Volunteering for Career Change

If you’re considering a career change, your career counselor or coach may encourage you to take a volunteer position in your new industry. Alternatively, you may be encouraged to take up volunteer work when you’re between jobs, as a way to update your resume.

(1) Non-profit organizations often have a history of transitioning volunteers to full-time careers. For-profit organizations rarely do.

If you seek a job in a for-profit organization, be cautious about offering to work for free or for a deeply discounted salary. Instead, try to leverage your skills to a new position. For instance, an IT professional who wants to move to marketing could apply for tech jobs in marketing firms.

(2) Recognize that volunteer positions often differ dramatically from the paid positions.

This difference works in both directions. Once I met someone who volunteered for a social service job. She was horrified: heavy workload, depressing conditions, and ineffective supervision.

“Social work? No way!” she declared.

I suggested she talk to professionals with degrees who worked in the field. I also suggested she investigate different agencies.

At the other extreme, volunteer workers often miss the political hassles and informal job requirements that are critical to surviving in a paid position.

(3) Volunteer work may be a bridge when you are in transition.

Career change articles often urge workers to build up their resumes with volunteer work. Sometimes you can pick up skills that will be transferrable but don’t assume you’re building your resume. The gap between for-profit and non-profit can be enormous and career direction typically goes one way: from for-profit to non-profit.

If you are not working at all, I first recommend investigating some form of self-employment or freelance work, preferably in your field. I’d also be open to short-term jobs that bring in cash.

Volunteer work may give you some structure and introduce you to new people. It’s better than sitting on the couch at home. It’s usually better than working in a low-paying retail job (unless, of course, you seek a retail management career).

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How To Handicap Your Career With Too Much Information

Today’s Wall Street Journal features an article on the dangers of TMI: sharing Too Much Info with colleagues at work.

See When Oversharing Invades The Office by Elizabeth Bernstein. Some examples from people interviewed for the article:

• A young man shares that he shaved his entire body for a bike race.
• A woman blurts that she conceived her son on a first date in high school.
• A man tells his marketing consultant he needs a lawyer because his wife sued for divorce after he had visited a prostitute.

Apparently reality shows and TV talk shows have blurred the boundaries between private and public. When Dr. Phil listens patiently and kindly to a sordid tale, we somehow get the message that the situation is normal…and so is talking about the situation.

Age related? I don’t think so. My 50-something creative art teacher liked to talk about her ex-husband, housing problems, financial stresses, and even visits to her “therapist.” We didn’t need to know.

Employment related? Not always. I’ve attended online teleseminars where class leaders said, “Time to end. I have to go pee.” Or they dropped details of their personal lives, often with the well-intentioned goal of appearing human and accessible in an invisible medium. I’ve had neighhors who shared every detail of…well, let’s not go there.

In all fairness, these days many of us spend more time at work than anywhere else. We have very few purely personal relationships that don’t overlap with work. And we’ve bought into the idea that sharing is a good thing.

The first of those two sentences are true. But sharing is not always a good thing. In a workplace or business situation, I believe the following should be shared very carefully or not at all:

Medical problems or exams  Sharing could come back to bite you: you might be considered too weak for a plum assignment and clients may be nervous about your ability to do the job.

Family. As far as the world is concerned, you have a happy, functional, loving family. Of course, what’s normal in one family will seem bizarre or cruel to another. Many years ago a colleague talked about the way he disciplined his young daughter…a detail we absolutely did not need to know and one that raised suspicions about his temper and his moral character.

Grooming and personal habits. Again, these tidbits can backfire. What seems reasonable and appropriate to one person will seem negligent or egotistical to another.

Bottom line:

When you are in a business environment — any environment where you are getting paid to be there — you are performing on a stage. Inevitably you will slip every so often. However, on a day-to-day basis, come up with some topics you feel comfortable sharing. Sports, music, and gardening seem pretty neutral.

If you’ve got a workplace culture where everybody comes in on Monday and talks about “how I spent my weekend,” come up with just enough harmless stories to be part of the group. Or (my favorite ploy) claim you need to make a phone call and disappear. Most people are more interested in hearing themselves than in your stories anyway.

Remember that anything you say can be used against you by someone who’s out to get you. For example, one man talked a great deal about his anorexic daughter. His colleagues privately speculated that his personal style probably contributed to the daughter’s psychological problems. Fair? No. True? Yes.

Be sensitive to leaks through Facebook. Keep one account that’s accessible only by personal friends and family members. If you don’t want the hassle of password protection, identify yourself and family members by private names that would not appear if someone googled you.

Encourage younger colleagues, friends and family members to be sensitive to oversharing. Often these twenty-somethings have become accustomed to sharing in a college dorm. Nobody bothers to tell them the workplace is different.

If you believe you need to share or “vent” for your own psychological benefit, choose a confidante who is not connected to the workplace. It’s no accident that CEO’s have long employed consultants who are now called coaches. Ideally, you will find a friend or family member to listen. Alternatively, an investment in a coach or therapist can pay dividends for your career growth.

Finally, don’t beat yourself up if you make a mistake. If colleagues want to destroy you, they will find a way. That’s another topic.

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What’s a family-friendly workplace? Married vs Single

Recently I criticized a book, Womenomics, which claimed to be about women-friendly workplaces. The authors seemed to define “family-friendly” as giving support to marred women with children.

While I acknowledge that being a working mom is probably a lot harder than I can imagine, I’d add that giving preference those working moms places a burden on single people. My review ignited a response. See http://budurl.com/czu7

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Is Facebook the new company spy?

You can read the original story here. The link was posted on Twitter by @socialtweedia.

It was a cover story with as many holes as Swiss cheese. A Swiss woman, working for a Swiss company, called in sick, claiming a migraine. I don’t know much about migraines, but I gather you want to lie in a dark room and do as little as possible.

But instead of taking cover, so to speak, the woman used the opportunity to post to her Facebook account. Apparently she used her iPhone to update Facebook from her bed in her darkened room.

“If you are well enough to use Facebook, you are well enough to come to work,” the company said. They fired the woman for lying.

The woman claimed the company was spying. Maybe they were.

What did this woman do wrong?

First, when you work for a company, don’t “friend” colleagues unless you have a special account for business purposes. This woman admits she accepted a Friend request from someone in her company. This mysterious X had an account without a picture.

Second, when you’re sick, stay hidden. Some companies understand that you will fake a dentist appointment to attend a job interview at a competing company. Mental health days are common. Just be sure you won’t run into someone you shouldn’t.

My hunch is that the company had a hidden agenda. We don’t know if this woman had a history of missing work. Maybe they were looking for an excuse to fire her.

Alternatively, perhaps they felt they couldn’t overlook a public transgression. Anyone could see when this woman updated her account.

What is your opinion? Click on “comment” below.

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Volunteer for a furlough? Think about it.

The Wall Street Journal carried an article about companies who ask employees to  volunteer for furloughs. They interviewed several advisors.

Bottom line: Check out the political implications before you volunteer. Will you gain an advantage? Will your colleagues resent you?

Frankly, I am opposed to asking workers to donate anything to a company. When you’re an employee, you are in an economic relationship. If you’re needed, they will pay you. If you’re not, they won’t.

When you volunteer for a furlough, you might be admitting you’re not needed, as some sources suggested. But I would add, “What does the company volunteer to do for you?” There should be some kind of a quid pro quo: those who agree to layoffs should get something in return,

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Career Advice: What happens at work…

Another piece of advice from Penelope Trunk’s blog: Work is more fun when you have friends.

True, a job is more fun when you have work friends: people to meet for lunch, people who add spice to meetings, and people who help you out when you’re overloaded.

I would say, just don’t assume  they’re friend-friends. Don’t tell them anything you wouldn’t broacast over the company email and PA system. OK, maybe after you’ve known them awhile, you can relax.

But stories get changed in re-telling. Your light-hearted encounter with your drunk brother-in-law will get twisted into a story of you getting a DUI or tap-dancing on the boss’s car.

True story: one 50-something woman landed on a psych ward with a mental illness diagnosis. The *real* story was that she was misdiagnosed. She actually had a thyroid deficiency, which can cause hallucinations and other symptoms that resemble psychosis.

Unfortunately, her colleagues heard only “mental ward.” They whispered that she was “psycho.”  Sadly, the whole episode happened before she started working there. She shared the story with a new work “friend” over drinks one evening, when they were talking about doctors. It seemed harmless. It wasn’t.

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Girlpower (or personpower) in the workplace.

Writing for the New York Times, journalist Hannah Seligson muses on the reasons her female classmates went from being academic achievers to workplace drones. Even in the 21st century, she sighs, women still get stuck with coffee and note-taking duty.

But this young journalist is no fool.

First, she says, it’s okay to say no. Men are very comfortable with a direct and clear “No.” Often they don’t take it personally.

Actually, I have to add, men don’t take it personally because they often see “No” as the first step in the negotiating process, which is why we have so many he-said-she said sexual assault cases. It works in the workplace, though, when you’re negotiating salary. “No” often means, “Come back later with a new proposal.”

Second, she’s glommed on to a truth that eludes professionals and executives of both sexes who are twice her age and infinitely more experienced:

“The other dose of shock therapy I’ve undergone is reprogramming my brain to think that, yes, girls do brag. I’ve indoctrinated myself with the idea that my job is a two-part process. One part is actually doing the work and the second part is talking about it, preferably in bottom-line terms.”

I added the bold type. Whether you work for yourself or someone else, I recommend pasting this paragraph somewhere you can see it everyday (but hidden from everyone else in your business life.

This article is titled GirlPower but it’s really PersonPower. You can read the full story here.

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The Big Squeeze…do we have answers?

Recently I caught a televised talk by Steven Greenhouse, author of a new book, badly titled The Big Squeeze. See http://www.yourmidlifecareer.com/bigsqueeze.html

If you want to know why it’s a bad title, just google “Big Squeeze” in any search engine. See what comes up.

Greenhouse warn that workers at all levels face increasing pressures from employers. For example, a hotel maid cleans the same number of rooms. But now she changes 3 sheets instead of 1 and 5 pillowcases instead of 2.

A college professor says, “I write objectives for classes, test dozens papers for plagiarism and create web pages…plus everything I did before.”

No easy answers – and some readers will disagree vehemently with my views. Please post comments by clicking on the link at the bottom of this post.

(1) Think “empowerment,” not “entitlement.”

Sure, I believe companies need to treat employees humanely. I get furious when I read about sex, race, age and any other form of discrimination.

But in the short term, I would think of gaining power.

I’m not saying quit your job. But I am saying, “Work toward the goal of being able to say, ‘Take this job and…’” when the time is right.

You gain power by having a healthy nest egg, being marketable, starting your own business on the side, and/or developing a skill that few people have but many people want.

(2) Squeeze your company’s opportunities.

“Sylvia” likes her job but knows she’ll need to switch companies someday.

“Education would make me marketable,” she said, “but we have limited tuition reimbursement.”

“Limited is not zero,” I said. Sylvia should be using every dime to take courses and/or attend seminars where she can build her network.

(3) Work where it counts.

My friend “Ken,” a math professor, spends hours grading homework — an effort appreciated neither by his students nor his department chair.

“Linda” admits she rewrites every memo and answers every email. Her colleagues tell her, “If you ignore them, nobody notices.”

Sometimes you really can’t cut anything out of your day or your job. You need a change.

But sometimes you can create systems, say no to non-essentials and decide what’s safe to ignore.

Bottom Line: One of my favorite career books is JobShift by William Bridges. Written over a decade ago, Bridges reminds readers that you work for yourself even when you work for a company. You’re not a family. You’re a contractor. A very timely mindset for the 21st century.

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Can blogging help or hurt your career?

In the Chronicle of Higher Education, a newspaper targeted to anyone even remotely connected to academia, Brandon Withrow ponders this question in an article “Not Your Father’s PhD.” You can read it here.

I would agree with those who say you’ll be better equipped to work with today’s students if you understand modern techo-tools. One of my friends dismisses blogs as “just diaries.” And he teaches a course in internet marketing!

One thing: This post contains advice to blog readers. I don’t think you can advise visitors on how to approach your blog. I encourage my own readers and clients to err on the side of caution.

But you never know. When you’re edgy enough to turn off some readers, most likely you’ll also attract kindred spirits. When I was an academic, my “Personal” section read “Single with 2 cats.” Always good for a chuckle on interview days…and I got jobs.

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Self help book meets realities of workplace politics

I’ve been reading a book called Practically Perfect in Every Way by Jennifer Niesslen. Niesslen spent 2 years testing how much she could change by reading self-help books and following online programs.

You can read more about the book and see my review
here at the amazon website.

What bothered me most were the parts of her life we got to see in between the self-help progress reports. Jennifer works at home as a freelance writer (giving her opportunities to experiment) while her husband Brandon works for an unnamed large pharmaceutical firm.

One day, Brandon’s company refuses to close early for an ice storm. Brandon’s colleague gets told, “If you leave early, you’ll be charged a vacation day.” So the colleague stays. Brandon carpools. He rode with the colleague. So he stays too, while Jennifer worries all afternoon.

These situations are tricky. But why didn’t the colleague say, “OK, so I lose a vacation day?” Or, “I’ll reimburse the company for my time. My life is worth more than a few hundred bucks.”

I would not be surprised if the company conveniently forgot to deduct the vacation day to avoid negative PR. I would not even be surprised if someone sent a few anonymous tips to the local newspaper: “Bad company docks pay of workers who leave during ice storm…”

Even if you lose a day’s pay, you send a message to the company. According to Niesslein, this company makes the “100 best companies to work for” lists. There’s probably some pride at stake.

OK, I’m out of corporate life and always was a maverick. I would have walked. Once I was supposed to start a new job in January, following a long drive through upstate New York. I told the company point blank, “If there’s a blizzard, I will be late.” No blizzard, but nothing happened. I took this option for granted and I suspect my attitude was contagious.

Since then I’ve met people who battled blizzards and worse for their companies. I don’t know who’s right.

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