Pondering What To ‘Be’?

When you were young… really young, your knowledge of, ‘what you could be’ was limited to the careers of the people you came into contact with in real life or story books. There were the jobs your parent(s) held, the people who worked in your neighbourhood, the folks in your Child Care Centre or School, and that was about it.

If you were asked, you probably answered with certainty that you were going to be a Princess, a Construction Worker, a Police Officer, A Doctor or Explorer. With the passing of each year, the circle of people you knew and the jobs they held got bigger. You went different places around town and out of town. You watched television, the school had career days and you met people at campgrounds, playgrounds, parks, museums, fairgrounds and Recreation Centres. You couldn’t possibly have decided to, ‘be’ any of these people when you were a toddler simply because you had no idea the jobs they held even existed.

The same is true for people in their teens and twenties; you gain the knowledge of what people, ‘do’ and the jobs or careers they hold only as you become introduced to them and exposed to their work. So again, if you ask some people in their teens or 20’s what it is they want to do with their working life, they 1) may not know, 2) may think they know or 3) may know. The teacher they become might indeed be what they’ve wanted to become since they first understood what a Teacher was and did, and same for the Firefighter or Construction Worker.

And as with option 2 above, some might definitively tell you what they are working towards, but 5 years later if you caught up with them, their career direction took a right turn somewhere as they gained awareness of some other career that sparked their interest.

The people who don’t know however, are the ones who ironically, get the oddest advice a lot of the time such as, “Well you’d better figure it out soon…you’re 23 after all!” So why is this odd advice? From my point of view, it’s odd because the one thing most of us can agree on is that we want people to hold jobs or careers that they truly love and are passionate about. When someone isn’t sure what they want to, ‘be’, all they’re really saying is that they haven’t had a fire ignite within with respect to a job description. And wouldn’t it be preferable to having them in a job that fires their imagination, brings them happiness and joy, and one that authentically inspires a person who loves what they do?

What people need who are trying to figure it out, are two things: 1) Time and 2) Exposure. A person needs time to find and be exposed to the job or career that’s going to flick the switch. Unfortunately, daily pressures like needing food and rent money often necessitate a person ‘settling’ for a job that doesn’t feed their passion. In my case, it took until I was 42 years old to come to being an Employment Counsellor and Coach. Ah, but what I didn’t know is that the years I spent in other jobs and careers was the very training I needed to excel at this role.

As I’d never needed the services of an Employment Counsellor, I had no exposure to what is involved in the job. None of my relatives, friends or colleagues ever used or talked about what this person does in their work. Yet, I was so much bettere suited to the role in coming to it when I did than I would have right out of school. By my early 40’s, I’d worked in Retail, Pronvicial and Municipal Government, Recreation, Non-Profit / Profits, Volunteered in Entertainment, been self-employed and experienced unemployment and what it took to job search as well as how that unemployment affected my self-esteem. In short, I had life experience which gave me sincere empathy and understanding for what it takes to job search.

So what can YOU do if you’re concerned about someone’s lack of career direction? Support them with patience, expose them to various jobs and careers, encourage them to try a variety of jobs without the pressure to find a 40 year long job that will define their career.

We all get there at some point and a person’s work life might be a single career, a few careers, or a series of jobs in various fields that collectively make up their work life. There’s no guarantee of happiness nor any guarantee of disppointment in any scenario, so don’t presume to know what their personal choice will result in.

Just. Be. Patient.

Explaining The Resume Employment Gap

Understandably, there are a number of people who worry about how to deal with gaps on their resume. The advice most often given is to change from listing your jobs in chronological order to a resume based on your skills and achievements which is a functional resume style. Then there’s the second most often suggestion of using a hybrid
of both styles. The thing is, savvy employers, Hiring Managers and Recruiters
can spot gaps easily so this doesn’t really alleviate the issue.

I have a couple of options to suggest, and I’ve shared these with enough people over the years that I know they actually work, which is comforting if you’re in the this position and want to try proven methods. Hey, what’s worked for others might work for you. The
thing is, you should use a strategy that you feel confident in and that you can
defend well if questioned. So perhaps one of these might work for you.

Firstly, rethink your apprehension about the gap on your resume. This just doesn’t have the same stigma as it did in years past, although I do acknowledge that when it’s
personal, it’s hard not to feel the issue is a huge one. However, there are
many people who have found themselves out of work for reasons beyond their
control, and the large number of people that this affects means that your situation
in the bigger picture might be less of an issue for an employer than you
perceive it to be.

Consider, companies relocate, they downsize, they move in different directions, shift their resources to other departments, divisions and locations. Not every employee can move with the company and many find themselves out of work. Recently in the news, a large
financial organization cut their global workforce and the CBC reported a lost
of some 2,000+ jobs. You can bet those affected now have gaps beginning on
their collective work histories and yet, they have credible explanations to
offer – in other words, situations beyond their individual control.

Consider too the many other reasons for being out of work such as caring for a family member in an end-of-life circumstance, a spouse job relocation requiring the affected person to resign, move and start looking for skill-based employment.

Yes the reasons for being out of work are many and yet so many job seekers fear an employer is really only thinking one thing; “You’re out of work so you must be problematic; I should therefore be cautious about hiring you, especially when there’s so many other
applicants.”

Here’s another strategy that I’ve shared with some job seekers, and again, it will work best if it indeed fits with your specific circumstance. Acknowledge the gap with confidence and share with the company in both an interview and your cover letter that you could have
quickly filled that gap by taking a meaningless job outside your area of
expertise, but your strong integrity wouldn’t exploit a company who hired you
that way. In other words, you refused to go out and get a job you had no
commitment to and would quit when you did find a job in your field, and while
it would have filled the gap, it would have left an employer going through the
hiring process in short order; an employer who showed confidence in hiring you
which you then betrayed by hiring on with no intention of giving them what you
considered their fair value.

So what did you do? You took the time to; stepped back and evaluated your situation at that point, you assessed your existing skills, decided which ones you most wanted to use moving forward. Then perhaps you took a course, completed some training, upgraded your
education, improved your physical fitness, devoted time and focus to repairing
an estranged relationship with a family member, (which is now resolved and
allows you to focus 100% on employment), Perhaps you even enlisted professional
help from an Employment Coach / Counsellor in order to ensure your career path
was truly on tract and now you’re re-energized, you’re focused, you’re authentically
ready to go.

And all the previous paragraph is really about another strategy in dealing with the employment gap. You see, it’s not so much the gap itself but rather, WERE YOU PRODUCTIVE DURING THAT TIME?

So, imagine the scenario where two employees are laid off simultaneously and one putters around the apartment and stagnates. The other takes a few courses – and courses online often can be found at no charge by the way. They also get their First Aid/CPR completed and complete a few projects that have been weighing on their mind and distracting them from focusing 100% on their job. Both are before the employer in the interview stage and while both
are blameless for being unemployed unexpectedly, one has little to say about
how they spent their time and the other has better positioned themselves to
compete. All things being equal…

So my job advice is that IF you find yourself unemployed
now, evaluate what you’re doing to add value to your marketability with respect
to your field and those you’ll compete with. Look at job postings that you can
realistically compete for and see what employers want that you lack.
Investigate the cost of money and time to obtain the courses, training etc.
that they want and take the steps to sign up. You’ll feel better because you’re
accomplishing something and this will aid your mental health too.

The other benefit of being unemployed which may not have occurred
to you is that many people with jobs are unhappy and unfulfilled, and what they
feel envious of are the people who have the TIME to revaluate what they want to
do and sort things out. If you’re the one between jobs now, take advantage of
this time by doing some self-assessment of your interests, skills, abilities
and you may just find that a change of career direction appeals to you for your
next role. If so, you’ll find yourself pursuing something that really interests
you and therefore your level of enthusiasm will improve, you’ll be in a better
state of mind and you might find that smile back that’s been missing.

Find The Right Fit And You Win

Of all the people you know, who’s the one person who knows you best? You. Oh sure you might be inclined to say it’s your partner and yes, I’ll admit my wife knows me exceedingly well given our 37 plus years of marriage. Yet, there are many times in a day when I’m in the company of me, myself and I. At work, in the garden, reading a book, playing the guitar or hey, writing this piece, it’s only me and my thoughts are mine alone.

So you know yourself; your likes and dislikes, the things that inspire, confuse, excite, demoralize, stress and stimulate you. Some people know some of these things about you no doubt, but the only one who knows all of these things about you is you.

I’ve said many times that a terrific thing to undertake is to do an inventory of your strengths, areas to improve, skills, values, morals, motivations, fears, personal characteristics and qualities. If you feel you just, ‘intrinsically know’ all these things, I won’t argue the point. However, if you can’t verbalize your workplace values, define success and measure where you are in relation to it, name 20 of your top skills and provide if asked, demonstrated proof of those skills, you might want to consider getting around to formally documenting these things. But that’s not my point I wish to share here.

What I do want to talk about is not just figuring out what role(s) you want in this life you’re living, but with whom do you want to share your gifts? So if you know you want to be an Electrician, that’s wonderful! However, how much thought do you put into the organization you want to be employed by? If you’re simply going online and applying to a job because the job title matches what you want, that’s not the best way to maximize the odds of being happy in the job should you land there. And despite all the great advice from many Job Coaches and Employment Counsellor’s, many still research the job but not the employer.

That’s kind of like saying, “I want to be married” without putting a great deal of thought into the person you’re going to be with. Come to think of it, I may have inadvertantlly and unintentionally just stumbled on to why we have such high divorce rates. Could be too many people who want to get married rush into things without taking the time to, ‘research’ and get to know their potential life partner. Of course, there are people who figure marriage is a two to three year commitment and then move on just like some people do with jobs.

3 things are needed to be ultimately happy career-wise; a job you love, having the skills and expertise to do it well and thirdly, the pay that makes the job one you can afford to work at as it fulfills your financial needs. That first one though – a job you love – isn’t only the role but includes the organization with whom you partner.

Some people make the mistake of believing they have the right job, then finding out that it’s not what they thought it was all about, they change careers and choose something new. Sadly, I’ve often found that the peson knew themselves well enough to pick the right job or career, but they make the mistake of believing that one bad experience with one employer was representative of all other simililar job titles with other employers.

You may find for example that one company instructs all their Electricians to get in and get out asap when on a job in order to maximize the number of jobs they bill for in a day. This might leave you the front-line employee and Electrician running from job to job feeling very little satisfaction. On the other hand, another company might want their employees to complete work while encouraging their Electricians to interact with customers and explain what they are doing, how to avoid future overloads and promote electrical safety in the home or workplace. Both strategies could make the company the same funds. One billing for 8 jobs but less time with each customer and the other billing for 5 jobs but for more time with each.

As the Electrician, you might find yourself with a preference for one environment or what we call workplace culture. It’s not that the job or career was wrong, it’s possibly the job or career was a good fit but the employer wasn’t. Two different ways of operating and two different types of people will fit. One is task-focused employee and the other a mixture of task and desire to educate using their people skills.

Okay so what about you? Are you in the right job but perhaps working in the wrong environment? Considering the length of years you have left to work, you’ve got to calculate the cost of remaining a round peg in a square hole, or finding a round hole that fits what you’re after. Again, get the job you’re great at, that pays well, and that you love, and you win! You’re happiness hangs in the balance.

Heading Back And Moving Forward

When the Covid-19 pandemic first starting gaining traction and gaining world-wide awareness, I recall resolving to abstain from blogging about it. First and foremost, I felt it was so prominent in the news, that this coupled with social media adding to the information already out there could potentially create fatigue in readers saturated with too much on the receiving end.

Now however, as many organizations recall or prepare to transition their staff back to workplaces, I feel the climate might be right for a read. While many have talked about a return to what once was deemed, ‘normal’, I personally rather feel that our, “getting back to work” might look very different. I’m just not sure in all cases if what becomes our new, ‘normal’ will be recognizable as what we’ve experienced and how we’ve gone about work in the past. 

It is clear that some businesses were forced to adapt how they moved their services and products into the hands of their customers. For many, this meant creating webpages, learning how to conduct transactions online, discovering anew how to market themselves and yes, go find their customers who in the past were the ones finding them. For many, I gather this was not such a bad thing whatsoever. In fact, some business owners have said they knew the need was there to explore online marketing or sales, and the pandemic gave them the push needed to adapt rather than fold.

Employees who were fortunate to keep their jobs during the worst days of the pandemic had in many respects, the greatest adjustments to make. For those who worked in the community in face-to-face contact with the public, their customers or clients and guests, this meant using personal protective equipment. Where that used to conjure up images of someone in a nuclear power plant or working in a lab, it meant ordinary folks were donning masks, face shields, using hand sanitizer frequently, refraining from getting within 6 feet of others, and sneezing into crooked elbows and all the while refraining from touching their faces. Did you notice just how often we reflexively touch our faces?

For the employees who suddenly found themselves working from home, there too was adjustments. There were Zoom, Teams, Skype and Ring Central Meetings to learn about. There were webinars and online team meetings to attend, renovations to be made so space became private and business appropriate. There were children passing in and out of camera views, tails of cats suddenly walking by online and dogs heard barking off screen who needed to be taken out and let back in. A knock on the door became a true event of curiosity and excitement; after all, we were in the belly of a pandemic and people just weren’t supposed to be out and about.

Some business thrived though. Courier vehicles delivering packages started making more than the odd appearance – dare I say daily as I observed. Amazon and Wayfair simply buzzed with activity and many chose to avoid going in supermarkets altogether and simply ordered their food in advance and waited in their vehicles for personal shoppers to bring out their purchases. That $3 or $5 fee for the service might have initially seemed an extravagance, but compare that to the many dollars saved when not buying impulse items. Personal Shoppers and Covid Checkers outside businesses were jobs that came about only because of the pandemic.

And now, we contemplate or have already begun the business of returning to work. How are you feeling about that transition? I remember John, Paul, George and Ringo first singing all those years ago, “Get back! Get back! Get back to where you once belonged.”  Odd how we might feel trepidation or anxiety the first few times we get back. The problem is that some people will immediately revert to handshakes and hugs while others will be cautious and adhere to social distancing. What do you do when someone shouts your name and walks over briskly with their arms open wide? What do you do if you’re the one looking for a hug and a previous hugger suddenly holds up a hand and says, “Whoa! What are you thinking?” 

And this is where Management teams have to assert themselves and both educate their workers as well as set the standards themselves. If and when people ignore the health standards and requirements, just like any other health and safety offence, a conversation and/or discipline has to follow. 

Maybe that’s the understanding we all have to have; right now, shaking hands, hugging, choosing not to wear your mask properly – these are similar to not wearing your steel-toed boots or tying off your safety harness. The only difference being you get in a nail in your own foot or you fall and kill yourself. When you don’t wear your mask or don’t respect distancing, you potentially harm not only yourself, you potentially harm co-workers, their families and anyone they come into contact with. 

People’s feelings are to be respected and are valid, no question. When one’s beliefs don’t align with others, in this instance you turn to science and experts; not the kind you find in a random online search, but subject matter professionals. 

When back in the workplace, my hope for us all is that we feel safe, secure and respected; whatever our new normal becomes.

When Did You Give Up On Your Dream?

Hang on a second. If you think I’m going to admonish you for giving up on something which at one point at least, you really wanted, well, that’s not going to happen. Why would I do that? There’s no gain in it for me and as for the reasons why you gave up on something, well that’s entirely your business. Your reasons are your reasons and the life you’re leading is entirely yours to live as you choose. I for one, hope it’s going well.

But it’s likely that you did give up on some – and here’s the word we have to substitute to fit your circumstances – thing, where, or body. Okay to spell it out, it’s likely that you did give up on something, somewhere or somebody. It’s just straight mathematical probability. After all, you’ve been on this earth how long? And considering that length of time, it’s probable that you believed in something you held dear, somewhere you promised yourself you’d like to get to for a visit or to live. And it’s likely that during all this time you’ve been on this planet, you believed in somebody; someone you may have eventually come to doubt, somebody you no longer believe in. That somebody might even just be you.

Oh we’ve all got reasons you know; responsibilities came along, we had to grow up, we had to settle down, people told us to be practical. We might have failed a few times in whatever we were aspiring for, or saw the frailty of human spirit in those we’d once held high.

When you had that dream of roaming around the country with that free spirt of yours it was a different time. Man, you were young back then and had a lot fewer things to hold you down when you think of it. You had the whole world in your hands – well – that’s what people told you. “You can do anything my boy!” “Why young lady, just dream and make it happen!” Ironically much of this kind of advice came from people who felt similarly at one point in their own lives but never quite lived up to their own dreams and visions. But you, well, back then they looked at you through envious eyes and tried to merge their acquired wisdom with your youthfulness and hoped it would set a fire to your ambitions, whatever they may be.

And dream you did. For some it was a job as an Astronomer, traveling the world for others or a big house with a wrought iron black fence and electronic entry gate. Maybe it was believing in your own children, your parents as ideal role models, a political candidate you honestly believed was going to revolutionize the free market. You believed! But; and it’s a huge but, you evolved and grew up and as you grew, you felt entlightenment and wisdom to put away your previous dreams and replace them with new ones. The new ones weren’t like the old ones though. These new dreams were more sensible, obtainable, rational and achieveable. By reducing the magnitude of what they were and the difficulty in making them come true, your own sense of accomplishment came naturally.

Yet every so often, something you hear, see, feel, touch or taste reminds you of those past things you gave up on. Just a gentle prod mind you; not enough of a push to get you all riled up and making a major life change to recapture that urge to make your dreams of past days come true. No, just a delicate brush of remembrance so you know what’s past.

We do evolve and grow. As we interact with more people, see new things and experience the world in new ways for the first time it is only natural to move on and make different choices. When we look back, it’s not with regret all the time. No, sometimes we just realize that in those moments of decision, we made choices which we deemed the best, given the knowledge we had in those moments.

When we first dreamed of what we wanted to be in life, we were in our infancy, playing Fireman, Doctor and Teacher. No child of two ever happily played at being Arborist or Meterologist. Those play figures just don’t exist and those occupations have yet to even come into such a childs’ consciousness. To give up on those career aspirations of Fireman, Doctor and Teacher is normal as they become replaced with others. No guilt felt in replacing those dreams by the majority.

Dreams can be sources of inspiration, give us hope and motivate us to movement. The one thing I hope you never come to give up on of course is yourself.

I encourage you to live not in the present bemoaning the choices and unrealized dreams of the past, but rather live in the present moving towards your future dreams. If you’ve got some dreams, well good for you! Go for them. If people say you should get your head out of the clouds and come down to earth, giving up on your dreams, it’s really up to you whether you follow that advice or your heart.

Some thing, some place, some one or yourself. Don’t give up on them lightly. But of course if you do, you’ve got your reasons.

 

Orientation, Training and Continous Development

If you’ve worked at more than one organization over your lifetime, think back on what it was like in the first few days and weeks as you transitioned into those workplaces. It’s probable that you’ve had very different experiences.

Some organizations actually put very little thought and effort into training their new employees. They may introduce you to the other workers and set you up with one person to job shadow while you learn on the job. The belief some employers have is that you learn best by doing, so you’re right in the thick of it from day one and those that learn fastest stick around while those who don’t, don’t.

And to be fair, it’s not always that they don’t put thought and effort into their training. It’s sometimes the case that the business is small, there is no Human Resources department, there’s just the owner, one or two others and so you’re thrown right into the deep end with the hope you learn to swim. You watch them as they work and they explain things as they go. They expect you to model what you see and if you’re the kind of person that likes to jump right in and learns best by doing, you appreciate the opportunity.

Contrast this with the experience of joining a large corporation where there exists not only a Human Resources department, but also corporate trainers and managers who have the time to sit down with you removed from the front line, where you go over policies and procedures. In these kinds of organizations, your orientation and training looks completely different, lasting not just days or weeks but stretching into months.

The biggest single difference from the vantage point of you as an employee, is the expectation from the employer on when you are to be 100% productive. While a small, two or three person operation expects you to be up to speed and doing the job fully on your own in days, a large governmental organization invests considerable time training it’s employees and they’ll be slowily integrated into the job sites over time.

From your point of view as a potential new employee, you might find that asking about company orientation and training is a good thing. So too is the question about just how long they give you before expecting you to be working independently and giving them a full return on their investment. Knowing an employers expectations of you and your own learning capabilities, you’ll be able to best assess just how steep or gradual the learning curve is going to be in your new role.

It’s one thing to know you’ve got a few months to learn the scope of a job and quite another to be told you’ve got the morning to job shadow someone and then you’re expected to work alongside them in an equal capacity. From my own experience, I remember once working for an employer where 60 of us went through orientation and training together and it lasted six month’s. During that time, we all learned together in a classroom setting with various trainers and guest facilitators. We had a few days of job shadowing woven into those six months, but we were largely in isolation, going through thick manuals sheet by sheet.

By way of contrast, I recall a job working in retail where I had two shifts with the owner of the business and then I was told I’d be working on my own. Whether this was a testament of my ability to learn quickly or they had other priorities I’ve no idea, but there I was on shift number 3, alone and responsible for their entire business as the only employee on site.

Generally speaking, I’ve personally found that it takes a full year to learn a job completely. What I mean by this is that there is often certain tasks and responsibilities that come up during some parts of a year that you can’t experience until they come about. Doing inventory for example in a large department store might be scheduled three or four times a year, and some organizations operate very differently around tax season or year-end than they do during other periods in the business cycle. Yes, you may find it’s only after a full year on the job that you come to understand the full scope of the job you’ve landed.

Unfortunately for some or you reading this, you may have found that while a business owner excelled at doing their thing, they didn’t have had the well-developed skills as a trainer and mentor.  This shouldn’t be surprising really, given that just because a person is great at one thing doesn’t mean they are an expert in all things. As a consequence, you may have been left to largely figure things out on your own when you’d expected to be shown how to best do the job, complete with guidance and support.

Not all businesses have extensive new employee training, nor do all invest in continually developing their workforce. However, there are many employees who believe in ongoing training and many more who don’t, so it goes both ways. Good advice is to ask about initial orientation and training as well as continous learning and development to ensure a good fit with your own needs.

 

Job Searching? Factor In The Commute

One of the key things to consider when you’re on the hunt for your next position is the distance, time, method and cost of both getting to work and home again. Why more people don’t think about this I don’t know, but getting to and from work is a given as long as you’re employed, so it should be a key consideration. And yet, every so often, I encounter people who interview for a job, receive a an offer of employment and only then turn it down because, “it’s too far”.

The first thing you’re wise to do is remind yourself of your transportation options. If you’re in a metropolitan or urban area, you probably have an option of taking public transit. This can mean subways, buses or trains. If on the other hand you live in a rural area or a small community, none of these may be an option for you. And of course, if you live in an area where there is public transit but you’ve broadened your search to other municipalities or towns, the transportation link you rely on now might not range to another community, leaving you to either pay two separate fares or have to make alternative arrangements. There are taxis to consider as well, but the cost of hiring one on a regular basis isn’t a viable option for most.

Should you own a vehicle, you’re not bound by schedules and routes public transit limits you to, nor does rural or city living limit your ability to get around, but now you have to factor into your decision the cost and availability of parking, gas and ongoing maintenance.

For those who don’t drive, don’t own a vehicle and/or for whom there is no public transit option, your geographical area in which you can work might shrink considerably. You could be limited to walking distance or find yourself reliant on others to drive you to and from work. While the generosity of others might be something to get you going, you may find yourself wanting to eventually change your situation so you become self-reliant, such as obtaining your licence and buying a car.

Let’s assume for a moment that you have a licence and a vehicle. Given you have the means to get wherever you need to be, ask yourself if you’re in favour of a long or short commute. A short commute definitely saves money on gas, reduces your maintenance costs, and the less you travel, the less likely you run the risk of having an accident, encountering delays and you can leave for work later and get home quicker too. However, some people like longer commutes. Driving for an hour for example to get to work gives a person time to catch up on news, listen to music or a podcast, or just unwind a little before walking in the door at work or home.

Time however isn’t the only factor when you map out a potential route to work and back. Considering the nature of that drive is important to your mental health and well-being. There’s a huge difference between 45 minutes spent in bumper-to-bumper traffic on snarled streets with stoplights every block, versus a 45 minute commute on paved country roads where traffic moves at the posted limits all the way. While two people might have an identical commute in terms of distance or time, they may have a completely different experience. The inner city driver may have to be constantly looking in every direction for aggressive drivers, changing lanes to make progress and watch for inattentive pedestrians, while the country driver watches for the progress being made on some farm building they pass or hopes to spot the odd deer or fox.

Costs of commuting is also a factor to consider. If you can ride your bike, walk or jog to work, you’ll appreciate the cost savings of working locally. For slightly longer commutes than you’d like to walk, you might consider an electric bike or scooter which still gives you independence but of course you need to determine what you’ll do during inclement weather or wintery conditions.

If you’re really fortunate, you might find that the boss is willing to swing by and pick you up along with a few other employees at some central location and drive you to rotating job sites. This happens sometimes with construction or road crews. This is very much like a carpool, and carpools are an option for many. While you spend less to get to and from work, you’re no longer in charge of whether you travel in silence (unlikely) or constant conversation (probably). If you like your solitude, this won’t be a happy time for you twice a day.

Of course, if the next job you go after is your dream job, you might consider relocating altogether so you cut the commute down. This is a viable option if the pay is good and the length of employment is long enough to make the move sensible.

Having had one-way commutes of 2 hours for 6 years, 1 hour for 18 years and now having a 4 minute commute, I’ve had both extremes. I like both for different reasons and would never rule a job out simply based on the commute. But that’s me.

What’s your own view?

Career Or Job?

Are you on the hunt for a career or a job? There’s a couple of assumptions here; a) there’s a difference and b) you know the difference.

A career involves employment in a specific field over a period of time, during which you apply the education you’ve achieved. A job on the other hand, is typically shorter-term in nature, undertaken with a goal of gaining experience or money. A job does not always make use of one’s education.

Hang on. Do you buy those two distinctions? Is it as simple as I’ve set it out? If someone walked into a store and applied for a Cashier position, we might say they have a job as a Cashier. It’s not likely we’d agree the person is a career Cashier. However, what if we were to check in with them 9 years later and they are still in the same role? Would we then say the person is working in Retail as a Cashier and has a career? So then does the length of time a person works in a job transform the job into a career?

I don’t know that it really much matters to be honest. Oh I suppose when you’re out at some swanky affair and people invariably ask what you do, it might have social advantages to have a career over a job; well to some at any rate. But both careers and jobs have similarities. Both provide income, both can be rewarding to the people in them, and both can lead to promotions and be of varying length. There is no guarantee that a career will last longer than a job.

That last comment about the length of time one invests in a role might have some in disagreement. Suppose you graduate from University with a degree and take a position with an organization. You were specifically hired in part due to your academic qualifications. I think it fair to say most folks would feel you’ve just launched your career. Said this way, you are at the beginning of your full-time work life and yet, many would also say you’ve landed a full-time job. Perhaps then they are interchangable.

But hold on. Suppose you quit high school in order to take a position with the local lumberyard doing yard clean up and helping customers load their purchases. Again, most folks will say you’ve got yourself a job, but how many would say you’ve just launched your career? Fewer I imagine than the example in the previous paragraph. And yet, if you advanced through the business from yard clean up to Foreman, then moved inside to Sales Representative working with Contractors based on your accumulated experience, then were promoted to head up the Construction and Renovation Sales division, would we then say you’ve carved out a career for yourself? Would people say your’e a career lumber guy or woman?

I’ll tell you this; there are a lot of people holding out for some career to provide them with direction when what they really need is a job. Likewise, there are people searching right now for jobs who would be well-advised to pour their energy into pursuing their careers.

You might think at this point I’m only messing with words and confusing you for the sake of my own amusement. In truth however, there are people – many people – who fret and worry feeling immense pressure to pick a career. Likewise there are people who feel incredible pressue to get a job.

What really distinguishes the two to my way of thinking is how a person perceives them based on their own value system. Let’s make that personal. If YOU hold a career as being more prestigeous and look at jobs as holding less worth, then YOU set yourself up to feel inadequate and underachieving unless YOU are in a career. Then throw in the happiness factor, the I-need-a-career-that-fulfills-me factor and you’ve set yourself up for a high-stress period while you search for a career that will fulfill you and bring you happiness.

But there’s work to be done out there people and the truth is we need people in jobs and careers in order to get it done. Working in the trades as a Plumber, Electrician, HVAC Technician, Carpenter etc. takes job-specific skills and some aquired knowledge to become an expert. Try telling the Electrician she or he holds a job but not a career and I think they’ll beg to differ. Again, it’s about perception.

You likely hold up certain professions as loftier and holding greater value over others. How do you view a Lawyer vs. a Roofer, a Mechanic vs. a Receptionsit, a Truck Driver vs. an Architect? I’ll tell you this; your view may change depending on your need for that individual. When your shingles blow off your roof, you want a career professional up there fixing it, not someone who ‘just’ holds a job.

Think about your own perception of jobs vs. careers and think also about how your values are passed on to those you influence most; your children. While it’s natural to have your own value system, it’s incumbant upon us all to equally respect the values of others, especially if they differ from our own. If we do this, a lot of people would feel less pressure to pick a career, less stigma when considering a job.

Can’t Find The Right Employees?

No one cares more about business success than those who own them. Whether it’s got your actual name attached to it or not, when you’re the one that’s building it up and working hard to deliver products and/or services, you’ve got more at stake than anyone else connected to it. And well you should.

Successful business owners will tell you that they pour more hours into their business than most people realize. Even when they aren’t at work, their thoughts turn to calls they have to make, purchases to be made, people they employ, bills to pay and many other things that go into being a business owner. It’s a 24/7 enterprise when your livelihood is invested in business ownership.

With the above in mind, it makes sense that you’re understandably concerned about hiring the right people to contribute to your business. And while the definition of what is, ‘right’ will vary from one to the next, there are some general characteristics you’re likely to want in the applicants that knock on your door asking to join your workforce. Likely you want people who are dependable, respectful of what you’re working toward and who will act as good ambassadors of your business when they interact with others.

The challenge is how to attract the best of the best and bring them onboard. For some business owners the standard practice is to put an ad on a job board and wait for the resumes to start rolling in. While this might generate applicants, an employer may find they aren’t attracting the right people, and those they hire don’t work out. It’s easy to see that there’s an issue with hiring, but the difficulty may lie in correctly identifying the problem with their hiring processes.

Let’s start with small business owners; maybe you’re one of them. You created this business presumably because you enjoy the work of producing the products you sell or the services you deliver. You’re pretty good at doing the work. As you get better known and word of mouth spreads, you realize you could use a hand. You’re not looking to hire just anyone, but rather someone you can work with who understands and respects what it is you’re in the process of building at this vulnerable point as you establish and grow your business.

Expansion is great, but hold on. You’re expertise is in whatever it is you do. You’re not trained to attract and select talent. It’s not a failing of yours, it’s just not where you’ve spent time developing your skillset. Face it, doing your thing is your thing; employee onboarding, training and employee retention isn’t your area of expertise. So you have a choice in doing it yourself or enlisting the services of a professional organization to help you with your staffing needs.

Many employers do in fact, do things themselves. After all, it’s the entrepreneurial spirit that inspired you to start your business in the first place. As you succeeded in launching it, you figure you have the skills to hire too. It makes sense and I get where you’d feel this way. But consider that the hiring process is going to require your attention and take you away from doing the work you enjoy and are good at.

To attract workers, you just need to put an ad up. To attract the right workers, you need to first identify the personal qualities, education, certifications, experience level, personal presentation, job-specific and transferable skills, availability, and personal suitability you’re looking for. You have to not just know your business, but rather, know the right things to advertise for to attract the right talent and then know the right questions to ask to get the information from the people you select to interview in order to make the right decisions. And even when it comes down to two people, you may not have the skill to select the right candidate. This is no reflection on your ability to successfully operate your business, but rather an acknowledgement that no one is the expert in all areas. Employee onboarding, training and employee retention might not play to your strengths.

Okay, so to the alternative. Working with an organization to attract your talent might be a good idea. But make no mistake. If all you do is have them post your ad, you’re likely to find you have the same issues. It’s important to take some time and communicate with an employment organization just what your business is. Share some of your achievements, what it is you do and what you produce. Tell them what you’re looking for of course, but draw on the professional you work with to help you articulate and label what you’re after.

If you want a person who works well with others, you want someone who collaborates, respects the talents of their coworkers and communicates clearly so wasted time is minimized and production increases which impacts on profitability. You see? Maybe this is what you meant, but your job ad just said, “Teamwork”.

If you haven’t done so, consider working with an employment organization and in true partnership. This business is your baby and you want to grow it with people who ‘get it’. Partnering with professionals brings two experts together – you and them to source and select your new hires.

Investing In The Relationship

The best relationships are the ones in which both partners not only make initial investments in each other, but do so on an ongoing basis. The initial investments come easily to most people; going out of your way to show through your actions that this person means a lot to you. In the early stages of a relationship, there’s a lot to discover about this other person you’re drawn to. You’re on the lookout for the things that please your partner, you put effort into the relationship and you do little things that pay off with a smile brought to their face.

Strong relationships stand the test of time when partners continue to invest in each other. It’s important to realize that as the relationship evolves, so too do the two individuals which make up this partnership. Sometimes couples come to realize that their individual priorities have changed, along with their interests and needs. While each individual person may very well be a good person at heart, this evolution of the individuals involved can divide a relationship to the point where each person moves on in separate directions apart from on another. There’s no issue of blame, no wronged partner; just a parting of the ways, each with a healthy view of the other.

The relationship which exists between employers and employees works much the same. In the beginning, an applicant does their best to get to know a potential employer by doing their research. Then the applicant makes an approach, does their best to capture the employer’s attention and present themselves as a good match. The employer is also doing their best to present themselves as a good partner; dangling benefits, wages, work environment, culture and future growth to woo the applicant.

Once the two come together in an agreement, both employer and employee begin in the honeymoon phase where each invest in the partnership; the employee grateful for the opportunity is on their best behaviour. Employers are doing their best to welcome the new hire into the fold, making introductions all round, providing training opportunities and protecting the new hire from a full workload in the first early days. Both employee and employer check in with each other to see how the relationship is progressing and both want this partnership to be productive and lasting.

Now there’s no specific timeframe for the transition to the post-honeymoon period. A sign of the transition however, is when the newness has rubbed off, the routine of daily tasks is known, the employee has settled in and the employer stops checking in to see how the newbie is doing as a regular thing. Protecting the new hire from a full workload is over and expectations of full performance begin. This doesn’t mean the relationship has soured, it just means the 2nd phase has begun.

Employers show their continued investment in their employees by providing ongoing training, making sure staff have opportunities to develop professionally and acknowledge achievements employees make which enhance the end-user experience. They provide feedback on how they see the relationship, talk about where they as an entity are headed and why, hoping by this transparency, to avoid surprising their staff by moving in any direction that would catch their employees off guard and unawares. In short, the best relationships between employers and employees is where employers demonstrate great care for the staff they employ.

Employees too have a responsibility in this relationship. For the the partnership to continue to be a good one, employees need to pull in the same direction; work with each of their colleagues in order to be collaborative and productive. This can mean learning new procedures, taking on additional training with enthusiasm and continuing to develop as individuals so their skills remain competitive.

Frequently, as employees and employers evolve, the time comes when one of the two realizes that things just aren’t working as well as they once did or could, and a parting of the ways is in each partners best interests. It does not mean that either partner is necessarily to blame or at fault, but rather that they have grown and evolved in different ways, have different needs and their futures will continue to evolve down different paths. In parting, each actually does the other a favour. Only poor employees or poor employers belittle and demean the other – sometimes done from a place of hurt or feeling wronged. Smart employers and employees part on the best of terms which leaves reconciliation a possibility and intersecting in the future in different roles something to look forward to, such as moving to another organization in the same field.

When either partner ceases to invest in the relationship, things stagnate and what can set in is complacency. Employees stop stretching themselves and developing their skills, employers expect to stay competitive in their industry but fail to invest in ongoing training of their greatest assets – the people they employ.

If you apply yourself and do your best, you increase the odds of finding a great partner to build a relationship with. It takes effort, investment in each other and understanding that if you take care of your partner’s needs, you often find they take of yours.

Whatever your role where you work, may you be in a great partnership and get as much as you give.