The M.A.P. Maker [Meaning, Abundance & Passion]

Career change tips - Job search pointers from the pros

Unless it involves being an entrepreneur and creating your own path, any career change will most likely involve a job search at some point.

Back in late 2001, at the height of the dot com implosion, I interviewed a variety of recruiters  and hiring managers in the tech industry, asking them what job search advice they had. I wrote an article summarizing the tips, which I just came across this morning.

Since a career change and job search is often part of the path to finding a career that energizes and inspires you, I decided to add it as a resource here:

Job Search Tips: Pointers from the Pros

Feel free to add whatever job search advice you may have learned along the way in the comments section below the article. Thanks!

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Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst ^TM

Career change tip: Weigh the discomfort of change vs. no-change

Have you ever known you needed to make a change in your life, but dragged your heels because the idea of actually making that change felt even more uncomfortable than whatever needed changing?

It's something I often encounter in my work helping people find careers that energize and inspire them. So many people out there who are unhappy with their current careers look at the idea of making a change and think "Yikes!" They decide that however uncomfortable their current situation, at least it's a discomfort they know and are familiar with.

They put the two options on a scale, weighing the discomfort of change vs. the discomfort of staying put. Often the discomfort of change seems much heavier, so they stay where they are.

The trouble with that is people frequently don't weigh the right things. The discomfort of change is a short-term discomfort, so they compare that to the short-term discomfort of staying put. They put a day, or a week, or maybe a month's worth of their current situation on the scale and think, "Well, I don't like it, but at least I'm familiar with it. And compared to the pain of wholesale change, this is really just a low-grade ache." The discomfort of change seems clearly heavier than the discomfort of staying put.

Except that's not the full picture. The pain of staying put in a situation that is wrong for them isn't just the pain of showing up to work again tomorrow and doing something that doesn't fit. It's showing up the day after that, and the month after that, and the year after that...

When they're weighing the discomfort of change vs. the discomfort of no-change, they need to look at the cumulative effect of days and months of years of doing what's not right for them, not just how it feels to show up for work tomorrow. Because that's what they're committing to by deciding not to change.

Next time you find yourself avoiding change because the discomfort of staying put seems easier to tolerate, ask yourself, "Am I weighing the right things?"

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Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst ^TM