My friend Scot from Cuberules.com (if you are in Corporate America you need to subscribe to his blog) wrote about my layoff. I admire Scot a lot because he has the career that I always wanted… he did (and still does) the corporate gig very well. But, what I like about Scot so much is that he isn’t blinded, pollyanna-style, by the promise of Corporate America. He’s very pragmatic about career management.
We need more pragmatic thinking about career management!
Scott just wrote: My friend got laid off — from his dream job, and wrote some wisdom that even I hadn’t been able to communicate. One of the most important messages that everyone needs to understand is, in his words, this:
And companies WANT us to be invested in the work because almost every pundit out there will tell you employee engagement is critical to the success of the company.
Until it isn’t.
Please go read Scot’s post. I’m not writing this to disparage my former employer. Lots of good came out of that 9+ month gig. But what I learned is that even the best companies, even the dream job, can end so fast your head is spinning.
I was fortunate in that I have developed multiple income streams. No, it wasn’t easy. No, this wasn’t done overnight. But I have no regrets building those income streams over the years. They sure came in handy on November 30th.