Category: Jobs & Recruiting

You may be a high-ranking executive, or someone who is still working his or her way up the corporate ladder, or perhaps you are just trying to break into the business. Wherever your position on the career chain, you may now or in the future be in a position where you have to navigate the politics of your work environment. Knowing how to maneuver in a complicated system holds the same challenges whether you are a veteran or a newbie in the business.

If you feel like a hopeful nominee, a reluctant runner up or a cocky winner, stand in line because your job search is a far cry from the glitz and glamour of The Oscars. You may feel like you have to dress the part or at least give good face to the crowds who are cheering you on. But, inside your stomach churns in tangled nervous knots and you wonder how you got here and whether being in the job spotlight is such a good thing.

Remember when you felt secure and comfortable knowing that you were on the right career path, confident that the job you held was going to hold you long into retirement. Well, wake up now, that dream was a good one while it lasted.

It’s never too late to begin your job search BEFORE you graduate! You may be thinking I have MONTHS to decide where I’m going to work. Guess again. If you are only thinking about this now, you are actually very LATE FOR YOUR IMPORTANT JOB DATE! It’s not that we don’t love you but, you really do need to get in gear if you are thinking you are going to want to do more than hit the movies, video game stores or soak it up on the beach come May or June.

Sometimes you find yourself in situations where the choices are limited and you have to do what you have to do to survive. But finding something you love in what you do, even if it’s not your primary choice, helps to guide you towards living a meaningful and fulfilling career no matter what your job title is. How you find your drive, passion, potential no matter what your job is today is key to living and finding your best career

As you know if you have been reading my blogs, I don’t typically write about myself. It’s that time of year for reflection I guess and I thought to share of my own personal background and experience. As we ponder our career choices in life, we usually are faced with making decisions about our life’s path as we graduate college and enter the work force or sometimes opportunities present themselves even earlier in life.

...or so it seems. Timing, timing and more timing. Like the old biological clock that ticks for some and tocks for others, your job search like the waxing and the waning of the moon, is subject to timing, divine or otherwise. Knowing that patience is the name of the game when it comes to waiting for the right opportunity to come along does not always make the wait any easier or any faster. For some of us, waiting for the right job is as they say like watching paint dry, for the rest, it can be as quick as someone running the course through a speed dating session. Your job search does not have to be an ordeal, 127 hours of waiting for help that never comes….

Everyone knows we are in a down economy. Just because you empathize with the state of the economy, does not mean you should forfeit your worth or value when it comes to what someone is willing to pay you. So many of you think that you may have made a certain salary, earned a certain income level in the past and you can’t or don’t deserve to ask for the same amount of money now. What’s changed? Have you gotten less experience over the years? Have you depreciated in value? Just because you may not have worked in awhile or are trying it on your own for a change, doesn’t mean you are worth any less?

When you feel like your job track has been all over the place and you’ve been running the relay like the Long Beach Grand Prix, it’s time to figure out how many laps you’ll need to get to the finish line. When you are not sure where you are headed other than the circles you keep running, it’s time to course correct your career and get yourself moving in the right direction.