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Career Victory: Guerrilla Tactics in the Digital Job Jungle
By Tom Jackson
Part Three: Take Charge of Your Life
After graduating from college, Andy Kitchner spent 12 years in product development for a well-known Midwestern home-products company. He was reasonably rewarded for testing and marketing new-product ideas but didn't feel highly valued by the company.
"It was your "normal employment deal -- they owned me," he says. "I needed them, and they didn't really need me. They liked my work and paid and benefited me. However, we all knew that if I left, three others would be able to pick up my work in an Alka Seltzer minute. With that in mind, I did what I was supposed to."
Mr. Kitchner stayed on because he expected to be promoted or recruited away to a better job. When the company shut down his brand line, he declined a chance to relocate and accepted a severance package and outplacement assistance instead. It was the first time he'd ever thought about what he really wanted to do. Mr. Kitchner's outplacement consultant congratulated him. "Now you have the opportunity to make up your own future," he said. Kitchner looked puzzled.
After taking a few weeks off to reflect, Mr. Kitchner decided he no longer wanted to work for a large company. "I was whacked on the side of the head with the realization that I had been racing so hard around the track I hadn't recognized that this is what people meant by the rat race," he says. " I was spiritually, physically, emotionally and mentally close to empty."
Five years later, Mr. Kitchner lives in upstate New York and works for himself -- giving seminars, consulting, and designing and building solar-heating systems. He's studying for an engineering degree and now follows a simple rule: "If it isn't what I want to spend my time doing, I don't want to be doing it simply because it's a job."
You don't have to be laid off to learn you can take control of both the quality of your life and your work - in other words, earn a living while living a life. But to do this, you must ask some hard questions: What do you love? What do you aspire to? How can you fulfill your personal vision when you badly need a job? Taking control starts with recognizing that getting a new job is less important than how that job impacts your life. If you don't ask hard questions and accept a job that doesn't improve your life, you may gain an income but pay a steep price. Here are three principles that can help you avoid that pitfall:
Principle 1: The quality of your life is determined by the quality of your working experience.
Work isn't what happens from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., five or six days a week, with life happening only after 6 p.m. and on weekends. Life and work are interconnected. After basic needs are met, having an impressive job title, income, social status or standard of living won't guarantee an improved quality of life as in satisfaction, self fulfillment, values or quality time with your family.
True satisfaction comes from being able to fully express yourself in what you do. This means merging who you are -- your values, emotions, capabilities, desires and physical health -- with the activities you perform - planning, communicating, taking action and following through -- when you are highly motivated. Even wealthy individuals who don't need to work are happiest and most satisfied when they're involved in productive activities, which generate tangible results in tune with their values.
Synchronizing your work with your core beliefs and talents leads to enthusiasm and fulfillment, turning a job into a vocation. As an average employee you will work for 10,000 days, not including commuting and other peripheral activities. Why spend all this time doing something unfulfilling when you could just as easily spend it doing what you enjoy?
The lesson here is: you are not your job title. As career consultants, we have helped many former corporate employees come to this realization. At one company we worked with, few of the several thousand people who lost jobs in a major restructuring had thought in terms of whether their jobs matched their personalities or what they liked doing. They could not articulate their strengths, skills and areas of competence, so they were baffled about how to proceed when the company told them they could apply for other positions at the firm.
This free choice was threatening. They weren't prepared to choose their jobs based on personal preferences. The company had previously mapped out their careers. They had only changed positions when they were asked. Now they were on their own, forced to make their own career choices.
It took several days of counseling before they understood they weren't defined by their job titles. They saw that their jobs had disappeared, but they were still there. Months later, when I was asked on a television panel show how employees could be retrained in other fields, I replied: "It's not possible to teach steelworkers how to operate computers." The training experts on the show looked on in disbelief. "You can only teach humans how to operate computers," I said. "Steelworkers make steel." Tell yourself repeatedly; I am not my job title.
How would you describe yourself in non-work terms? Is this close to how you would describe yourself while working? Navigating today's complex work world takes initiative and flexibility. The millions of existing work assignments are constantly changing. What was required to do a job yesterday isn't required today.
The Internet can help you stay on top of this ever-changing world. You'll remain employed and in control of your life if you stay in touch with your priorities and on the cutting edge of your profession. Ask yourself, "Who am I, with nothing added? Can I just be me without a predefined role?" Let go of your expectations and the urge to do something. Remember that being (someone) comes before doing (something). Putting what you do (your job title) ahead of who you are (your essential nature) may cast you in a role that turns into a trap.
Principle 2: Purpose and vision need to be harnessed.
Purpose is the hallmark of high performance and leads to extraordinary results. Your work purpose is an overarching sense of direction and destiny. It should be your direction, not your goal. It's larger than a specific outcome. According to one description: "Purpose is an idea or ideal set before the mind as a reason to be or do something." With purpose in mind, energy grows.
Purpose fuels vision and brings it into focus. Purpose is steadfast, but a vision is fluid. Each goal you achieve can reinforce your view of your vision- still ahead of you.
It takes clarity and courage to write a purpose statement but when you've done it and brought it up to date, you'll see a direction to take in life. Here's mine (the short version): To expand people's ability to come from who they are into the work world in a way that generates satisfaction and aliveness for them and value for others.
Creating a purpose statement takes time. Each version will expand on your values and intentions. You may want to create a picture of what you'll look like at work when you're close to realizing your purpose. You can draw it or make a collage. If you prefer to write, you can brainstorm, imagine or keep a journal.
A purpose statement helps you to strive for results that give meaning to what you do and how you lead your life. Once in place, it aligns and focuses your energy. Vision is how you project the purpose statement on the screen of your mind--your imagination. It's as important as a map in helping you to find and decide on your career direction.
Principle 3: Constraints abound.
Resistance stands in the way of action. But if you weren't moving toward something, you wouldn't encounter resistance. The larger the undertaking, the stronger the resistance and constraints will be. These constraints are ultimately internal, although we often use external reasons or excuses to justify them: Assumptions, opinions, beliefs and fears help to maintain the status quo. "There are no good jobs in my field," as a belief, gives you a reason to not act, while covering up a possible fear of rejection. Internal criticism and regret will keep people from accepting truths that, when uncovered, can help them move closer to their purpose.
Unreturned phone calls, rejections, budget difficulties, lack of family support, and other impediments are just a few hurdles you'll face when seeking career victory. It's like taking a hike. You may encounter mud, snow, rocks and rain during your walk. But the pleasure of being outdoors and arriving at your destination makes these difficulties bearable.
The three preceding principles can help you to move toward your purpose and vision. If you regularly re-affirm your intention to make each work engagement fulfilling, you'll be hot on the trail of career victory. This quest requires transcending ordinary job hunting. You must go beyond the artifacts and processes normally used to land just another position such as traditional career coaching and resume writing. New ways of thinking about your quest are needed to help you capitalize on your best and blend your life values with your work challenges.
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