I Hate Your Job

• “What if the interviewer never calls you back?” from Brazen Careerist by Penelope Trunk. It’s courteous to tell salespeople when you’ve chosen another vendor as well. Don’t make them waste time and energy on you.
• I really liked the intro to “Sabotaging Your Own Career” from On the Job.

  Anita challenges you point blank:
  

  So, while there can be the best career advice in the world out there (ahem), there are still some people who are just going to ignore it because they’re afraid of what might happen if they try.

  It’s time to own up to the fact that your not getting ahead is not the fault of the boss or your co-workers or even the economy. Nope…it rests squarely on your shoulders, my friend.

• To add some humanity to your day and for a change of pace, “Monday Tip: How’s everybody doing?” from The Chief Happiness Officer is a neat idea.
• Are you a Riskophile or a Riskophobe? Read “Money for Entrepreneurs: Finding The Right Risk Balance” from IttyBiz to find out.
• I found “Types of Networkers” from The Recruiting Animal to be a fun read.
• Guess what the top reason on the “Top 5 Reasons to Quit a Job” from Employment Digest is?
  

  You Hate Your Job

  Do you go to bed at night dreading waking up in the morning and having to go to work? Does your current job make you miserable, discouraged, unhappy or unfulfilled? One of the best reasons to quit a job is because you hate it. After all, you spend such a huge portion of your life at work that you should try to find something you enjoy doing rather than wasting your life at a job you hate.

• Don’t use excuses about having to start over to avoid changing careers when you should. Read “Starting A New Career Story” from Career Hub for some good thoughts on the subject.
• And finally, Your kid’s blog can get you FIRED. How to extort from mom and dad to earn a living. Just kidding.

A Choose Your Own Adventure Story

My wife and I split up and I just celebrated yet another wedding anniversary, so it’s got me thinking about life, about the past.

Remember that miserable job I had back in 2007? Well, not much has changed since then, has it? Things sure have changed since then, haven’t they?

The crap I took from my boss–some days I didn’t think I could take it anymore, but eventually I got used to it thankfully I never got used to it and found a better way.

They’ve been a decent company to work for compared to some. It could have been worse, I guess. Work is work. It was frightening to take a leap, to make a big change. There were some days while I was looking when I thought I was just being too choosy about my job, but I’m so glad I didn’t give into that voice.

I often wonder about what would have happened if I’d taken a chance to find something better kept trying to grind it out. That’s a question that I answered the hard way, didn’t I? I’m glad to leave unanswered.

The doctor said that I need to do something drastic about my stress level I seem to be in pretty good condition. That my blood pressure is actually lower than it was back then, if you can believe it.

It’s depressing amazing to think about what a difference our jobs can make in our lives for better or for worse.

I hope to win the lottery. I’m not sure I’ll ever retire as long as I keep having fun with this stuff.

How confident are you that you can produce that old email when you need to?

Searching through email to find a suddenly important document can be an enormous hassle. What’s even more annoying is that you might have deleted that email after being warned about your inbox being full, and now you can’t produce it.

How can you be confident of producing the email without having to put thought and effort into managing a process along the way?

The Oh So Simple Solution: Gmail

By setting up your email to forward a copy of every email you ever receive or send to a dedicated Gmail account (chuckwestbrookwork@gmail.com for example), the problem virtually goes away. You’ll probably never have to worry about deleting emails (Gmail has more than 4 gigs of space for its users), you don’t have to worry about being able to find emails either (Gmail’s search feature is close to instant, and oh yeah, it’s by Google), and as a result, you now have a complete system in place to CYA and forget it.

Setting It Up

This discussion on setting up a set of rules for your email in Outlook is exactly what we’re talking about doing. Users of other email clients can use this as a point of reference and then play around to make it work for you.

Just create a rule for all incoming messages that a copy be forwarded to your Gmail account. For outbound messages, do the same thing or set it up to automatically place your Gmail address in the bcc (blind carbon copy) section.

That’s it! Now you’ll never have to worry about full inboxes or missing messages! (Any technological types that want to add to, correct, or clarify any of the “how to” stuff, please do so!)

As some of you may have noticed, my site has been down lately. A lot.

In fact, it’s been down almost the entire day today, most of yesterday, and a huge part of Friday and Saturday as well.

I have been a fan of bluehost.com up to this point, and I’m willing to give them another chance, but my patience level has come down significantly. I’m not an expert, but if you’re a hosting company, outages of 30 hours or more should never happen. Never.

Anyway, I apologize that the site’s been down, and if you sent me an email, you’ll have to send it again.

Business as usual tomorrow, I hope!

1. Find a friend with similar problems.
2. Give advice.
3. Apply to self.

Penelope Trunk has just posted an article entitled, “The Real Deal About Generation Y: They’re Inherently Conservative” to which I’d like to offer a response.

In the article, Penelope expresses her surprise at the results of a set of surveys done by Business Week that reveal that the top 3 “best places to launch a career” are all “Big 4″ accounting firms:

My first thought was, are you kidding me?!?!?!

Because if you ask Gen Y what is most important about work, this is what they’ll say: Flexiblitiy, personal growth, liking the people they work with, and money.

But here’s what a consulting job offers: Long hours in cities where you don’t live. On-demand work for demanding clients. Days and days of working on a client site where you do not even benefit from the supposedly forward-thinking corporate culture that a company like Deloitte has created. And, finally, isolation from all but a few co-workers who are at the same client as you.

She concludes that what motivates the trend toward these heavy-hitting companies is the conservative nature of Generation Y: “Here’s what else is going on: Gen Y does not admit it, but their top priority is stability.”

She goes on to discuss that our generation is “fundamentally conservative in [our] goals and decision making,” but it’s on the point about stability that I want to disagree.

Most everything in Penelope’s article rings true, but it’s the overall interpretation that I’d like to offer an alternative to. Rather than security, what many in Generation Y are after is a culturally impressive and prestigious job.

Impressive Companies and Careers

Generation Y assumes security. To us, it is a given that if you do everything right and work hard, you’ll wind up a winner. The only people I know that worry about security are those of us who are trying to make it as musicians, writers, missionaries, or entrepreneurs, and even then, those concerns aren’t dissuading us from pursuing those interests.

Those people being hired by Deloitte are least of all concerned by security. These are the most confident, most intelligent among us, for the most part, and the idea that they might fall down probably never enters their minds seriously.

If it’s not stability, what is it? From my observation, the drive towards these companies comes from the fear of opportunity cost, driving ambition, and simple brand appeal.

Fear of Opportunity Cost

Generation Y is a group where the top students have insanely optimized their time and efforts, and their academic resumes are often impressive… by the time they graduate high school. Papers published, original research done, groups founded, and scholarships and awards aplenty. We have been taught that being great isn’t always good enough to win the scholarship, the grant, or the job–you have to have been optimal in how you progressed academically.

Andrea Hershatter, quoted in Penelope’s article, states:

There is a strong, strong millennial dislike of ambiguity and risk, leading them to seek a lot more direction and clarity from their employers, in terms of what the task is, what the expectations are, and job progression. Sometimes it’s difficult for employers to characterize or quantify things the way millennials like.

The desire for more clarity and direction doesn’t result from a fear of being fired, it’s a fear of missing out on hitting a home run and getting an A++++.

Hooking up with a small company doesn’t promise an optimized path. There’s a chance you’ll wear many hats, and by the time you leave, your resume might not represent the sort of brilliant accomplishments a place like Deloitte would afford. It’s about fearing the opportunity cost: If I don’t hit the ground running and accomplish a ton, I’ll be behind by the time I’m 25. In a way, Penelope’s point about security comes through here. What’s desired is a proven path to become a star–the risk to which we are averse is the risk of failing to get those notches in our belts.

Ambition

The competitive drive is fierce in these top achievers. While my high school grades weren’t impressive, most of my best friends could all tell you their class rank and the class rank of each other. When asked where you were going to college, you’d answer impressively if possible, “Well, I’ve got scholarships to the state school for music and economics, but I’m still flirting with the idea of Harvard.” In college, the race was more subtle, but again, you had an idea as to what everyone’s resumes (figuratively speaking) looked like.

Brand Awareness

In my elementary school, if you didn’t have a No Fear t-shirt, you weren’t cool. In middle school, it was Nike shoes. In high school, it was a letter of acceptance to a prestigious university or a scholarship that impressed on its own.

Today, it’s Deloitte, Google, or Accenture. These are jobs that give you a leg to stand on when comparing (however subtly) starting salary, company prestige, career path, and perks, and you have an advancement plan where you can be assured of impressive continued progress for years to come.

The Resolution

“Flexibility, personal growth, liking the people they work with, and money.” How do we reconcile Generation Y’s claim to hold these values with their willingness to take jobs that are far from them? It’s no different from past generations. There’s a conflict between what we value and the desire to win. Many of my friends that have taken these impressive jobs have found themselves having second thoughts, and some have quit. If there’s a way in which this generation is unique, it’s the willingness to actually bail out and make a change once the allure wears off.

In the main article from Business Week, Lindsey Gerdes captures a telling exchange between a Deloitte executive and two younger workers:

…[The executive] expressed concern about the video’s references to long hours and difficult work assignments: “Wouldn’t that dissuade students?” A few interns didn’t hesitate to set him straight. “You want to be busy,” said Cindy Quintanilla, an intern in Dallas. Steve Mai, an intern in New York, added: “If all they did was talk about the good stuff, then I’d be skeptical.”

Translation:
Executive: “This is all-consuming work. Young people don’t like that, right?”
Youngsters: “You’ve got to be insanely busy if you want to win. We know that. We want that.”

The drive and ambition we have cultivated through high school and college drives us into these jobs through inertia. And for some people, they’re great jobs. Some people are wired to thrive off of being pushed to the edge. For others, however, once the allure wears off, they’ll find themselves looking for a way out, and the Big 4 might have to do something about those long hours if they want to prevent an exodus down the road.

Agree? Disagree? Let’s talk.

Big thanks to Hannah and her husband Jason for teaming up on the new banner images on my site. Jason took the pictures (around the office park where I used to work, appropriately enough), and Hannah edited them to say “I Hate Your Job.”

It’s the first of many improvements to the appearance of this site that I hope to accomplish with her help. I’m still somewhat HTML, CSS, and PHP ignorant, so it’s taking me several rounds of trial and error to figure out how to make the changes to the site layout that I want to make.

She’s working on a logo for the site as well, and once I have that in hand, Elysa has generously offered to redesign my woeful myspace page for me. (You should read the email she sent me, “Chuck, your myspace page is horrible. By the way, my name is Elysa, and I’d be willing to fix it for you for free.”)

So thanks Hannah, Jason, and Elysa. I appreciate your willingness to help!

The appreciation of hold music is an essential skill for success in today’s workplace. It shows an attention to detail and a sensitivity that important people are looking for in their business relationships. In fact, for many CEOs, if you are lucky enough to reach them, the first question they’ll ask is, “Quick, who wrote the music you were just listening to?” You don’t want to get that question wrong.

Here’s how you can be prepared:

• As the old saying goes, “Misery loves hold music.” When you reach a certain level of dull boredom, your brain will begin to delight in the innocuous as a defense mechanism. Patterns in carpet become beautiful, the gel support for your keyboard becomes fascinating, and of course, the specialness of hold music shines through. You may not be able to tell the CEO the name of the composer, but when he picks up on those tears of joy in your voice, he’ll forgive it, and you’ll have won a friend.
• Study up on some of the great composers of hold music. Ignore Mozart and Vivaldi as you won’t be impressing anyone by recognizing them. Focus on the “light jazz”, “musak”, and “midi file” genres. I’d recommend checking with your local university’s music school for any continuing education initiatives on the subject. If you can’t do that, VH1’s behind the music did a special series a few years ago on some of the most prolific figures in those genres.
• Give it a shot yourself. It’s sometimes hard to appreciate great art without firsthand experience of how difficult it is to create it. Purchase an electronic keyboard and leave it by the phone at work or at home. It will be scary at first, but you have to force yourself to say, “Hold please.” Place the receiver by the keyboard and play. When you pick up the phone again, ask, “Are you soothed, lulled, pleased, and prepped to buy something and/or not complain?” You’ll get the feedback you need, and you’ll never again take a masterwork for granted.
• Familiarity is a key component in enjoyment. Call the same company several times and act confused. Make an atypical request of the receptionist such as, “I need to speak to the person there who makes the decisions regarding your fire drill.” While on hold, soak up the music with your eyes closed. Avoid the temptation to make a recording for playback. It’s not the same and your appreciation will seem phony.
• Create lyrics, preferably about the person you are trying to reach. Google can help give you some material. This is effective because most Fortune 500 CEOs do this themselves in the morning before others arrive. Calling the customer service line, they’ll pen ballads to themselves as a way to gather their confidence for the day. When you get through to them, continue to sing some of your lyrics as if you haven’t noticed the music stop. This is a time honored technique for winning the favor of important people.

With these techniques, you’ll discover a new world of inspiration on the phones. Beyond that, though, you’ll discover that others now respect you more and want to do business with you. Other than a nice smile, a keenly refined appreciation for hold music may be the most important weapon in your arsenal.

As part of Blog Action Day, I’m writing on the topic of the environment.

Trade a Redwood for A Raise?

Let’s be honest. In the grand scheme of things, the grand scheme of things isn’t really that important to most of us in our daily lives. Rather than worrying about AIDS in Africa this morning, I’ve been trying to decide what to write about for this post.

But today, I’m offering you a deal. I’m very wealthy, and just to make a point, I’ll give you a $100 raise for each redwood you sign off on to have destroyed. Name a figure, and I’ll make it happen. Sound good?

“I’ll take $1,000,000, please.”

Most people would name a huge number. The thinking being that the promise of escaping the rat race, of having your personal needs met is simply too great to be outweighed by some trees, however tall they may be.

As long as we are culturally teetering on the brink of an ulcer, the environment, along with other big picture items, won’t get our collective and sustained attention, even though it should.

The most immediate, painful needs get our attention. Would you floss to prevent gingivitis if you were on fire?

I’m not saying it’s right, but this is the prevailing human condition. If you want to motivate massive change in the behavior of the population, help them find the freedom from being frantic that enables them to reflect on the big picture enough to be motivated toward worthy causes. With liberty to think comes enlightened action.

Don’t Forget the Planet

What I’m talking about here is that most people are focused narrowly because they feel frantically busy, often by choice.

I think taking time to focus on the environment (for example) might in and of itself go a long way to helping give you the freedom from that feeling of overwhelming busyness.

My point is, as long as people are wrapped up in themselves, big picture items will be neglected. Therefore, we need to focus on getting outside of ourselves and helping others to do the same.

What’s on your calendar? What’s not?

A friend told me recently, “You can learn a lot about what a man values by looking at his checkbook and his calendar.”

Our calendars tend to be full of work:

Schedule in some value as well including short breaks:

Work on your novel, play with your kids, start a blog, exercise, feed the homeless, learn HTML… Put your heart on your calendar, even if it’s only in 10 minute breaks, and you’ll prevent work from taking over who you are.