Career Opportunities with Douglas E. Welch

It never occurred to me that leaving my computer consulting business would be such a dramatic change. Sure, I have quit jobs in the past, but closing your consulting business or transitioning it into a new business as I am, is unlike quitting any single job. You find yourself quitting each and every client individually which is like quitting 100 or more jobs, one after the other in a process that can take months, or even, years. There is no easy way to do it.  Listen to this Podcast Books by Douglas E. Welch      Throughout this process, you will experience many emotions. You may be fearful about your new direction, but your clients will also be fearful and maybe even angry that you will no longer be available. Some will have come to rely deeply on you and your skills and will be unsure if some other consultant can provide them the level of service they expect and desire. No one really likes change and being forced to change can cause a lot of stress. This stress can cause them to lash out. Be aware of this and be ready to help your clients through the process. That said, don’t postpone or stop your transition. Once you have decided to move forward in your career, it is very important that you continue with the process. You have to do what you think best for yourself and your career. Breaking the bonds Much like stopping smoking or trying to diet, going “cold turkey” is often the only way to move forward with large changes. Sure you’ll have to finish projects for some clients and start referring clients to someone new, but breaking from your existing business is a slow and arduous process. As I said earlier, it is not like you can hand in your resignation and be done. You have to “resign” from all your clients, both large and small. On some days, it might feel like the process may never end, but I can assure it does. It just takes some time. For both your benefit, and the benefit of your clients, establish a schedule that allows you to transition out of your consulting role in several clearly defined steps. First, announce your transition to existing clients. Lay out your timeline for transition and provide any referrals that you can. Referrals are important, as many clients will quickly transition to that person or business, freeing up time to focus on your transition. More importantly, explain that -- starting immediately -- you will no longer be taking on any new clients. It is better to stop that flow immediately. Next, give your clients a firm date when you will no longer be available to them. Your clients need to clearly understand that they need to find a new consultant, or in-house staffer, sooner instead of later. You need to be focusing on your new role, not servicing your original clients. As mentioned above, some clients will transition immediately, wish you the best in your new career and move on. Others will drag their feet and continue to call on your for support. This is probably inevitable, but in the worst cases, there will come a time when you will have to stop returning their calls. Do everything you can to move on. Just stop Finally, when the time comes, you need to stop. It can be tempting to keep working for some clients. You may want the extra money or you might simply want to help those clients who haven’t made the transition yet. All these can be worthwhile reasons, It can also slow your transition to your new role - taking your time and attention from where it is needed most. Don’t fall into this trap. If necessary, think of these consulting clients like past jobs. You wouldn’t continue working for your old employer in a typical job situation, so you shouldn’t continue working for old clients. Hopefully, your transition will be easy, but in some cases it can be immensely difficult. People may be angry at you for “leaving them in the lurch” and feel abandoned by you. You may be fearful over your own transition and the challenge of finding new clients, learning new skills,

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Part of any great career, regardless of industry, focus or technology, is the ability to remember what it was like to not know something. As we gain knowledge and skills in our work, we can come to think of others as ignorant and clueless, if not outright stupid. This is a danger zone for any careerist as it leads to arrogance, hubris and -- in many cases -- obnoxious behavior. We can begin to think we are the smartest folks in the room and everyone else is an idiot. Of course, it only takes one bad day, one bad project, one bad result to bring us crashing back to reality. Listen to this Podcast   One-To-One Career Consulting with Douglas E. Welch   Now available exclusively to Career Opportunities readers and Listeners. Click for more information and pricing It is always important to remember that our co-workers, managers and freelance clients are rarely ever stupid. Rather, they are simply unacquainted and unfamiliar with the work they hired you to do. They know they need it done, but they also know they lack the skills to make it happen. This is a point in their favor. They are practicing the great rule of knowing what they don’t know and seeking out your assistance. That is never to be taken lightly. For example, in a recent project I was asked to record and produce a series of interviews for a client. Their original thought was to record each subject, individually, in their homes or offices, over the course of one day. Hearing this, Some consultants might have said to them, “Are you crazy or just stupid? Do you know the work involved in setting up lighting and sound equipment, recording, tearing down and moving to a new location only to reset it all and tear it all down again?” The answer is, no they did not know. They don’t do this for a living and had no deep understanding of the work involved. This isn’t their area of expertise and frankly, they probably didn’t need to know this information to do their job. Remember, this is why clients call you. To our credit, we didn’t respond in the way above, but rather saw this as an opportunity to educate and help them develop the project they wanted without blowing out our energy and their budget. We explained how it would be much easier to bring the people to a central location over the course of a few days so we could do one setup and teardown, but still record between 4-6 interviews in each session. Once we explained the logistics of such a project, they immediately saw how much easier -- and yet more productive -- this approach would be. Until we took the time to explain the process and procedures involved, they really had no idea what they were asking. Again, this didn’t come from a place of stupidity, but rather a lack of understanding of the steps that led to the finished product they had in their mind. This is so typical when developing projects either internally or working as an outside consultant. Your clients see the finished product in their mind, but they may have no idea of all the work and preparation needed to get there. This is where your knowledge, skills and ability to educate become so very important. If you don’t have the ability to see beyond what you might think of as a “stupid question” you risk losing the entire project. That fact is, I often describe myself as being an non-traditional educator. Everything I do, in all my work, involves some sort of education. I just don’t spend that much of my time in what would be considered a traditional classroom. Rather I tend to work one-to-one with partners, co-workers and clients, teaching them skills and helping them move forward with their own abilities. Great teaching -- and great work -- does not come from a place of arrogance. It comes from a deep understanding of both my own skills and the needs of my clients. They need to understand. They need to learn. They need to be made to feel comfortable and safe so they can take the risks of learning new skills and, in some cases,

There is a wealth of career advice and information available today via books, television and the Internet. Most is given in the sincere hope of improving the lives of others. It is important to draw on this advice to improve your life and career whenever possible. I am constantly reading reams of material every week, looking for ideas to keep my career on track. Despite all that, there can be a dark side to career advice if you don't think deeply and clearly about the advice you decide to implement. The truth is, when faced with an expert, a guru, a respected member of our industry, we run the danger of accepting every thought, every rule, every idea as fact. Self-growth isn't about accepting every idea unconditionally, though. It is much more important to find ideas that hold a resonance for us, personally. Even with the most knowledgeable experts, not every concept will be a gem. It is up to you to sort the wheat from the chaff, whether expert advice comes from a renowned speaker, a book or the Internet. Listen to this Podcast  Books by Douglas E. Welch    The Rules Of all the advice given by experts, including yours truly, I first turn my critical eye to any hard, unbreakable rules. Advice that uses words like "must" and "never" is suspect to me and deserves special attention. It is a rare piece of advice that remains true forever. Rules, if they are useful at all, are fleeting. Work, business and your career change in substantial ways every day. Rules that might have been applicable today, could be obsolete tomorrow. While experts seek to find the universal truths in their areas of expertise, the world does not stand still. Any attempt to assign unbreakable rules will eventually fail. The world has a way of rendering much obsolete, even when created by some of our best thinkers. Who would have thought 30 years ago that CEOs would regularly dress in turtlenecks and polo shirts to give some of the biggest speeches of their lives?From the gut There is another phenomenon which is especially disheartening. Sometimes, when taking advice, we will start to ignore our own best instincts, our own "gut level" reactions. Regardless of how we receive advice, or from whom, if that advice goes against our own basic instincts, we will fail to implement that advice properly. It is impossible to whole-heartedly follow a plan of action if we don't believe in that action to our very core. We may try to fool ourselves into believing, but our instincts will always win out in the end. The most likely reason we don't believe is that our instincts are telling us the advice is flawed, even if we can't consciously put our finger on the reason why. I am sure you have felt it before; that creeping sense of uncertainty; that gnawing sense of doubt. These are warning signs and should be observed as such. There is some missing piece that needs to be discovered and analyzed. Maybe the advice isn't a good fit for your company. Maybe it goes against some personal ethical belief. Maybe it has simply become obsolete in today's work world. Whatever the reason, when you have doubts, you must explore them and quiet them before you ever try to implement new advice. If not, you will end up sabotaging your own efforts in the most subtle of ways. The Trap There is one final trap when taking advice from friends, managers or experts. If you are not careful, they can end up running, and possibly ruining, your career. When we begin to accept advice unconditionally, we give up control. We let others take over the direction and speed of our career. This often means that someone else is leading you to a destination they desire more than you do. Without thinking critically about advice, there is a danger that your decisions can become a series of automatic responses that serves no one well. You might sense yourself on this track if too much of your life is taken up with defending a particular expert, concept or way of life.

Over my years as a freelance computer consultant, I've heard many stories of workers who have difficulty getting paid for their work. There can be disagreements about whether a project has been completed, claims of cash-flow problems or even, at the worst, simple fraud. Sometimes companies or individuals can be slow to pay invoices or, when they grudging pay, complain about the quality of your services. There are, it seems, a myriad ways to not get paid for your work. After talking with my peers about payment problems, it seems I have had it easy. Where they might have experienced several issues with payment, I might have had one. It seems that, often, payment issues have more to do with how we do business, rather than any particular type of client. Listen to this Podcast  Books by Douglas E. Welch    Over the years, I have found that part of the secret of getting paid is to act like you expect to be paid. This might sound a bit odd, but I have seen workers who are not confident in their work and offer a host of apologies and excuses, even when they are completing the assigned task in a better than average fashion. They don't have respect for their own work, and this spills over, often unconsciously, to their clients. This makes it easy for clients to request change after change without additional payment. These clients will often let invoices sit unpaid for weeks or months, considering others more worthy of payment. In the worst cases, it may take threats of legal action or more to get paid. If you want to get paid, reliably, for your work, there are a few guidelines that you need to follow. * State your rate, confidently, at the beginning of the relationship Make sure that your clients know your rates and payment requirement before performing any work. Nothing is worse that having a client question your rate after you have already performed significant work. You may never see the payment for that work, even if the client has benefited significantly. Don't apologize for your rates, either. There will always be those who cannot afford your rate, especially as you gain experience. In many cases, the only resource you have to sell is your time and your knowledge. Discounting your rate either shows a lack of confidence in your own work or a belief that you have mis-priced your work. * Carefully specify projects, deliverables, change order processes and payment plans If you are working on a long-term project, your project plan must contain a detailed account of deliverables, and the payments associated with those deliverables. Payments should be on-going, at regular intervals. A detailed change-order process should be in place to allow changes as the project develops, but also provide payment plans for this additional work. It might sound like an enormous amount of work, but if you launch a project without carefully specifying your rates, payments and change order process, you are almost guaranteed to lose money. You are setting yourself up for disagreements over the original specification, the change orders and even whether the project is complete in everyone's mind. * Don't extend credit until a relationship is established In my own business, I ask for payment at the end of each service call, either by check or cash. As I develop a relationship with the client, especially in small business environment, I might eventually move them to a monthly statement. I only do this, though, once they have established the ability, and desire, to pay. To be honest, since I always apply the 2 previous guidelines in all my work, this is usually not an issue. Those clients who show any issues with payment are quickly abandoned. There is no reason you should have to deal with payment issues. It only saps the strength of your business and damages your own confidence in your work. The final truth is, payment problems in our businesses are usually of our own making. If we don't price our services correctly,

Many people like to think that there is work and there is play and there is never any crossover between them. We do “work” to earn money to pay for our food, our clothing, our houses. We “play” to escape our work and have fun. I was reminded this week,...

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Looking busy at work is a fine art form that has been honed over decades and centuries of workers and companies. Regardless of how much your thinking actually impacts your productivity, if you don't "look busy" management is sure to come calling. The result of all this effort is something I call "work theater." It has all the outward appearance of work, but very few benefits to you or your company. Unfortunately, it seems that every job today requires some work theater, just to stay employed. Listen to this Podcast  Like Career Opportunities on Facebook As with other red flag events I have mentioned in past columns, when the amount of work theater in your life starts to outweigh your actual work, it is time to consider a change. Perhaps you simply need to change your attitude about work. Maybe you are under-employed in your current position and need something more challenging. If your management i values looking busy, more than giving you the tools to actually get something done, perhaps you need to change departments or find another company. Whatever the reason, don't waste your time and energy on looking busy. Find a way to re-direct it towards something that will increase your knowledge, your prestige or your salary. What's in it for...everyone? Moving beyond work theater holds benefits for everyone. Personally, it can lead to better self-esteem and better opportunities. No matter how much we might pretend, we know when we are not doing a good job. We know when we are looking busy and we often worry about getting caught. Isn't it better to re-engage with your work, than spend all your time worrying about looking engaged enough in it? First, what has become tedious or onerous about your job? Is it boring? How can you make it less so? Is it difficult? How can you make it easier? Is it useless? Then why are you doing it at all? That can be a difficult question to face, but the truth is, many of us are engaged in useless work. Whether it is pushing around pieces of paper or moving dirt from one pile to another, we often lack meaning in our work. If you can't find meaning in your work then you should be looking for work that you can care about. I believe that meaningless work is one of the major curses of workers today. How many invoices can you file? How many times can you re-install Windows? How many times can you put together the same fast-food burger? How does this work effect those around you? How does it effect the world? Next, removing work theater from the workplace dramatically increases a company's productivity and profitability. When management focuses on external productivity measures instead of hard numbers, work theater explodes. Help desk workers create trouble tickets for every 30 second call, so that "the reports look good" at the end of the week, month or quarter. Hundred page reports are created to report a simple change in policy. Presentations are labored over and take all day to present even when circumstances have changed so radically that they no longer have meaning. If you force people to look busy, that is exactly what they will do. So much effort will go towards work theater that little will remain for actual work. Finally, bringing down the curtain on work theater benefits mankind. We have all seen how dedicated and focused efforts can cure deadly disease, build great civilizations and even put men on the moon. Would those events ever have occurred if those involved were more interested in looking busy than being productive? Of course not! It is only by stripping work to its bones that we find the power to do great things. Whenever bureaucracy, micromanagement and pettiness have their way, we demonstrate the worst of human nature. You only have to look to the recent spate of failed technology projects at the FBI and other governmental organizations. Too many masters, with too many goals and too much time leads these projects down the road to disaster.

Of all the features of a successful career, an abundance of supportive family and friends is high on the list. Life itself is enough of a struggle. Without the support of those around you, you will find it difficult to learn and grow in your life and your career. That said, supportive family and friends aren’t always to be found naturally. You may have to create, cultivate and convince them of how important their support can be in your life. In some desperate cases, you may find that those who should be the most supportive aren’t -- or can’t be -- for a variety of reasons. Understanding these reasons -- and the people around you -- can help you to overcome those situations and better recognize those who truly have your better interests at heart. Listen to this Podcast   One-To-One Career Consulting with Douglas E. Welch   Now available exclusively to Career Opportunities readers and Listeners. Click for more information and pricing Supportive family and friends are so important in our careers because we risk much when we enter the adult, work world. We risk being judged. We risk failure. We risk embarrassment and we even risk the discovery that we have chosen the wrong work or the wrong career. As you all know, career building can be stressful, so we need those people in our lives who can comfort us when the going gets rough; those who can mentor us and help us rebuild our confidence when our own belief in ourselves is running low. These aren’t people who lie to you just to make you feel better, but rather those who express their support, no matter what we decide and give us a firm foundation to stand upon while we reach for greater things. Without these people, we can often feel adrift, lost and afraid. Without this stable foundation, we may not have the courage necessary to reach for bigger achievements in our lives. Without them, we can find our careers stunted and our work days unhappy, just because we lack the support for taking the most important steps. We can languish in our lives simply because it feels safer to stay in the cave than to venture out. There might be a bear waiting outside, or so the primitive parts of our mind might have us believe. To that I will say, yes, there are bears out there, but there is also so much more. It is worth braving the forest because you will find wonderful things there, too. Our family and friends can give us the courage to peek outside the cave and take in all the world has to offer. As I mentioned earlier, though, sometimes our family might not be the best place to find support in our lives and our careers. Sadly, they might have so many of their own issues, worries and fears that they simply have no space for yours. They may be addicted, ill or the victim of their own, unsupportive family. They may simply be unable to provide you the support you need for lack of their own experience. In some cases, your family will not want you to succeed because your success would point up their own failures. Maybe they never had the courage to step outside the cave and when you do, it only, painfully, reminds them of their own failures. Bemoaning your fate won’t help, though. Once you recognize these issues, your only recourse is to seek out and build the support you need in your life. This is when we reach out to our friends. In some cases, our friends can become more of our family than our own blood relatives. Our friends have less baggage, fewer issues and see us as an individual, rather than just a small part of a larger family and the collective issues they might have. Friends can take or leave us -- and we them -- so we need not appeal to them or appease them if we don’t want. We associate with friends -- and they with us -- because we enjoy each other’s company. We genuinely “like” being around them. This can often make it easier for them to be supportive of us when we need it. There is simply less “history” to work through than their is with our family. Of course,