flower to different soil for it to grow. Your job is to go where you can grow. Don’t be afraid to ask for help or for another’s opinion. You can reject an opinion you don’t like it. So where do you want to go?
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CHAPTER 8 Who Do You Want to Do This With? (Community?!)
Chapter 8 Who Do You Want to Do This With? (Community?!) Here we are at question 7 in this diagnostic series of career-oriented questions. Now you have to get down to the nuts and bolts. Who do you want to work with? Who do you want to work with you? To answer these questions, you also have to consider who you are as a person and a fellow worker. Remember the adage, “It’s not what you know, but who you know.” That is so true when you want to change jobs, change careers, or are simply looking for a job. Who you know and who you want to work with—or are willing to work with—can be just as important in the decision-making process as location and finances. Think about it! You could be making a ton of money in the new career, but have to work with people you cannot stand. You would be rich but miserable. Remember the goal is to be happy at your new career and financially as comfortable as you want. Money is not everything. Your peers, your network, and your community are critical to making a job attractive. Additionally, when you’re looking to find a good job or change careers, you might need those in your network—friends, classmates, elders, or your neighbors—to put a good word in for you or recommend you to land the job.
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CHAPTER 8 Who Do You Want to Do This With? (Community?!) You might be having a difficult time even finding a job or career. And only when someone you know, by happenstance, makes a suggestion do you actually launch that new career. Remember what one of my old bosses taught me: Two are more than one. Simple but so true. You need people in your network. If you don’t think you have a network, think again. As John Donne wrote, “No man is an island.” The people you surround yourself with and work with are critical in this career diagnosis. You have to face a number of questions that will help you confront your feelings about the people you will work with, will work for you, or will help you find the new career. What are desirable personality traits in coworkers or those in your personal network? What are your personality traits? The central thesis of this chapter and this series of questions is the following: You want to be with the people you want to work with!!! If you do not want to be with them for hours on end, the workday and the work environment will be miserable, and you will hate your job. This chapter focuses on the top 10 questions that help you define who you want to work with. There are a number of ancillary questions. But if you answer them honestly and record your answers in your Word doc, you will have a fantastic idea of what the ideal work environment should be in your new career. The top five strategies for finding your ideal work community are then discussed. This is often the most difficult set of questions to answer for a career-changer, no matter what sector you are interested in. Can you really choose who you will work with? You sure can. Maybe that is the reason why you are changing careers! 98
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CHAPTER 8 Who Do You Want to Do This With? (Community?!) I ended my tenure with one employer because I did not like the work culture and the way people were treated—me included. This employer would never say “good morning” to the employees. After a short stay when I resigned, I was told he would never hire another person like me. Why? Because he wanted employees to fear him. I did not. I would say “good morning,” and he did not like that. It was awful, and I learned from the experience to always acknowledge who I wanted to work with. Put on your thinking caps—you are getting ready to take on a difficult mission. Your job, if you decide to take this mission, is to figure out who you want to work with. Good luck!
Top 10 Questions to Help You Define Who You Want to Work With Everyone needs to work with someone else. We are social creatures, even if we want to work alone. Think about all the people who die shortly after they retire. Their jobs, and the coworkers at those jobs, helped to give their lives meaning and purpose. When that meaning and purpose ended, their lives, in a sense, also ended. The same holds true for the elderly, even those who are homemakers or stay-at-home parents. The jobs we do at home give us purpose and meaning. When that purpose and meaning are gone, our direction and identity often leave. Depression can set in. Many laugh at this, but we as a people need community at home and at work. Those we work with—those in our networks—are our community. Now for the questions that help you define who will be in your community—they will help to make the workplace enjoyable and might even help to give your life meaning and purpose. 99
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CHAPTER 8 Who Do You Want to Do This With? (Community?!) Bet you never thought of your coworkers as contributing that much to your life. But they do. So who are they?
#1: Who Do You Want to Work With? This is where we begin. All sorts of people make up our world. Not all types are in our immediate geographical area, but enough types of people make life interesting. Be honest. You are not comfortable being around some folks. I know that there are some people I like to work with and others I dread working with. So who are they? To answer this question, you first have to look in the mirror and ask the $100 million question that some recruiters and employers now ask: Who are you? What kind of person are you? Are you an introvert, an extrovert, a person with a Type A personality, or someone who is considered laid back? Are you driven, or do you go with the flow? Do you strive for excellence, or are you comfortable just putting your time in on the job? What are your strengths and weaknesses when it comes to work? (I love when an employer asks this question. I always have to honestly say that my weakness is I hate office politics and will do whatever it takes to avoid it. That confuses so many people—as if they don’t know what office or corporate politics is.) What are your strengths and weaknesses? Be honest. You have at least one of each. Once you confront who you are, you are halfway home to answering this question. Now who do you prefer to work with?
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CHAPTER 8 Who Do You Want to Do This With? (Community?!) Here are some examples of people you might want to work with: . Venture capitalists—Those that can help you get your business off the ground. You might
want to go into business for yourself. In this case, you are working with people you hire, people who are partners, and people who are investors and your customers. . Family—Some folks start out working with one or more family members. This is a great start-
ing place. I started out working with my dad. I learned not only a lot of skills but also a great deal about how to treat customers and take pride in your work. If you want to start a business, you might want to go into business with family members. Is that a possibility for you? . Friends—Working with them can be a bit dicey, but it can also be great. Do you want to work
with those you socialize with? It can jeopardize the relationship, but could also be the key to success. Another way to address this question is to ask you whether you prefer to work with a certain type of person. For example: . Do you prefer egotists or the humble? . Do you prefer working with adults or children? . Do you prefer working with a given age group? . Do you prefer working with friends, strangers, or family? . Do you prefer working with others or by yourself? . Do you prefer working with professionals or nonprofessionals? . Do you prefer working with a large group or a small team? 101
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CHAPTER 8 Who Do You Want to Do This With? (Community?!) . Do you prefer working with men or women, or both? . Do you prefer working with people from your own culture or diverse cultures? . Do you prefer working with people from your own ethnicity or diverse ethnicities? . Do you prefer working with people who are team-oriented or those who are driven by their
own need to succeed? . Do you prefer working with politically motivated people or those who are not politically moti-
vated? . Do you prefer to work with academically educated people or those who have been educated
by the world? Based on your responses to these questions, you now have an initial idea of who you want to work with, but you also have to consider who you trust. You will find that those you want to work with or those who work for you are those you trust. Never underestimate the value of trust when it comes to considering whether you work well with another person. I can say without reservation that one of the best jobs I have ever had was working for a hospital in New York. I loved the work, but I loved the job more than any others I had because of the people I worked with. I was surrounded by great people who came from diverse backgrounds and cultures. Every socioeconomic level and academic level was there, and I interacted with every one of them. What made them great? I felt I could trust every one of them. That is a remarkable statement. And every job and career opportunity that I consider now is measured against this standard.
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CHAPTER 8 Who Do You Want to Do This With? (Community?!) Now I am looking for a great group of people who I can trust, just like I trusted those with whom I worked at the hospital. Will I find an opportunity like I had? I don’t know, but I know that the ideal exists—and that gives me hope. So who do you want to work with? Write down your thoughts and responses in your Word doc.
#2: Why Do You Want to Work with Them? Now that you have an idea about who you want to work with, you need to answer why you want to work with them. Is it because you trust them? Or is there another reason? What do you like and dislike about the people you work with? Don’t just think about why you like them but also consider why you do not. This is a difficult question to answer because you have to judge other people by your own personal standards, which might not be the most accurate. But it is your judgment that is the determining factor. Some of the reasons why you might like a group of people you work with are as follows: . They make a comfortable environment. . You all complement each other. . You bring the best out in each other. . You learn from each other. . You make a good team.
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CHAPTER 8 Who Do You Want to Do This With? (Community?!) No matter how good it can be working with others, some folks simply want to work alone. I fluctuate back and forth. There are times when I can be most productive working by myself and other times when I absolutely need to work with a trusted group of coworkers. I have long wanted to open my own training center with two or three classrooms that have a solid philosophy of training and education. It would not be built around the profit margin but the student’s education. My philosophy—my driving motivation—is a Common Good. Every time I revisit the idea, I realize that I can’t do it alone. I can’t teach in three classrooms simultaneously, answer the phones, do the marketing, run the office, pay the bills, register new students, schedule classes, maintain the equipment, keep the facilities up, and so on…all by myself. I need good professional people I can trust, who enjoy this kind of work, and with whom I can collaborate. That is why I have not taken the leap. Finding professionals with those traits is difficult in a limited geographical area. Although I could do all these jobs myself, I can’t do them alone. I know who I work well with and why I work well with them, but finding them is tough. Do you know why you want to work with a group of people? Why do you like them? Do you know why you don’t want to work with some folks? Write down your reasons why you like some, why you don’t like others, and why you like to work with some yet don’t like to work with others.
#3: When Do You Want to Work with Them? Knowing who you want to work with and why is important. But so is the knowledge of when you want to work with this group of people. As we get older, we change and our opinions change. You might desperately want to work with children when you are in your 20s and 30s, but when you turn 40, you find this is no longer the case. 104
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CHAPTER 8 Who Do You Want to Do This With? (Community?!) In my 20s and 30s, I wanted to work with those in the trades. I had a lot of admiration for them and wanted to learn from them. A lot of that came from working with my dad. But as I grew older, I realized I couldn’t do what these very talented people could do. Additionally, after my father died (I was 40), I began to lose interest in working in the trades. Shortly after my dad died, I got heavily involved in computers and computer networks. Now I love working with adult students who want to learn about computers and networks. But the times they are a-changin’, and what used to be special knowledge is now rather fundamental. Most elementary school children know more about computers and networks than their adult mentors do. As much as I love teaching technology to adults, I find that the landscape is changing, and I have to change with it. I’m now trying to discover what the next career wave will be—and who I will work with. So knowing who you like to work with and why is heavily dependent on where you are in your life. Your responses will change. Be ready to embrace the change. What is your answer now at your present time of life?
#4: Where Do You Want to Work with Them? Now if you know when you want to work with a group of folks, you also have to consider where those people are. Where do you want to work with them? Consider the following three ancillary questions: . Where is this group geographically? . Where is this group organizationally? . In which sector is this group? 105
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CHAPTER 8 Who Do You Want to Do This With? (Community?!) Let’s look at each of these questions in more detail. In order for you to work with a desired group of coworkers, you might have to reside in a specific area. For example, to work with the IT gurus of Silicon Valley, you probably have to relocate to northern California. If you want to work with Microsoft at its corporate office, you have to move to Washington State. If you want to do Broadway theater, you have to relocate to New York City. If you want to work with those in politics on the national level in the United States, you probably have to be in the Washington, D.C. area, which is where political organizations are located. Some organizations have a central location, whereas others have several locations scattered around the globe. So where is the group that you want to work with located? Do you have to relocate to have the opportunity? When you ask about the location of people you want to work with, you also have to be clear about the sector in which you want to work. Which sector are you interested in? This helps to define where you have to be so you can work with the right group of people. Are you interested in any of the following? . Financial sector . Real estate . Trades . Health care . Business sector 106
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CHAPTER 8 Who Do You Want to Do This With? (Community?!) . Corporate America . Entertainment . Training sector . Education . IT . Housing . For-profit . Not-for-profit . Churches . Nursing homes
Based on knowing where you want to work so you can be with the folks you want to work with, where the organization center is, and which sector you want to work in, you can now write down where you should focus your attention in your career search. You should have noticed that some of the sectors are present in almost every community. If you are interested in health care, for example, you can work anywhere in the United States. If you only want to work in teaching hospitals, however, you then have to consider relocating so you can work with the professionals in one of these centers. If you want to work in education, you can work anywhere in the country. But if you want to teach at an Ivy League university, you have to consider moving to New England for the best opportunities. So where are the people you want to work with? Write down your answer. 107
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#5: How Do You Want to Work: As a Supervisor or As an Employee? This is an easy question to ask and answer. You know who, why, when, and where, but how do you want to work with your ideal community of workers? How do you want to relate to them? Do you want to be a follower, a team player, a leader, a supervisor, a boss, or an owner? What is your ideal role in relationship to those you want to work with? A good friend of mine from years ago used to respond to the question of what he wanted to do this way: I want to be boss. Some people do not want the responsibility of leading, while others thrive on responsibility. Some are born leaders; others are born workers and contributors. I love both roles. I love to lead when the opportunity arises and if I am asked to lead. Otherwise, I love to follow an inspired leader—someone who has a vision and a philosophy for meeting an objective. I cannot stand following someone who has no clue of how to meet an objective and whose only goal is self-aggrandizement. I was at a conference of educators about 14 years ago. As part of the let’s-get-to-know-each-other portion of the agenda on the first day, each participant was seated with seven strangers, for a total of eight strangers at a table. We each had name tags, but that was all we knew about each other. Each table was given an assortment of nonrelated items and a limited time to create an object that addressed some elementary need. For the most part, it was a simple task. The point was to have the eight strangers at a table become a cohesive team and create an object in the shortest period of time. It was awful.
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CHAPTER 8 Who Do You Want to Do This With? (Community?!) When the time to begin was announced, seven folks at my table all spoke at the same time, trying to be the table leader. The goal was to gain the power. No one listened to what the others were saying. No one took the time to think about the goal or the process. I sat back and watched the dynamic for close to 10 minutes and said nothing until one of the strangers asked me if I had any ideas because I was the only quiet one. Well, I did. I had taken the time to look at the nonrelated items and the objective, and I had a simple idea (which was the idea that was adopted and presented). I wasn’t trying to become leader. All I wanted to do was get through the morning and go to lunch. I didn’t like this group of people, but I had to work with them for a finite period of time. So I made the best of it and ended up as the leader. To be a good leader, sometimes you have to listen to what everyone is saying. Sometimes the ideas are good, and sometimes they are garbage. A good leader doesn’t have the loudest voice; it’s the one who can make a team out of strangers. Do you want to lead your group or follow? What role fits you? Write it down.
#6: Who Have You Worked With? You are considering who you want to work with and why. To get a complete picture of who makes up your ideal community of coworkers, you have to look at your past. You have to ask who you have worked with, associated with, socialized with, spent time with, vacationed with, and collaborated with. No matter how hard you try, you cannot escape your past—and your past speaks volumes about your present and your future. If you want to know who you want to work with, look back at the successful relationships you have had and try to formulate the reasons why those relationships worked for you. 109
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CHAPTER 8 Who Do You Want to Do This With? (Community?!) Look at your family and friends. Look at those in your neighborhood, your church, and your community. What makes this group of people appeal to you? What characteristics and traits make them people you want to work with and be around? Earlier this year during a difficult time, I had a conversation with someone very important to me— my mother. She was a few months from passing away. I always had a phenomenal relationship with her and my dad. I took care of both of them up to the time of their passing. While we were talking one day, she asked me a completely unrelated question, and a light came on. It was a complete epiphany. At that moment in time, which I will never forget, I realized who I liked being around and working with. I realized why I could work so easily with my parents and the folks at previous jobs for which I had endless respect. All the dots were connected. I came to understand that my community is made up of people with whom I can talk with, listen to, and make mistakes. The people I love to work with do not judge me or talk down to me. Instead, we can discuss matters, whether we agree or not, with honesty and openness. We learn from each other, and we can argue about issues without taking it personally. Most of all we can laugh about anything. Those who listen, learn, and laugh are the ones I have worked well with. What about you? Who have you worked with and why have those relationships worked (or not)? What do those relationships say about who you work well with now and in the future? Write it down.
#7: What Do Others Say About You and Your Work? Knowing who you have worked well with is a great start to self-understanding, but you also have to step back and honestly ask what do you say about others and what do others say about you. 110
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CHAPTER 8 Who Do You Want to Do This With? (Community?!) Remember there are three truths: your version of the truth, what others perceive as the truth, and the real truth (somewhere in the middle). The same is true about perception when it comes to working with others. You might perceive you have a great collaborative relationship with others, while they might think you’re a snob or a deadbeat. Where this gets nasty is when gossip enters into the mix. Step back and ask yourself what you have said about others and what you think others have said about you. Do others like working for you or with you? Do others like you working for them or with them? Are you difficult to work with? What have your previous evaluations been? What have your recommendations been like, and how ready are you to recommend a coworker? A former boss of mine gave me a yearly evaluation that I will never forget. We became good friends, but he made me so mad when he gave me the following yearly evaluation. For all job skills, I was given a satisfactory rating. But in his comments he added the following: “Warren is better than those who are worse than him.” Think about it. It made me nuts until I sat down and realized the truth in the statement. He was not being insulting or making a joke. He was speaking the truth from his perspective, and we had known each other for close to 10 years at that point. He was paying me a back-handed compliment. And we laughed about it every time we spoke. I use the same comment today when I have people working for me, and we get a big laugh. Why? It is so true. Write down what others have said about their experience while working with you. What does it say about who you work well with?
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#8: Who Values What You Can Contribute? When you’re looking for your ideal community, you have to ask who will value what you can contribute. Not everyone sees your skills, education, talents, and personality as being valuable to their cause or business. So who will value what you offer? This is an especially tough question when you are older than age 50 in the United States and looking for a career change, or if you are in your early 20s and looking to get your initial break in the job market. Those older than 50 are viewed as having too much experience and being overqualified; those in their early 20s are viewed as having no marketable skills. You have to find the right group of people and the right market that values what you bring to the table. If you are in your early 20s, you have to emphasize your knowledge and what you are willing to learn and do to contribute. When you are in your 50s, you have to emphasize what you can bring to the group to make it more prosperous than it was before you arrived. It takes a special group of people to recognize what you bring. Those who value you will embrace you and want to work with you. So who do you think will value what you can contribute? What group of people? What business sector?
#9: Who Do You Not Want to Work With? We started off this series of questions asking who you wanted to work with and why. You also have to ask who you absolutely do not want to work with and why. All the questions I have posed can be asked using the negative voice. 112
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CHAPTER 8 Who Do You Want to Do This With? (Community?!) You might have a vision of the ideal group to work with, but unless you know who you would not like to work with, you are not in touch with reality. From this question, you also come to realize that you are not perfect and that some folks would not like to work with you. The question then becomes: Why would someone not want to work with you? Write down your responses. They are important.
#10: What Do You Want from Your Coworkers, and What Are You Willing to Give? The final question comes down to what you want from this working relationship. What do others want from you? Are you willing to mutually contribute to each other’s performance on the job? Are you all willing to assist each other? What can you learn from each other? Are you looking to climb a ladder, or are others looking to use you to advance their business? When I look at a team of people that interviews me for a position, I am looking to see whether I can trust them, if they have passion for the job, if there is a strong air of politics, and if I think I can contribute to what they’re doing. I want this same group of people to see that I have something to contribute to their business model—that I am easy to work with, apolitical, and willing to learn the skills needed to contribute. So what do you want from your coworkers, and what are you willing to contribute? Write down your responses.
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Top Five Strategies for Finding Your Ideal Work Community Here is the best advice I can offer you as you try to find your ideal community of people to work with. 1. Define who you are and who you like to work with. Then surround yourself with those
people. 2. Define who you are most comfortable with. 3. Treat others the way you want to be treated. Give good references, and don’t be afraid to ask
for a good reference or evaluation. Help others to advance their career, and they might help you advance yours. You might be working with people who are threatened by your education or skills. Try to deflate the tension and be less threatening. Remember they are working just like you are to make a living. Try to help them succeed, and the work environment will improve. You might have to take the first step. 4. Be honest, open, and consistent. From the time you have your first telephone interview until
you resign, if you are honest, open, and consistent in dealing with your coworkers and bosses, you will have a great working relationship. One way to scope out whether these new coworkers can be honest, open, and consistent is to ask a simple question during your interview. At the end of every interview, the interviewer asks whether you have any questions. Often you are too scared to ask any. Well, here is one I use to assess the work environment. I ask interviewers whether they like their job. It’s a great question to ask in an interview. It gives you a good indication if the folks are happy and if they have passion for their jobs. It is also a good 114
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CHAPTER 8 Who Do You Want to Do This With? (Community?!) indicator if they are honest about their work experience. I have caught many an interviewer off-guard by this question—and thankfully have avoided a number of bad work situations. 5. Be humble. You are there to contribute to the business goal and models. You are not there to
prove how much better you are than everyone else. Humility boosts you up the success ladder much faster than lack of humility.
Conclusion When you’re looking at changing careers, community is a critical component to making the right change. Whether you are looking at starting your own business and having to hire the right people or whether you are hiring on to a new company, the people you work with create the work environment. Even if you primarily work by yourself, you still have to interact with others. You have to sell your goods and services to other people, so who you want to work with is a critical aspect to changing careers. In this chapter, you looked at the top 10 questions that help you define who you want to work with, who is in your community, who is in your network, and (most importantly) who you are. You also looked at the top five strategies for finding your ideal work community. They are questions that can have no right or wrong answers; they’re all subjective. As you compile your responses and put them together with the responses you gave to the questions in the previous chapters, the career change that is right for you should be getting clearer. That is my hope and the intent of this book. Share your ideas with others in your trusted community or network and get their feedback. You might be surprised what the feedback is. You might have to reevaluate who you want to associate with. You never know. Change is ever-changing. 115
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CHAPTER 9 What Is the Expected Life Cycle for What You Want to Do? (Time Is Everything!)
Chapter 9 What Is the Expected Life Cycle for What You Want to Do? (Time Is Everything!) Knowing what to do, what you like, what you can afford, and where you want to do it is all well and good. But when do you want to do this? And what affects the timing? Timing is everything. We are inundated with timing issues. If you deal with any kind of directory issues in IT, you know that one of the first things you have to establish is time synchronization. The same is true when you are changing careers and when you are looking for a job. Your time has to be in synch with the time of the folks you want to work with. There is a life cycle for everything, from products to decisions. How long something lasts or how long we have to do X, Y, and Z is something we often overlook when making a decision about plotting a career path. Everything has an optimum time, and the key is being there at the right place at the right time. You might know what you need to know, and you might be in the right place, but you might be there at the wrong time. For example, I have been trying to sell my home in north Florida. Four years ago, I could have sold it in a matter of days for more money. Now, because of the housing crisis in the United States, I have to wait, and I have had to lower my price. Why? Timing. The optimum time is not now as I write this. 116
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CHAPTER 9 What Is the Expected Life Cycle for What You Want to Do? (Time Is Everything!) Key issues to consider include the following: when you want to do something, when you can do something, and when the market is right. This is not only the case in IT but also in every sector. The financial, real estate, health care, business sectors, and so on are major victims of optimum timing. When you do something in each of these sectors is critical. This all speaks to the title of this chapter: What is the expected life cycle? How long do you have to act on a product, a certification, a career, a degree, a job, an advertisement, an investment, or a lead? When looking at changing careers, the key word is when. The key noun is timing—optimum timing. The key question is how long. The interesting side of this is that most of us can’t do a thing about timing, a product’s life cycle, a certification’s life cycle, or a market’s cycle when something happens for the good or bad. All we can do is to be ready to act when the moment is right. This chapter focuses on the top 10 questions that address the issues of when (timing) and how long when changing a career. There are a number of ancillary questions, but if you answer them honestly and record your answers in your Word doc, you might find the key to changing your career is not if but when. Then you take a look at the top five strategies for dealing with timing and life cycle issues. Are you ready? That is a timing question. The clock is ticking. It is time to get on board.
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Top 10 Questions Dealing with Timing and Life Cycle Issues When Changing a Career Think about the important moments in your life that revolve around time. If you are of a “certain age,” do you remember where you were when President Kennedy was killed? I do. Do you remember when you got engaged? When you got married? What about when you started school or when you graduated? These are all important times in your life, and these times occurred after some time in your life had come and gone. You don’t get married when you are 10 years old. Most do not go to college when they are 10 years old. In the words of an acclaimed writer, “There is a time for everything.” Being able to identify the right time and being ready for the right time is a key to having a good life and finding a good job. One of the reasons why I am not a doctor today is timing. One of the reasons I am not a member of the clergy today is timing. There is a life cycle for careers like these in everyone’s life. We cannot change history or the social circumstances of the past, but we can be ready to identify the trends and tendencies and be open to change with the times. Here is a great example that I cited in articles I have written for InformIT.com. When I was in college, the PC (for the most part) did not exist. I am not as old as dirt, just older than 40. Select colleges and other institutions had some enormous mainframes that had the processing power of an earthworm. Some 20–30 years later, I am teaching about computers and integrated networks that did not exist when I was in college. 118
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CHAPTER 9 What Is the Expected Life Cycle for What You Want to Do? (Time Is Everything!) “If I had only known” could be said, but instead I adapted to the change; when the time was right, I was ready. How long will it last? Who knows? That is a timing question. I have to be ready for the changes that will occur—and so do you if you want to land the ideal career. So what are the questions that can help you make those decisions and adapt to the times? Here are some worth considering.
#1: When Do You Want to Do This? Based on earlier questions, you know what you want to do and what you like to do, but when do you want to do this? Is this a career choice or job wish that you have in mind for the immediate future? Are you trying to find a job because you have been laid off, fired, or just starting out? Are you looking at a long-term or short-term option? The key is to know when you want to do this. Maybe you want to do this in 3–5 years, in 5–10 years, or when you retire. The other key is to understand that history and social circumstances continually change. You might now have all the skills, knowledge, degrees, internships, and so on. You might have met all the current requirements. But what happens if the hiring body, the governing agency, or the credentialing institution goes through a metamorphosis and changes the requirements? And you no longer meet those requirements? 119
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CHAPTER 9 What Is the Expected Life Cycle for What You Want to Do? (Time Is Everything!) It has happened to me, and more than once in my life. One such instance occurred some time ago. Some 25 years later, I am still bugged because the rules changed and I could not do a thing about it. I could write a book about this chapter of my life. (In fact, I have a table of contents for this book that concerns my life and my experience with a major institution that I have titled Chasing a Moving Target.) I won’t go into the details, but I did not strike when the iron was hot—when the folks I knew who made the rules were in power. When the ruling body changed, so did the requirements, and so did the opportunity for me to pursue a career I felt called to. If you are ready, and the market is ready, and you know when you want to pursue your new career, go for it. Don’t let time pass you by. So the question of when you want to do this applies not only to IT folks but also to folks in every different sector. If you’re not ready, when will you be ready? How long will it take for you to get up to speed and be ready to go to work? Record your responses in your Word doc.
#2: How Long Are You Marketable? In my mind, this is the key question in this chapter. How long are you marketable? Every career has a limited life span. We as people have a finite life span, and we have a finite amount of time in which we can be productive workers. And what we do, just like any skill or product, has an optimum marketing season.
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CHAPTER 9 What Is the Expected Life Cycle for What You Want to Do? (Time Is Everything!) When will others be interested in what you offer? Will others be more interested in you when you are young and fresh out of school, or when you are older with years of experience? In that same light, you have to recognize and accept that some folks prefer working with someone older, whereas others prefer someone younger. Is that age bias? Absolutely! Some call it preference, but anyone in this market who does not recognize age bias is not in the market. Some sectors prefer a younger workforce; others prefer a workforce that is older, more experienced, and maybe less ambitious. Whether you call it bias or preference doesn’t matter; it exists in IT and in all sectors of the market. Some would say that older workers are more marketable, although others feel that younger workers are more marketable. In your ideal career, are you in the age bracket that is marketable? Be honest and write it down in your Word doc. Another way to look at this is with this question: How long is your selling season? I found out recently that Home Depot, Wal-Mart, and Sam’s Club have a selling season for its products. One of the things that drives me nuts is that Christmas trees are on sale in mid-August in my area of the southeast, and you cannot get a Christmas tree three weeks before Christmas—but you can get an Easter outfit. The selling season for Christmas goods has ended three weeks before Christmas. This makes me shake my head. The same is true when you evaluate your skills and knowledge to determine your selling season. Has your prime marketing season passed you by? Or are you ahead of the curve? Be honest! To figure out how long you are marketable, ask how long your selling season is. 121
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CHAPTER 9 What Is the Expected Life Cycle for What You Want to Do? (Time Is Everything!) If you are supporting a product or vendor in IT, for example, you also have to ask what the marketable life span of the product is. For every product and service, there is a beginning, a middle, and an end. Then what? If you are in IT, you know the life span of most products and versions of those products is short—less than a blink of an eye. When supporting IT software and hardware, it is virtually impossible to keep up with the changes—making it difficult to stay up with the market. If you are supporting hardware or software, you have to be realistic when you ask how long you and your skills will be marketable and what you will do to either stay current on the IT treadmill or move on to a less-volatile sector. For example, if you are a Windows 2003 MCSE and you have supported Server 2003 since it was in Beta, how long do you have before the Server 2003 life span, marketability, and selling season will be over? And consequently, how long before the skills you have developed will no longer be profitable? Questions like these must be considered when you are changing careers. In short, how long is this product (with its associated skills) marketable? Does it have enough time, before being retired, to make it worth the effort? In the same way that you have to ask about your marketability and the marketability of a product, you also have to ask about the marketability of the company you want to work for. In this day and age, when major companies are folding, financial firms are closing their doors without notice, and mills and plants are shutting down, there are no more absolutes. You cannot say with certainty (in most cases) that you will be able to work for Employer X for 30–40 years and retire.
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CHAPTER 9 What Is the Expected Life Cycle for What You Want to Do? (Time Is Everything!) Why not? Employer X might not be around for 30–40 years. So how marketable is your employer, how long a life span does your ideal employer have, and how long is the life span for this employer’s products and services? These are all tough questions for which you might not have firm answers, but write down what you think and feel when you consider how long you are marketable.
#3: When Do You Change? If you know during what time of life you want to change careers and you have an idea of how long you and your products and skills of choice are marketable, then you have to decide when you should change. When do you quit your current job and move onto your new frontier? When do you change direction? When do you change your goals? Most importantly, when do you change your mind about your career? Your toughest audience is you. You have to be convinced that the direction you want to go is the right one, and the goals you have are the right goals. That time is personal and subjective. Some say they just know it. Others, like me, say it is a gut feeling. Most of the time, there is no objective crossroad that pushes you one way or the other, but sometimes there is. When you decide to make the change to a new career, you experience a new chapter in your life that calls on all that you know and feel to succeed. About 12 years ago, I was in a good job that included some issues which annoyed me. I was a school teacher and technology manager. I was not looking to start a new career, but I was looking 123
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CHAPTER 9 What Is the Expected Life Cycle for What You Want to Do? (Time Is Everything!) to expand my knowledge and skills. Because of a number of circumstances, I experienced a crossroad where I decided to make the change and become a contract trainer, instructor, and network engineer. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision that was monumental because it was unplanned. Twelve years later, I am still working as a contract trainer, instructor, and network engineer, and I love every minute of it. It has been a great professional chapter in my life, and I will always be thankful for it. But I would encourage folks to, as my mom would say, “Don’t do as I do, but do as I say.” This chapter of my life was unplanned and could have been disastrous. It was not. So give careful thought to when you want to make your change. Write down your thoughts in your Word doc.
#4: When Should You Start Looking for a Job? As a follow-up to when do you want to change, you also have to figure out when you should you start looking for the new job or the new career. Additionally, you have to ask the following questions: . Do you start looking while you are working at your current job? . Do you start looking after you quit? . Do you start looking while you are in school? . Do you start looking before or after you relocate? . Do you start looking when you lose interest in your current skill set or your current environment?
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CHAPTER 9 What Is the Expected Life Cycle for What You Want to Do? (Time Is Everything!) If you know when you should start looking, you also have to ask how long you are willing to look before you resign yourself to accepting the imperfect offer. You might not land the ideal position in the timeframe you hoped, so it is wise to know how long you are willing to hold out. This is a tough job market, and companies are playing hardball when hiring employees. So you have to know how flexible you will be in terms of how long you will hold out for your ideal position. You also have to be realistic and ask how long before you will go broke or lose your mind (and maybe your home) by holding out for the ideal. Idealism is great, but reality is real. Sometimes you might have to accept second-best as a stop gap measure. In line with these questions, you also have to determine how long you are willing to stay in this new position before you want to advance and move up the ladder. Some positions that I have worked in require that you remain in the current position, which the ruling body says is the required base, for three years before you can move to another site or move up into your position of choice. Is that fair or right? I did not think so at the time and still do not, but that is the reality, and I could not change the rules. So when do you want to start, how long are you willing to hold out, and how long before you will want to move up? What do you think? Write down your answers in your Word doc.
#5: When Is It Time to Go? For everything there is a season—a time for coming and a time for going, the prophet wrote. Those same sentiments are true in the job and career market.
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CHAPTER 9 What Is the Expected Life Cycle for What You Want to Do? (Time Is Everything!) We just looked at when you want to start. The reality is that for every start there is a finish. When is it time to leave your current job? When is it time to leave your new job? As mentioned earlier in this chapter, some folks take new jobs and enter careers for the short term. That’s okay as long as it is fine with you. What is short term to you? How long should you stay in a job? Many folks opt to take a job for a short period of time, and the next thing they know it is 10 years later. Somehow they fell in love with the job and got tired of looking. Others, like a friend of mine, take a job with long-term expectations, relocate to another coast, and find after a short time that the money to pay him has dried up. My friend’s time to go was based on financial restrictions. So he had to move back to the original location to find a more stable employment opportunity. How do you know when it is time to go? Do you lose interest? Are you only willing to stay X years? Do you leave when the job you wanted opens again? If you decide to leave, how much notice should you give your boss? How much notice would your boss give you if you are being laid off? How much notice does your boss expect? Leaving a good job is tough—one of the toughest things I have ever had to do. Early in my career, after a year on the job at a major medical college in New York City, I was offered the opportunity to develop a new department with all the needed education, staff, offices, and so on. I gave it some thought, passed it up, and decided to go to seminary. I was young enough to do it, and my parents were behind me. I gave my bosses nine months notice, and I was asked to hire my replacement (who would become my new boss and the new head of the department). I would be the assistant manager. It was a 126
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CHAPTER 9 What Is the Expected Life Cycle for What You Want to Do? (Time Is Everything!) terrible nine months. I loved the job and the people, and because of my decision, I had to watch someone else who I hired make a mockery of the work that I had accomplished. But I had a dream to go to seminary, and I went, leaving behind a fantastic job and a career that would have easily carried me into retirement. My bosses required only two weeks, but I gave them enough time to replace me and allow me to try to train my new boss. If I were in that position again, I would have given only two weeks notice and my life would been easier. The punch line is this: The boss I hired was fired shortly after I left. When is it time to go? For me it was when I was young enough to follow a dream for my education. What about for you? Write it down in your Word doc.
#6: How Long Are Your Certifications Marketable? When I originally thought about the life cycle for what you want to do, the question of certifications was the first thing that came to mind. It is the one that has been the source of employment and annoyance for me for close to 15 years. I wrote an article for InformIT.com last year titled “The Top 10 Problems with IT Certification in 2008.” The second problem I cited was that certifications have a short life cycle. You no sooner get certified in skill X, and you have to be recertified. Many vendors feel it is their duty to expire your certification if you have not recertified in 2–4 years. So the questions must be asked: How long has it been since you were certified? How long are your certifications marketable? Do your certifications cover an earlier version? To be competitive, do you need to upgrade? Is the selling season for your current certifications over? 127
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CHAPTER 9 What Is the Expected Life Cycle for What You Want to Do? (Time Is Everything!) The certification industry is an animal unto itself. It can drive a sane man nuts. It has helped many, including me, validate our credentials and skills, but the treadmill to keep up with the certifications that reflect changes in the software and hardware is maddening. Based on your certifications and their selling season, when will your skills be out of date? When are your certifications out of date? There are some rabid certification advocates who insist that you have to have the latest and greatest—and for some things I agree. For others, history speaks against it (for example, the folks who were trained as Fortran and Cobol programmers). According to many, they were way past their selling season 15–20 years ago. No one would ever hire these people. Their education and certification was over—until Y2K. When Y2K hit everyone’s consciousness, it became apparent that to avoid a lot of problems, the only ones who could fix the programming limitations on many of the most critical systems were the Fortran and Cobol programmers. Their selling season was not over. So don’t give up on your certifications. What you know you know. Others might insist that you upgrade, and to survive you might have to, but history and the wheel are round. Things that used to be popular will again be popular as time moves on. Certifications that were sought after will be again. Those certifications that are out of date are considered by many to be legacy certifications—and that is okay. Those legacy certifications validate skills and knowledge you have had. They might not be current or the key to getting the new job, but they are not to be ignored, either.
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CHAPTER 9 What Is the Expected Life Cycle for What You Want to Do? (Time Is Everything!) The key to certification timing is competitiveness. The most recent certifications in many markets make you more competitive as you push toward your goal of an ideal career. In other markets and sectors, certifications mean nothing. Do your homework and examine whether you need to recertify to have the latest and greatest to be competitive or if what you have will help you land your job. This whole topic is a thorn in my side. I have been annoyed beyond measure as companies, such as Cisco Systems, insist that you recertify every three years to maintain very-difficult-to-achieve certifications. They do not use the term legacy cert; instead, they say you have a retired, or expired, certification. My solution, which addresses the competitiveness discussion, is the Master of Integrated Networking (MIN) credential that I have developed and discuss on InformIT.com. This credential recognizes the value of legacy certifications. The reality is that not everyone is installing the latest and greatest hardware. What the IT folks need might be the knowledge and skills that were hot 3–5 years ago and were validated in an earlier certification. If that is the case, the MIN accepts that and recognizes the knowledge and experience validated by that certification path. But the MIN is new and developing. The reality is you have to ask how current your certification is. How marketable are your current certifications? What is your answer? Write it down in your Word doc. Are certification and the newest certifications keeping you from landing that ideal job? Think about it.
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#7: What Skills, Careers, and Jobs Have Staying Power? This brings me to my favorite question when looking at timing and life span. What skills, jobs, and careers in the current market will be around in 20–40 years? Our parents went to work for a company and stayed there for 30–40 years. They made a living, and no one ever worried whether the company would be there or if they would have a job the next day or the next year. Now, 5–7 years is statistically a long time to stay in one job. The current trend, especially in IT, is to bounce from job to job every 1–3 years. What does that say about the current philosophy of the market and, more importantly, your work ethic? Personally, I am opposed to changing jobs every year or two just to get experience or get ahead. It makes no sense. These trends show how volatile the market is and how volatile you might be if you fall in this category of bouncing from job to job. What I want for myself and when contracting with others is stability, not volatility. My ideal job is one that I can ride for 10–20 years and where I am not on some treadmill, like the certification treadmill, to stay competitive. I had this conversation with a good friend of mine, noted author Emmett Dulaney. He advised me to look at one of two sectors in which there is stability: higher education and health care. In those two sectors, you can have a degree and hold a job, if you want, with respect for 10–20 years. Emmett told me to do exactly what he has done: get the Ph.D. and teach for a university. With my background in teaching, it made a great deal of sense. I have not done it yet because the time was not right, but I am seriously thinking about it. 130
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CHAPTER 9 What Is the Expected Life Cycle for What You Want to Do? (Time Is Everything!) My advice to all of you is to examine whether you want stability or volatility and find the career that has staying power—one that has a future and one you can depend on to be there when you need them. For you, what job or career has staying power and is stable? Write it down in your Word doc.
#8: How Long Will It Be Before You Cannot Physically Do the Job? This is a question that few consider, but one that must be considered. How long can you physically handle the demands of your ideal job or career? Even in IT, some physical demands look inconsequential when you are in your 20s but could be a deterrent in your 50s. Pulling cable can stress a body, and carpal tunnel syndrome can come from too much time on a keyboard. Those valiant nurses who walk hospital floors day after day lifting patients cannot do it forever. Why? Their legs, feet, and backs give out. Some give out when they are in their 20s. Chiropractors and massage therapists cannot do it for a lifetime because of the stress that their bodies experience taking care of so many patients. Like my dad, some mechanics do their jobs for a lifetime; others reach a point at which the heavy lifting wrecks their backs, and they have to find another way to make a living. Those in the entertainment industry have to worry about their looks. After 40, many cannot go on because they are no longer physically appealing and aren’t considered “the flavor of the month.” So be realistic. With the career you have in mind, how long can you physically do the job? Write down your thoughts and feelings in your Word doc. 131
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#9: How Long Are You Willing to Go to School to Get Where You Want? When you look at the expected life span for your new career, you also have to look at how long you have to go to school to get where you want to be and decide whether the time required is worth it. When you shoot for the moon, expect to need a significant education background that requires years of classroom time. This also goes for IT, now that the CIS, MIS, and similar degrees are popular, and for other sectors. If you want to go into health care as a doctor or nurse, expect to spend 2–10 years of post-graduate education. In business or marketing, you need the MBA or the equivalent. In the arts, you need the MFA. To teach in higher education, you need at least the Ph.D. or a degree on the doctoral level to have a realistic chance at a good job. I have held off on the Ph.D. for now because it will take me at least three years to get it, and I want to do it somewhere other than where I am currently located. Why? There are limited opportunities even with a Ph.D. where I live. Whatever career you decide upon, you have to look at how much education you will need and how long it will take you to attain it—and whether you are willing to put in the time. How long will it take you to earn the degree or license you need to move into your ideal career? Write it down in your Word doc.
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#10: How Long Is Your Education and Training Good For? Once you commit to your new career and you have the education, certifications, and training you need to get in the door, how long before you have to be retrained or get another degree? This goes back to how long your selling season is and the earlier certification question. If you have your master’s degree or the right IT certifications, how long will they have value? Do you have to go for another master’s degree or another certification in 3–5 years to enhance your training? This is the reality of the current market. When I was getting a master’s in education, I heard the catch phrase “lifelong learning” thrown around. Well, that is what happened. The market demands lifelong learning for some jobs or careers. Physicians I know are always faced with being certified in a new competency or skill. They are continually taking tests to meet requirements—and many are not happy about it. My dad always laughed when I was taking another course. He used to wonder when I would be done with school. His joke was that I would be the smartest one in the cemetery. Well, this generation will have a lot of smart people there because of market demands. So how long will your education be good for? Think about it and write it down in your Word doc.
Top Five Strategies for Dealing with Timing and Life Cycle Issues Here is the best advice I can offer you as you struggle with the questions of when and how long as you embark on your career journey. 133
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CHAPTER 9 What Is the Expected Life Cycle for What You Want to Do? (Time Is Everything!) 1. Be ready! You never know when the right job is coming your way. You have to be ready. Have
your education, certifications, training, and all your ducks lined up and ready to go. When will you find the right job? It is all timing. Be realistic and don’t get down about it. Have your resumé ready and strike when the fire is hot. 2. Don’t give up on yourself, your skills, or your dream! You cannot do anything about timing.
Just be patient and realistic. It is so easy to get down when you cannot force a situation, but when the time is right and you are ready, the pieces all fall into place. I have to keep saying this to myself because timing is the one thing for which I have no patience. 3. Have a good network! One way to deal with the “when” and “how long” issues is to have a
good network of friends and associates who might be able to move things along for you. As I said earlier, it is not so much what you know as who you know. Working with others can move things along much faster than you can do by yourself. If you don’t think you have a good network, develop one using tools like LinkedIn.com. 4. Don’t be vendor- or employer-dependent! When you are struggling with concepts such as
marketability and the selling season, don’t be so enthralled with a vendor or employer that you don’t keep your options open. I know some IT specialists who work only on Microsoft networks. They do not consider working on an integrated environment, and they complain that they cannot find better or more work. In this case, timing is an issue that can be overcome by being less stubborn and not being vendor-dependent. There is an old story about the man who fell overboard in the sea. He treaded water for hours. Three vessels came by and offered to rescue him, and he passed them up, knowing the vessel he was on would come back to save him. The vessel had sunk, so he continued to tread water until he drowned. He was stubborn. He could have moved on but he did not. 134
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CHAPTER 9 What Is the Expected Life Cycle for What You Want to Do? (Time Is Everything!) Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Don’t rely on one vendor for your success in IT. Have flexibility and options, and you will succeed. 5. Have a plan with options for your employment and career! If you realize that timing is a factor
in your career quest, you will counteract the issues that it generates with a good plan. Remember that those who fail to plan, plan to fail. The best advice I have while you wait for your ideal to come to fruition is have a backup plan. Don’t vegetate while you are waiting—get additional education or training. If one goal is not possible, then another might be—and you might be surprised that it might be a better option which you missed. You cannot alter history or timing, but you can prepare for the time when things are lined up for you to succeed.
Conclusion Timing, when, how long, life span, selling season, and marketability are key concepts when you are looking for your ideal job/career. They are the easiest to overlook. Many of us want to look past them, but they can be a bottleneck that prevents us from moving forward, so we have to deal with them realistically. There are no easy answers to questions on when to change careers. It is very subjective. You have to be honest with yourself and your circumstances and move forward. If your education or certifications are out-of-date or “not hot,” do something about it. Hopefully having dealt with some of these timing questions has clarified your career path. Write down your thoughts and evaluate them along with your responses to the earlier questions. Next we look at foundations! 135
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CHAPTER 10 What Do You Need to Get Started? (Laying a Foundation!)
Chapter 10 What Do You Need to Get Started? (Laying a Foundation!) Here we are at question 9 in this series of diagnostic questions. This question can be phrased in a number of ways: . How do you want to do this? . How do you get started? . What do you need to get started? . What do you need to lay the foundation?
Projects of all sizes and shapes—no matter if you are building your own home, erecting a skyscraper, learning a foreign language, learning a trade, or writing an article—all have one thing in common: They begin somewhere. Sometimes it takes more time to begin a project than it does to actually do the project. For me, the toughest part of any job is laying the foundation, beginning the project, and gathering all the pieces that have to be in place for the project to begin. When writing an article, I need a goal, an objective, a destination, a map, a schedule, an audience, a market, contacts who will work with me to get the word out, a crew, a place to work, a really good sense of myself, and reality. 136
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CHAPTER 10 What Do You Need to Get Started? (Laying a Foundation!) The same is true when I am designing a network, developing a class, planning a major move, or looking for a job. If you are like me and you want to take a trip during your vacation, you have to tackle several issues before you set off on the journey. You have to know at least the following: . Where do you want to go? . Who do you want to go with? . How long do you want to stay? . What method of transportation will you use? . Where will you stay? . When do you want to go? . What do you want to do on this trip? . What can you realistically do on this trip? . What do you have to take with you? . Who do you have to consult with before leaving—for example, hotels and travel agents? . Why do you want to go?
The keys are the following: . Do you have a plan? . Do you have your ducks in a row? 137
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CHAPTER 10 What Do You Need to Get Started? (Laying a Foundation!) The old axiom, which I have found to be so true, is this: Those who fail to plan, plan to fail. The same fundamentals for beginning any project—the same questions that a good project manager uses when embarking on a new project—should be used by you as you lay the foundation for your new career. In this chapter, through a series of 10 questions, you determine what you need to know to begin your march to your new, dynamic, life-changing career. You should have a pretty good idea what you want to do by now. You have to develop a plan for beginning your journey toward that career. You have written down your thoughts, feelings, ideas, and responses to the diagnostic questions I have asked up until now. Now I will ask you the top 10 questions to assess what you need to get started and lay the foundation. These 10 questions, as you will see, are also the top 10 strategic hurdles you have to jump through to begin your journey. So if you answer these 10 questions in your Word doc, you will have concretely determined the top 10 strategies for laying the foundation or getting started. Before I lay out the 10 questions, I want you to imagine you are the general contractor for your new custom home you are building. You are the key go-to person on this job. What is the first thing you need to do before you begin the actual building? Develop a plan. And what is the first thing you do when you actually start building? Lay the foundation.
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CHAPTER 10 What Do You Need to Get Started? (Laying a Foundation!) This chapter is about planning and laying the foundation for your new career. Whether you are in IT, health care, business, the trades, or some other sector, you are the general contractor for your career for the next few minutes. Put on your thinking cap, pull out your Word doc to take notes, strap on your tool belt, and get ready to prepare a good set of blueprints for the career you want.
Top 10 Questions to Assess What You Need to Get Started and Lay the Foundation Are you a planner, or do you like to do things by the seat of your pants? Before we go any further, you have to be honest about this. Some folks hate to plan. They want everything to be done spontaneously and spur of the moment. They like surprises. They long for serendipity. That is great for many things in life, but when you are starting a major life-changing project, such as finding the ideal career, surprises are nice, but so is planning and approaching the project with a sense of order. Before you install the roof on your house, you first need to have the house erected, and you better have a foundation in place. So planning is good. Say it with me: Planning is good. Before you start the journey to your new career, you need to answer the following questions honestly! This is the plan.
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#1: Do You Have a Goal or a Dream? In one sentence, what is your ultimate goal for this career journey? Do you have a goal? Can you express that goal or dream? If you don’t have a goal, start thinking about it. Dream big. Shoot for the moon. There is no right or wrong answer. It is your dream or goal. This is the high-level dream, the high-level objective. A long, long time ago, when I was 10 years old, I was asked by a clergyman who was trying to get me to think long-term, “Warren, what is your goal or dream?” My answer was simple. I had no idea how or why or if I would be able to achieve it, but I had a dream. My dream was to be a medical missionary. My dreams have changed over the years. My ultimate goal or dream vocationally is still the same as it was 30 years ago: I want to be a chaplain to terminal and geriatric patients. That has not worked out because of a number of institutional changes and regulations. I have not given up on it, but I have moved on. So I am in IT. My goal is simple: I want to provide the best training and education I can to make IT fun and understandable to those who take my classes. I would also love to earn a Ph.D. and become a professor who can positively affect students entering IT. Is that ego? Nope. It’s a dream, that’s all. Remember that you can have more than one dream or goal, but you have to have a dream or goal.
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CHAPTER 10 What Do You Need to Get Started? (Laying a Foundation!) You don’t necessarily have to give up on your earlier goals. Happenstance might cause them to come to fruition. Be ready for the unexpected and be ready to change—but have a goal. What is your high-level dream or goal? Write it down. Do you want to be a programmer? Do you want to be a systems engineer? Do you want to be a project manager? Do you want to be a CIO? Do you want to be a senior security engineer? Do you want to be a doctor or a lawyer? Do you want to be this generation’s Bill Gates? Do you want to be a billionaire? Do you want to be boss? Write it down in your Word doc.
#2: Do You Have a Sense of Reality? You have your dream or goal, and that’s great, but you have to be in touch with reality. Is your dream or goal out of the bounds of possibility or totally unrealistic? Ask some of your friends and family and try to get some honest answers. As you lay the foundation for your new career, the one thing you don’t want to be is delusional. Have big dreams, but ones that are attainable and possible—ones that you can realistically live up to. Do you want to be the first IT professional to set up a wireless network on Saturn? That is a great dream, but some (or most) would say it’s unrealistic. Great minds had big dreams that some said were unrealistic, but still they made those dreams a reality. My advice is to take small steps and have realistic dreams (at least at first). Then by all means, with all my encouragement, go for the gold. 141
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CHAPTER 10 What Do You Need to Get Started? (Laying a Foundation!) The point is simple: Develop your dream or goal and evaluate it. Evaluate it honestly with the help and insight of others. When you step back and look at your dream or goal, what do you think? Sleep on it and write down your thoughts in your Word doc. Write down what others have said. Are you in touch with reality? Are your dreams attainable? If your answer is yes, let’s move on.
#3: Do You Have an Objective with a Measurable Outcome? Now that you have a dream or a goal, you have to develop one or more objectives that have measureable outcomes. Remember that the dream is the big picture, the high-level goal, and the objectives are the how-to steps for attaining the goal. Objectives need to be measurable so you can determine whether you have succeeded. The following lists a couple of simple sample objectives you might have as you prepare for your career journey: . I will prepare a website outlining my skills, experience, and education with a contact email
address by December 15, 2009. . I will accept a position only if the benefits package offered includes health, dental, vision,
401K, and disability. . I will upload my resumé to five online job boards by December 1, 2009.
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CHAPTER 10 What Do You Need to Get Started? (Laying a Foundation!) Notice how simple these objectives are. Notice you can easily determine if they are attainable. You know that if you upload your resume to five online job boards by December 1, 2009, you have achieved your objective. Objectives outline the process you take to achieve your goal. In education, we go a step further; we call objectives behavioral objectives or learning objectives. Using a learning objective, we can concretely state that upon doing X, Y, or Z the student is able to do some task successfully or know a certain attainable skill or fact. The objective is to take a step. In your career journey, your objectives are designed to help you determine what steps you have to take and want to take to reach your dream. What are your objectives? Write them down step by step in your Word doc.
#4: Do You Have a Map for Finding Your Way to Your Goal? When you are planning a road trip, you turn to your GPS, MapQuest, or the old-fashioned paper map to see what roads you need to take to reach a destination. You are planning a career trip. You need to determine what roads you need to take to reach the destination of a new career. You have your objectives. Now what do you have to do reach those objectives? For example, let’s look at the first sample objective in the previous section: I will prepare a website outlining my skills, experience, and education with a contact email address by December 15, 2009. 143
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CHAPTER 10 What Do You Need to Get Started? (Laying a Foundation!) What roads do you have to take to accomplish this goal? Do you know how to design a website? Do you know where to begin? Do you have a server on which you can post your pages? Do you need to contract with someone who knows how to design a website? Do you have your own domain? Do you even know what I am talking about? These are the roads you need to travel to accomplish your goal by December 15. You have to gather your content for publication, and then you have to prepare the site and upload the content. But a lot has to be in place for this to happen. You have to travel down some familiar and not-sofamiliar roads. Remember this is a journey. You’re going from point A to point B. Map out your roads. Look at your objectives. Map out what you need and where you need to go so you can meet your objectives, one by one. In education, when I am looking at an objective, I have to know how I am going to get a student from point A to point B. What presentation or delivery skill do I have to use? What examples do I have to use to reinforce the points? Write down in your Word doc what roads you need to travel and the questions you have to answer to tackle each objective, and then get busy.
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#5: Do You Have the Materials Needed for Each Objective and for the Goal? You are on a career journey, looking to land on your ideal career. You have a goal, you have your objectives, and you know the roads you have to travel to meet the objectives and reach the goal. But what do you need to successfully satisfy each objective and ultimately reach your goal? Just like laying a foundation for a home, you have to gather your supplies. When teaching, you have to have “stuff” in the classroom that makes learning possible. What do you need for each objective? When laying out a foundation, you need a level, a transom, a plot of ground, dimensions, string, sticks, and so on. Remember that you are marketing yourself. So you need a resumé, a website, Internet access, a telephone, and so on. Write down what you need for each objective and what you need to reach your goal: your new career.
#6: Do You Have a Market and a Sector? Have You Identified Them? One of the keys to successfully reaching your goal of an ideal job is to know where you are going. In this market, part of the process is to determine the market or sector in which you want to work. In IT, you can work in many sectors. You can work in higher education, the financial sector, the government or defense sector, health care, or in the media, to name a few. 145
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CHAPTER 10 What Do You Need to Get Started? (Laying a Foundation!) Based on your sector or market, you can then hone in on the job you want at a preferred institution. If you know your market, you have a better idea of the opportunities that are offered, and you are able to edit your objectives so that success is within easy reach. Different sectors have different needs and therefore different opportunities. Does your sector have the opportunity you are looking for? Be honest. If it does, you can dial in to your objectives and goals, and then figure out the steps to take you there. This is really starting to look like a foundation for a great career. One of the things you need to get started on this journey is a market or sector. Write down your preferred sector or market and what opportunities exist that are in line with your goals and objectives.
#7: Do You Have a Schedule to Accomplish Your Goals? Objectives, markets, goals, materials, and maps are all needed to start your career journey once you identify your ideal career. But you also need a schedule. Earlier I gave you a sample objective. Part of that objective was a schedule: I will have a resumé uploaded by a given date. I will have a website developed by a given date.
You need to have a deadline and milestones along the way, so you don’t drag the process out longer than necessary. 146
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CHAPTER 10 What Do You Need to Get Started? (Laying a Foundation!) It’s okay to be a procrastinator in many aspects of life, but not in a career search. When do you want to be in your ideal career? Three months? Two years? Five years? When you are taking the hypothetical vacation trip by car, you know that you want to be at your destination in a defined number of days or hours. Otherwise, you might never reach your destination. You might simply wander around. Will there be delays? In all likelihood, yes. But part of scheduling a trip, a project, or a career journey is to factor in time spent off-task, getting gas, eating meals, and sleeping. Part of scheduling a construction project is to factor in delays caused by contractors, materials issues, and so on. Does that mean there should not be a schedule? No. You need a schedule to force you to stay on task. What is your schedule for your goal and objectives? Write it down. It is part of the process of starting out on this journey.
#8: Do You Have a List of Contacts Who Can Help? Most projects require a team to accomplish. You have the project manager, but you also have all the folks doing the actual work. In construction, you have the general contractor, but there are also all the trades workers and subcontractors who do the actual building. When you are on a career journey, you have to have a team of people who help you reach your destination.
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CHAPTER 10 What Do You Need to Get Started? (Laying a Foundation!) This team includes contacts that can help you find a job (such as recruiters and headhunters), write a resumé, design a website, get the word out, and maybe hire you. No one can do this alone. Who are your contacts? What can they offer you? Who are the people and organizations you can call on for assistance? Think of yourself as a general contractor and this list as your preferred subcontractors. Who can you call on to reach your goal? If this is a road trip, you might think of adding AAA to your list as you begin the journey. In your career journey, who is your AAA? Write down the list of contacts in your Word doc.
#9: Do You Have a Destination in Mind? You are starting out. You have your dream and objectives and your map, but where do you want to be when you finally arrive? Where is your destination? In your mind’s eye, where do you picture yourself when you are in your ideal career? Close your eyes—how do you picture yourself in this new career? In my wildest dreams, my ideal destination is located in the mountains, where I am working for a hospital or university. What is your destination? Write it down. If you don’t know where you’re going, you won’t know whether or when you have arrived. 148
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#10: Do You Have a Good Attitude? Keep a good, positive attitude. There are potholes, delays, and unforeseen occurrences along every path. Problems will inevitably occur, and you will have some disappointments and delays, but don’t let these issues get you down. Keep your goals in mind and go for it. One of the points of having objectives is that you can make the journey in small steps. As you meet each objective, sign off on it—just like a checklist. This process is what project managers have clients do. When a milestone or objective is successfully reached, the client signs off on it. Do the same with each objective. It helps to keep you in a good frame of mind as you move toward your goal. In your Word doc, prepare a milestone chart with lines you can sign off on. As you reach each objective, sign off on it. Most importantly, record your mindset as you reach that objective. Stay positive. You will arrive at your career!
Conclusion Every project, including the one in which you’re looking for your ideal career, has a beginning. Every house has a foundation. You are building a foundation for your new career. You are setting out on a journey—and the destination is your career.
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CHAPTER 10 What Do You Need to Get Started? (Laying a Foundation!) In this chapter, you took a look at what you need to get started. You did this by examining the top 10 questions that assess what you need to get started and lay the foundation. These 10 questions are also the top 10 strategic hurdles you have to jump to begin your journey. Look back over your notes and you will see, along with the career you have selected, what you need to do to get started in that particular career. . Goals . Objectives . Maps . Materials . Contacts . A sense of reality . A positive attitude . A destination . A schedule
These are all important for starting out on this journey. Are you ready to get started? I am. The next big question has to do with change!
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CHAPTER 11 How Willing Are You to Change? (Flexibility!)
Chapter 11 How Willing Are You to Change? (Flexibility!) In this chapter, we have to look at an aspect that is often overlooked. The assumption that you and I are making (by me writing this book and you reading it) is that you are interested in changing careers. That is a given! But how willing are you to change careers? With everything that I have asked you, are you still willing to take the plunge? Change is difficult. The title of this book is focused on changing careers. That means that there will be change. You might want to get into a better career, but how willing are you to tackle all the challenges that we have discussed so far? How flexible are you? How willing are you to change? Flexibility! Willingness! This all comes down to attitude! In this chapter, we look at your attitude about changing careers, and I ask you the top 10 questions to assess your attitude, willingness, and flexibility as you prepare to change careers. I then present you with the top five strategies for improving your attitude as you make the change. It is often said by the truly wise, “Attitude is everything.” With a good attitude, you can overcome even the toughest obstacles. When you set out on a journey like changing careers, you have to have a good attitude if you want to reach your destination. You have to be willing to take the chance necessary to succeed, and you have to be flexible to adapt to changing circumstances. 151
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CHAPTER 11 How Willing Are You to Change? (Flexibility!) So as you embark on this journey, it is necessary to also diagnose your attitude, your willingness, and your flexibility. Are you up to this? At this point, you might be getting a bit pessimistic and think that what I am asking has no bearing on your career change. But if you set out to change careers with a defeatist attitude, you will fail. If you set out to change careers with an optimistic attitude, you will in all likelihood succeed. Which do you want to do? Succeed? Then let’s ask some questions about your attitude!
Top 10 Questions to Assess Your Attitude, Willingness, and Flexibility First some generic, rapid-fire questions: . How is your attitude? . Do you have a positive attitude or a negative attitude? . Are you someone who sees the glass half full or half empty? . Are you a pragmatist, an optimist, a realist, or a pessimist? . Are you desperate? Are you at the end of your rope? . Do you feel in these tough economic times like you have to make a career change or you will
not survive? . Are you willingly making a career change, or are you doing it because someone else told you
to or is coercing you to? 152
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CHAPTER 11 How Willing Are You to Change? (Flexibility!) . Are you flexible or inflexible? If I asked your spouse or best friend this same question about
you, what would he or she say? . How realistic are you when it comes to changing careers? Have you seriously looked at all of
the questions I have asked? . What has been your history with change? Do you resist it or embrace it?
I want you to succeed but with realistic expectations, which means you have to explore your willingness to change your flexibility and your attitude! Had enough? As I said earlier, I am going along with you as I face a major career change. I have had some real awakenings when I look at my attitude. There are days I am optimistic and days when pessimism rules. I have been willing to change (I think), but I also understand that there are some things that I will not change. I have days when I am flexible as I approach the change, but others where I become downright stubborn. Is that good or bad? Neither—just real! There are things I am willing to do to get the right job and things I am not willing to do. What about you? So far in this encounter, you should be writing down some of your responses and thoughts about your attitude. What is driving your attitude, and how willing are you to jump into the deep end of this career pool? Now let’s look at the 10 important questions that you need to consider. 153
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#1: How Willing Are You to Explore Your Limitations? We all have limitations, and we all eventually have to face up to those limitations. When changing careers and looking for the ideal job, it is so easy to over-advertise your skills and accomplishments and to oversell yourself. That is okay, but it is also necessary to quietly, reflectively, and introspectively assess your limitations. The way to assess this is with the following two questions: . Do you know your strengths and weaknesses, and are you willing to admit to them? . Do you know what you are willing to do and not do?
Every job and career you pursue causes you to be honest when it comes to strengths and weaknesses and what you are willing to do and not do. A few months ago, I had a positive telephone interview with an agency that was interested in me. Things were going well. I was asked to come in for a face-to-face interview, which I was glad to do. In that interview, the chemistry was excellent. I was able to respond to their questions in an acceptable way, and I was very relaxed. I felt no stress. At the end of the interview, one of the interviewers asked me what I considered my strengths and weaknesses. I listed three strengths that were pertinent to the job and three weaknesses. One of my weaknesses, as I noted earlier, is that I am not a political person. I do not function well in a political environment. Well, this was a highly charged political environment, which I did not know at the outset. As we talked about it, it was clear that this was not a good fit—and I moved on.
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CHAPTER 11 How Willing Are You to Change? (Flexibility!) Even though I was strong technically, knowing that I did not like politics caused the interviewer some concern (and caused me some concern when we spoke about it). There were no hard feelings, and we each moved on. This was all possible because I could honestly and openly identify my weaknesses with a positive attitude. What are your limitations, strengths, and weaknesses? Write them down! Identify them. Do so with a positive attitude. If you are not willing to face your limitations and weaknesses, you will in all likelihood find yourself in a situation that will not be a good fit, will not be comfortable, and will cause you a good bit of angst. Remember that you want to find the ideal career that will make you happy. To do that, you have to face up to what you are good at and not so good at. Think about it; it is worth the time.
#2: How Willing Are You to Change Careers? This question is the key to this whole book. We have been talking about changing careers. But are you really willing to make a change? Consider the following ideas and questions: . Should you consider changing careers at this time? Maybe you should not! Maybe you should
stay where you are and gain some additional skills. Maybe you should ask your boss for a transfer to a new location. . Is location causing dissatisfaction? Or is there something else that you could change without
changing careers? Be honest. 155
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CHAPTER 11 How Willing Are You to Change? (Flexibility!) . Is this just a phase? Are you just going through a bad time, and are you looking to throw out
the baby with the bath water? If this is a phase, what would make it easier to deal with? . Are you just looking to move up the ladder? As opposed to changing careers, are you looking
to be promoted or to move horizontally in your current environment? . Do you like the looks of someone else’s job as opposed to your own? Is the grass really
greener? . How willing are you to think outside the box? As opposed to changing careers, could you
change something or someone to make your current career what you want it to be? My mom used to work with a woman who tried everything in her power to make my mother’s work life horrible. She wanted my mom to quit. She was threatened by my mother’s abilities. She annoyed my mother eight hours a day. My mom got angrier and angrier, which just made the environment awful. Then one day, my dad asked her why she doesn’t go to work and be nice to her coworker. Every time she does something to annoy you, he said, do something to make her day pleasant. My mother thought my dad was nuts, but she tried it. Guess what? It worked, and her time at work became fabulous. Best of all, my mother and this woman became the best of friends. It took time and thinking outside of the box. My mom wanted to change careers because of the situation, but instead she tried something unnatural, and it changed the environment completely. Do you really want to change careers, or do you want to change something about your current career? Write it down. 156
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#3: How Willing Are You to Change Locations? What is your attitude about changing locations? Are you really willing to move? How flexible are you? We have mulled this over in a number of ways already, but when it comes to attitude, you have to be honest about how you feel about relocating. Do you want to leave your home and environment for a new career and job? Be honest and write it down.
#4: How Willing Are You to Accept Less Than Your Ideal Job? We are talking change now. When you change, things can get better or worse. What if your new ideal career is a turkey? Change can be good or bad. Here is a real cliché that works: Is the devil you know better than the devil you don’t know? When you are planning a career change, are you willing to accept a job that is less than perfect— a step or two down from the ideal job that you dream about? This is where flexibility comes in along with reality. Is your attitude driven by the need for the ideal job, or is it driven by needing a change? How flexible are you in your expectations? Write down your thoughts.
#5: How Flexible Are You When It Comes to Salary Demands? This takes off from the last question. What are your expectations when it comes to money? What is your attitude? Do you need X dollars to be satisfied in your new job, or will you accept less? Are 157
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CHAPTER 11 How Willing Are You to Change? (Flexibility!) you open to fewer benefits, a smaller signing bonus, or fewer incentives to land the ideal job? What are your expectations when it comes to money? What is your attitude when it comes to salary, benefits, bonuses, and incentives? How tied to more money is your need to change careers? Are your expectations based on an unrealistic assessment of the current market, your skill set, or a combination? Here you have to be honest with yourself—not with me, but with yourself. If you have inflated your value, you are not as flexible when it comes to salary, benefits, and the like. Could you take a second job, stay in your current position, simply supplement your salary, and be satisfied? If money is the key, maybe a second job is all that is needed to satisfy your needs, your expectations, and improve your attitude? Be honest and write down your thoughts.
#6: How Open Are You to Negotiations? When you change careers, be prepared to negotiate everything from salary to benefits to hours to needs to terms and conditions. Are you open to negotiating these? What is your attitude concerning negotiations? What is your history of negotiating? What are your expectations? Are you willing to give and take? Remember that not all negotiations are like those portrayed on television. Not all negotiations are like those in major labor negotiations where everyone puts on a show. Many are simply realizing what you want and what is offered and seeing how much flexibility each side has. I have learned that, depending on the tone of the discussions, I can either be flexible or completely inflexible and stubborn when it comes to negotiating rates, salaries, terms, and so on. 158
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CHAPTER 11 How Willing Are You to Change? (Flexibility!) A lot of negotiating is attitude and presentation. If you go in anticipating the worst, you will probably get the worst. If you expect the best, you might not get the best, but you might be able to negotiate close to the best. So, how do you feel about negotiating?
#7: How Willing Are You to Change Life Styles? When you are changing careers, what is your attitude concerning your lifestyle? Are you used to doing certain things and purchasing products without thinking? If you have to relocate or if you have to take a cut in pay to get started, you might have to change your life style. When I moved from New York City in 1988 to a rural town in north Florida, I was moving with high expectations. I fully expected that my life style would not change. For the first few years, things were great. Then I started to see how my life and style of life had to and did change. Many would joke with me that I experienced culture shock. I did, but it was not an obvious shock. It took time to settle in. I loved the change. I had to go from getting groceries, medicine, and other essential services around the corner to driving everywhere and having to allot time for commuting. This was a major change for me. My life style changed and so did I. Was I willing to change? Yes. As I go through a career change now, am I willing to change? Absolutely! As part of my career change, I am selling my home and land in north Florida. It has been a wonderful place to live for 21 years. But with the passing of my parents and the market changing, 159
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CHAPTER 11 How Willing Are You to Change? (Flexibility!) I have had to come to grips that as part of the change, I have to sell a beautiful piece of property that I have worked for. When I show my property to interested parties from urban areas, some become interested while others are not flexible enough to really want to change their life style. They think they know what they want, but do they? It is personal preference. Some folks like a lot of action; others like a quiet, peaceful, serene environment. Different strokes for different folks, as they used to say on television. The point is this: Are you willing to change your life style? What is your attitude, and what are your expectations? Do you realize that this change is long-term? This is not a vacation type of change. Many of us, when we are on vacation, wish that our lives could be just like they are when we are away. But when faced with this vacation life style long-term, we find that we miss those things we have grown comfortable with in our daily lives and need to get back to them. Be honest. How flexible are you when it comes to changing life style? Write down your thoughts, attitudes, and expectations.
#8: How Flexible Are You in Your Thinking? This question underlies this whole book. Whether it comes to changing careers, life styles, locations, or salaries, you have to come to grips with what you are thinking and feeling. If you are stubborn, you will have a difficult time with change of any kind. If you are flexible and have lower expectations, change will be a lot easier to deal with and accept. 160
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CHAPTER 11 How Willing Are You to Change? (Flexibility!) If you are stubborn but still want to change, ask yourself why you are so stubborn. What has generated this type of response from you? The only way to have a smooth ride is to identify where the potholes are and avoid them. If your potholes center on your attitude, you have to identify them and find out what caused them. You don’t want to have to keep filling in potholes. How flexible are you when you think about this whole idea of change? Does your back stiffen up? Or do you relax a bit and get a smile on your face? Be honest with yourself and write down your thoughts. Your answers to this question alone will help you decide how much you really want to change careers.
#9: How Willing Are You to Be Retrained? What is your attitude about learning new skills and maybe going back to school? A lot of people resist change based on this question alone. The old axiom that it is tough to teach old dogs new tricks has to be dealt with. A big part of the trick is attitude. What is your attitude about learning new skills? My mom, who turned 90 just before she passed away, was still trying to learn new things up to her passing. She had a great attitude about learning. I bought her a laptop so that she could learn to surf the Web, send email to friends and family, and design graphics for her embroidery machine.
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CHAPTER 11 How Willing Are You to Change? (Flexibility!) What is your attitude about retraining? Are you open to keeping up with all the changes in IT? If you are not, maybe you need to look at another field. IT is changing fast, and every one of us in it has to continually be retrained on the latest technologies. The same is true in every sector. So it is important for you to decide whether you are open to retraining. Write down your answers and thoughts.
#10: How Willing Are You to Fail? This is the toughest question you have to face. Are you willing to fail? Is failure an option? Have you even considered that this career change might not work out? How do you deal with failure? Are you free to fail? What is your attitude about failure? Is there a chance you can fail if you don’t change your attitude or some aspect of your credentials? One thing that I have learned through my life and career in IT is that some things just don’t work out. Whether it is programming code, an infrastructure design, or a working relationship, it does not matter. Some things don’t work and fail. Is that bad? Nope! It’s just the way things are. My attitude about failure changes regularly. There are times when failure is not an option, and other times when it is just part of the process. I have looked at some careers where failure is a real possibility, and others where failure is not an option. At the stage of life I am in now, failure still exists, but it can be managed. How? With a positive attitude. I was recently asked if I regretted not becoming a doctor. The answer is no. I failed to be accepted to medical school some time ago. I was upset at the time, but in retrospect it worked out well. How can I say this? Easy! If I had been accepted I would not have been free to take care of my 162
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CHAPTER 11 How Willing Are You to Change? (Flexibility!) parents when they needed me to in the later stages of their lives. So I failed to be admitted to medical school, but I took care of my folks and was able to have a good career in IT. It was a win/win situation. Why? Because I failed. I had to adjust my attitude about this and it took some time, but all in all it worked out for the best. So what is your attitude and your history with failure? Is failure an option? Write down your thoughts and feelings.
Top Five Strategies for Improving your Attitude When it comes to changing careers, I can share a number of strategies. The five that keep me going (without any editorial comment) are the following: 1. Be honest about your attitudes. 2. Surround yourself with positive, caring people. 3. Be open to change—it will come. 4. Be good to yourself—treat yourself the way you want others to treat you. 5. Understand that change takes time. Give yourself time to change.
If you can accept these strategies and learn to incorporate them into your thinking, changing careers can be exciting and rewarding. You can appreciate the change and all it will bring.
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Conclusion A big part of changing careers is being willing to change. In this chapter, you looked at your attitude concerning change, your expectations, how flexible you are in your thinking, and how willing you are to change. You looked at the top 10 questions to assess your attitude, willingness, flexibility as you prepare to change careers, and the top 5 strategies for improving your attitude as you make the change. As I said at the outset, “Attitude is everything.” Despite the potholes and pitfalls, do everything you can to keep a good attitude, and the career change you hope for will come. Next stop on this journey is fulfillment. All aboard!
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CHAPTER 12 What Is Your Chance of Fulfillment? (Not Success, but Fulfillment!)
Chapter 12 What Is Your Chance of Fulfillment? (Not Success, but Fulfillment!) We are in the final stretch of this diagnostic process. Only two more chapters to go after this one! We have covered a lot of questions and a lot of territory. Some of you are still with me; some have given up. All of us need to stop for a moment and simply breathe! You have learned a lot. You are well on your way to the perfect job or career. You have answered all the supposedly tough questions, but now I am going to pose the second-toughest question of the series (the absolute toughest question is in the last chapter): What is your chance for fulfillment? I am not speaking about success here. If you have done your homework and written down your responses to all the questions I posed in the previous chapters, you will succeed. I have no doubts about that. If you were honest, and I assume you were, you have to succeed. You have nothing to win by being less than honest. Will you be fulfilled? That is the question. To explore that, you have to know what fulfillment is and then again what success is. Let’s look at these before we go any further. What is success? There are a variety of definitions from a host of references, both online and in print. For me, success is when you have accomplished your intended purpose and realized a favored desire or outcome. You have reached your goal. You have reached the finish line. In this series, success is when you have identified and landed your ideal job or career. 165
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CHAPTER 12 What Is Your Chance of Fulfillment? (Not Success, but Fulfillment!) What is fulfillment? Depending on the definition you adopt, fulfillment provides a sense of satisfaction, contentment, and accomplishment. It is more a feeling than anything else. Contentment is when you feel that you have fulfilled a desire, need, or expectation. You are satisfied. You have arrived and accomplished what you most wanted. Have you ever succeeded and not been fulfilled? Not been content? Not been satisfied? I have. Sometimes you want something, and you succeed and reach your goal but you’re still not content. Something is missing. Fulfillment is when nothing is missing. Everything is right with your world. There is a sense of peace and peace of mind. It is a wonderful state of being. Fulfillment produces peace of mind, contentment, no regrets, and no doubts. There are many stories of people who want to get married and feel that they have to get married— and many do. When they do, they have succeeded. They have accomplished what they set out to do, but how many are content, satisfied, and at peace? Many, in just a little while, are discontented. Success came, but contentment and fulfillment did not come. The ideal is to succeed and to be fulfilled and content. Sometimes it takes time and patience. When fulfillment comes, so does success in the majority of cases. Contemporary-minded people believe that if you succeed, fulfillment comes. Pop culture says success is more important that fulfillment. Success first, and then fulfillment. I have a different perspective: If you strive for fulfillment, success has to come. On top of this you will be content, at peace, and have no regrets or doubts while being successful. You will look at yourself in the mirror and still have what others define as success. 166
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CHAPTER 12 What Is Your Chance of Fulfillment? (Not Success, but Fulfillment!) When you are searching for the ideal job or career and changing careers, it is great to find a job of your choosing, but the question that has to be asked is this: Will you be fulfilled? If you are, you have hit the jackpot. If you have found the job but are not fulfilled, you will want to keep looking. You will not be content, satisfied, or have that deep-seated feeling of accomplishment. The ideal is to be fulfilled and to succeed. Based on all your research over the course of this analysis, what is your chance of being fulfilled if you find the job or career you have in mind? What is the chance that your ideal job or career will fulfill you and offer you a sense of contentment? To explore this, I am going to ask you the top 10 questions that indicate whether the job or career you have in mind will offer you a sense of fulfillment. Then I share with you my top five strategies that lead you in your journey to professional fulfillment. If you are confused, don’t worry. I told you this was a tough question. Your confusion might come from the fact that you feel you have identified the ideal job or career, but now I am throwing something else in. Why? It is simple and goes back to question 2. My philosophy and what I tell students is the following: You want to be happy and financially comfortable. That is the goal. Stated another way: You want to be content or fulfilled and able to meet your obligations. That’s it, folks. Sure, you have to pay your bills. You have to work. But don’t you want to be happy, fulfilled, content, and enjoy your work, enjoy your job, enjoy your career? I know I do. So let’s take a look at the questions you have to explore to see whether this new career you have in mind will fulfill you. 167
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Top 10 Questions I am not going to do what I have done in the previous questions and beat you over the head with a lot of ancillary questions. I am simply going to ask you the questions and provide you with some brief clarifying thoughts. You have to answer the question and write down what you are thinking, feeling, and considering in your Word doc. Remember these questions are for folks in every sector, not just IT folks. The preface to each question is the following: Based on the job or career you have identified from the questions asked in the previous chapters, ask yourself the following questions.
#1: Will You Be Fulfilled Professionally? In other words, will this job satisfy you professionally, or will you be looking for something before the probation period is up? Will you be able to leverage what you know, your skills, and your talents in a way that is satisfying while giving you a chance to grow in the profession? Or will this be a dead-end job? Will you professionally wither, or will you professionally grow in this new position? If you are not fulfilled professionally, you will be miserable and eventually hate what you are doing. That is a bad thing. You will not be productive, and your feelings will spill over into every facet of your life. Strive for professional fulfillment.
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#2: Will You Be Fulfilled Personally (Developmentally)? When you start a new career, a new job, or a new profession, you have to look in the mirror and see who you are when you start. Why? As you get engaged in the new employment culture, you will change personally. Some changes are good, and some can be not so good. Will those changes fulfill you as a person? Will you be content with who you think you will become? With every job, I have had to assess whether I was personally content. Without hesitation I can say most of the jobs have been fabulous, and I have been content and fulfilled. I have changed through all cultures I have experienced, and that has added to my growth. I quickly quit those jobs in which I was not content. I did not like what I had to be or become as a person to thrive in the given culture. So based on what you know about your ideal job or career, do you think you will be content? Will you be fulfilled as a person? Write down your thoughts and feelings in your Word doc.
#3: Will You Be Fulfilled Interpersonally? This question goes back to an earlier chapter in which we discussed community and the people you will work with. Do you think, based on what you know about your new career, that you will be content and fulfilled working with this group of people and collaborators? Remember that you are going to spend a lot of time with your fellow professionals, and you want the atmosphere to be one that fits your temperament. Will this group welcome you and make you feel at home? Will you feel like you want to go to work and contribute to the common good? Or will you just put in your time? 169
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CHAPTER 12 What Is Your Chance of Fulfillment? (Not Success, but Fulfillment!) The people-to-people interaction that occurs on the job is so important. Many of us met our best friends on the job; others of us met our spouses. How many times have you heard someone say that they hated to transfer to a new company because they loved working with the people they interacted with? The converse is when you cannot stand the community that makes up the workplace—where there is cut-throat competition and ego and everyone is out for himself. There is no contentment, satisfaction, or fulfillment in the workplace. So you have to ask yourself whether you will be fulfilled with the interaction among the people you come into contact with. Be honest and write down your response in your Word doc.
#4: Will You Be Fulfilled Financially? This is the key for a lot of people when they change jobs or careers. Will you be content, satisfied, and fulfilled with the financial package you are offered? Remember that you are the one changing. You might not be offered as much as you made on the last job, or you might be offered more. On day one, will you be looking for something more or better in the way of financial compensation? If you will be dissatisfied, maybe the job is not right for you or maybe you have to lower the bar. I know people (including me) who are having a tough time finding a compensation package that matches the one given to them by their former employer. They are a bit older now and being the new person on the block is tough to justify a big package when you have not proved yourself.
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CHAPTER 12 What Is Your Chance of Fulfillment? (Not Success, but Fulfillment!) But the other philosophy is to get as much as you can within the first six months or you will not get it. (I learned this 30 years ago from an ex-federal employee.) Some employers who are interested in you will offer you what you want and more to get you on board, but after a while they will back off on some of the perks. So will the new career offer you what you need financially? Write down your thoughts.
#5: Will You Be Fulfilled Intellectually? This is a question that is easy to overlook. Will you be intellectually stimulated by the new position? Or will you be doing the same thing day in and day out? Will it be drudgery, or can you grow? Will you use your wealth of knowledge to help the business or will what you know go to waste? Will you grow what you know and acquire new skills? Or will the job be a dead-end one in which you put in your time and go home? This is tough. Some folks want to grow intellectually; others are satisfied and content just doing a job (and there is nothing wrong with that). If you grow intellectually and you are fulfilled, you will want to share what you know and to learn more. So will you be fulfilled in this new venture? Write down your thoughts.
#6: Will You Be Fulfilled Academically? This is similar to the last question, but it has a different nuance. With some jobs or careers, you have to learn more, go back to school, take additional training, or be recertified, which is attractive to some and a turnoff to others. 171
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CHAPTER 12 What Is Your Chance of Fulfillment? (Not Success, but Fulfillment!) Where do you fit in? Do you want to be retrained, or are you satisfied with what you know? What do you need academically to be fulfilled? Training or no training? More school or no more school? If you want more training, will you be fulfilled if the employer does not offer you any? If you don’t want to be retrained, will you be fulfilled if additional training and education are required in your new career? Or will you be dissatisfied and go looking for another job? These are tough questions that every one of us has to tackle. What are your thoughts? Write them down.
#7: Will You Be Fulfilled Geographically? This is easy. Based on the job or career you want, will you be satisfied, content, and fulfilled by its location? I will not beat this horse to death because we have discussed it already, but geography plays an important part in whether you are fulfilled in a career. Write down your thoughts.
#8: Will You Be Fulfilled Philosophically? Do you know what your philosophy is? Does it keep with the philosophy of your new employer or your new company philosophy? This is important to many. It is tough when you go to work for an institution that believes something different than you do.
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CHAPTER 12 What Is Your Chance of Fulfillment? (Not Success, but Fulfillment!) Here is an example. I am a firm advocate of excellence in education. I see no reason for condoning mediocrity—mediocrity is an easy way out. Excellence demands that teachers, parents, and students want children to do the best that they can. I have a difficult time working for a school district whose demonstrated philosophy is counter to mine. That is one of the reasons why I am not looking to work in public education now. What about you? Does the sector and employer that you are interested in have a philosophy that you are content with? Or will you be philosophically uncomfortable? Can you live and work with an employer with whom you do not agree? Write down your thoughts in your Word doc.
#9: Will You Be Fulfilled Emotionally? This question deals 100 percent with feeling. Will you be happy with your new career and with your new employer? Will you be euphoric when you are given an offer, or will your stomach tighten up every Monday morning when you have to go work? This is subjective and no one—absolutely no one—can tell you how you feel. Based on what you know, will you be fulfilled? Will you be content? Will you be at peace in your new job?
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#10: Will You Be Fulfilled Totally? I have given you a lot of things to think about, but some are left out. I don’t know you personally. There are needs you have in order for you to be fulfilled. Will this new ideal career fulfill all your needs? If not, which needs will be lacking? What will be missing? Only you can identify these points. Think about it and write them down. Come face-to-face with what you need to be fulfilled and ask whether this new career will meet those needs or will conflict with those needs. Remember the goal is to be content or fulfilled and able to meet your obligations. What else do you need for this goal to be met? Write down your thoughts.
Top Five Strategies That Lead You to Professional Fulfillment As you can see, fulfillment, contentment, and satisfaction deal with feeling—deep emotional feeling. The only strategies that I have used to reach that level of fulfillment are the following: 1. Have an honest dialogue with yourself—Know your measures and what you need as a
person. 2. Research, research, research—Research careers and research yourself as you grow and change. 3. Ask questions—Don’t be afraid of asking questions. (You will get your answer.) If you don’t
get the answer you want from the new career, change.
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CHAPTER 12 What Is Your Chance of Fulfillment? (Not Success, but Fulfillment!) 4. Listen to your heart, your gut, your friends, and family—Be open to suggestions. 5. Be ready for success and fulfillment—It will come.
Conclusion You have come a long way. You have identified your ideal career (and if you are in IT, your ideal IT career). You have answered a lot of questions. In this chapter, we discussed whether you will be fulfilled with this new career—not just be successful, but be fulfilled, content, and satisfied. This is a tough hurdle to leap, but it’s necessary. The goal from the beginning of this series was to help you identify your ideal career—the one in which you will be content or fulfilled and able to meet your obligations. To help you accomplish this, you looked at the top 10 questions that indicate whether the job or career you have in mind will offer you a sense of fulfillment and the top five strategies to lead you in your journey to professional fulfillment. This is all subjective, personal, and necessary. My hope is that you find the best career for you and one in which you will be fulfilled for a long time. So what is holding you back from making the change?
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CHAPTER 13 What Are You Waiting For? What Is Stopping You? (Lift Off and Enjoy the Ride!)
Chapter 13 What Are You Waiting For? What Is Stopping You? (Lift Off and Enjoy the Ride!) You have gone through 11 introspective, diagnostic questions to get to this point. You have answered all the questions, taken notes, and done the research. So what are you waiting for? What is stopping you? Why don’t you simply enjoy the ride? Some of you are still stymied. I know that from the emails I have received when this book was initially presented as a series of articles. You have a picture of what you want, but you are still waiting. Here we will look at 10 waiting issues—issues that are the reasons some of you are waiting to change careers, change jobs, or start your professional life. During this process, I refer to earlier questions. You might have been reading along and lost, forgotten, or ignored some key point that could be the focus of your dilemma. Remember, I want to help you make your decision. Not my decision— yours. If you are serious about finding the ideal job or career, and if you have read along, you should be anxious to start the journey. Some of you are not, so the question is this: Why are you waiting?
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Top 10 Issues Preventing You from Lifting Off There are 10 major reasons why you might be holding back. As we discuss these 10 reasons, I offer a strategy that might help you as you self-diagnose. You might be asking me at this point, “Warren, haven’t you already done this? Aren’t you repeating yourself?” Well, yes and no. Here is an example of someone I met close to 30 years ago who was waiting and being held back. Maybe this story will help. Some 30 years ago when I was training to be a chaplain, I had to do a summer unit of clinical pastoral education at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and New York Hospital. My unit was 11 weeks long. It was one of the best learning experiences I have ever had. The people I worked with were lung and breast cancer patients who were very sick. One patient I met was a wonderful woman who had breast cancer. I met her during my third week of rotation. I will call her Mrs. X. She was a well-educated nursing instructor who trained other nurses to interact with cancer patients. She knew the ropes. While she was in the hospital, I worked with Mrs. X for close to nine weeks. We talked about everything and anything that interested her, but we never talked about her personal life or her professional life. As I described it to colleagues, we danced around the issues. Her medical team told me that she should have been getting better and that her treatment was progressing as expected—but she was not getting better, and she became depressed.
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CHAPTER 13 What Are You Waiting For? What Is Stopping You? (Lift Off and Enjoy the Ride!) The Sunday during her ninth week in the hospital, I was doing rounds and went to see Mrs. X. Our discussion was as always—we danced around the issues, and she never revealed what she was really feeling. I started to leave her room, but I stopped, shut the door, and walked back in. I told her that I was tired of the dance. I had asked all the right questions, and she deflected them as a true professional would do. I then asked her how she was doing. She broke down, cried her eyes out, and told me what was troubling her—what she was waiting for and what was stopping her. That conversation lasted a couple of hours. We were both emotionally drained at the end, but we also developed a relationship that I will never forget. Monday morning when I got on the floor, one of the senior medical people asked what I did to Mrs. X. I told this person about the conversation. This professional and several others smiled broadly and hugged me. Mrs. X made a remarkable recovery overnight and was going home that day because of our conversation. She confronted what was stopping her and spilled it out to a person who was willing to listen. When she did, her medicine went to work as expected. The problem was she was emotionally stopped up. She was waiting for someone to show interest in her as a person instead of as a patient or a disease. When I did, the result was lift-off, and she enjoyed the ride home with her family. You and I have also done a dance over the course of these 11 questions. Now it is time for you to confront what is stopping you and what you are waiting for. It is your career, your job, and your life we are talking about. You have to open up—not to me, but to yourself and those you care about. Then you will lift off and enjoy the ride. 178
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CHAPTER 13 What Are You Waiting For? What Is Stopping You? (Lift Off and Enjoy the Ride!) Here are 10 waiting issues. Think seriously think about them and write down your responses in your Word doc. You will notice one common factor in all of these: They start with “I don’t know.” Are you ready? I am. So let’s stop dancing and get to work.
#1: I Don’t Know if I Can Do It; I’m Scared. Without question, this is the biggest hurdle to leap when you are getting ready to change careers, change jobs, or change anything. Simply stated, it is fear. You are afraid you won’t be able to succeed. You are afraid you will fail. Fear of failure is one of the biggest reasons why people do not succeed in IT or in any sector. You are your own worst enemy. Do not focus on the gloom and doom and the reasons you will fail. Instead focus on the reasons you will succeed. All you can do is stumble. Get past the fear and start trying. Success breeds success. Failure breeds failure. You can revisit some of these factors in Chapter 4, “What Can You Do? (Restrictions!)”
#2: I Don’t Know What I Want to Do. Back to where we started. The assumption of this book is that you want to change jobs or careers, but the direction you take is yours. You have to do a lot of introspection to discover what you want to do. The associated dilemma is that you don’t know what you like to do. If thought is given, everyone knows what they like and dislike, and therefore what they want to do.
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CHAPTER 13 What Are You Waiting For? What Is Stopping You? (Lift Off and Enjoy the Ride!) At this time in your life, you should be able to write down three things you want to do and three things you like to do in seconds. A recent movie in the United States, The Bucket List, featured Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman as old gentlemen who wrote down the things they wanted to do before they died (or kicked the bucket). And it got me thinking. You should be thinking, too—not about what you want to do before you kick the bucket, but what you want to do in a career. Refer to Chapter 2, “What Do You Want to Do? (Goals!).” What are three of your goals? What are three things you want to do? What are three things you like to do? You see—you do know what you want to do.
#3: I Don’t Know Which Sector of IT Appeals to Me; I Don’t Have Enough Information. This is tough because there are so many specialties in IT. Should you be a network engineer, a systems engineer, a programmer, an analyst, or a database person? The easiest way to wander through this maze is to ask folks in these areas what their jobs are like. Be bold. Ask the questions and see whether the impression they give you spikes your interest. You will never know if you don’t ask and if you don’t do the research. See Chapter 3, “What Do You Like to Do? (Pleasure and Passion!).” You have to research and find what you like. If you don’t like what you will be doing, you will never stay. You have to find something you like to do—something rewarding and pleasurable. No one can tell you what you like—only you can. Be honest and then do it. 180
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#4: I Don’t Know if I Can Afford to Make the Change; I Can’t Afford the Investment. Some of you are waiting to hit the lottery before you will make a change. The odds are long at best. You have a better chance of succeeding if you just try instead of waiting to have enough money to live comfortably before you make the change. Money is the crutch that many people use to avoid making a career change. Most say that they cannot afford to make the change—it costs too much for the added training and education. Look at it a bit differently. Which is worse, not being able to pay your bills because you don’t make a change proactively or wishing you had made the change when you had a chance reactively? The choice is yours. Many, many people have made monumental career changes successfully on a shoestring budget. There are ways to manage finances and costs if you want it badly enough. When I opted to go into IT, as I described in The Career Changer’s Odyssey (InformIT, ©2001), I was broke. I borrowed the money to take the class that was the trigger for me. Within one hour in that class, I knew what I was going to do. Thirteen years later, I do not regret it, but I am thankful that I did it (despite not having the money to take the class). Reread Chapter 5, “What Can You Afford to Do? (Economic Reality! Ugh!!)” I hate discussing money, but it is a necessary evil. So don’t let money hold you back. Let it motivate you.
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#5: I Don’t Have the Right Background; I Am Not Trained in IT. This excuse is common, but it is also unnecessary. None of us older than age 35 have the right background for IT. Why? For the most part, IT did not exist 35 years ago. No CIS or MIS degrees— they are new concoctions. Those older than 35 have had to adapt to the new developing IT world, and there is nothing wrong with that. If you are just coming to a career in IT, you can do it through self-study and distance learning, plus you can use all the websites that have FAQs and knowledge bases published for free. You can also go back to school if you have the time and money, or you can contact experts for directions to go for training. The way to break into IT work is to ask questions and not be afraid of what you don’t know. I know many people who are as “green as grass” in IT but have good jobs. They are learning their skills on the job. When you start work for a new company, you spend a significant amount of time learning the skills they want you to know to do the jobs they want you to do. So being less than “long in the tooth” is okay as long as you are open to learning new and exciting skills. If you go through the questions asked in Chapter 6, “What Do You Know How to Do? (Knowledge and Experience!),” you might be surprised by how well prepared you are for a career in IT.
#6: I Don’t Know if I Can Relocate; There Are No IT jobs Where I Live. Location, location, location!!! This is a key mantra in IT and in any field. You have to be where the jobs are. If you are not there, you have to either adapt your expectations or relocate. Stop beating that horse to death. 182
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CHAPTER 13 What Are You Waiting For? What Is Stopping You? (Lift Off and Enjoy the Ride!) You can either go hungry where you are or move to where the work is. As my dad taught me, you go where the work is. That is what people did in the Depression and what we have to do now to succeed in IT. Sure, you and your family might have to get used to new surroundings, but either you change your skill set or you move. It is that cut and dry. Don’t let moving stop you from succeeding. Refer to Chapter 7, “Where Do You Want to Do What You Want to Do? (Location, Location, Location!),” if relocation is the reason you are waiting.
#7: I Don’t Know if I Will Fit In; I Might Be Too Old. Other than money, insecurity is a major issue that keeps people from moving forward in a career change. The reasons are endless: I am too old; IT is a man’s field, and women can’t get a good job. Nothing is further from the truth. There are some age and gender biases in IT, but only in isolated cases. I get so much email from folks in their 50s and 60s who feel that they are too old to get into IT. I am 56. You are not too old. Age is a state of mind. If you are willing to work hard and learn a lot, you will do fine. Age, gender, and ethnicity are excuses that can be overcome by hard work. That is the bottom line. Most good employers couldn’t care less about what makes us different. Most are just looking for good, honest, hard-working employees. If you are looking to change careers after an extended layoff (for example, to raise your children), you can get a good job in IT if you are motivated. 183
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CHAPTER 13 What Are You Waiting For? What Is Stopping You? (Lift Off and Enjoy the Ride!) Take a look at Chapter 8, “Who Do You Want to Do This With? (Community?!)” A lot of those questions centered around who will work with you and how that affects your career choices.
#8: I Don’t Know if My Family Will Support Me. This is similar to the last issue, except that you live with your family and this could be a major bottleneck to a career change. If your family is opposed to you changing jobs or careers, you have to step back and see if this is the right move. If they can be motivated, then talk about it. Remember you are not alone in this, no matter how you might feel. You have to live with others just like you have to work with others. Again, refer to Chapter 8 if community is an issue.
#9: I Don’t Know How to Get Started. Planning and getting started are the hardest things to do when you are making a change. It takes the most work, the most research, the most thought, and the most energy. That can be a turnoff to many people. But if you fail to plan, you will fail. So don’t get discouraged by slow starts. Plan on it. See Chapter 10, “What Do You Need to Get Started? (Laying a Foundation!).” I spent a whole chapter on this topic because people get frustrated when they can’t get their plan off the ground in lightning speed. Rome wasn’t built in a day, as the tale is told. So be patient, and don’t give up.
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#10: I Don’t Know if I Am Doing This Right; I Am Not Getting Any Calls or Offers. If you have gotten started and you are past the stumbling blocks already discussed, this might be the one that frustrates you. If you have all your ducks in a row and have done your homework, why are you not getting any offers—or at least calls? Welcome to IT in 2009. The market is tough, and the Human Resources people are even tougher. It is impersonal, but not impossible. If you are hitting the right market with your advertising, resumé, and websites, you will get an offer, and you will get calls. Just don’t give up. If you are not getting calls, you should make the calls. You can be the initiator. That is how I got my business off the ground in 1996. I cold-called several hundred training centers and found work. Stop waiting for Prince Charming. Be the decider and go find Prince Charming. Go find the job or career you are looking for. Don’t wait for employers to find you. Do what they say to do on telethons: Pick up the phone. Send the email. If the email goes unanswered, pick up the phone. If voice mail goes unanswered, call back. You are your own best agent. Sell yourself. You have much to sell: your skills, your knowledge, and your experience.
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Conclusion There are many reasons why you might be stymied as you attempt to change careers. In this chapter, we covered 10 major issues that could be holding you back from changing careers—issues that are stopping you. What are you waiting for? If you have identified what is stopping you, fix it. Lift off and enjoy the ride. Imagine what a wonderful career you will have if you can get past your fears, frustrations, and other issues that we identified.
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CONCLUSIONS What Is Your Call? What Is Your Vocation? What Is Your Purpose? What Is Your Reason for Being?
Conclusions: What Is Your Call? What Is Your Vocation? What Is Your Purpose? What Is Your Reason for Being? We have arrived. You’re finished. We are now at the end of this diagnostic process. We have spent a lot of time together diagnosing what you need to reflect on to successfully change careers. The goal of this exercise was to help you identify what you want to do in your career and help you find the career that is your ideal. The best job is one in which you are fulfilled and compensated in a manner that makes you satisfied. As I said in Chapter 1, “Genesis,” you are the final diagnostician who takes the answers to the questions and comes up with a course of action. The hope is that your career’s health improves. Could you have predicted how our worldwide economy would change in the last few years? How unstable the job market would become? Would you be reading this because your job status suddenly changed? I know I could not. It seems to me that this whole project was timed just right—at least it felt that way to me. Before we go any further, let’s briefly revisit the 12 questions we have considered. 187
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CONCLUSIONS What Is Your Call? What Is Your Vocation? What Is Your Purpose? What Is Your Reason for Being?
The Questions . Question 1: What do you want to do? (Goals!) . Question 2: What do you like to do? (Pleasure and passion!) . Question 3: What can you do? (Restrictions!) . Question 4: What can you afford to do? (Economic reality! Ugh!!) . Question 5: What do you know how to do? (Knowledge and experience!) . Question 6: Where do you want to do what you want to do? (Location, location, location!) . Question 7: Who do you want to do this with? (Community?!) . Question 8: What is the expected life cycle for what you want to do? (Time is everything!) . Question 9: What do you need to get started? (Laying a foundation!) . Question 10: How willing are you to change? (Flexibility!) . Question 11: What is your chance of fulfillment? (Not success, but fulfillment!) . Question 12: What are you waiting for? What is stopping you? (Lift off and enjoy the ride!)
As you remember, I asked the 10 most important questions related to each main question, and you recorded your honest, objective responses to each. Then I provided you with a least five strategies that might help you address each opening question. Now I can only conclude that you have read each question, taken notes, done the research, and now have a direction—and direction is so important. 188
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CONCLUSIONS What Is Your Call? What Is Your Vocation? What Is Your Purpose? What Is Your Reason for Being? Have you ever been truly lost? It is terrifying. But when you know where you are and where you are going, a degree of certitude is in the future. Hopefully, you now know where you are going. Through these questions you have also confronted what could be holding you back as you make a career change. My hope is that many of you land a dream job—one that fulfills you and provides you with the compensation you need to live the life you want to live. Because I have been going through this journey with you as I write this, I want like to conclude this book with the following three thoughts: . The most difficult and intimate final question that every career changer and every person
must confront . My reflections on this journey with you . Some good news
Difficult Final Question Whether you have found your dream job or career and whether it is an IT-related job does not matter. You still need to consider the most difficult question every human being faces when looking for your place in the world of work. When it comes to this intense question, which has been around for centuries, it doesn’t matter what your career sector, your age, your ethnicity, your gender, your economic strata, or your belief systems are. 189
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CONCLUSIONS What Is Your Call? What Is Your Vocation? What Is Your Purpose? What Is Your Reason for Being? What does matter is your response, your answer, and your feelings. Many have asked this question over the centuries: theologians, therapists, philosophers, existentialists, parents, children, IT workers, recruiters, guidance counselors, and others. Each asks it a bit differently. Here are several iterations: . What is my purpose? . What is my calling? . What is my reason for being?
This is absolutely the toughest question you will ask yourself in your life and in your career search. Why? Because you have to do a self-examination and no one else can answer this question for you. The answer to this question can take years to unfold, but you don’t have to put your career journey on hold until you answer it. You just have to keep considering it. No matter what you believe, each of us has a perceived purpose in life. When you are looking for a career and if you know what your purpose is, what your calling is, what your reason for being is, then finding the right career takes on a different light. Then you are not just looking for a job to make a few dollars to pay the bills, but you are also looking for a way to attain fulfillment as a person and as a professional. It took me close to 30 years to come to grips with my purpose, my calling, my reason for being. I was only able to answer the question last year—and I am 56 years old. I did not even think about this question during my first 25 years. Because I was looking for a career change during the past 190
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CONCLUSIONS What Is Your Call? What Is Your Vocation? What Is Your Purpose? What Is Your Reason for Being? year, I had to come face-to-face with this question even though I did everything I could to avoid it. Part of the issue was that no one coached me, as I am doing you, to consider it. I just lived life. When I was sitting with a friend in August 2007 at a local hospital, the topic was brought up, and the answer came to me—along with A Career-Changer’s Checklist. My answer is not your answer. My purpose is not yours. You have to look deep into yourself to come up with your answer. When you know the answer, you will know what career is the best fit for you, and together with the answers you have compiled from this series of questions, you will find a career that will be your best fit, your dream, and will fulfill you as a person and a professional.
My Reflections and Directions As I mentioned earlier, I have been going through this journey with you. I have taken my own medicine and recorded my responses to see what I wanted, what I knew, and so on. Some of the answers and careers that I came up with along this six-month journey (the time it took to write this book) are the following: . Course developer . Finalize the development of the Master of Integrated Networking (MIN) certification. . Be a director of IT certifications, IT training, and education, based on a philosophy of excellence . Freelance writer . Independent trainer . Grant writer 191
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CONCLUSIONS What Is Your Call? What Is Your Vocation? What Is Your Purpose? What Is Your Reason for Being? . Earn a doctorate and teach on the university level . Pick up three Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) units and revisit my original career choice to
be a chaplain to terminal and geriatric people . Leverage my education and experience as a counselor to help others reach their career potential
As you can see, my interests are not in IT per se but in the training, learning, and education sector. I am in IT because I can make a living here, but my long-term goals are to leverage my background in education and to train those wanting to excel in IT. Note: See my article, “Now What? A Career-Changer’s Odyssey,” published in 2001 on InformIT.com.
Thanks to this diagnostic series, I was able to come face to face with my skills, my restrictions, my needs, and my wants. This exercise has helped me identify what my optimal career choices are.
Good News The good news, which I feel I can share with you, is that this exercise worked for me. In late September 2008, I received a great offer to work as a course developer for a prominent IT service provider. I began working for this company in late October 2008, and it has been wonderful.
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CONCLUSIONS What Is Your Call? What Is Your Vocation? What Is Your Purpose? What Is Your Reason for Being? In the past, I would never have considered the position because of the way the offer and interviews were done. Because I had analyzed what I was looking for through this series, I realized I was holding myself back. When I knocked down the walls, the job I was looking for came to me. I followed my own advice and strategies and am working for a solid employer. I know that this series helped me; if you give it a chance, it will also help you find your ideal career. Just don’t give up. Answer the questions honestly, follow the strategies, and you will find what you are looking for.
Conclusion It has been my pleasure to experience A Career-Changer’s Checklist with you. I hope it has been as rewarding for you as it has been for me. I know you, too, will be able to share good news. I hope many of you will contact me with your thoughts and ideas through email at
[email protected] or through www.3WsCertification.com. I will gladly respond. Best wishes!
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APPENDIX “The KEY to Finding a Good Job in IT”
Appendix: “The KEY to Finding a Good Job in IT” While writing A Career-Changer’s Checklist, I have been in the process of changing careers. As you know, changing careers in IT—or any other sector—in this current market is challenging at best. I followed all the suggestions that I have given in this book and have still experienced challenges locating the right job or career. While I was writing one of the chapters, I had an epiphany. My troubleshooting skills—analyzing, theorizing, hypothesizing, scrutinizing, and all those -izings—went to work. What I came up with is the following: . It is important to have a good network of friends and coworkers. . It is important to know what you can do. . It is important to know what you know.
But the keys to finding a good job in any sector, including IT, are the following: . Determining what you call your skills and talent . What others call your skill set . Making sure that your names for your skills and talents are the same as others’ names for
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APPENDIX “The KEY to Finding a Good Job in IT” It’s all in the label. We all hate labels, but if you mislabel yourself and your skill set, you will never find a good job. Another way to say this is that it is all in the name you give to a job, a career, or a skill set. (This has historical roots.) It is what you call what you can do. Have you ever gone into a hardware store to look for some small item—a pipe connector, for example—and not know what to ask for? You say, “I want one of these,” and you show the old part to the clerk. And the clerk in the store looks at you like you are a complete moron. But when you go back at a later date and ask for the part by name, you feel like a genius. You know what a street elbow is and what it is used for. Wow. The key is the label—the name. The same is true when you are looking for a job. You know what you can do and you have an idea what it’s called, but others might have a different label or a different name for your skill set. You are using different labels; you are speaking different languages. In the last few weeks I have learned, through trial and error, this is a major problem in IT. It also is a problem in virtually every market sector known to humanity. The labels we use for jobs and skills have gotten way out of hand. Unless you know what others call what you do, you will have a difficult time finding a good job. Let me give you some examples of recent searches I have done. Each of these is for the same job, but different companies and sectors label the job with a different title. They use a different name than I would use. 195
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Example 1: Trainer Search My standard search on the job boards is for a trainer who offers IT training. That produces a variety of results. Everything from Microsoft trainer to fitness trainer to simulation trainer for the military comes up in the results. Sure I could filter this a bit better, but the revelation that I found is that the labels and names used for an IT trainer differs from sector to sector. Here is a list of the names used by companies for those who offer IT training as a trainer. When you look at the job descriptions, they vary a little bit, but not that much. These are all for trainers who offer IT training: . Trainer . Instructor . Technical Trainer . Technology Trainer . Technical Instructor . Technology Instructor . Training Specialist . Training Analyst
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APPENDIX “The KEY to Finding a Good Job in IT” . Training Consultant . Learning Analyst . Learning Consultant . Training Consultant . Education Specialist . Education Analyst . Education Consultant . Training Developer . Training Engineer . Education Engineer . Learning Engineer
For those looking to manage or direct training operations, the following names are used: . Training Manager . Training Director . Learning Manager . Learning Director . Director of Technical Training . Director of Training 197
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APPENDIX “The KEY to Finding a Good Job in IT” . Director of Education . Director of Learning and Development . Director of Learning . Learning Manager . Education Manager . Education Director . Technical Training Lead
So what is the difference between all these options? It depends on the company or sector that is advertising. The military uses one name, whereas the health care community uses another name for the same job. The banking and finance sector calls a trainer by one of the variants. IT companies simply call a trainer a “trainer” or an “instructor” depending on the vendor they want the person to support. Education calls a trainer a “training specialist.” So if you simply search for a “trainer,” you will have a tough time finding the job. If you know what you do and what others call what you do, you will have a much easier time.
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Example 2: Network or Systems Engineer I frequently do a search for a network engineer. That always meant someone who worked on LANs and WANs. Now many companies look at this title as someone who strictly does WANs. Most network engineer positions are for Cisco folks, but that also depends on the sector that is advertising. Some sectors use this title for LAN engineers while others use one of the variants. The other confusing title is “system engineer.” Some companies use the term “network engineer” and “system engineer” interchangeably, while others use the term “systems engineer” for infrastructure folks. There is no rhyme or reason to this. The following variants are used as well for these two: . Network Specialist . Network Analyst . Systems Specialist . Systems Analyst . Network Administrator . Systems Administrator
What do you call what you do and what do others call what you do when it comes to these skills?
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Example 3: Course Developer If you really want to feel confused, do a search looking for a job as a “technical course developer.” The wheels come off when it comes to this field. There are more names given to this set of skills, which are for the most part self-evident, than I could ever imagine. Here are some: . Instructional Designer . Instructional Design Analyst . Course Developer . Course Designer . Instructional Technologist . Instructional Systems Analyst . Instructional Systems Designer . Content Developer . Technical Content Developer . Technical Writer . Technical Editor . Documentation Specialist . Documentation Analyst
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APPENDIX “The KEY to Finding a Good Job in IT” . Instructional Analyst . Learning Analyst . Educational Technology Developer . Training and Development Specialist . Learning Developer . Education Analyst . Technical Education Designer . Technology Education Designer . Technology Education Course Developer
This same exercise can be done for nearly every IT specialty—it doesn’t matter if it’s database work, programming, or web development. Every one of these has a host of names given to the same job and same skill set. This same exercise can also be done for other sectors. One that I was interested in when I was identifying the problem had to do with a job that I held at a medical college early in my career. In that job, my title was manager of life safety services. That same job today has more names that I can list in this appendix. Some are safety engineer, environmental health and safety engineer, and environmental health and safety specialist. It is mind-blowing, and I hope this is a wakeup call for those looking for a good job.
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Conclusion The bottom line is this: You might have the education, the experience, the skills, the certifications, the credentials, the references, and everything else and still are having problems finding the right job. The problem might be that you are calling what you do something different than what the employers are calling what you do. It is all in the name you give to a job, a career, or a skill set. It is what you call what you can do. It is what others call what you do. And finding where those two match. Be open to searching for different titles or names for the jobs you have done and want to do. Search all the job boards using the different names given to your ideal job. I am absolutely sure, if you do this, you will find the job you are looking for. The KEY is making sure that you name what you do the same way that others name what you do.
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A Career-Changer’s Checklist: Twelve Common-Sense Questions to Find Your Career
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