Drastic Career Change

Who You Know

"It's not what you know; it's who you know." I just read this platitude for what must be the thousandth time, spouted by a blog commenter who said she is a recruiter.

This seems to be a false dichotomy. The "who" will help you get a job because knowing you enables that person to have a sense of "what you know."

The aphorism suggests that nepotism is  so rampant that qualifications don't matter. It also gives cover for a common fear and a correlated envy - fear of self-promotion and disdain for people who have the confidence to promote themselves. In most cases, even people who show inappropriate favoritism, show that favoritism among people who have already made the first cut. Their own reputations depend on it.

If no one with power to help you knows "what you know," the problem is not your lack of connections, it is your failure to communicate.

What is an Entrepreneur?

I feel fortunate to have found one of San Francisco's "entrepreneurial" communities early in my twenties. This group consists of bright, talented, and adventurous women who are unwilling to settle for income caps, lack of professional recognition, or lives without balance (however defined.) As the entrepreneurial craze has grown, I've realized a pitfall about the term's ascent.

The vast majority of the entrepreneurs I've met in networking groups would best be classified as small business owners. They operate businesses that do not scale - or even clone. This is a problem. It is one explanation for the phenomenon I observed repeatedly -- people walking away from a thriving business or practice to take a job because they were "bored."

To paraphrase my former dog walker: "It was really fun getting clients, creating the logo, devising the plans ... the dogs are great ... but then my days became utterly routine. What I should have done was hire other people to manage it and other people to work it, or sold the business. At this point, I'm too bored to do even that."

The E-Myth describes why this situation is financially precarious. It does not explore the other problem: for certain personalities operating the same fitness training business, small retail store, proofreading service for years on end is worse than holding jobs in almost every way. The trade-off for being one's own boss is never being able to change - no promotion, no new office, no new company ...

A friend of mine started a different kind of business - one that encompassed inventing something; fabricating it; leasing, then operating, a factory; outsourcing; and gaining multiple levels of distribution contracts. The ultimate income potential is high. The business can be managed by others. His own job changes. Constantly. The whole shebang can be sold.

I still have not figured out what I'd like to do in that model. But...to me, that's the only path to real freedom as an entrepreneur.

Squelching

Several years ago, I had a casual conversation that struck me as strange. When I told her I was a writer, a woman said, "I've always admired people who do artistic things."

I said, "I don't understand what people who don't do 'artistic things' do with all of their emotion. Forget selling anything, if I didn't write, I'd be nuts!"

Her response was, "I'm not that emotional, though. I'm a pretty happy person most of the time."

That took me by surprise, "Happy's just as hard to handle as sad, though isn't it ...?"

I recently came across this quotation from T.S. Eliot (who, remember, spent some time in a mental institution), "Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality. But, of course, only those who have personality and emotions know what it means to want to escape from these things."

I have been thinking in that territory as I detox from my most recent employment situation, noticing daily the layers of emotional and even physiological crud that have built up over the past two years of toning down, dumbing down, and slowing down. 

It seems that my brain has certain needs for release, the kinds of release that are stereotyped as the "temperamental" behavior of creatives. Among them are approaches to work problems that include:
- unrestrained laughter and humor
- argument - not fighting - rambunctious debate
- movement (I recall sitting in a meeting with one of the country's top attorneys; while the team chatted about the case, he dribbled a basketball, occasionally taking a shot into the hoop installed in the conference room.)

The alternative to laughing, fidgeting, and full-gallop debate? Squelching. Constant vigilance to redirect original insight towards ritualized posturing, jockeying for power, and confirmation of group think. Check out Clay Burell's post regarding his student's adventure with the student council.

Not having attended a school like that, this type of activity at work blindsides me every time. What a waste of time and energy - and, ultimately, of life itself!

Career ADHD

As I search for jobs and consulting gigs on LinkedIn and through various points of connection like the Stanford alumni mailing list, I've noticed a trend. They take what used to be called "job hopping" to the max.

From ex-coworkers to C-suite executives, I see LinkedIn profiles that list 8-10 jobs within 4-5 years, many of them overlapping. Senior-level professionals with major corporations include one or two side businesses or on their profiles. Nonprofit workers are founding businesses, and corporate workers are founding nonprofits.

I suppose I should count myself fortunate that the crazy way I was wired has become the norm.

Saving the Environment - and Improving Workers' Sanity

Cisco's Smart Work Centers grew out of a commitment to reducing the pollution associated with commuting. They also contribute to work/life balance, with child care centers and financial advisors on-site. I see an additional benefit: with work removed from the institutional office, another sort of pollution is reduced - the social clutter that goes along with the day-to-day office routines. Where there are human beings, there will always be politics; the pettiness surrounding the exact schedules people keep, dress codes, and certain kinds of team bonding exercises can go the way of the carrier pigeon and the stage coach!

Trouble Where Trouble Is Needed

Studs Terkel passed away October 31st. In Jan 2008, he offered this humble farewell.

From an interview with New Yorker writer Pauline Kael, in his classic Working (1972):

"The occasional satisfaction in work is never shown on the screen, say, of the actor or the writer. The people doing drudge jobs envy these others because they think they make a lot of money. What they should envy them for is that they take pleasure in their work. I think enormous harm has been done by the television commercial telling ghetto children they should go to school because their earning capacity would be higher. They never suggest that if you're educated you may go into fields where your work is satisfying, where you may be useful, where you can really do something that can help other people."

The Bridge to Nowhere

I think I will stop giving an answer to those who suggest I should go to law school ... or get my MBA ... or finish up my graduate degree in psychology. I can just forward this link about student debt.

The Four Dirtiest Words

in the career lexicon ...

"Other Duties As Assigned"

I am willing to do even the most menial of tasks; I have general "get things done" philosophy. The problematic implication of the phrase for me has more to do with being in the childish position of getting "chores" from someone.

Excuses, Excuses

My neglect for this blog is due in part to posting all around this Web:

Word Games That Kill for Nathan Winograd's No Kill Blog
Trusting the Public for Sue Cosby's No Kill Nation Blog
My Incredible, Shrinking F for Breanne Potter's MBTI Blog

and some summer music festival coverage for the Rex Foundation:
Slow Food Nation
San Francisco Outside Lands
Jerry (Garcia) Day - San Francisco

So, I guess that makes my career of the month "writer." 

Shhhh...Have Fun. Still Make a Living.

I used to scoff at the "new-Age" idea that underearning was a matter of self-esteem. It seemed reasonable that the question, "How much are you worth?" had more to do with the job content than with a personal valuing process. I've come around in my thinking. Now sensitized, I see the problem all over.

I was talking with a personal trainer about the possibility of becoming his client. Before I asked his fee, I had already revealed that:

1 - I used to be a trainer myself. I understand the value of the service. Given my own knowledge, there would be no reason for me to work with anyone who isn't fairly advanced.

2 - I am struggling with multiple injuries. I am giving him a relatively complex case; I want more than company or a reason to show up at the club.

3. I just landed a lucrative contract in my consulting practice.

So why did he mumble and apologize when he told me his fee was $90 per hour - well within the typical range for the San Francisco Bay Area? 

Come to think of it, I'm still not convinced that this is entirely a matter of self-esteem. I think it's partially a matter of career brainwashing. If only certain types of professionals are permitted to make a good living, then the rest of us ought to pack up our fun, rewarding work and get "real" jobs. There are a whole lot of "real" jobs with which I'm acquainted that I believe would have almost no takers if their incumbents felt empowered to take "fun" jobs without sacrificing the prospect of making a good living.