Chapter 58
Your Designer Job
If you’re out of work, and the landlord and bill
collectors are the only incoming calls you’re getting, who’s
thinking about how to find the perfect job? Are you nuts? Just give
me that old-time paycheck and I’m good to go.
Likely as not, you won’t be.
Think about it. If you settle on a job just to
settle your accounts, you’re likely to lose it. You’ll lose the
next one. And the next one. And the one after that.
An adage true to my heart: Find a job you love,
and you’ll never have to work another day in your life.
Joe McCannon is a VP of the Institute for
Healthcare Improvement in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He wrote a
piece that appeared in the Hartford Courant
and later was reprinted in the Minneapolis Star
Tribune on eleven lessons for people about to embark on their
new job.
His first piece of advice is to go after
“interesting problems, not prestigious positions.” The second:
“Seek responsibility, not income.” The first will keep you engaged
in your work, and the second will help you shoulder tasks
better.
Down the list, but important to keep in mind,
McCannon warns of the “competence . . . trap . . . People who are
competent and have a strong sense of responsibility will get used
the most.” If you don’t remind your boss that you’re on the lookout
for opportunity, you’re not likely to get it.
Some people make wish lists when they look for
the perfect mate. Why not do the same as you try to find your next
job? This sort of well-constructed list can tell you plenty about
yourself and the kind of position in which you are likeliest to
succeed. But make sure you are asking the right questions.
The ABC reality show The
Bachelor has been around for thirteen seasons. Its longevity
isn’t the most amazing fact about this show. What’s remarkable is
that at last tally—of the thirteen perfect couples who finished off
each season—none have yet made it to the altar, and most have
broken up for good. That’s probably a lot better than a series of
trips to divorce court, but it’s also evidence that people often
don’t ask the right questions in making life’s big decisions.
When you design your own “perfect” job, here’s my
list of the ten most important questions you should be asking
yourself:
1. What is my career goal ten years from now, and
what are the best kinds of jobs that can get me to that
target?
2. What kinds of work do I really enjoy doing?
What so absorbs me that I forget the time clock is ticking?
3. What sorts of on-the-job challenges will help
me do better what I already do well?
4. What types of skills do I need for a “perfect”
job within my reach, and how do I intend to get them?
5. Which sorts of people and organizations earn my
trust and confidence?
6. What kinds of people do I work well with? How
do I best describe members of the ideal team I want to be part of
?
7. What industry and which companies have the best
prospects of finding me opportunities to grow when I’m ready to
advance?
8. Which companies are most likely to motivate my
sense of pride and loyalty, e.g., what organizations will get me
out of bed early in the morning or will make me willing to
sacrifice my free time?
9. What type of boss do I enjoy working for? What
kind of boss gets the best results from me? What kind of boss will
help me grow the most professionally? (These are really three very
important but different parts of a bigger
question: Who is the perfect boss for me?)
10. How important is location (region of the
country, large vs. small town, etc.) to my idea of the perfect job,
and what sacrifices will I make to be there?
Landing a job you love is a matter of planning
and design, not a matter of luck. “Depend on the rabbit’s foot if
you will,” quipped R. E. Shay, “but remember it didn’t work for the
rabbit!”
Mackay’s Moral: When it
comes to a job, if you don’t love it,
you’re likely to lose it.
you’re likely to lose it.
Quickie—No One Is
Immune
In July, I asked readers of my nationally
syndicated column if they had any job-search tips that could help
other readers. I got a particularly memorable e-mail from a guy
named Luke Reisdorf.
Luke had some first-rate tips:
• “Take advantage of classes offered through your
unemployment center or local library.”
• “Do whatever it takes to keep yourself in a
positive frame of mind.”
• “Focus your Internet time on networking sites
like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook . . .
While much can be said about having negative things pop up it can
be just as bad to have nothing pop up because it tells a potential
employer that that is what you have been up to (nothing).”
• “For a job hunt LinkedIn is perhaps the most
important of the sites I mentioned because it is a professional
networking site. When you look for a job on LinkedIn and your
profile comes with real recommendations from former colleagues and
bosses, you have a little more traction.”
Luke Reisdorf practiced what he preached. He got a
job at Target Headquarters just two months after he was laid off by
his former employer. “Even after being in my new job nearly three
months, I find myself continuing many of these habits I formed in
my job search,” Luke wrote me. My hat is off to Luke . . .
especially since our firm, MackayMitchell Envelope, was his former
employer—a place where he had invested three productive
years.
Periodic reductions are the drumbeat of modern
corporate life. No one is immune. Not Microsoft, not MackayMitchell
Envelope.
“Of course, with the position
that has the benefits—medical,
dental, et ceter—there is no salary.”
dental, et ceter—there is no salary.”
© The New Yorker Collection 1992 Warren Miller
from cartoonbank.com. All
Rights Reserved.