Did
you know?
 Approximately
2/3 of job dissatisfaction is caused by problems with the boss.
Almost
1/3 is caused by problems with the work environment.
Less
than five percent of job dissatisfaction is caused by the work itself.
45%
of all US workers said they would change their careers if they could
10%
of all US workers actually do change their careers (voluntarily) and......... 7
of 10 increased their income!
Even Smart People Make
The Wrong Choices
This is a book for
smart people looking to make
the right career choices. Let’s
face it, our careers define and shape us; they
are the vessels that carry our hopes and dreams.
Correctly chosen, they bring us success and
well-being. Poorly chosen, they are sinking ships
— dead weights that drag us down.
Whether you’re fresh out of school looking for
your first real job or re-entering the job market after
graduate school or fifteen years of raising children,
you want this first step to reward you
with more than a paycheck.
Or, if you’re now suffering the shock of unemployment
or the slow torture of being unhappy
in your job, the one thing you know for sure
is that you want to make the right choice for the
next phase of your career. In fact, those who have
been "let go" (or "fired," "downsized,"
"laid off,"
"forced into early retirement," or "left by mutual
agreement") are not so different from those
who voluntarily seek a career change. An amazing
number of people who have lost their jobs
are not looking to replace those jobs but to find
a new career altogether.
"I can see that maybe this isn’t what I should
be doing at all," the career
changers say. The recently
laid off tell me, "I didn’t like that job anyway.
Maybe this is a wake-up call … an opportunity
to make a fresh start." Both groups are
saying the same thing. The only difference is the
career changers are taking control and those laid-off
are often still in shock.
So the exact circumstance that has propelled you
to seek career guidance is not important. What
is important is that you’ve chosen a book to
educate yourself about job factors and your own
needs before making a choice.
I’ve been in your position — more than once —
and it took me totally by surprise. Here’s
my story: I was a precocious teenager. I
already had a goal, for my future. I decided when
I was fourteen that I wanted to be Vice President
of Human Resources for a major company. That was before any of my friends
had ever heard of Human
Resources, and in fact, before most
companies had heard of it.
I became an Eagle Scout and spokesperson for
the Boy Scouts of America when I was fourteen. I
gave eight speeches in one month including one
before the state legislature. I was provided with
a press clipping service that same year.
As a junior in high school, I was president of student
council; as a senior I was president of Hi-Y; and
in the yearbook I was named "Most Likely to
Succeed." I was on my way to the top.
After college, and a
stint in the armed services that
included a year in Vietnam, I began working
my way up the career ladder in Human Resources.
I deliberately worked for a non-union company
and then a union company to have experience
in both. I switched industries to broaden
my knowledge. According to plan, I became
Vice President of Human Resources for an
industry leader at the age of thirty-two. I was the
youngest person with that title in the city of Atlanta.
I’m not telling you this to impress you with my
brilliance. I tell you this to impress you with my
ignorance … because, without my having the slightest
hint of anything amiss, one fine autumn day
I was called into the president’s office and fired.
I was given no transition time, no severance pay,
and no help in finding a new job. They didn’t
want me to drive my company car home.
I had to have one of my employees take me home.
I stood on the sidewalk in the shadow of that
building where I had worked, holding my personal
possessions in a box, waiting for the ride.
I was embarrassed to tell my wife what had happened.
I was even more embarrassed to tell my
in-laws. I was devastated, humiliated, shocked.
I was also angry … and I was scared. I was
in shock for three days.
If the emotions of
sorrow, anger and fear represented
one side of my distress, the other side
was doubt. How could they fire me — an aggressive,
goal-oriented, hard worker who was full
of ideas? What were they thinking? That was an
unfathomable mystery to me.
Oh, what wisdom in hindsight! If I had known
then what I know now, I would not have been
surprised at all. I was a severance waiting to happen.
All the signs I now recognize were there in
front of me like a billboard, but I couldn’t read them.
In a few days I pulled myself together, hired an
outplacement consultant, and within seven weeks
I had landed a job with one of the companies
featured in Peters and Waterman’s best-selling book, In
Search of Excellence.
What’s more,
this company had a cutting edge Human
Resources program. I was a regional Human
Resources Manager. What could be more perfect?
But I was not happy there. I was frustrated,
and I made an early escape. Next, I got a job in
Human Resources at a large, old, established
bank, but not in the top position. For the next
five years, I felt as if I were on vacation. And I’m
a man whose idea of a long vacation is five
consecutive days! During my last three years at
the bank, I was doing some consulting on the
side simply to keep myself stimulated, but I’d
never considered doing it full time. When
a friend — in fact, a woman who reported to me
— finally said, "Emory, it’s time for you to
go,"
the blood drained from my face. I wasn’t ready
because this was not what I had planned. But she
was right.
I’m still in Human Resources, as you can see,
but I’ve found a job where I thrive. In my eighteen
years as a consultant, I have seen over 10,000
people going through job transitions and, not
surprisingly, along the way started seeing trends.
People were let go, as I was. People were bouncing
from job to job, often dissatisfied, as I was.
They had, in the past, always thought they would
do better next time, but they were beginning to suspect that maybe they wouldn’t, that maybe job
satisfaction was an impossible dream, and they
were scared. I made it my goal to develop a
method based on my experience and the experiences
of thousands of others to help people make
the right career choices.
I’ve listened to the pain and anger of a thousand
downsized, displaced, misplaced Americans.
I have put many of them on the path to
correct employment. I know that the pursuit of
the American dream does not have to be a nightmare
of frustration and disappointment.
This book identifies a problem — the problem
I had, the problem you may have, the problem
millions of Americans have — so you can
avoid it. And it offers a solution in the form of a
tool that has proved successful in guiding
thousands of my clients to satisfying, successful
employment. When you have finished this book, I expect
you will be among them.
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