In odd synchronization with the launch of my blog, the Wall Street Journal launched a new career column for their Sunday edition. "Reinvent" appears to be a weekly column featuring relatively young and successful career consultant Alexandra Levit, who will tackle the personal and professional renewals so many are facing in the current climate.
Her introductory piece displays a great deal of potential, and the sliver she provides of her own story indicates that her presence as a columnist is made possible by focusing energies on skills and interests related to her personal passions.
Levit comes to the Journal with success as a speaker on career issues and the writer of three books, including the well-regarded They Don't Teach Corporate in College (I need to look at this one). She is often published in newspapers and has an active, substantive career blog. All of this is worth taking a look if you need some ideas.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Sunday, February 22, 2009
We're not missing the skills or ideas, but the mentality
A few weeks ago, I posted Nancy Lublin's recent column in Fast Company on the current corporate exodus to the public sector and how many of those looking for careers in charity do not possess, in her opinion, the appropriate credentials. As a former nonprofit and current government employee, I agreed with her general observation that many in the for-profit world now out of work do not appreciate the limited (if any) resources, high demands, and necessity to succeed in spite of uncontrollable adversities that she, I, and our brethren face on a daily basis.
The biggest observation I have made about the current market of job seekers, both the experienced and those joining them fresh out of school, is that while they possess an immense, diverse wealth of knowledge and skills critical to success for any industry or profession, they lack the mental toughness we all must possess to restore our footing and create success in our forever-changed economic landscape.
Newscasters and reporters appear ever ready to display the downtrodden lots of unemployed white-collars every chance they get, giving them the chance to cry, whine, and beg for opportunities with anyone listening. This does nothing for them and would only encourage me to avoid employing them altogether. If their current life circumstances are supposed to resemble true adversity, then the lives of our grandparents, those in the squalor of third-world countries, and those who defend our freedoms and interests abroad must be spiritually-condemning.
Mentally-speaking, the unemployed lack the toughness to first realize that complaining will get them nowhere, and second, to understand that in many cases, their future rests not with another gratuitous corporation of "sugar daddy" employer, with the personal, individual management of their skills and abilities in the open marketplace. In other words, regardless their chosen field, they are best to approach the future, as many successful individuals already have, as entrepreneurs.
Lublin's mentality, while focused on serving others effectively and efficiently, is far more entrepreneurial than most of Wall Street or the corporate offices of the world prior to last fall's meltdown. Any person looking for work, before thinking about restoring their position in salary or benefits or anything regarding their personal needs, should first be prepared to sell their worth, desire, and passion to any employer or investor. It is no longer about what a company can offer you, but how you, a single person, can take whatever is made available to you (no matter or much or little) and turn it into a benefit that GROWS the company from where it is now.
Of course, this makes it all the more important to link your professional goals to your personal passions. Unless you look at your work as a personal endeavor that you are committed to completely and unequivocally, you are not going to be willing to make the sacrifices necessary to have any chance of success. Forget comp time, overtime, or even vacation time. In fact, be ready for perhaps the most hellish professional experience known in this country, the daily grind of an entrepreneur.
Our joined path has past beyond the rolling hills and lush meadows, and long, rocky, mountainous, road of treachery awaits. Just like every other stock your 401(k) may own, time no longer has that much value, and neither do privilege or entitlement. Expecting to give all that is needed and more will not happen unless you believe in what you are doing, and that is where the passion needed to grow everyday is so desperately needed to build a mentality of achievement.
The biggest observation I have made about the current market of job seekers, both the experienced and those joining them fresh out of school, is that while they possess an immense, diverse wealth of knowledge and skills critical to success for any industry or profession, they lack the mental toughness we all must possess to restore our footing and create success in our forever-changed economic landscape.
Newscasters and reporters appear ever ready to display the downtrodden lots of unemployed white-collars every chance they get, giving them the chance to cry, whine, and beg for opportunities with anyone listening. This does nothing for them and would only encourage me to avoid employing them altogether. If their current life circumstances are supposed to resemble true adversity, then the lives of our grandparents, those in the squalor of third-world countries, and those who defend our freedoms and interests abroad must be spiritually-condemning.
Mentally-speaking, the unemployed lack the toughness to first realize that complaining will get them nowhere, and second, to understand that in many cases, their future rests not with another gratuitous corporation of "sugar daddy" employer, with the personal, individual management of their skills and abilities in the open marketplace. In other words, regardless their chosen field, they are best to approach the future, as many successful individuals already have, as entrepreneurs.
Lublin's mentality, while focused on serving others effectively and efficiently, is far more entrepreneurial than most of Wall Street or the corporate offices of the world prior to last fall's meltdown. Any person looking for work, before thinking about restoring their position in salary or benefits or anything regarding their personal needs, should first be prepared to sell their worth, desire, and passion to any employer or investor. It is no longer about what a company can offer you, but how you, a single person, can take whatever is made available to you (no matter or much or little) and turn it into a benefit that GROWS the company from where it is now.
Of course, this makes it all the more important to link your professional goals to your personal passions. Unless you look at your work as a personal endeavor that you are committed to completely and unequivocally, you are not going to be willing to make the sacrifices necessary to have any chance of success. Forget comp time, overtime, or even vacation time. In fact, be ready for perhaps the most hellish professional experience known in this country, the daily grind of an entrepreneur.
Our joined path has past beyond the rolling hills and lush meadows, and long, rocky, mountainous, road of treachery awaits. Just like every other stock your 401(k) may own, time no longer has that much value, and neither do privilege or entitlement. Expecting to give all that is needed and more will not happen unless you believe in what you are doing, and that is where the passion needed to grow everyday is so desperately needed to build a mentality of achievement.
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