I don’t measure career success by job title or salary, but rather by how satisfied you are with the work you’re doing. If you don’t have a job that fits your life, that suits your personality, that provides you with work you find challenging, you’ll never feel quite at home. But how much time should you give a new job before determining you’re in the wrong place? That’s a question I hear often from clients. Usually it’s along the line of, “I really hate this job but do I dare quit in this economy?”
The easy answer is: It all depends. . .
Let me give you an example. I just heard from a reader (Ask Ellis) who thought she had found her media dream job. Only as soon as she was hired, the job changed. Bait and switch? Possibly. But it’s also possible the employer genuinely didn’t realize what he/she wanted. Happens all the time. And when it does, the decision to quit becomes a little easier.
In the case of my reader, things were further complicated. A friend had brought her on. And the contract was only for two months. Shouldn’t it be easier to just wait it out? Wouldn’t she be letting her friend down?
Believe it or not, this one was actually simple. Because the position description had changed so dramatically, and because it was a consulting assignment, I don't think she should have any qualms leaving. The employer didn't live up to the arrangement.
Yes, she should tell the friend who referred in advance, and explain her quandary, thank profusely for the lead, but that the gig didn't turn out to be what was described and had turned into something entirely different.
Sometimes people worry that their name might get tarnished in their industry, but in this context, it doesn't sound like the reader was leaving for a frivolous reason, and the industry has so many components, it would be highly unlikely that it would do her any damage.
I've taken a much more cynical position about this topic in general during my career. Organizations over the past several years have not particularly engendered loyalty, so I always tell clients that it should go both ways. The organization would have no problem letting someone go if a market shifts in even very small ways, so why can't you do that? You can leave THEM if there's a better market for you. Why not?
Of course, there are many contexts where it's not great to do this, especially in small industries where a reputation can get hurt or where you may burn through a significant referral. I always take this on a case by case situation, examining all the details involved. But, as I mentioned above in my moment of cynicism, I think that the work culture has changed to a point where you have to think of yourself always as an independent contractor, who moves from project to project, even in so-called permanent employment.
Loyalty needs to be earned.
A quick postscript. Two days after quitting, the reader found a more lucrative short-term assignment.
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Answering Job Ads - What are the odds?
Most job searchers immediately start by looking at ads or calling recruiters and hope they can succeed quickly with this reactive technique. Sounds good, doesn’t it? Except that it doesn’t work very well. Every year or so, I investigate how well the various search techniques function, and usually the ads and recruiters together, according to the research, account for around 12–13% of the overall job market. Most jobs are found through personal networks.
So, why do people depend so much on the 13% and not the 87%? Because the prospect of answering an ad, and then getting called for an interview sounds easier and more appealing because it is easier.
Why don’t ads account for more jobs? Because most people do not precisely fit into the specific skill sets the ads are primarily seeking.
When I recruited for a large bank many years ago, I used ads in The New York Times for large projects and occasionally for hard-to-fill positions. We were opening a large data center and staffing it at all levels. There were 36 positions for which we advertised internally as well as in The Times. It was a half-page ad, a major and expensive recruiting effort, and we received 5,000 responses for the 36 positions within two days. We were only a staff of four and had to figure out a way to get the best possible candidates for the positions quickly.
5000 resumes! We split up the jobs and split up the resumes, 1250 per staff person. Our goal was to get five candidates to interview for each position. I cannot speak for all corporate recruiters, but I can say that what followed was fairly typical of many I’ve met over the years. I had responsibility for seven of the positions and actually ended up reading maybe 250 of my 1250 resumes in order to find enough initial candidates for each position. Basically this means 1000, or 80%, of the resumes were never even read on this first pass. Later on, I might have read an additional 100 if I’d been unable to find enough qualified candidates for a specific position or two.
You have probably had the experience at some point of reading the perfect ad practically screaming, “This job’s for you!” And you write a great cover letter to accompany your brilliant resume that fits the job perfectly. And you send it to someone like . . . me, at the big corporation, the guy who only needs to read roughly 20% of the resumes he receives. In other words, there’s a high probability that yours will never receive so much as a glance.
You end up feeling terrible because either you get a form rejection letter (from the better companies who are conscious of their public perception) or nothing (from the organizations who don’t think that way). You may also end up feeling that something was wrong with your resume, cover letter, or credentials, when in fact that was not the case. This is only one reason, among many, why answering ads is essentially a gamble. But in a comprehensive job search, it’s a technique not to be ignored because even in a gamble, there’s a chance for success.
One technique that often work is to answer the ad twice. First, answer it immediately, and then . . . answer it again, maybe 10 days later. The second response will be received in a batch of maybe three, rather than the hundreds elicited earlier. Even in a small organization, an ad will draw many responses, even if only placed in a specialized trade publication. Don’t worry that someone will notice the two responses. First of all, it would be surprising to me if someone would actually notice a duplicate, and, even if that were the case, so what? Would it be perceived as a negative if two responses were noted? Does it appear desperate? My take would be that the candidate was extremely interested in the position. What could be wrong with that?
From In Search of the Fun-Forever Job: Career Strategies that Work
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After Graduation - Networking Alumni Associations and Everyone Else
First. Congratulations on getting that degree. Now you’re probably eager to make it pay off. I recently heard from a new graduate (Ask Ellis) wondering whether his alumni association would really be a good resource. My answer was that alumni associations are among what I think of as the gold standards of networking. It's your club. There's automatic affinity to fellow alums, particularly in schools that have a relatively close-knit community. Accessing alums from your school will yield much better networking results than with strangers (but don't write that latter option off entirely, either).
But I’d hate to see you rely on those alumni affiliations alone. Let me put them in a broader context so you can see where they fit in as you start your networking.
Since, by most accounts and research, getting job offers through networking technique constitutes the vast majority of your total job possibilities, you’re going to have to build a substantial contact list. Does this mean you have to be a back-slapping, “Yo, let’s do lunch” type? Do you have to know the movers and shakers right away? Must you be highly social? Yes, of course it might help if you pursued that private equity career and Henry Kravis’s nephew was your best friend in elementary school. Or it would be great if you were the type of person who went out every night and found it easy to meet people everywhere you went. Or, perhaps your father is CEO of Time Warner.
But most of us are not like these people. We might know a couple of people who know a couple of people, and maybe we worked with someone who has all those relationships. Yet, we’re still going to have to start somewhere. I suggest an “ABC” contact list.
· The “A List”
This list includes: all of the people you know of who are a level or two above where you think you would be in the organization and function where you want to be; peer level, who could be valuable sources of information and possible access to those above you; and people familiar enough to you so that you can comfortably call them.
· The “B List”
This list includes all of the people in the “A List” except that you’re not necessarily comfortable calling any one of them right away. Maybe there’s someone you haven’t spoken with in years and feel a bit awkward calling. Maybe there’s someone you don’t know that well and should write to first. Or perhaps there’s someone you don’t know at all, but you’d like to meet because you think you could learn significant information and perhaps build new networks. Or maybe there’s someone you don’t really like but you’d like to contact anyway.
· The “C List”
The “C List” consists of everyone else you know of who might provide connections to those who would be on an “A List” or “B List.” How about the person who cuts your hair, your extended family, or your dentist? All of those people know others who may work in your targeted area. One of my favorite resources is college and graduate school—sometimes even high school—alumni associations. Alumni associations are particularly powerful networks for attorneys and MBAs. Those who were lucky enough to attend small private colleges will have access to a sort of private club—the college’s alumni database. Membership in that club is a major motivation for gaining entry into many colleges, universities, and graduate schools. Even if you didn’t attend an elite school, many other colleges and universities have well-established alumni organizations and alumni databases.
Professional associations are another favorite “C List” source. Join one (or more) in your target areas. Get on a committee. Two of the best committees are the membership and program committees. Why? In the first, you have access to the membership lists, and in the second, you can source and possibly meet key professionals in your field.
What about political or religious organizations? In this last category, I’ve found very few groups can match Mormons or Orthodox Jews for quick affiliation and building strong networks. I had two clients a few years ago who were Mormons, one living in New York City and one in New Jersey. They were able to build significant networks immediately through their church and extended family and friend affiliations. (One of them landed a terrific job in, of all places, Las Vegas.) I also had an American Orthodox Jewish client who lived in Jerusalem, and he relocated to Cleveland (don’t ask) where he had never been and had no acquaintances. He built fast networking relationships through a synagogue there, despite not being especially assertive or outgoing.
Here’s the good news. All you need is a minimum of five people after you’ve thought through your ABCs. Most job seekers will have more than that, but some—maybe introverted or recent arrivals to an area—will have a smaller number. Even if you only connect with two out of five, you will be able to build the beginning of a successful search based on referrals and information from those two. That’s just the beginning.
From In Search of the Fun-Forever Job: Career Strategies that Work, available inpaperback and ebook.