“I read your column and wonder if you get people like me out of a jam.”
That prompted my curiosity and I asked her to describe, “people like me”.
“People who are so lost they don’t know where to start. I’m a college graduate and I can’t believe I’m earning minimum wage in a dead-end job. I’m stuck, and I want to know if you can get me out of this mess.”
Her tone was strident, and as she punched each word though the telephone, she continued.
“I have a liberal arts degree that didn’t prepare me for work, parents who keep saying ‘I told you so’, and a dog that just ruined the sofa that I borrowed from my aunt, who will probably disown me when she finds out. Can you get me out of this mess?”
I explained that career counselors ask questions, provide assessments, clarify issues, offer perspective, give counsel, discuss strategy, and outline tactical approaches for job and career search. It’s up to their clients to decide which, if any, behaviors they’re willing to change, and actions they’re willing to take. Bottom line, she’d have to doing things differently if she wanted a better outcome.
I offer her lament, with her permission, as description of one that you or someone you know may be experiencing as well.
The issue: You feel lost and don’t know where to begin in your search for something better than the place you find yourself.
The goal: To know what you want, where you’d want to work, and what you have capacity for doing best.
The rules: Be flexible, proactive, and responsive; know your goal, set your objectives, readjust as you go, and keep your eye on the prize.
The process: If you don’t know what you do best, get help, now. If you prefer to kick- start your thinking by reading, you can find books and career interest/vocational surveys on line, in bookstores and libraries. If you’re overwhelmed by the number and variety and don’t know where to direct your attention, get free, human assistance: ask librarians to direct you toward the appropriate titles and sources.
Once you’ve gotten a handle on what makes sense for you, based on your innate strengths, learned skills, and potential for development, you’re either ready to launch your search or ready to talk to someone about how to launch it. You can find those folks in private practice (look for Career Coaches/Counselors), and if you’re a student, in the career or guidance office of your respective schools.
If you’re more extraverted and want to think by talking, find the right people for the right reasons. To maximize your time and that of others, and the probability that your discussion will yield a positive outcome, talk and listen to people who know you, are willing and interested in knowing more about you, who are savvy to the world of work and the necessities and intricacies of job search and willing to offer you their candid perspective.
Network, network, network. Once you understand what you do well, or have aptitude for but limited experience doing, find people who currently have the job you’d want. If you don’t know who they are, network your way toward them and when you get there, make the most of the time you have together by asking their advice for making the transition.
Changing career direction or finding the right job after a string of wrong ones may require additional schooling, apprenticeships, and working your way up from ground level. It’s not the stuff of miracles, chance meetings, or sheer luck. It takes hard work and daring to meet the right people to ask the right questions to take the right actions. And it’s worth it.
