April 21, 2005

Hate Your Job?

The Wall Street Journal ran an interesting piece this week about the dangers of quitting your day job for a dream of something different. According to the Journal:

Many people belatedly realize they hate what they do for a living. As the economic recovery gains momentum, more job hunters will seek greener pastures in a different field. But it's risky to abandon your secure professional identity, especially when the chosen alternative fails to cure your work malaise.

I have said for a long time that - when the economy starts creating jobs again - there will be a rush for the exits. Over the last few years, employees at all levels of the organization have been asked to work harder after layoffs and some have lost bonuses or taken pay cuts. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that "more work" + "less money" = "a resentful and unhappy workforce". That unhappiness can lead people to misdiagnose the cause of their discontent. That's why the WSJ is right to caution people against rushing into a career change just because they're unhappy in their current job. The article continues:

Before changing livelihoods, diagnose your occupational ills. "Is it the work? Is it the people? Is it the context?" advises Herminia Ibarra, author of a book on career reinvention and an organizational-behavior professor at Insead business school in Fontainebleau, France. Without a good grasp of their situation, people often make "what they thought were big changes and end up in the same kind of setting," she believes.

If you're considering a career change, read the whole article here.

Posted by Louise at 03:49 AM | Permalink

March 09, 2005

Making a career change

I just received an interesting email from a client looking to make a career change. She asks whether a functional resume would be better than a traditional structure. She's thinking that she needs to distract employers from her background in one industry so they can imagine her in another ... the problem is that the readers are not stupid and they won't be fooled by 'clever' resume tricks.

The truth is that if you want to make a career change, you really need to go about it very differently from a normal search. Check out my article on career change for more information.

The key isn't a clever resume or a great cover letter, although these can't hurt. Successful career change really requires an aggressive networking and personal contact campaign.

Posted by Louise at 01:57 PM | Permalink