Having recently found myself on the short end of the employment stick, I am once again on the job hunt. As a card-carrying member of Generation X, I have been here before, and to be honest, I foresee being here again.
It’s not that I think I’ll trample toes and be let go, or get “downsized” or be an unfortunate budget cut (been there, there and even there); it’s simply that I have occupational ADD and am constantly looking over my shoulder for what could be the next best thing. You could say I’m somewhat of a “the cubicle is always greener” kind of guy. And I’m not alone.
Over the years I’ve noticed more and more friends and acquaintances changing career paths the way J.Lo changes fiances; accountants who became yoga instructors, programmers who became painters, and lawyers with delusions of becoming the next Ansel Adams. This 180-degree turn in their life’s pursuits is often a result of burnout or some sort of personal epiphany. Interestingly enough, it’s usually a move from a logical, left-brained occupation to something inherently artsy.
The freedom of expression is wonderful, but the diminishing pay scale is a bit of a reality check.
It’s not a stretch to say people will change careers at least three times during their lives. Not jobs, but careers. And in today’s economy, more people are fighting for fewer jobs. According to the latest mind-numbing facts and figures from the Department of Labor, unemployment is down for older workers (55+), but up for those in the postcollegiate, premid-life crisis age range (which is great for my dad, but not so much for me). Although the market shows signs of improvement from the great “pfffft” that was post-9/11, it’s still a Sisyphean task to land a new gig.
Job hunting in today’s economy is much more involved than simply throwing your resume around and hoping for a miracle–trust me, I’ve tried that approach to varied degrees of success. There are entire cottage industries based around helping others find employment and, in turn, find themselves. To be an attractive candidate for a job, you need to be truly prepared for battle.
Bracing myself for the grueling campaign ahead, I decided to get some professional advice. Acting on a tip from a friend who had recently been through all of this, I spoke with Connie Wolf of Sounding Board in Scottsdale, Ariz. Wolf is a professional coach and employment consultant who specializes in helping people achieve their potential by realizing where their skills and heart lie. She opined that introspection was critical to the process, to which I smiled and thought of the numerous hours I had spent contemplating how to land myself a weekly column in a hip, entertaining publication.
Wolf confirmed that, in her experience, roughly one out of three of her clients fell into the 180-degree-turn category. Another interesting trend she noted was the emergence of (generally) older, disenfranchised workers who decided to quit bitching about their boss and choose to simply bitch at themselves. Entrepreneurs, we call them. I was once an entrepreneur, managing bands and promoting concerts in Boston. Unfortunately, I managed to deplete my funds before launching any of my acts into musical superstardom.
Since I’m not quite financially or emotionally ready for the responsibility of running my own enterprise again, I’m back out on the open market hawking my wares to the highest bidder. Hell, let’s be honest, to any decent bidder.
As they say, “life’s a journey.” I guess I’m just maxing out my CTA card.
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greg(underscore)rolnick@yahoo.com
Edited by Lara Weber (lweber@tribune.com) and alBerto Trevino (atrevino@tribune.com)
