The Five Deadliest Career mistakes

En: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/article/20141003154203-52594-the-five-deadliest-career-mistakes

Liz Ryan

Leslie said "This is my big mid-career reinvention! I want to do it right. I want to look at all my options."
Leslie had just learned that her division was being sold. "I expect to be let go after the merger," she said.
"I'll get a severance package if my job is eliminated. I'll have a few months to breathe and take my time with the job search, so that I end up in the right job."
"Fantastic!" we said. "Just watch out for the vortex. It's scary being on the edge. It's tempting to end your job search quickly, before you know what you want."
"I'll watch out for the vortex!" said Leslie merrily.
We gave Leslie some self-reflection exercises. We advised her to stay out of her problem-solving brain and trust her instincts.
"You won't solve your reinvention in your head," we said. "It's a physical process, not a logic puzzle."
Leslie began her exploration. She got signals that her job would soon be eliminated.
A headhunter called her. "Looks like your whole group could be cut soon," he said.
"Why not go on a couple of interviews? I have two Assistant Controller openings I'm trying to fill right now."
Leslie told us "What could it hurt to go on two interviews? I might as well get practice."
"By all means!" we said. "Just beware the vortex. You are in a great position to discover what you really want and need in a job."
Leslie called us, sheepish, a few weeks later. "I took a job offer," she said. "I can do the job in my sleep and it's a ten percent pay cut from my old job, but it's close to my house."
"Everything happens for a reason," we said. "Congratulations!"
Leslie called again three months later. "I am in Hell," she said. "This is the worst job I've ever had. Why did I jump so quickly? These people have no ideas, no curiosity and no sense of humor. I took the first job offer I got. I fell into the vortex."
"The vortex is powerful," we said. "It is hard to be between jobs. It's tempting to take something, just to be employed. It is hard to stay in exploratory mode."
Leslie got out of the hellish job eventually. "Now I know," she said. "More due diligence next time!"
Leaping without looking is the first Deadly Career Mistake on our list.
It is so hard to be in transition that many talented and marketable people take the first job offer they get.
They figure "Any job is better than no job," and undervalue themselves dramatically in the process.
An epic battle rages in their minds and hearts. On the one hand, they have an unexciting job offer. If they take it, they don't have to go on any more interviews, or worry about how to pay the rent.
If they pass on the offer, they remain open to everything the world might have in store for them, but they stay in Indecision Land a little longer. Most of us settle very quickly for a steady state over a state of flux, even when it hurts us to do so.
Leslie did that, but she got great learning from the experience. She won't be bitten by the same snake again!
Derek is a computer scientist. He worked at a university and had a defined career path.
After four years of hard work, Derek approached his manager about a promotion. Derek's manager said "You are ready for a step up, but I'd like you to get another certification first."
"It's a scam!" Derek told us. "I could teach the certification classes myself, but my boss wants me to get the piece of paper. It's a diversionary tactic.
Always another trophy to put on the shelf! I'm learning nothing here. The idea of going back to school to justify a tiny bump in pay and responsibility is beyond insulting."
Derek got into a nimbler organization where he runs the IT department. "I stayed in my old job way too long," he told us. "Why would I trust university administrators with my career?"
Letting somebody else run your career is Deadly Career Mistake Number Two.
Your career is yours to drive. An employer's plan for you, no matter how well-intended, is built with the employer's requirements in mind, not yours.
If you're spending your energy hitting somebody else's yardsticks, you can easily lose track of your own path.
Our third Deadly Career Mistake is to burn bridges. When you get so fed up with a job that you have to leave, then go. Just remember that it takes two to tango.
You participated in creating the negative energy that you desperately want to escape right now. You've got a responsibility to disentangle yourself from the mess in an adult way.
Unless you're being abused or are in an unsafe situation at your job, give two weeks notice on your way out. Smile, say only positive things and keep breathing.
The two weeks may feel like an eternity, but you'll be glad you took the high road.
If you make less than a gracious exit, you're squandering whatever value your soon-to-be-former-job could add to your resume, not to mention your reputation.
The fourth Deadly Career Mistake is to put your career ahead of your life. That means taking a job two hours from home with the hope that occasionally you'll get to leave work early and have dinner with your family.
It means giving up all your personal time on the bet that your effort will be recognized and your investment will bear fruit. That bet seldom pays off. You can never get the lost time back.
Just when your health gives out or you realize you've lost touch with the people you love, the job reneges on its promise to make your sacrifice worthwhile, or disappears entirely.
As long as you can support yourself and the people who rely on you, always bet on your life over your career. The most successful people in any field are the folks who know their own worth, and with that knowledge set boundaries around their personal lives.
The fifth Deadly Career Mistake is to go to sleep in your career. Many people perform their job every day and forget that the world outside their organization exists.
They stay in the wrong job too long. They lose track of the passage of time and let one opportunity after another slide. They choose inertia over new adventures until their career muscles atrophy and go limp.
"First I had insomnia, then I started getting ill," Chuck told us.
"My job was making me sick. I hated the job, but it seemed so much easier to stay there rather than make a change that I tried to ignore the problem."
Chuck's job destroyed his health. His wife begged him to start a stealth job search, and when Chuck couldn't take the stress anymore, he did.
"I sent out six Pain Letters and got two replies," said Chuck. "Those two coffee meetings were the most fun I've had on the job in years. I met two CEOs two days apart, both of them full of ideas and eager to grow their businesses.
"I felt like a kid on my way home from those meetings. I couldn't wait to have more of those conversations and grow my muscles again."
Your career is more than a series of jobs. It's your work on this planet. It's a place to plug in, make a difference and leave your stamp on this creation we call human life. You are driving the bus now. Where would you like to go?