I saw one of my favorite quotes on Twitter, shared by Pluralsight’s Head of Practices Mariah Hay… and it prompted me to make my own quote:
I love the quote she shared… the older I get the more true it rings. Health and wellness is not something that people my age get to enjoy without some effort.
For over thirteen years I’ve been acutely aware of the career and job search space, starting when I lost my job after having done everything I was told to do to have “job security.” I soon found out that was a facade… a fraud. What was good career advice for 1970 was not good career advice for 2006, when I was laid off. I was well-degreed, well-experienced but had a week brand and a week network and had no idea how to do a job search, or manage my career, in this new era.
And so I’ve been on a weird mission to create tools (JibberJobber) and system (Job Search Program) and training (my Pluralsight courses) and encouragement (my speaking) and new thinking (51 Alternatives to a Real Job (book)) and thought leadership (on my social channels). It’s weird because I didn’t get my MBA so I could be an entrepreneur and create. I got it so I could have an easy path to the corner office and a fat salary and great retirement. Did I mention facade and fraud?
Yet here we are. I do what I do, and I try to spread the word and help others prepare.
This week I’ll probably hear someone say “I’ve never heard of JibberJobber before – wow!!” No, you haven’t. Because career management was off your radar. You were busy working hard at your job only to realize you were a day away from long-term unemployment… even though you had the title, the degree, the experience.
I hope the professional legacy I leave will be that of encouraging others to think differently about their jobs and their career. I hope when people think of me they think “man, he really changed how we think about careers.”
But for now, I’ll take people who should have been doing career management who are in the job search, looking like deer in the headlights, wondering what happened to them and how to recover, and help them, one step at a time.
But you, who reads this post, will not be there. Because you are working on career management. You are doing the right things right now. Right?