Career Opportunities with Douglas E. Welch

A crazy workday is familiar to all of us. We are busy from the moment we arrive to the moment we leave...and even after we leave, in some cases. Our lives are driven by one urgent project after another. While we may be busy in this environment, too often we are not very productive. Without some time for ourselves, to re-group, analyze and plan, all of our busyness can come to mean very little. To break free from the constant interruptions of your event driven work, you need to take time for yourself, morning, noon and night. Now, of course, I am not suggesting you ignore work that needs to be done. Only that you carve out 5, 10, maybe 15 minutes a day to insure that you are working on something that is important and not just urgent. Listen to this Podcast Looking to Build the Career You Deserve!   One-to-One Career Consulting with Douglas E. Welch   Read more about it! Like Career Opportunities on Facebook Morning Everyone needs some time in the morning to think about work. Maybe some task wasn't finished yesterday and needs to be completed today. Perhaps your schedule called for the start of a big project today. Whatever the case, taking a few minutes over breakfast, during your commute or alone in your office with the first cup of coffee for the day, can mean the difference between a productive day and one filled with craziness. What tasks will you complete today? Which will have to be postponed? Which have already been solved? What work will you be able to fit within your allotted hours and staff? You don't have to spend a lot of time on this, but you should do it every morning. Even better, I highly recommend holding a 5-minute, standing room only, team meeting at the start of each day. This recommendation comes from Patrick M. Lencioni's book, Death by Meeting. Taking just 5 minutes, before everyone scatters for the day can help to keep everyone connected and working towards the same goals. It can also show you where your efforts might be better directed. Noon Mid-day is a time to re-cap and re-evaluate. Is it taking longer than planned to install that router? Are you missing software or hardware for a specific project? If you can't complete the project today, what can you do instead? Before you head out for lunch, take a moment to review your morning and plan your afternoon. If your day is like mine, you will have emergencies crop up throughout the course of the morning that must be handled. Instead of bringing a project to a halt, though, maybe you could have another staffer take care of the emergency while others keep the project moving forward. Is the problem really an emergency or can it be added to the work queue and handled tomorrow? If you can give someone a temporary work-around, you can often gain enough time to complete your project instead of bringing it to a halt while you solve the problem. Night Before you go home each evening, make note of your 5 most pressing issues for the next day...then forget about them. Truth is, your subconscious mind will continue working on them while you have dinner, play with the kids and watch TV. You may find that new solutions will present themselves the next morning when you start the process all over again. It will also make your morning review that much quicker and more effective. Sure, you will have other issues that need to be fit into your schedule, but you will start each day with a clear idea of where to begin. Taking time for you is an important aspect of every single day. Without it, you will struggle to balance all the competing demands for your time and energy and flit from one job to the next. As you move though your day, if you notice that you haven't had time to think or plan, stop immediately and take that time. Go have a coffee. Step outside for a few minutes. Shut your office door, if you have one. The productivity and effectiveness you gain will far outweigh the time spent. You will begin driving your work, from moment to moment and day to day,

“...wherever people are, in the deepest part of the winter, at the exact mid-point, everybody stops and turns and hugs. As if to say, "Well done. Well done, everyone! We're halfway out of the dark." -- Doctor Who, A Christmas Carol Listen to this Podcast Looking to Build the Career You Deserve!   One-to-One Career Consulting with Douglas E. Welch   Read more about it! Like Career Opportunities on Facebook As in the quote above, we are very close to our own moment of the year where we are “halfway out of the dark.” The Winter Solstice has passed and the days get longer – second by second, minute by minute – with each passing day. In our careers, it is important to remember this endless cycles that has gone on for millions of years. The darkness comes, the darkness abates and then it all starts over again. Of course the same cycle can be said to occur in our lives and in our careers. There are boom times, there are bust times and there is everything in between. No one knows exactly what life will bring, but I find myself more and more assured each day, that the cycles will continue to oscillate back and forth for as long as we – and the planet – exist. Cycles are a fundamental part of our world. Look to any science – physics, chemistry, biology – and you will see them represented. It only makes sense that cycles occur over and over in our lives as well. So what does this mean to you as a careerist? It means that you will have boom times and bust times and everything in between, so – if you don’t give up completely in a bust time – the opposite portion of the cycle will come around again. If times are hard, they will get better. If times are good, they will get worse. Knowing this, we can take actions to smooth out our journey through life and work. We can work with the cycles to develop plans for the inevitable change that will occur. With enough preparation – and enough time – we might even be able to live outside the cycle. In today’s world it is possible for some to make so much money and develop so much financial security that they can live outside the cycle – at least in some ways. Even money can’t forestall health problems, family issues or accidents. Even then you aren’t removing the cycles, only leveling the mountains that occur into manageable molehills. How can you smooth your journey through your career and life? First, recognize that cycles exist. Recognize that cycles naturally turn (even if they take a long time to do so) and recognize that cycles can be smoothed out through judicious planning. When times are good, you don’t necessarily want to be thinking of the time when the cycle will change. Yet, that is exactly when you need to do so. You need to take the good times to prepare, to save, to plan so that the bad times will effect you less. Consider this thought and planning to be the tax you pay on the good times. By investing a bit of time in yourself and your thinking, you can prepare for the future without panicking and over worrying. Things can be more difficult if you feel you are in the depths of a bad cycle. When we are on the downside – and without a plan developed earlier – we can feel lost, frightened, angry – or any combination of the above. We don’t always do our best thinking when confronted with these emotions and, even worse, we can allow these emotions to carry us to a dark place which only compounds their effect. Instead, we need to look for the cycle, look for the coming change, that will show that the world is turning. We must always keep in our mind that it can get better – it will get better –– eventually. No matter that we might feel the entire world is against us or that our lives are on a downward spiral, we must look for the cycle that is coming. We must follow any sign that it is occurring and work to make it occur on our own, personal, necessary, timescale. It is when we give up hope,

"An iconoclast originally referred to a person who destroyed icons, that is, sacred paintings or sculpture." from the Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iconoclast High-tech workers tend to be on the cutting edge of both work and society, so it is...

Throughout my life, both offline and online, I meet many people who -- for lack of a better term -- find themselves among the long-term unemployed. They might be working in some capacity, as a freelancer, for example, but they would much rather re-join the ranks of full-time employees. They can find themselves in this situation due to a layoff, recovery from health problems or because they followed a career path that has not worked out. Regardless of the reasons, there are several tips that can help the long-term unemployed get back to work full-time. Listen to this Podcast Looking to Build the Career You Deserve!   One-to-One Career Consulting with Douglas E. Welch   Read more about it! Like Career Opportunities on Facebook Sell your skills -- and yourself I am always fond of saying that job hunting -- and your career in general -- is the biggest and most important sales work you will ever have. Getting your next job requires selling yourself, but it also requires selling your skills. Yes, you must be personable and someone that colleagues wouldn’t mind seeing on a daily basis, but you also have to sell your most important skills to a company. This means telling great stories about times when your skills benefited you or your employers in the past. Nothing sells like a great story (make sure it is a true story, of course.) It quickly conveys the message that you are focused on results, not merely “showing up” each day. Just like you hone the job descriptions on your resume, I want you to think deeply about the skill stories you can, and need, to tell when looking for a job. These are the stories that will bring the most impact to any interview or indeed, any conversation, you might have with a potential employer. Having these stories prepared is just as important as having ready answers for the typical interview “gotcha” questions that many interviewers ask. In some cases, these stories can short circuit those questions and lead you to have an actual conversation with the interviewer instead of a game of employment cat and mouse. A conversation of equals Too often, and in my own experience as well, we enter an interview feeling inferior. We feel and act as if we have come begging for a job. We are a supplicant coming on bended knee to our padrone. For me, this can kill an interview more quickly than anything else. You increase your chances for a successful interview by creating a “conversation of equals”. Even if you have a hard time believing it yourself due to low confidence, you must project the image that hiring you is a win-win situation. Yes, the company has a job to offer, but you also have skills and knowledge that the company needs to accomplish their goals. When we approach an interview in a weak, fawning or obsequious manner, we damage our own credibility. We plant a seed in the interviewer’s mind that we are too weak to be considered for this very important position. It can seem counter-intuitive, as we are usually taught to be, quote, “respectful” of those interviewing us, but respect is one thing, debasing yourself in front of them is an entirely different matter. On your next interview, remember the phrase “a conversation of equals” as you walk through the door and it will help you bring the proper attitude to the meeting. Create your own position In this day of over-inflated (and impossible to fill) job descriptions, remember that you might be able to create your own position in a company. If you can fulfill a certain portion of the responsibilities listed in the job description there might be an opportunity for you to split the job into multiple positions. Those interviewing often need to hire someone quickly and if they could fulfill a major part of the job, they might be willing to work with you. If a job is available at all, it means that the company truly NEEDS that position filled. There is some sort of “pain” that the company needs to address and you could be the cure...

Visiting a new client this week, I was reminded of the pain clients can feel when their computers fall too far behind the state of the art. While no one wants to buy hardware and software they don't need, neither do they want to make huge leaps when they are finally forced to upgrade. A slow progression of software and hardware updates is far more preferable to the "forced march" of an emergency upgrade. Listen to this Podcast Join us on Google+   Like Career Opportunities on Facebook But it works fine! If you ask your clients why they haven't upgraded their computers or software, they often reply that, "it works fine for what I do." Even in the best cases where the client can be productive there lies a bit of a trap. While the computer might fulfill their basic needs at the moment, I can assure you they are experiencing more problems than they might let on. Typically, smaller issues such as web pages that won't load, videos and animation that can't be played and more are already hampering their work. Perhaps they can't read the files that friends and co-workers send them. Finally, you will be left with no recourse but to recommend they get a new computer. This is where the pain truly begins. In my case, the client was using an older Mac and never upgraded to Mac OS X, even though the computer was capable of running the earlier versions. Further, they made only limited updates to their software over the years. Finally, though, time caught up with them. Their older web browser could not cope with the fancy web services provided by their bank. Even parts of Apple's web sites would no longer load. They were finding it hard to do the small bits of client work they do as a sideline, as their software was too far behind. As it happened, I upgraded my own computer, which was very similar to theirs, to the latest version of Mac OS X and found that the computer could not run it acceptably. So, I now knew they needed a new computer. Suddenly our discussions of relatively simple upgrades turned to outright replacement and hundreds of dollars turned into thousands. Pay me now, pay me later Now, not only would they need to purchase a new computer, they would have to replace all their software, as well. Had they upgraded their software over time, they might have had versions that ran on the new operating system or been able to purchase them at a discount. Even worse, some programs were so old that no current version of the program existed or the current version would not longer read the file formats of the older version. In these cases, the client's data had truly come to a dead end. Of course, I will use the older system to export their data and bring it forward in any way I can, but there will always be a few cases where this is impossible or nearly so. A client, facing the costs of new hardware, new software and hours of my services can quickly become disheartened. While they hadn't really done anything wrong, they found themselves caught in the nasty position of starting all over again with their new computer. As you might imagine this can be intimidating and frustrating and could cause some rough moments for you and your client. Keep up The solution for my clients doesn't involve buying every new upgrade or every new computer system that appears on the scene. Instead I try to gently push my clients forward at a pace that is slightly slower than the speed of innovation. While I don't expect my clients to have the latest version of an operating system, I will start to worry if they fall more than 2 versions behind. The same goes for all their software. Once you go more than 2 versions, you start to get into the danger zone where file compatibility begins to be an issue and you can miss out on upgrade discounts that can help to ease the cost of moving up. A gentle push here. A gentle nudge there. By offering good advice in small doses, you can insure that your clients won't suffer when it comes time to upgrade. While a stable,

Despite the fact that we all have challenges to face in our careers, there are times when things are going our way. There are times when we find the perfect job at the perfect moment with the perfect company. When this happens, you usually just want to sit back and enjoy. While you certainly should take pleasure in finding a job that is fulfilling and enjoyable, you should not forget to stay prepared for the time when desire or circumstance leads you out of this job and into the next. Listen to this Podcast Join us on Google+   Like Career Opportunities on Facebook Take notice One of the first actions you need to take when you find yourself in a good job is to actively investigate what makes it good. Is it the work you are doing? Your co-workers? Your management? Some combination of these and more? Recognizing what makes this job special and enjoyable will enable you to seek out similar traits whenever you are looking for a new job. Being able to identify what you want and what companies can offer is half the battle in developing a great career. Don't rely on your memory to hold this information. Take the time to write up what you see around you so you can revisit or reinvent it in the future. Should this job eventually end, you want to be able to revisit your feelings as they were at the height of your enjoyment. Too often we can forget there was ever anything good about a job once it begins to crumble. Take Action Too often, I see job satisfaction turn to boredom. Once we find a good position, we often want to preserve this position at all costs. Thinking that any change could upset the delicate equilibrium, we stall and stagnate. We stop challenging ourselves with new work, new thoughts, new ideas. Even worse, we will see outside influences, such as new products, new management or new staff, as a threat to our status quo. Instead of enjoying our position, we start to worry that someone will shatter our perfect world. In reality, at that point it is we who are damaging it. Through our resistance and stubbornness we will create the exact opposite of the environment we desire. We become rigid and insular and often bring about our own destruction. If you want to continue in a job you love, you need to see change as an important factor. Sure, the balance will be upset and your job may change, but it will often find a new equilibrium similar to before. You might even find that change will make your job better. Sometimes we worry so much about the negative side of change that we find it impossible to see the positive effects that it can bring. Finally, no matter how comfortable you may feel in your job or how perfect the situation, you can never stop growing, both as a worker and as a person. If you are fulfilling all the aspects of your job today, find some way to expand your role. If you have all the knowledge you need, find an area of ignorance to fill. If your work life is perfect, work on your personal life. Life and work lie on a continuum. If you perceive yourself as staying in one place, you are actually falling behind. Do not be seduced by the happiness of finding a great job. This doesn't mean you should stop moving forward....stop trying. If you become too enamored of your current position, you may wake up to find that you have fallen behind. Bask in the joy of finding and living with your great job. These are special times that come all too infrequently to most workers. Even so, be aware of the pitfalls that the best times can bring. Don't just settle in for the next 30 years. Challenge yourself to increase your knowledge and increase your effect on the world. Don't let happiness lull you into a false sense of security or a stagnate life. Happiness breeds more happiness, if you seek it out. Use the perfect job as a springboard to yet greater heights in your career. ***

Typically, discussions about jobs and careers consist of people complaining about their jobs and careers. We seem to have no problem griping about our managers, customers and CEO. When it comes to discussions about how to improve our careers, though, we fall silent. We seem to revel in the horrors of our jobs, but feel embarrassed to admit that we are unprepared to do anything to about it or to even discuss what can be done. Complaining takes the place of useful action but we end up just where we started. Listen to this Podcast Join us on Google+   Like Career Opportunities on Facebook I encounter this problem wherever I go. Whether I am talking to people online or face-to-face it can be almost impossible to move people beyond the complaining stage. There is too much inertia, too much to say, too many people to blame. Of course, the reason most people find it so difficult to move forward is because the process requires deep thought, honesty and introspection. Complaining, on the other hand, takes little effort. So, how do you get beyond the complaints and start doing something about your career? First, you have to deny any embarrassment you might feel in discussing career issues with others. Even the most successful people face career problems. In fact, the more you strive to improve your career, the more problems you will face. You want more out of your life, so you will be taking more chances and stretching yourself in many ways. This will bring you up against challenges that others will never face. This is why it is so important to develop a healthy attitude about your career, regardless of how happy you are with your current situation. Next, you need to banish any tendency to complain about your work. It can be difficult to break such a long-standing habit, but it has to be done. The worst problem is, we are often surrounded with others who are even deeper into the complaint pit than we are. Nothing fuels complaining like a group of dissatisfied workers hanging out in the break room. We enable each other in a never-ending cycle. You need to break the cycle. Of course, this can be extremely difficult because those around us might not want to move forward. When one person in a group starts to improve their career, the others see this as a reminder that they are stagnating in their current jobs and, worse yet, doing nothing about it. You may find that long-term relationships will fall by the wayside. You will have to find others who are truly interested in improving their careers as you are. With these people you will find little complaining and no embarrassment. You all understand that this job is only one stop in a long career and not the end of the line. Early in my career, I noted how computer support people would often complain about their clients, sharing their best "stupid user stories" over the cubicle walls. Eventually I realized, though, that this was clouding my opinion of my customers and effecting my work. I needed to distance myself from these attitudes. Initially, I just refused to participate in these discussions, but eventually distanced myself from particular co-workers. The change in my work was dramatic. Instead of being seen as someone who was aloof, short-tempered and arrogant, I gained the trust of my customers, developing more of a partnership with them rather than a employer/employee relationship. It was direct proof of how a career might benefit from a relatively small change. Today, whenever I speak with someone about their career, I listen to their complaints for a while, but then I attempt to show them that no matter how bad they might think their career, there are ways to make it better. It is in action that we find the hope to move forward, even when things are going badly. Taking one simple step leads to the next and the next. Sometimes, though, people will not be moved. They have convinced themselves that their career is written in stone and will never, ever change.

With this column I am starting an ongoing series entitled, “What You Need.” These columns will highlight what I consider the fundamental foundations of any career. These foundations often deal with the, so-called, “softer” side of jobs, work and careers, but I have always considered this the most important part of any career. These foundations are the underpinnings of everything else that you do in your career and without tending to them you put yourself at a severe disadvantage. Listen to this Podcast Looking to Build the Career You Deserve!   One-to-One Career Consulting with Douglas E. Welch   Read more about it! Like Career Opportunities on Facebook In this first column of the series, I discuss the importance of how you present yourself to others. Whenever you are looking for a job, spending your time networking with peers and others or just mingling with friends and family, how you present yourself is of fundamental importance. As humans we use first impressions as a strong indicator of the who, what and why of a person. It isn’t always accurate -- and it isn’t always fair -- but it is a fact of human nature of which you must be aware. First impressions can be overcome, but it is always better to start out on the right foot instead of having to repair something that shouldn’t have been broken in the first place. Demeanor Perhaps it is my training (and love) of the theater, but I think your demeanor is one of the most important parts of presenting yourself well. You should be able to converse with people of all backgrounds easily and comfortably. You shouldn’t fear interacting with others -- or even giving public presentations or speeches. I know that many people find this one of the most stressful activities they can undertake, but I have found that being comfortable speaking to -- and in front of -- people dramatically effects your career. If you need help in this area, I highly suggest you get involved in some theater classes or perhaps join a local Toastmasters group to help you gain some level of comfort speaking in front of others. You also need to be able to communicate your thoughts and ideas clearly to those around you. If you can’t, you are at a great disadvantage. It is so important that I credit my theater experience as probably the single most important factor of success in my career. How do I know this? People tell me so. They praise my ability to “translate” complex technological topics into something the average person can understand. They praise the clarity of what I am saying when I communicate. They praise my personable nature, with many becoming personal friends over the years we have worked together. Certainly I don’t get along with everyone I meet or work with, but I like to think that those people are the minority of my career experience. Take the words of praise from others and acknowledge what you are doing right. Sure, we all have areas that could use improvement, but too often we ignore the praise we receive from others and focus too much on the mistakes. Treat others as you wish to be treated No matter who the person might be. No matter what their station in life, their status, their celebrity -- or lack thereof, you should treat them as you wish to be treated. Too many people in today’s society seem to think it is acceptable to abuse, ridicule or otherwise dismiss others. You need to carefully guard against this. People are very perceptive and can easily tell when someone sees them as unimportant or ignorant. They might not say anything about it, but if you treat someone badly, they will remember it -- for a very long time. Instead of creating enemies -- both major and minor -- as you go through your life, why not start from the position of equality. Why not treat everyone as you wish to be treated. Sure, there will be those who don’t reciprocate such behaviors or seek to take advantage of you. It doesn’t matter. You can always start from a position of acceptance,

  There is a long forgotten secret of the business world, but it also applies to volunteer work and life in general. While we might encounter it on occasion, for the most part, this secret has been abandoned like the concept of wearing spats or holding doors for women. In an effort to improve your lives and your careers, I am going to re-introduce you to the secret. Even in today's world, there are some magic words that can smooth all waters, inspire those around you to great heights and even convince people that they have a purpose in the world. What words could possibly hold such power? Thank you. Listen to this Podcast Join us on Google+   Like Career Opportunities on Facebook That's right. A simple thank you can do wonders for every aspect of your life, whether you are giving or receiving. In today's hyper-accelerated world, though, the quaint niceties that served our parents so well have fallen into disuse. Now requests have become orders and we begin to assume that no thank yous are needed. Doesn't that person work for you, after all. They are only doing their job. Why should you thank them? As you will find, there are a host of reasons. Satisfaction The most important part of job satisfaction often has little to do with the money we are paid or the perks we receive. While people may tolerate a good paying job with little satisfaction, they will jump ship whenever something better comes along. What they are really seeking is appreciation. An almost indefinable sense that their work is important and that they are contributing to some larger cause.Offering a thank you to those around you, and receiving them yourself, can mean the difference between a great career and no career at all. If, as a worker, you fail to receive honest appreciation for a job well done, you will quickly become disenchanted with any job, not matter how high the pay. There is a void that money cannot fill and trying to do so only leads to larger problems. If, as a manager, you fail to give honest appreciation for the work of those around you, you will find your career stunted, your initiatives stalled and your projects slowed. You rely on others to bring your ideas to fruition and meet, if not exceed, your goals. If you do not appreciate the work of others then you will find no loyalty from your employees, no desire to go beyond the basic requirements of the job and general dissatisfaction on both sides of the relationship. An example Last weekend I spent both Saturday and Sunday acting as a sort of host for the LA Podcasters during an arts event. I was meeting and greeting visitors, explaining podcasting and managing the day's schedule of live recordings. While I was doing this to promote my own podcasts, as well as those of the other members, it was the numerous thank yous I received that kept me going through the long days. I would have still had some satisfaction of a job well done, even if no one said thank you, but it is amazing how much effect those two small words can have. It let me know that I was spending my time in a useful and productive way and that those around me took notice of that. Of course, there is no need to limit this sense of appreciation to just your co-workers. If someone does a good job for you -- the waiter at the restaurant, the checker at the hardware store, the clerk at the DMV -- say thank you....and mean it. A few, well-applied, moments of appreciation can change your life. You just might notice better service next time you come in. You might unexpectedly get a discount or special deal. Don't try to fake it, though. An unfelt thank you does more damage than good and can leave people with a worse opinion of you than when you started. Can the power of thank you be overestimated? I think not. In fact, it can give us the energy and inspiration to do some truly great things. When there is appreciation all around, teams begin to think and move as one. Old animosities are forgotten and new friendships are formed.

In any given day at work, we are faced with a multitude of  -- often conflicting -- priorities. We are trying to keep everyone happy, from our boss to our customers, trying to be productive and sometimes most important, trying to make some money to sup...

It has happened to all of us. You get the call, or the email, "The boys upstairs say we have to do XYZ." Then, often without question, we do exactly that, no matter how wrong we might think the action. There are several flaws to such blind obedience an...

I was walking around a local store yesterday when I was struck with a bit of an epiphany. There, on the end of a shopping aisle, were some lightbulbs for sale. These lights were the, now ubiquitous, compact fluorescent bulbs, but there was something odd about them. These bulbs were manufactured with an outside enclosure to specifically make them look like the incandescent bulbs that most of us grew up with. A company had taken the time to do the research and create this product specifically for those people who were unwilling to give up their idea of what they thought a light bulb should look like. Listen to this Podcast Looking to Build the Career You Deserve!   One-to-One Career Consulting with Douglas E. Welch   Read more about it! Like Career Opportunities on Facebook Kudos to the company for seeing a market opportunity, but it made me deeply wonder about the potential of society today. How are we supposed to change the world for the better (or change it at all) when we can’t even change our idea of what a lightbulb should look like. This inability-- or more likely, unwillingness -- to change effects us all. I firmly believe that those who will do great things in the future will be those who can look beyond their long held concept of a lightbulb and see that change can be good even if it requires us to think in new ways. But it’s just a light bulb, right? I am sure some of you have a quizzical look about now. You might be thinking to yourself, “But Doug, it’s just a light bulb!” Yes, it is just a light bulb, but it is also a clear indicator of how people think. It is more than likely that the people buying these light bulbs are buying these bulbs specifically because they look like, well, the way a light bulb should look. They don’t provide any advanced features or savings, but they are more comforting to look at than those weird curlicue bulbs that we have all been forced to use. Small actions like this can clearly show an aversion to change, even small change. The trouble being, though we are resistant -- or fearful of change -- change will still occur. We might try to ignore it or deny that change is happening, but in doing so we will be swept aside by change. We will be left behind by the biggest benefits of change and have no voice in counteracting those bad changes that come along. We isolate ourselves -- our fingers in our ears chanting “la-la-la-la-I can’t hear you” -- hoping that it just goes away. Of course, even a cursory glance at past history will show you that life is nothing but change. One change leads to another and another and another. If we want to succeed in our lives and careers, we need to face change, embrace change, even learn to love change and all the wonderful things it can bring to us and the world. Take a look at yourself In order to learn more about your relationship to change, take a look at your own actions. If you are like me, you will be very open to change in some areas of your life and very resistant in others. That’s OK. We all have our normal likes and dislikes and thinking critically about them can help us to decide what is most important to us. If, on the other hand, you find yourself hating ALL change, then you might have a problem. I know that at various times in my life I have become almost hermit-like -- frequenting the same restaurants, the same locations, talking with the same people. I find that sometimes the world is overwhelming especially as a small-town boy living a big city life. That said, every time this has occurred, I soon start to feel the “itch” of something in the back of my mind. I can sense that I am hiding from the world in some regards and my mind knows that I need to break out of my rut and re-engage with the world around me. I am sure many people also feel this way at times. This “itch” is a sign that you need to get out and start dealing with life outside your self-created bubble. Use these intuitive feelings to your best advantage.

 It is a sad fact that, especially in high-tech careers, some workers have been so damaged by their work experiences they have lost all hope of ever having a fulfilling career. They feel beaten down, used up and cast aside by their employers and sometimes by their co-workers. After nearly 10 years of writing this column, and 20-year career in high-tech companies, I have met or talked with many such people. The most damaged have resigned themselves to lives of “quiet desperation”, bemoaning the tedious or destructive elements of their work. They no longer try to change their career. They simply exist and remain day in and day out in a job they hate. Listen to this Podcast Join us on Google+   // Like Career Opportunities on Facebook I feel deeply for these people. They are one of the main reasons that I started writing Career Opportunities. I believe that no one need be trapped in an unfulfilling career that leaves them feeling deadened and hopeless. Even after meeting so many damaged people, and suffering career problems myself, I still believe there is a better way. Everyone has the ability to rise above worthless, unfulfilling jobs and build a career that means something. The Outside So where does the trouble begin. What are the factors that can lead you down a dead end road? Many damaged workers will tell you their horror stories of managers that lie, cheat or steal – co-workers that bully and control those around them – companies that exploit workers for their own end. Yes, it is true that there are people in the world that will take advantage of you, if you let them. There are people to whom ethics are only a vague concept. The flaw arises, though, when we start to believe that everyone everywhere is the same. Once you start believing that everyone is out to damage you in some way, you are in danger of losing hope in humanity as a whole. You stop trying to change your own life, assuming that there is nothing you can do and no place you can go to find a better life. You become more and more disgruntled as time goes on and every day you only see your suspicions confirmed – there are no good people left in the work world. Talk about a hopeless position. Instead of focusing on the outside world, though, you need to focus on yourself and what problems you might be creating or carrying along with you. The Inside If your career has been an endless succession of difficult or dead-end jobs, you need to turn away from the easy excuses of external factors and look deeply into your own thoughts and ideas about work and career. The truth is you will never get along with all of your co-workers. We are all individuals and we do not always mesh well with those around us. That said, if you find yourself in heavy conflict with every co-worker you have ever had, perhaps you are carrying your troubles with you. You can see this concept in action with those people who constantly move from job to job, but find the same complaints, the same problems no matter where they go. Why does this occur? Perhaps they have chosen the wrong industry. Perhaps they don’t have the right temperament for customer service. Maybe they don’t like the prevalent attitudes in the city or state where they live. Until you investigate these issues, you may never discover where your problems lie. You will simply wallow in the mire of hopelessness, another damaged worker in the high tech world. While there are some workers who are truly without hope – trapped in horrible jobs with no escape – I cannot imagine I would find them in the ranks of the, relatively, high-paid, decently well educated, high-tech workers. If you are feeling stuck, it is often because it is easier to give up – to stop trying – than continue the struggle to improve your career. You do have options, unlike some people in the world, and to not seek out those options is to squander the advantages that life has given you. In most cases, hopelessness is a choice we have made,

As a people, Americans love to worship the obsessives among us. Witness the near deification of Steve Jobs and other amazing business people. We are quick to forgive them their sins of anti-social, bullying and “ends justify the means” behavior since their accomplishments are so great. We begin to see their obsessive behaviors as the one true secret to business and life success. Unfortunately, business thought-leaders have tied onto this star, as well, and seem to think that this obsessive behavior is the ONLY way to achieve success in any business. While certainly there are some success stories of obsessive leaders leading a company to greatness, to expect everyone to be obsessive is a road to disaster. Listen to this Podcast Looking to Build the Career You Deserve!   One-to-One Career Consulting with Douglas E. Welch   Read more about it! Like Career Opportunities on Facebook Your career is important for your stability, your livelihood and your sense of accomplishment. That said, it should only be one part of your life. Your career should never dominate your life. Sure, we love to celebrate the obsessive entrepreneur, but I believe that those people are the outliers in society as a whole. While they may see no problem with sacrificing everything for their career, I think most of us would rather seek a balance in all the various aspects of our lives including, career, family, recreation, simplicity and love. It takes a very odd person -- perhaps even clinically obsessive -- to ignore all the other aspects of their lives -- all the other amazing things in the world -- and focus solely on business success. Let me be clear. Thank goodness there are those obsessives who can drive new innovations and tremendous accomplishments in the world. They are to be lauded for much that they accomplish. That said, I think we are doing a great disservice when we hold up these people -- these outliers -- as the norm that everyone else should -- no, MUST -- emulate. Talk to any career counsellor and I can almost guarantee one the first things they will say will be, “You are trying to do too much, too many different things. You have to FOCUS on one of them!” As someone who thinks and acts otherwise, I believe it is only a minority of people that can find such a hyper-focused life possible or rewarding. For me, there are far too many cool things to be investigated to limit my life to only one obsessive pursuit. Further, while my methods may not lead to the dramatic success of some obsessives, it will lead to my own personal success. The success will look different, but if I do it right, it can still be counted, by many factors, as a success. For most of us -- the “normals” if you like -- life has a daily balance and subtlety. Further, there are many more of us, than them. Trying to be something that you are not, simply because someone has told you this is the only path, is destructive to you and your career. Like Cinderella’s sisters constantly trying to fit into a shoe that is too small or too large, trying to be an obsessive when you are not is a foolish waste of time and energy. Even worse, when you are “trying” to be something you are not, your chances of success in that role lessen with each passing day. You are fighting against your very nature and it shows. We are so enamoured with obsessive success that we have now begun to mistake the minority for the majority when it comes to business success. We see the great obsessive successes and begin to think that everyone should/could/would behave in exactly the same fashion. We deny that there is any other path to success and even deny that any other success exists but this one. There are many levels and types of success, though, and we ignore that at our peril. As I said in a recent talk at CareerCampSCV (Santa Clarita Valley), “For many, if you can support yourself and your family doing something you love, you are successful!” It may be a different type of success,

  There are days when I wish I had some super power that allowed me to sense when someone was about to make a nasty high-tech mistake. Then I could swoop in, act as translator and ombudsman and save countless hours and dollars on my client’s behalf. I...