I just revised my Report on the 5 most common (and, some say, the toughest) career decisions most mid-career professionals face. After all, career planning is all about making decisions.

The truth is, most of us spend more time deciding which car to buy than investigating career decisions. (I’m the same way, most of the time.) There’s a good reason. We don’t have simple checklists for quantifiable attributes, such as “gas mileage” or “frequency of repair.” So we’re often in the position of making a decision about how to make the decision.

Based on my experience as a career changer and career consultant, I’ve put together some starting points in this free ebook. You can download here immediately at
http://www.midlifecareerstrategy.com/fivecareerdecisions2012.pdf

You think you have career stress? Think again!

You may have seen the news report: A Goldman Sachs manager, Greg Smith,  resigned in a very public way.  Before sending in his resignation letter, Smith wrote an Op-Ed piece for the New York Times, expressing his frustration with his employer. He criticized the self-serving value system and culture. He claimed that the company actually worked against their clients’ interests in some cases. It’s the opposite of career planning. It’s career stress.

Read the full story here in the New York Times.

Some Goldman clients responded positively to the article and to Smith’s career stress. Some clients said, “He’s right. We have to be careful when we deal with Goldman.”

This is NOT Greg Smith but maybe it's how you feel right now.They knew they had to follow the "caveat emptor" guideline when dealing with this company.

But many people were critical of this manager. One of the most compelling criticisms came from the Bloomberg.com financial blog :

“We have some advice for Smith, as well as the thousands of college students who apply to work at Goldman Sachs each year: If you want to dedicate your life to serving humanity, do not go to work for Goldman Sachs. That’s not its function, and it never will be. Go to work for Goldman Sachs if you wish to work hard and get paid more than you deserve even so.”

He undoubtedly will have trouble getting another job on Wall Street; on the other hand, he’d been earning around $500,000 a year and hopefully he knew something about investing his own money wisely. He may not want another job. Maybe he will move to the country and downsize his life.

He’s not free and clear. Goldman could sue him, especially if he had signed agreements about making “disparaging comments” about the firm. However, if Goldman sued, they would create another public relations problem, as many people will side with Greg Smith. Let’s face it: many of us have had fantasies of doing the same thing!

Will Smith change the culture of Goldman Sachs this way? Or is he just committing career suicide very publicly?

What do YOU think? Reply below to leave a comment. If you don’t see a place to comment, just click on the headline.

An article in today’s New York Times Magazine asks, “Why do Harvard graduates work in the mailroom?” You can read the article here.

Author Adam Davidson refers to the best-selling book, Freakonomics, which noted the peculiar behavior of drug dealers. They accepted low pay and dangerous conditions on the slim chance they would hit the jackpot and become wealthy kingpins. Davidson said it’s like entering the job lottery.

Davidson has a point. However, he lumps together all kinds of apprenticeships: working in the mail room while waiting to advance to an executive job, serving tables in a restaurant, working as a law firm associate and spending time as an assistant professor while hoping for tenure.

The truth is that the time invested in this apprenticeship will often have some value, even if the outcome is not what has been planned. Lawyers and accountants can get jobs elsewhere, even if they don’t make partner at a specific firm. College professors often move to other universities (and if they teach in business, law or engineering, they’re not poorly paid). Actors who hang in there often do get some experience or get into a related career; I’ve met successful business owners who learned from their auditioning experience (not to mention their acing lessons).

Plan B opportunities still abound, especially for those who don’t reach their original goals. They’re just not called jobs anymore. They’re small business owners, often in service businesses. I recently talked to a woman whose “Plan B” teaching job went away. She started her own dog walking company. Her parents were horrified but she’s making more money with less pressure and certainly lower wardrobe expenses.

What do you think? Comment below (if you don’t see a place to comment, click on the title of this post).

Recently a question was posed in an online forum. Jeremy Lin was not expected to be a star. He was waived by other teams and wasn’t considered good enough to hold a starting position.

Surely many companies have employees who aren’t performing to potential, creating a huge opportunity cost for these organizations. What can they do to identify these individuals and take advantage of them?

Lin finally shone when he became a starter. I’ve seen that happen on a smaller scale with other players (I’m a WNBA fan) who became starters when the coach got desperate: once they got the playing time, they showed what they could do.

There’s a saying, “Nobody believes you’re a sergeant till they see the stripes on your sleeve.” Companies tend to label their employees and the labels stick like cement. As a result, some people never get a chance to show what they can do, while others keep getting more responsibility even when they blow it over and over again.

From the worker’s perspective, it’s critical to enter an organization from a position of strength. It’s hard to overcome a perception of, “Well, he was the best we could get but frankly we don’t expect much … ”

One study of basketball players showed that players drafted in the first round tended to have longer careers in the league, regardless of their actually performance. I’ve seen some anecdotal evidence, in my role as ardent WNBA fan.

What do you think? Comment below (if you can’t see a place to comment, click on the title of the post and you’ll be taken to a new page with just this post and a place to comment).

For information about your mid-career tune-up, click here.

Recently this question was posed on a LinkedIn forum: Should you hire and fire?

Readers interpreted the question differently. Some said, “Hire slow and fire fast.” Most said, “Don’t hire anyone unless you’re prepared to invest in his/her retention and growth.”

Here’s my response (edited from what I posted):

With small companies, or companies going through fast growth, it’s best to hire contract workers rather than employees; they have a fixed term and you get a sense of who you want.

But you don’t get a completely free ride when you hire contract employees.

Performance reviews as well as decisions to put someone on probation, give written warnings, or (especially) fire  even contract workers can lead to lawsuites. Therefore, when setting up your processes, you must get advice from a good employment attorney. I’m not a lawyer so my comments are based on first-hand experience.

I’ve heard of contract employees bringing suit because they claimed they were not re-hired due to sexual harassment, discrimination or other causes. These suits will eat your time and money budgets; they cause deep rifts in a company, destroying your most precious asset: a productive group of employees.

In a growing or changing environment, be aware that reference to “age’ or “career stage” can be interpreted as age discrimination (and in fact it probably is, in my non-legal opinion). If the EEOC gets interested, they will ask about documentation, so you need to be ready.

Apart from saving the hassle of a lawsuit, you’ll save everyone a lot of misery when you do things right the first time. I’ve seen first-hand what happens when a confused manager starts inventing stories to justify a poor evaluation. It ain’t pretty.

What do you think? If you don’t see a comment box, click on the title of this post and share your thoughts.

Today’s New York Times “Social Q’s” column addressed this question:
For the last 7 years, Anonymous had received a “generous cash bonus” from her boss – “in addition to the regular company bonus.” She explains, “I do many personal errands for him during the year.”

This year: no bonus. She wonders why. (I’m assuming the writer is female.)

Philip Galanes, the moderator of Social Q, deals purely with the etiquette issue. He urges her to speak privately with her boss, asking if there was a performance issue.

From an etiquette perspective, Galanes may be correct. From a career planning perspective, you would need a different perspective.

First, doing personal errands for the boss is always a slippery slope. (I’m assuming you’re not a personal assistant, like the main character of Devil Wears Prada.) So are cash bonuses.

If your official job does not call for personal errands, I would suggest drawing the line early.

You can also check your company’s policies on outside work. If you find no conflict, you can start a small concierge business, where you run errands and carry out personal services for money. These services charge $35-$75 an hour. Some charge more for difficult errands.

Yes, you would need a business license and you would pay taxes on your earnings. However, a sharp accountant would help you spot some legal deductions. In fact, if your boss is “a millionaire many times over” (like the one in the column) he will probably find a way to deduct your services from his taxes, all nice and legal.

Once you have this business, you can find other executives to hire you. You might even call on your neighbors. Some concierges will walk dogs and take pets to the veterinarian. Some pick up dry cleaning. Just about all services will shop for groceries and stay home and wait for packages (if you do this, make sure you’re bonded and insured).

You can expand your service on weekends. If you get laid off, you’ll have a business all ready to go.

Your mid-life career takes a detour when you deal with a bad boss. Fast Company Expert Kevin Kruse wrote a gem of an article: When You Work For A Jerk: A 6-Point Plan For Dealing With A Bad Boss. Read it here.

Kruse presents 6 career planning steps to take, which I will summarize in my own words with my own comments.

Is the problem about you or about the boss?

In any career planning, your first step is to separate yourself from the situation. If you’ve had a series of bad experiences, consider investing in a life coach, career coach or even a psychotherapist. Sometimes people re-enact patterns dating back to childhood … even when they 52 and working as a senior manager.

But I would add: Sometimes a repeated set of problem is not about your psychological issues but about your career choices. Industries, companies and professional fields have different patterns of working. In academia, you have a much looser authority structure than in many corporations.

And if you just can’t work for anybody, you may be wise to work on starting your own business, even if it seems impossible. Not all elements of style and personality can be changed, even with the best therapy and coaching on the planet. Some people are naturally gifted at working with any boss or colleague, so it stands to reason that some people aren’t. Gifts aren’t distributed evenly or fairly.

Try to be objective about your boss and your job.

This advice also makes sense. Your boss’s unrealistic demands may be a reflection of pressures from above. At the same time, I’m not sympathetic with people who bring their problems to the workplace. If your boss is going through a divorce or facing her own career challenges, she should be working to deal with them outside the office. If management tolerates inappropriate behavior, something is wrong with your company culture.

The article suggests “coaching upward,” i.e., helping your boss do his job better.

An example from the article:
“I just wanted to follow up on that item that came up a couple months ago. As we had discussed, I’d be much more efficient with that widget for my computer. Did that request ever go in…have you heard anything about it? I don’t mind following up on it myself .…want me to call David for the request?”

That’s great advice. But if your boss responds, it’s just a matter of communication style: you don’t have a bad boss, just an overworked or inattentive one.

Look at your return on investment. Are you getting good money? Gaining marketable skills? If so, then you may be well advised to hang on if you can do so without damaging your mental or physical health. If not, get thee to a career coach and start transitioning.

Wait it out. In some companies (and in the military) this advice makes sense. One of my academic friends says, “You don’t like the college president? They come and go. So do deans.”

But in some companies, nobody moves. If that’s your situation, you have to ask yourself, “Where will I be in 5 years?” If your boss is still there, chances are you will be too. You don’t have much choice. You have to move on.

Sometimes you have to bite the bullet. This nugget of wisdom is a real gem:

“If all else fails, you have to quit. For the sake of your mental and physical health, and for the sake of your friends and family, you have to find a new job. The truth is that if you’ve been working for a bad boss for long, you probably aren’t in a position to get a better job. I hate to be so direct, but great talent always has options, and usually doesn’t work for a bad boss.

“This is the key point: You have to be the CEO of your own career–you have to be mindful of your career. Not just when you get a bad boss, but always. In good times and in bad you need to be doing the things necessary to give you career options…”

I couldn’t have said it better myself. But if you’d like to pick my brain, visit this page and learn about my services.

We tend to think of “Career Planning” as moving to a better job in the future. But sometimes instead you need a career divorce. That’s today’s topic – and a good one from author and “dreamer in residence” Valerie Young.

And, just like a relationship that’s gone bad, it can be hard to walk away from a career — or a small business — you’ve put so much time and effort, to say nothing of the financial investment.

Take my friend Donna. After earning her master’s degree in social work some fifteen years ago, she went into private practice as a family therapist. For the first five or so years, Donna got a lot of satisfaction out of helping others. For the last ten though, her work has felt more like a burden.

So what keeps her there? It’s simple. Donna doesn’t want to “waste” the degree.

I know it’s not easy to turn your back on an established career, especially if it’s one that pays well, has some prestige associated with it, or required earning some kind of advanced degree. And yet, think about the logic here.

What you’re really telling yourself is, “I’ve wasted the last 10 years of my life so I might as well throw away the next 20 as well. To hell with my true gifts, I’ve got more suffering to do.”

John Powell once said, “The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.” The fact of the matter is we all get lost from time to time. That’s life. The danger comes when we fail to heed the road signs and thus remain stuck in the breakdown lane.

I have an abiding belief that everything in life happens for a reason. The key is to find the lessons. Even my own job with the boss from hell offered invaluable lessons and experiences.

In addition to getting to travel the country, I learned in no uncertain terms to trust my instincts. That job was also just the catalyst I needed to make my final exit from the j-o-b world. And, as importantly, it introduced me people who’ve been integral to helping me succeed as a solo entrepreneur.

What should you do if you find yourself on the wrong career path? We’ll, if you’re living with the consequences of having long ignored your better instincts, get a pen and paper, find some quiet space, and put your listening ears on. Then write down everything that little voice has been trying to tell you — but this time without censor or rationalization.

If you find, for example, that you’ve been living someone else’s dream, ask yourself:

What does having other people’s approval or meeting someone else’s needs help me avoid or get?

What price am I paying for this approval?

Do the costs outweigh the benefits? If so, it’s time to start exploring your own dreams.

If you’re hanging onto a job or career solely because of all the time and money you’ve invested, then the first thing to do is to let yourself get close to your fear. I’m not talking about the fear of letting the world know you made a mistake or the financial angst.

What I’m talking about is getting in touch with the one thing that should really scare the heck out of you — namely, never getting to experience what your life would be like if you pursued your true gifts and passions.

Once you let that little reality sink in, sit down and write a “Dear John” letter to your past love. Talk to your career or business. Explain that while it has been a good and faithful partner for some time, you have simply fallen out of love. It will understand.

Then pick up a paintbrush, look into culinary school, or otherwise start courting your new love interests.

It’s easy to find yourself on the wrong career track. When that happens, the key is to stay alert for warning lights, watch for the signposts along the way, learn from those inevitable detours, ask for directions, and then start slowly inching your way onto that big expansive highway called Your Life!

As George Bernard Shaw once observed, “A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.”

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About the Author

Profiting From Your Passions? expert Valerie Young abandoned her corporate cubicle to become the Dreamer in Residence at ChangingCourse.com offering resources for people who want to work at what they love. Her career change tips have been cited in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today Weekend, More, Kiplinger’s, Woman’s Day, and elsewhere and on-line at MSN, CareerBuilder, and iVillage.com. Valerie is also the author of The Secret Thoughts of Successful Women: Why Capable People Suffer from the Impostor Syndrome and How to Thrive in Spite of It with Crown Publishing/Random House available October 11.

Today’s Guest Post comes from best-selling author Barbara Winter.

When funnyman Steve Martin’s book Pure Drivel came out it enjoyed critical raves and enthusiastic sales. Although the author has long been recognized for his fertile comic mind, he told the Today Show’s Matt Lauer that the book would not have happened if he hadn’t taken time off. His sabbatical unleashed, Martin said, an avalanche of creative ideas.

Martin is not alone in discovering that taking time away can reap enormous benefits. Nicola Freegard was a successful (and frazzled) Hollywood music production executive. After a particularly stressful project, she decided to spend a year driving around the United States with her cocker spaniels as companions. Eventually, she settled in Tucson and began to clarify her goals. She decided she wanted to combine design and textile production with her concern for the environment. Furthermore, she wanted to work with great people and travel to exotic places. Today she heads Earth Works, a company that markets environmentally sensitive products for the home.

Despite numerous stories extolling the profound rewards of taking time away, it’s an idea that is not being as heartily embraced as it might be. In fact, many people find the whole notion downright terrifying. Not surprisingly, I’ve noticed, these are people with the least to lose.

Because the notion of regular sabbaticals throughout our lifetime has been so ignored in recent times, there’s some confusion over what constitutes a true sabbatical. People often claim to have taken a sabbatical when they actually took a sidetrip — usually not one of their own choosing. Divorce or a job loss frequently sends people into a tailspin, causing them to drift until they get their bearings. Calling such times a sabbatical diminishes the true objective of time off.

My definition of sabbatical is time away with a purpose. The purpose of such a time is not to abandon your life, but to enrich it. In the original concept, first defined in the Old Testament book of Hebrews, a sabbatical was to be taken by everyone, every seven years. During this year off, fields were to lie fallow, debts were to be forgiven, relationships were to be repaired and introspection was encouraged. Over time, of course, the notion disappeared and today many people don’t even observe a weekly Sabbath, much less consider taking an entire year of restoration.

After taking my sabbatical seminar a few years ago, Veneta Masson wrote an inspiring article about it for a health care magazine. In the article she said, “In 1998, I will have been an RN for 35 years. I should be coming up on my fifth sabbatical. …What if nurses, especially nurses in clinical practice, were granted time away from the physical, mental and emotional intensity of patient care for personal renewal? Wouldn’t nurses nurse more effectively if they themselves are well cared for?”

Obviously, my answer to the questions, “Who me? Take a sabbatical?” is a hearty, “Yes. Why not you?” And I’m not alone in singing the praises of such an adventure. The authors of Six Months Off interviewed over 200 people who had done so and without exception they all found that doing so enhanced their lives and careers. I have never met any sabbatical-taker who doesn’t rank it as a top life experience.

Like every worthwhile undertaking, a sabbatical requires thoughtful planning plus a creative approach to shifting gears for a while. Just like starting a business, taking time off seems fraught with obstacles until the right idea occurs. Then enthusiasm for the envisioned project begins to create momentum and attract necessary resources.

A good starting point for thinking about your own sabbatical can be as simple as this little exercise. Start writing down your own thoughts by completing this sentence:

I want time away in order to accomplish  __________________.

Once you have the big picture in sight, begin to list all ideas — both tame and wild — about how you might fulfill the mission. Then get busy carrying out the logistics.

Whether you want to see the world, find time to complete a project without interruption, study a new language or jumpstart your creative spirit, a sabbatical is an old idea that deserves to be rediscovered and put to use by those serious about discovering their biggest selves.

Is It Time for Time Away?

Here are several signs that it is the perfect time to consider a sabbatical:

You can’t remember the last time you had a new idea that you were excited about.

You’ve reached all of your goals.

You’ve reached none of your goals.

Your kids think you’re a nerd and you suspect they’re right.

You have a nagging suspicion that you’d be really good at something if you only had time to learn how.

You get wistful every time a plane flies overhead.

Nobody ever asks you what’s new.

A longterm relationship or job has come to an end. It’s time to write a new chapter.

You’re tired of being an armchair traveler and want to see distant lands for yourself.

You’re ready to find a new hometown.

You feel drawn to donate your time and talents to a humanitarian cause.

You need time to do research or start a long-term project.

Your soul is weary.

Barbara Winter, author of the bestselling book, Making a Living Without a Job: Winning Ways for Creating Work That You Love, is also a business owner, itinerant teacher, and self-employment advocate who found her own right livelihood after overcoming her early notions that work was meant to be drudgery. Be sure to check out her Winning Ways newsletter publication and various Teleclasses and Workshops at www.JoyfullyJobless.com or www.BarbaraWinter.com

Recently Fast Company published an article that seemed related to career planning. They asked if twenty-somethings and college students would trade off financial rewards to get more freedom to use Facebook on the job. Read the article here. The respondents insisted that Facebook access and social media were more important than money. The article said:

“More than half of the college students surveyed indicated that if an employer banned access to networks like Facebook at work, “they would either not accept a job offer from them or would join and find a way to circumvent.”

The problem is that career planning doesn’t work this way. It’s hard to know what we would say when confronted with those choices in reality, especially during tough times.

I’d like to see the question asked differently, limiting the respondents to people who actually had a job. I would ask, “Have you ever turned down a job because of limited social media access? Have you ever had to choose between two jobs: higher pay + no facebook vs. lower pay + facebook?”

The truth is, people are notoriously poor at predicting their own future behavior. That’s why criminal trials get so bizarre when jurors are asked to imagine themselves in specific situations. Unless we’re prepared (the way airline crews prepare for crashes), we usually don’t know.

On the other hand, the article goes on to note that younger people often want to meld their work and home lives, with shallower boundaries. They want to use company-issued devices for personal business. They want to work from home. In other words, they want to be freelancers with benefits.

Ultimately, we’ll probably see fewer jobs and more opportunities to earn income as freelancers. We can see that health care as a company benefit doesn’t work anymore.