Career Opportunities with Douglas E. Welch

As you may have heard, I had emergency surgery on some gall bladder issues last week and I am currently on the mend. As with any major life event, this got me to thinking about what I want in the future from both my career and my life. It also made me think about the timing involved in making other, important life and career decisions. Listen to this Podcast Like Career Opportunities on Facebook Go slow Often, when facing important decisions, we are counseled to “go slow -- take our time -- don’t jump from the frying pan into the fire”. While there is certainly some wisdom in the this advice, I think for most of us, we error far too heavily on the slow side of the equation. This can lead to unacceptable situations where we struggle in a bad job or position for years before we even attempt to make a move. It is a situation where we tell ourselves everyday that we are doing something when in fact we are just postponing the inevitable. This can also lead to situations where our employers can make our decisions for us i.e. fire us, before we get a chance to make the decision ourselves. Go fast There are times in your life when going fast may be your best option. You need to evaluate each situation on its own merits, but I can guarantee you that there will be times in your life when jumping first and looking second might just be your best choice. One of the most important times to go fast is when you are presented with an opportunity that is clearly and obviously more in line with your wants, needs and desires. I have seen people turn down what I considered much better offers simply because they weren’t prepared to go fast when the situation called for it. You don’t want to find yourself here. Your ability to go fast is directly related to the preparation you have put into your life and career BEFORE being presented with the opportunity. As I say in my book, Career Compass: Finding Your Career North, you need to do some hard thinking about what you want out of your career before you are able to make clear decisions ABOUT your career. This discovery should be an important part of your work during those “go slow” periods of your life. As part of the Career Compass, you look at all the work you do and might like to do and place them on a chart accordingly. Once you have thought about your wants, needs and desires, you can use your Career Compass to quickly evaluate new opportunities that might appear. This go slow work of developing your Career Compass during the slow times directly relates to your reaction speed when you need to go fast. So, are you currently in a “go slow” part of your life and career and evaluating the pros and cons of a new situation or are you just using the “go slow” advice to procrastinate on making the changes you really need. If so, don’t despair. Many of us find ourselves in the exact same situation in our lives. There is a way out. Look for those times when you need to make a quick change and “go fast”. There are times in all our lives when we need to take the “short, sharp, shock” of a quick change rather than languish in a situation we already know to be detrimental to us. It takes courage and honesty with ourselves, but it is possible and, more importantly, it is necessary to insure the continued health and well-being of your career. Remember, in many cases, the best time for any move is now! (You can find more more information on the Career Compass, in my eBook, Career Compass: Finding Your Career North, in the Amazon Kindle store. You do NOT need a Kindle to read the book, though. You can read it using your web browser, your smartphone or your computer if you don’t have a Kindle) ***

Spring is here, and I am finding myself at the ball field each weekend for Little League practices and games. In fact, as I write, my son Joe is catching for his team. Watching a group of 7-9-year-olds struggle with the fundamentals of a game can be ve...

There are plenty of opportunities in your career to be rejected. You might have your ideas for a new project rejected. Your application for a new job or new promotion might be rejected. Life itself  is full of rejection. It is an unpleasant, if unwavering fact of life. That said, I find that many people seek to avoid rejection from others by disqualifying themselves before there is a chance to be rejected. Unfortunately, disqualifying yourself is one of the most damaging actions you can take in your career. It often means that you are throwing away opportunities that might otherwise expand and enhance your career. Listen to this Podcast Like Career Opportunities on Facebook This thought about disqualifying yourself came from an experience with my son recently. He is in the 3rd week of his Freshman year at a new high school and one of the first events was casting for the Fall play. Since both my wife and I are theater people (I even have a college degree in theater) we assumed he would be eager to try out. Unfortunately, word had spread that Freshman “never get cast in the Fall play!” My son took that to heart and wouldn’t even audition. He was too intimidated and ended up disqualifying himself from consideration before he even entered the auditorium. Of course, it ended up that at least 1 Freshman did get cast, despite the “word” on campus. I see this type of self-disqualification all the time. We don’t apply for the new job because we have convinced ourselves we are lacking in one skill or another. We don’t reach out for the new, strange opportunity that presents itself because it is too far outside our normal life. We decide not to do something merely because others have told us it can never happen and we prove them right by not even trying. The truth is, you never know what is going to happen when you apply for a job, reach out to a new opportunity or simply try something new. So much of the process is hidden to you. Relying on hearsay and rumor to make your decisions is ridiculous, if you really think about it. You couldn’t possibly know that the company needs to fill the position immediately and is willing to take someone with less experience. You can’t know that the theater director was looking for a particular type of “look” for a role -- a look that only you fit. You won’t know if a new opportunity is right for you unless you take some time to investigate it, so why not spend some time looking around and kicking the metaphorical tires? The truth is, self-disqualification is the easy way out. When you disqualify yourself you don’t have to face rejection from outside. You don’t have to face uncertainty. You don’t have to face someone else winning while you lose. You also guarantee that your career -- and perhaps even your life -- will stagnate. You will spend your life circling around the same, small business, the same small world and watch others move ahead in their careers. You might even bemoan your fate and wonder how life can pass you by while rewarding everyone around you. Instead of worrying about everyone else, though, you need to look at yourself and your actions. You might be acting as your own worst enemy. Rejection is a part of life and not something that can be avoided. If you want to grow in your life and career, you have to risk a little rejection in the process. Chances are that rejection will not be nearly as painful as your fear has made it seem. Sure, it can be disappointing, but if you are constantly out there searching for your next opportunity, each rejection will seem that much smaller. The rejection will simply be one among many -- part of the process -- instead of one, all consuming rejection, that feels like the end of your career. Are you disqualifying yourself from life and work opportunities? Are you allowing fear and rumor to prevent you from growing in your career? Are you allowing others to scare you away from opportunities that they are too scared to chase themselves?

Over the years I have written several columns encouraging you to step back and try to get a bigger picture of your work and your career. While this is still good advice, reversing this concept can also be useful. There are times when you need to zoom i...

July of this year marked the 15th year of Career Opportunities as a column and the 8th year as a podcast. This seems like the perfect time to start a new era of Career Opportunities. By accident of timing, I now have a perfect, in-house, test subject who can work with me to create and validate new ideas and new columns about careers. Listen to this Podcast Like Career Opportunities on Facebook My son, Joseph, entered high school a few weeks ago and as might be expected, this new environment has set off a host of questions that hadn’t concerned him much before. Sure, in the past, we had talked about the typical “what do you want to be when you grow up?” questions, but as a high school Freshman, these questions take on a more concrete and practical application. These are no longer the questions of a small child fascinated with fireman and doctors, but now the questions of a young man starting to deal with one of the most important issues in his life -- his future career. Joseph is in the Tech Focus program of his new high school, chosen probably because of his exposure to technology of all sorts through myself and my work. Though he is more of a gamer -- both playing and creating -- than I ever was. Where I discovered my interests and learned my skills in the early days of PCs, he has grown up with computers of all sorts and developed his own unique interests. We shall see if he remains in technology as he grows older. He is also a builder and maker of things -- immersing himself in Lego for many years now -- and loves learning how things work. Perhaps engineering will come to interest him more as he grows up. I discovered his new interest in his future career when he started asking some deep questions about jobs, work and careers the other day. His high school is focused on helping each child find their interests so they can properly prepare for their college education in the future and I am sure this started him thinking. As I have often discussed here in the past, we talked about how work today is made up of many jobs, often spanning many careers. I would guess that anyone Joe’s age is probably looking at 4-5 completely different careers over the course of their lifetime. The world changes quickly these days and, in the best cases, our lives change quickly, too. What may serve us well today may need to be abandoned or re-created in the future. It is important to be open to such ideas. We should never feel trapped in any career just because of decisions we made several years earlier. I also stressed to him, as I have to you, that he needs to find work that deeply interests him in some way. Supporting yourself through work is a critical part of life, but I believe that work goes well beyond providing mere subsistence. Work occupies so many hours of our day. It only makes sense to make it as fulfilling and productive as possible. Even when you are starting out in your career, if your work is less than fulfilling, you need to be pursuing your own ideas, your own work, your own career outside of whatever subsistence work you might be doing. You owe it to yourself to “build the career that you deserve” regardless of your current level of job. As I write this 15th year of Career Opportunities, it will be enlightening and energizing to have a test case living under my own roof. I hope we can discover some great new ideas through our career conversations in the next few years. I think that seeing jobs, work and careers through his eyes will help me to gain a deeper understanding of the challenges -- and amazing opportunities -- careerists face today. What could be better than a live-in advisor who can help me discuss career topics and then actually implement the ideas we develop. I have often jokingly referred to my son as our own, little, in-house, sociological experiment and so I think the high school years are going to show us some amazing results. I’ll continue to share our experiences together here (and in the podcast),

What do you do when the boss asks you whether a project will be completed on-time? How about when they ask you what you think about a particular project or idea? If you are like most people, you might prevaricate, hem and haw, even outright lie – anything to keep you out of hot water. It is a natural human trait, but one that has corrosive effects on business and relationships in general. We might think that we are protecting ourselves, or protecting the other person from some hard truths, but instead we are only setting ourselves up for eventual conflict and maybe even failure. If you want to have an effective and successful high-tech career, you need to say what you mean and mean what you say. Listen to this Podcast Please rate and review Career Opportunities in the iTunes Podcast Directory! Recently due to technical issues, Career Opportunities was dropped from the iTunes Podcast Directory. The show has reappeared but all previous Ratings and Reviews have been lost. If you enjoy Career Opportunities, please click the graphic above and leave a new rating or review to restore Career Opportunities into the list of top career podcasts on iTunes. Thank you so much for listening and showing your appreciation for the work I do. Like Career Opportunities on Facebook Say what you mean Too often, in the effort to safe face or save a job, we don’t say what is on our mind. You are afraid that pointing out the mythical naked emperor or the fatal flaw will doom any career aspirations you might have. In some companies this might be true, but if so, you really don’t want to work there anyway. In fact, it is by pointing out problems, issues, challenges or flaws early on that you make a leap forward. If an entire project is based on a flawed assumption it must be addressed early or you are sowing the seeds for project failure before you ever get started. Wouldn’t it be better to solve the problem while there was still time? Instead we dance around the issue, demeaning the importance of the problem until even we don’t believe it is a problem at all. It doesn’t make the problem go away, though. It only postpones the inevitable crisis until such a time that you can do nothing about it. Crash! Another project down and out and no one seems to know why. Starting today, you need to say what is on your mind. You need to share your concerns. You need to offer up options. You need to move away from little white lies and shaded truths and do what is best for you and your career. Failed project after failed project does nothing for your career, while speaking up and telling the raw truth that needs to be told could help your career thrive. You don’t have to be mean about it, but neither should you shy away. Simply offer up your thoughts and feelings and see if others can address them in a rational fashion. If not, trouble is looming. Mean what you say There is another side to this equation of honesty and openness, too. Not only must you speak up when problems occur, you must also exhibit the utmost responsibility to follow-through on whatever you promise to others. If you say the project will be on-time, it had better be on-time. If you promise to do the due diligence on a contract, you had better do it. You must mean what you say and not simply offer up words that others want to hear. If you can’t deliver on a commitment, you have to renegotiate this commitment or you and every one who depends on you is going to suffer. You owe it to everyone to let them know as soon as possible whenever you are unable to fulfill a commitment. Don’t leave them hanging until the last possible moment. Don’t leave your boss or co-workers without critical information or charts in a meeting before the executive. Don’t leave the web site design without a critical bit of programming on launch day. If you do, you are liable to find yourself in the unemployment line before the end of the day. Had you only renegotiated the commitment,

Fear is an ever-present part of our lives. Since the days when humans stalked -- and were stalked -- on the plains, fear has been an integral part of our human experience. Based on this history, fear should not be seen as a bad thing. Rather, fear shou...

If you have ever visited the wilderness after a long time in the city, you have probably noticed an interesting phenomenon. When you finally pull over and turn off your car, you are struck with an odd, almost overpowering sense of silence. This silence can seem so “loud” as to almost be palpable – something you can reach out and touch. After a short time, though, you start to notice that there are indeed sounds among the silence. You start to hear the buzz of hummingbird wings, the call of a scrub jay and even the sound of the breeze through the trees. Listen to this Podcast Please rate and review Career Opportunities in the iTunes Podcast Directory! Recently due to technical issues, Career Opportunities was dropped from the iTunes Podcast Directory. The show has reappeared but all previous Ratings and Reviews have been lost. If you enjoy Career Opportunities, please click the graphic above and leave a new rating or review to restore Career Opportunities into the list of top career podcasts on iTunes. Thank you so much for listening and showing your appreciation for the work I do. Like Career Opportunities on Facebook Just as we can become used to certain smells and eventually ignore them altogether, so we can block out the constant cacophony that surrounds our lives. It is only when we get away, to a different, quieter place, that we can see how much we are unconsciously ignoring – how much we are missing in an effort to control our lives. This same phenomenon also effects your work life. Until you disengage yourself from the constant din, you cannot hear nor address the underlying issues, the hidden sounds, that hold the real issues and the real answers to your work and career. Of course, getting away from life’s noises can be easily accomplished by taking a trip to the mountains or the desert, but how do you escape the noise of your work? Here are a few ways to get started. Change desks Changing environments is a great way to shock your system and open up a new view of your work. As often as you can, spend a day working in another office or department in your company or working from home. If you are like me, you will immediately notice a change in your work. The new sights, sounds and interactions are sure to trigger different thoughts and actions. As you sit and listen to the work around you, you may discover hidden problems, dissatisfaction or even new ways that you can have a greater impact on your company. Don’t bury yourself in regular office work, though, while working off-site. Do what needs to be done, but then open your eyes and ears to this new environment. Listen for the office equivalent of the breeze through the trees. At the end of the day, try to lock in some of the memories and feelings of how it felt so you can revisit them even when back in your own office. Get out You can experience even larger benefits when you totally divorce yourself from your work environment, even if only for a short time. One of the best methods, and one of the easiest, is to take a long walk. You can do this alone or take along an interested co-worker or friend. There is something about moving that frees the mind of its usual burdens. If you are walking with a co-worker, you will probably start talking about the usual complaints of office life, but given enough time, your discussion will turn to more important issues. You can even start your walk with a particular topic in mind and bypass the complaint stage entirely. Write it down Finally, one method that serves me well is taking my journal and a nice pen, finding a comfortable and beautiful spot and starting to write. In fact, this is exactly what I am doing right now, as I write this column. I am sitting at a picnic table in a beautiful wilderness park in the Santa Monica Mountains. My view overlooks a small pond with ducks bobbing on the water, birds calling in the background and the quiet appearance of a horse and rider from around the bend in the trail.

I was talking to one of our cousins in Sicily recently and he was bemoaning a very common problem. He recently graduated with a Masters in Science (Laurea Specialistica) in Logistics and Supply Chain Management. Like many, he is looking for his first “real” job in his field and he has run headlong into the old conundrum of “connections.” Simply put, he doesn’t have any and it seems that getting any good job requires them. While the problem might be especially acute in Italy, it exists everywhere. For a job seeker, it can seem like all doors are closed just when you need an open door the most. Listen to this Podcast Please rate and review Career Opportunities in the iTunes Podcast Directory! Recently due to technical issues, Career Opportunities was dropped from the iTunes Podcast Directory. The show has reappeared but all previous Ratings and Reviews have been lost. If you enjoy Career Opportunities, please click the graphic above and leave a new rating or review to restore Career Opportunities into the list of top career podcasts on iTunes. Thank you so much for listening and showing your appreciation for the work I do. Like Career Opportunities on Facebook Look elsewhere I won’t deny that many jobs are filled using “connections” no matter where you might live. People have obligations to others and one way they can fulfill those obligations is providing jobs for family members and friends who need them. That said, I believe that there are many more jobs available that don’t require “connections”, but you need to look deeper for them. In some cases, you may find that these jobs, free to be filled from qualified candidates and not “obligations” can be better places to begin your career than those with fancier titles and higher salaries at well known companies. If you consider yourself without connections, you need to start your job search with those companies that need you most -- not those with the most recognizable name, the biggest headquarters or the most prestige. You need to start your search right in your own backyard. In some cases, there might be small or mid-sized companies in your city that are desperate for someone with your skills. Because of their size, they might not be able to attract the highest quality of candidates. You could find yourself in the very best position of being in the right place at the right time. Even better, finding a great position in a small company could mean you have a much better job. In smaller companies you are given much more responsibility much more quickly. Due to lack of competition, and the fact that you work closely with the principals of your company, you can better demonstrate your skills and move up quickly. In larger companies, most entry level employees are given less important, routine tasks and are often hidden from the sight of the most important people in the company. For me, it is far better to have a big job at a small company than a small job at a big company. This is not to say you ignore the larger companies entirely, only that you don’t put all your eggs into that basket. If opportunities present themselves, take advantage of them, of course. Just don’t depend on them or put other efforts on hold while you wait out the usually long hiring process. Build your own connections The next step is to make your own connections. In fact, this is a lifelong process and something you have hopefully started while in school. Stay in touch with classmates that you like and respect. Stay connected in person and via social media. Even better, connect them to each other. Be the hub that connects them all and you will be at the center of a very important career web. Help others find work and, in most cases, they will gladly help you. Those people with connections gained them in many ways and there is no reason you can’t develop your own connections over time. Even better, these connections you build yourself will be more meaningful,

Douglas E. Welch (http://douglasewelch.com/career) presents "What is success....and why you might have it already!" at CareerCampSCV (Santa Clarita Valley) 2012 (http://careercampscv.wordpress.com) There has been a "perversion" of the meaning of success these days with only the extremely famous or rich being labelled as successful. Douglas' definition of success is "if you can support yourself and and your family doing something you love." Success is not black or white, it has many shades of grey and we are wise to remember it. Listen to What is success....and why you might have it already!  Check out Douglas' Career and Social Media Books on Amazon.com    * Kindle books are readable on all platforms and even using your web browser   Please like this video if you found it useful. Your likes help to suggest it to more YouTube viewers. * See more of Douglas' content at DouglasEWelch.com* See more career-related content on the Career Opportunities column and podcast* See more information on CareerCampSCV* Follow Douglas on Twitter at http://twitter.com/douglaswelch and http://twitter.com/careertips* Like the Career Opportunities column and podcast on Facebook* Like CareerCamp International on Facebook* Circle Douglas on Google+* Circle Career Opportunities on Google+* Circle CareerCamp International on Google+

Douglas E. Welch (http://douglasewelch.com/career) presents "What is success....and why you might have it already!" at CareerCampSCV (Santa Clarita Valley) 2012 (http://careercampscv.wordpress.com) There has been a "perversion" of the meaning of success these days with only the extremely famous or rich being labelled as successful. Douglas' definition of success is "if you can support yourself and and your family doing something you love." Success is not black or white, it has many shades of grey and we are wise to remember it. Please like this video if you found it useful. Your likes help to suggest it to more YouTube viewers. Can't see the video above? Watch "What is success…and why you might have it already!" on YouTube Check out Douglas' Career and Social Media Books on Amazon.com * Kindle books are readable on all platforms and even using your web browser Please like this video if you found it useful. Your likes help to suggest it to more YouTube viewers. * See more of Douglas' content at DouglasEWelch.com * See more career-related content on the Career Opportunities column and podcast * See more information on CareerCampSCV * Follow Douglas on Twitter at http://twitter.com/douglaswelch and http://twitter.com/careertips * Like the Career Opportunities column and podcast on Facebook * Like CareerCamp International on Facebook * Circle Douglas on Google+ * Circle Career Opportunities on Google+ * Circle CareerCamp International on Google+

Douglas E. Welch presents "Career Compass: Finding Your Career North" at CareerCampSCV (Santa Clarita Valley) 2012 (http://careercampscv.wordpress.com) Listen to Finding Your Career North from CareerCampSCV 2012 Watch the video version of "Finding Your Career North from CareerCampSCV 2012" here    Buy the Career Compass eBooklet in the Amazon Kindle Store $2.99 * Kindle books are readable on all platforms and even using your web browser   Please like this video if you found it useful. Your likes help to suggest it to more YouTube viewers. * See more of Douglas' content at DouglasEWelch.com* See more career-related content on the Career Opportunities column and podcast* See more information on CareerCampSCV* Follow Douglas on Twitter at http://twitter.com/douglaswelch and http://twitter.com/careertips* Like the Career Opportunities column and podcast on Facebook* Like CareerCamp International on Facebook* Circle Douglas on Google+* Circle Career Opportunities on Google+* Circle CareerCamp International on Google+

Douglas E. Welch presents "Career Compass: Finding Your Career North" at CareerCampSCV (Santa Clarita Valley) 2012 (http://careercampscv.wordpress.com) Can't see the video above? Watch "Career Compass: Finding Your Career North" on YouTube   Buy the Career Compass eBooklet in the Amazon Kindle Store $2.99 * Kindle books are readable on all platforms and even using your web browser Please like this video if you found it useful. Your likes help to suggest it to more YouTube viewers. * See more of Douglas' content at DouglasEWelch.com * See more career-related content on the Career Opportunities column and podcast * See more information on CareerCampSCV * Follow Douglas on Twitter at http://twitter.com/douglaswelch and http://twitter.com/careertips * Like the Career Opportunities column and podcast on Facebook * Like CareerCamp International on Facebook * Circle Douglas on Google+ * Circle Career Opportunities on Google+ * Circle CareerCamp International on Google+

We all have parts of our job that we dislike. For me, this week has been a succession of re-installing Windows on crashed computers. As I write, the 5th machine is on the tech bench here in my office, slowly re-gathering its software brains. While I wo...

We can all be scared when starting a new endeavour. Whether it is a new job, a new business, a new relationship, the fear of the unknown can stop us in our tracks. Still, most of us can power through the fear, make it through the first day of work and ...