Increase Your Job Security: Become a Free Agent

To increase your job security and career well-being, adopt a free agent outlook on work. This means spending time planning ahead, building marketable skills, and prioritizing your health and family. Doing so will empower you in the job market. 

Americans are vulnerable to forced career and job changes – this is the nature of our economy and our physical and mental frailty as human beings. I know this personally and from years practicing labor and employment law and volunteering at my neighborhood legal clinic. Statistics also bear this out.

Today the number of long term unemployed people (out of work over 6 months) remains historically high, at nearly 30% of the total unemployed. More than 22% of the unemployed have been out of work for over a year. (BLS, 2015)

Americans are also financially vulnerable. A recent Gallup poll found that half of us are unprepared for sudden financial need, like a major purchase, medical event, or job loss.

Lastly, employers are outsourcing the jobs we thought were safe from export. In just one example, technology workers at Disney were laid off after training foreign "guest" workers as replacements. A recent New York Times article explains this is not an isolated instance.

 

People’s stories of feeling trapped in and out of jobs haunt me. They feel powerless and acted upon by employers, mostly by legal means, and a rapidly changing job market. And they are educated people, like technology workers, business owners, teachers, police officers, and financial professionals. Any of us gainfully employed could be one of them.

But we can do things now to make ourselves less vulnerable. Instead of feeling trapped or ill-prepared for the next layoff, we can plan ahead for our next job or career change.

Six Principles of the Free Agent Outlook on Work

Adopting this outlook will help, as will saving more money this year for your emergency fund.  Having Plan B and a safety net go a long way toward increasing your job security.

One way I follow this advice is by keeping my lawyer “bar card” active and volunteering to keep my legal skills strong even though I have no plans to return to my own law practice. I still get to do what enjoyed most as a lawyer without the stress or overhead hassle.

We don’t need to be as vulnerable and many of us have the power to do something about it. Don’t let day to day work distract you from what matters most and your job security.

I also published a slightly different version of this post on LinkedIn.

Occupational Health Concerns: Realistic Work Safety Career Advice

Do you have occupational health or work safety concerns? Do you work in an unsafe workplace and wonder what to do about it? For this last post in our occupational health series, I’ll wear my employment lawyer* and career development facilitator hats.  Let’s look at your options with a realistic, practical eye.

Consider Your Options and Make a Good Decision

Start by using Career Key’s ACIP decision making process to resolve a work safety situation. You can download a free Decision Balance Sheet to complete.  The four steps will help you:

1. Make a list of alternatives and options;
2. Explore the consequences of each option;
3. Get more information about each option, and
4. Plan out how to follow through on your decision.

Options Might Include (likely more than one will apply):

A.  Trying to fix the unsafe situation yourself, if possible (and safe);

Example:

You work for a supervisor whose management style and actions are causing you a lot of stress, impacting your physical and mental health. Can you switch to a different boss and a different department within your employer, ideally before you get a negative performance evaluation? Don’t let a bad boss go on too long, otherwise the company won’t likely let you transfer.

B. Following a procedure in an employer’s employee handbook or policy guide for reporting an unsafe condition. There may be a “chain of command” you must follow. The question is whether this will help or hurt you.  Only you know the culture and personality of your workplace.

C. Finding another job first, then quit your current job. This means:

• Saving money to support you during possible unemployment;
• Networking as much as possible without jeopardizing your current job.
• Applying to and interviewing for other jobs before you leave your current job.

D. Filing a complaint with a city, state or federal agency, like OHSA or the EEOC (if your stress is being caused by a manager illegally discriminating against you.)

E. Pay for a one-time consultation with a plaintiff’s employment lawyer to find out what your options are and what, if any actions, they recommend. It might be the best $200 (or less) you ever spent – especially if you end up keeping unemployment benefits you might have otherwise lost by checking the wrong box on a form. Consulting a lawyer doesn’t mean you’re committing to sue someone.

Let’s look at a realistic scenario:

Your supervisor requires you to record your work hours for driving a truck in a way that you know breaks the law and could cause driver error.  (There are strict federal rules about truck driving with limits on how many hours drivers can be on duty) There is a lot of pressure to get more loads delivered with fewer drivers, making it impossible to be honest about work hours. Your employee handbook says to report the legal violation and unsafe condition directly to the HR department.  You know that if you do, your supervisor will likely retaliate against you – perhaps through a bad performance evaluation or an excuse to fire you.  And HR will likely do nothing about it – your boss and the HR Manger go to lunch together all the time. What do you do?

A complicated decision…

There are a lot of factors to consider, like your finances, family support (of you) and obligations, the current level of personal danger/risk, and how easily you can find another job elsewhere.  Even if you are illegally fired in retaliation for complaining of a safety violation, you still need a job and income while you are pursuing any legal claim.  This is why you must try to make Option C, preparing to leave your job, a viable option.

Sometimes leaving an employer makes legal claims less valuable to lawyers, even though it likely makes you healthier.  The reality is that quitting a job can reduce the value of an employment claim and get your unemployment benefits denied if your safety complaint is not believed.  And to recover large amounts of money from an employer, there must be big damages – large amounts of lost wages and trips to the doctor for emotional distress.

However, waiting for a bad employer to fire or lay you off has serious consequences too – tolls on your physical and mental health and on your family. It’s also harder to find a job if you’ve been fired or laid off. Lawsuits take a long time and are a gamble – juries are not always sympathetic.

Give up?

But does that mean you should give up – leave and let a bad employer hurt other people?  No.  It just means that you might wait until you are safely in another job to file a complaint against your old employer with a government agency, which is required to investigate.  Know what you’re getting into and prepare accordingly.

So if you were that truck driver, you would likely file a complaint with your state’s department of transportation or highway patrol. They enforce truck driving regulations and will audit companies suspected of violating the law.  The best thing about filing with a government agency is that is it free, and forces the employer to respond to the investigating agency.  It may not be quick or net you a big money payoff, but they put the employer on the spot. Responding to a government agency takes time, money and effort.

I hope this post hasn’t been too discouraging.   These decisions are hard, with no easy conclusions.  I hope you don’t encounter an unhealthy work environment but if you do, you will be able to leave it if you want to.

*You knew there would be a legal disclaimer, right? This blog is not individual legal advice and is general in nature. State laws differ. If you need legal advice, please go consult a lawyer in your area.

For my first two posts in the series see:

Career Choices and Occupational Health: Let’s Honor Workers Memorial Day

Occupational Health and Career Options: How to Learn More

After writing this post, I realized I wanted to say a lot more about self-preservation and being proactive in a volatile, unforgiving job market.  That will be up next....

My Mom's Careers: A Celebration

Jeanine Wehr Jones, ESL Teacher

I'd like to take a moment to celebrate my mom's career paths: mother, elementary school teacher, librarian, ESL teacher, and Career Key supporter (helping my father, Dr. Lawrence K. Jones).  Thanks to her, I had a great childhood and an excellent role model. Being a mom, making a living, and keeping a household running smoothly is challenging. To read the whole story of Mom's career choices, please see my original Mother's Day post in 2010.

But I left out a critical part of the story - her part-time Berlitz International position teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) while raising my brother and me.  During that time, she had students from Japan, Egypt, Taiwan, El Salvador, Pakistan, and other countries.  She loves other cultures, different types of people, and learning their stories.

I remember as a kid having potlucks at our house with her students, sharing wonderful ethnic foods with friendly and warm company.  I know Mom enjoyed sharing her knowledge of Turkish cooking too.

Jeanine and her ESL students

Mom's vivacious personality wins over even the most shy of people; her humor is infectious.  So in the classroom she was able to liven things up while helping people feel comfortable learning a language in a different cultural world.

So I wish Mom a Happy Mother's Day and say thank you for working so hard to help other people while making our family and Career Key successful.

My Mom, Dad, and I, with our Vietnamese and Saudi Arabian
Career Key partners, at the International Counseling Congress in Istanbul, 2008

Pessimism, Choosing or Changing Careers, and Job Satisfaction

What expectations do you have in choosing a particular career, changing careers, or in life, for that matter? Alain de Botton's video about pessimism may put things in perspective - and make you more cheerful.  De Botton is a writer/public speaker who has been described as a "philosopher of everyday life." In this video, he talks about the over-romanticizing of work (and life) and the pitfalls of viewing everything through an optimistic lens.

Our 6 Principles of the Free Agent Worker complement some of his ideas in that we clearly say, "work is labor for pay."  Not very romantic, but sometimes you need to be realistic about what work truly is to achieve greater job satisfaction. Do you agree?


Alain de Botton - On Pessimism from The School of Life on Vimeo.

Refocus Your Career Development: The Power of Connecting In Person

Are you reading the same career networking and “personal branding” advice over and over again - it’s all about your Internet presence and your appearance to others. Blog! Tweet! Update your Facebook/LinkedIn/(fill in the blank here) status. Welcome to 21st century narcissism. That all being said, I appreciate Facebook for keeping up with friends and enjoy writing this blog. But it’s only part, maybe a smaller part than you think, of your career development.

What’s truly important are our connections we make with people, particularly in person. That's true for career networking - meeting people who you can help and who can help you, be successful in a career path.

Think back to the people in your life who have given you the most joy, the most fun, and sparked the most rewarding work.  How did you meet them?  How did you connect with them? Chances are, even if you met through the Internet, your relationship didn’t really gel until you talked by phone or met in person.

Recently, I got out of the office to meet my former Career Development Facilitator (CDF) instructor at a local lakeside walk.  After spending more time than I had anticipated with her, I got back to my office, energized.  New ideas were flowing. Talking with someone outside of my employer but in my same field was invaluable - I needed to escape some tunnel vision.  Plus, she’s a really great person - that positive feeling stayed with me for days.

I honestly never feel like that when I connect with people online - by email or via networking services like LinkedIn.  I’m pleased to establish online relationships, sometimes excited, but I just don’t get the same warm feeling unless I talk by phone or meet someone in person.  Maybe I’m just unusual, but I doubt it.

Here are some ways to refocus on “in person” connections (I’m doing them too):

1. Who on your contacts list haven’t you talked or met with in awhile that you miss?
2. Are there some people you only call when you need something?  Try calling just to say “hello” - maybe you can offer to help them with something. If you sense their hesitation when you call, you know you’ve outworn the welcome mat and you need to redeem yourself.
3. Is your list of contacts a mile wide and an inch deep? Maybe you need to spend more time on more rewarding connections - people you really like or want to get to know.
4. Are you having lunch/coffee with the same people over and over again?  Is there much new to talk about or learn? Maybe it’s time to meet new people.
5. Are you having trouble picking up the phone? Making the time for an in person meeting? It's easy to sit in front of a computer - sometimes hard to write an email that expresses what really want to say.  But it's definitely more of a challenge, especially for the less outgoing, to talk to people. Consider it practice for improving your communication skills - one of the 17 Foundation Skills.

Maybe you need to spend a little less time on social media (like I have), and more time setting up coffee “dates” LOL, and OMG picking up the telephone!

P.S. If you need convincing (or a reminder) about the power of that in person connection... I recently got hooked on the BBC’s The Choir, a series about a choirmaster who starts a community choir in South Oxhey, a place north of London that’s seen better times.  It’s moving and inspirational.  It makes you think about the power of community - and the power of personal connections between people.  If you can get it on Netflix or see it on cable OnDemand, I highly recommend it.

Thank You to My Mom (and Moms everywhere) for Their Career Choices

This Mother’s Day I’d like to focus on my Mom’s career choices and to thank her for all the work it took to make them.

I love this photo of my mom, Jeanine Wehr Jones, who (in my admittedly biased view) looks like a movie star with her smile, blonde hair and big sunglasses. In 1966 when this photo was taken, she taught English in Turkey as part of a Peace-Corps type of program. She was taking her students on a hike, sharing with them her interest in nature - just as she later shared it with my brother and me.

During teachers’ orientation, she met a fellow new college grad and my father, Dr. Lawrence K. Jones, The Career Key’s author. A couple of weeks later, he proposed to her on the boat from New York City to Turkey. More about his story at The Career Key website.

After getting married and returning to the United States, Mom worked as an elementary school teacher in Philadelphia where my father was in graduate school. Later, she would follow him to Missouri and finally Raleigh, North Carolina where she stayed at home to raise my brother and me for a few years.

When I was in middle school, my mom went back to school to get a master’s degree in library science, commuting a long distance in the pre-Internet days before online degrees and distance learning. At the same time, she helped care for her mother and raise her own family.

From graduation with honors until her retirement, she worked in the media center for an “alternative” high school. My mother’s Brooklyn, NY style humor was a hit with disadvantaged kids who didn’t know what to make of it. She told one streetwise kid to press his “whisper button” on his shoulder. He looked at his shoulder and then at her, puzzled. Then he laughed and was quieter. Her love of information and research led her to library science, but in the end she spent more time disciplining teenagers than she would have liked. She tries to make light of that job’s challenges, but it was stressful.

Later, Mom supported my father’s efforts back in 1997 to create The Career Key website; she was and still is an integral part of making Career Key successful. Her feedback, suggestions, and research skills continue to help it grow.

My mom’s first step in a series of career paths began in the 1960s but her story is just as relevant to today’s mothers. Caregiving aging parents and raising children, while working to earn a living to support the family is very much a current story. Many mothers (and more fathers) juggle all these balls and some even more.

Thank you, Mom for setting a good example for how a mother can successfully handle the career journey while helping to improve the lives of her children. For helping young people through teaching and education, while doing all the hard and often tedious work it takes to keep a household functional.  Hopefully I can do as well for my son and family. Happy mother’s day!

Work From Home Jobs and Careers That Match Your Holland Personality Type

Inspired by my recent Bizymoms.com interview, I decided to take a look at "work from home" jobs and how you can use the best science and practices of career counseling found on the Career Key’s website to help you choose one. After a little explanation, I organized a number of work at home jobs by personality type using Holland’s Theory of Career Choice. My goal is to help you choose a home-based career that is most likely to lead to job satisfaction.

Having often worked in a home office throughout my career, I know the benefits (and challenges) of working at home. Working at home is especially attractive to parents and caregivers, people with disabilities, and anyone else who values flexibility in time and location of work. The challenge is to find a satisfying career path that fits how you want and need to live your life.

As an overall approach, I recommend evaluating your career options using The Career Key website’s 3 step career choice process:
1. Know Yourself.
2. Know Your Options.
3. Make a High-Quality Decision.

For a crash course on work at home jobs, I recommend reading Alison Doyle’s series of “Work from Home Jobs” articles at the Job Search About.com website. She does an excellent job of explaining what’s involved and how to filter out scams.

Using Holland’s Theory of Career Choice to “Know Yourself”
Step 1: In addition to many other self-exploration activities, we recommend taking a scientifically valid interest inventory based on Holland’s Theory like The Career Key test.

As an alternative, you may want to consider taking the special version of The Career Key called The Self-Employment Key, which focuses specifically on occupations where at least 10% of the workers are self-employed. Test-takers also receive scores for two “Big 5” personality dimensions research shows linked to self-employed success.  There are also special sections on women entrepreneurs and young entrepreneurs.  You can also use your Self-Employment Key scores at The Career Key to see more careers that match your personality.

Step 2: After you’ve measured your top two or three Holland personality types and selected occupations that interest you, the next step is to look at whether there are “work at home” options that match your personality.

To do that, it’s important to actually understand what Holland’s Theory means and how your personality relates to careers.  So even if you see a job title or business activity that is not listed as one of the 250+ on The Career Key or on The Self-Employment Key, you will know how it may or may not be compatible with your personality.

For example, if you see “Online Tutor” and it is not listed on The Career Key test and website’s list of matching careers, you can look at the job duties and see that teaching is the main component; enjoyment of teaching is a characteristic of people with a “Social personality type.” Therefore, someone scoring high in the Social personality type would likely find this job compatible and satisfying.

To jump start the process, I’ve organized by Holland personality type the unique Career Key “work groups” of careers, along with job title examples found in home-based work. This is not an exhaustive list; consultants who work at home could be based on many occupations not listed below.

The Career Key test and our “Match Your Personality with Careers” article not only list matching occupations but also link each one to accurate, comprehensive career information at the Occupational Outlook Handbook.

A Selection of "Work at Home" job titles (in Red) organized by Career Key Work Groups and Holland Personality Type

REALISTIC
Crafts-Metal, Wood, Plastic, Fabric (Jeweler, Upholsterer)
Food Preparation (Baker, Chef)
Manufacturing & Production (Woodworker, Textile/Apparel/Furnishings Worker)

INVESTIGATIVE
Computer Science & Technology (Computer Programmer, Computer Specialist)

ARTISTIC
Literary Arts (Writer)
Visual Arts (Artist, Graphic Designer)
Communications (Editor, Technical Writer)

SOCIAL
Nursing, Therapy & Health Promotion (Registered Nurse, Dietitian or Nutritionist)
Education & Library Services (Teacher, various types)

ENTERPRISING:
Sales & Purchasing (Sales Agent)
Business Administration (Chief Executive Officer - think “self-employed” or business owner)
Promotion (Copy Writer, Public Relations Specialist)

CONVENTIONAL:
Mathematical Detail (Bill & Account Collector)
Oral Communications (Customer Service Representative, Receptionist, Telephone Operator)
Materials & Records Processing (Medical Transcriptionist, Word Processor)

Don’t try to be someone you’re not: Do what you enjoy and the money will follow
There is strong sales and entrepreneurial aspect to most self-employed work at home jobs. So make sure that if your Holland scores are low for Enterprising, that you seriously rethink whether self-employment, particularly in sales, is right for you. Don’t be seduced by the promise of making large sums of money. The people who are successful are the ones that enjoy selling, who score high in the Enterprising personality type.

If Enterprising is not one of your top two personality types, working for someone else doing work that fits your personality types is a better option than direct sales.  You’ll save money by not purchasing inventory you never sell, and you’ll save yourself heartache and stress from doing work you don’t enjoy.

Additional Work at Home Resources*:
Alison Doyle’s “Work at Home Jobs by Company Directory”
Bizymoms.com’s “Top 40” Business Ideas

*My links to About.com or Bizymoms.com imply no endorsement of either site or the jobs/companies linked to from those sites. Although these sites link to us, we do not get any financial benefit from external links and as a policy do no reciprocal linking. If we think a web page is helpful and contributes to our mission, we link to it.

Best Careers for Women Online Resources: Happy Woman’s Day!

In honor of Woman’s Day, I’ve put together a few “Best Careers for Women” resources you may want to visit on your career choice journey.  As you work through your career options, it helps to think of your current and future work-life balance needs.  Some of these resources will help you think about them.

Being a mom to a toddler, my view of what “work-life balance” means and its importance are a little different from when I first hit the grownup job market in 1996. And balance doesn’t only relate to motherhood - more and more women are taking care of aging parents. And if you have none of these responsibilities, maybe you'd just like to have a well-rounded life!

The reality is that most women continue to shoulder the larger burden of family care - whether "family" means a partner, a child, or a parent.  So your job will need to accomodate your needs as they change. (If you have a SuperNanny and/or Merry Maid for a spouse or partner, keep your good fortune to yourself!)

When I see lists of best paying jobs for women I cringe a little.  If it was all about the money, wouldn’t career choice be simpler?  But it’s not. Salary does matter but there are many other factors (like your personality) to take into account. (And the issue of salary equality with men is a whole other discussion).

What’s important to you? What life stage are you in? Find out by doing the activities recommended in “Learn More About Yourself.”

And in the meantime, I hope you’ll find these resources generate some ideas as you work through the career choice or change process:

The Self-Employment Key’s article “Work-Life Balance: Decision-Making for Women”

Best-Paying Jobs The Women Aren’t In (Forbes, 2/17/2010)
with an interesting response by blogger Lylah Alphonse (The 36-hour day) with some valid counterpoints.

More Mag’s “10 Best Jobs for Over-Forty Women”
You could argue this is not a list just for 40&overs...

U.S. Department of Labor’s Women’s Bureau

Working Mother Magazine’s Work-Life Balance section
And many other articles on the site with “best companies” lists...

Role Model Project for Girls

Khake.com’s “Girl Specific” career exploration guides


I am fortunate to have a flexible schedule so I can spend more time with my son. And I remember that one of the reasons I chose my first career, law, was because of the flexibility in hours and cases a solo practice would offer me. This turned out to be accurate and a good plan; I used my self-employed time to travel and explore my interests. What career can you carve out for yourself that fits your life?

2 Positive Steps to Handle Family and Friends’ Influences on Your Career Planning

Your relationships with family and friends have a big impact on your career choices and career decisions – and the holidays focus on these relationships more than any other time of year. Are you stuck in career indecision and feel your friends or family might judge you for it? Are you considering a career they might not approve of?

Especially in the U.S., where so much focus is on your job (think social gathering and the typical opening question – “how’s the job search?” or “how’s work (or school)?”), handling career questions or opinions about your choices from those close to you can be awkward.

Here are 3 steps to positively anticipate and handle those questions and influences using The Career Key’s High-Quality Decisions self-help article:

1. Identify any pressure you feel from family or friends – positive or negative – about your career plans. To help you, download a free “Decision Balance Sheet” and complete it for the job or career options you’re considering. Check out this list of Career Choice Consequences to help you “see” what issues may be weighing on you. Your choice may be so welcomed by your friends or family that you feel uncomfortable pressure to be successful or “perfect.” Expectations may need to be lowered.
2. Make a plan for how you will handle each person’s concerns or reactions to your career choice or career indecision. That way you’re not left unprepared (and maybe anxious).

For example, if you’ve been laid off and you haven’t decided if you will go back to school, then prepare and practice a script for how you will answer your mother’s well-meaning but loaded question at the holiday dinner table, “how ARE you?” Instead of saying “things are fine,” which you know will result in cool or hurt silence, wouldn’t it be better to say:

“I’m deciding on whether to go to grad school. I had two informational interviews last month with graduates of the ___ school I’m considering and I’ve got two more scheduled for after Christmas. It’s pretty interesting what’s I’ve learned about _______(the post-graduation job market, financial aid, interesting classes)."

Imagine how your mom will brighten at hearing about what you are doing. With mothers, sometimes giving them more information is better than less, right? (I hope my mother is not reading this post.)

Or if you are seriously considering a career change from a more secure (if such a thing exists anymore) career like a civil-service government position to starting a business – how have you planned for the risks or consequences and your significant others’ reaction to it?

Take advantage of family and friends well-meaning interest in you to make sure your career plans and research are as organized and “on track” as you would like. It may have the side benefit of forcing you to set goals for yourself – short-term, realistic and achievable – to get things moving in a positive direction.

Bad Work Days in Perspective

Sitting on a Seattle (see the Space Needle in the distance) beach with my family this weekend, I had the pleasure of watching lots of people soaking up the sun and BBQing in the park. My 2 year old son, thanks to his father’s love of grilling, was really excited by the charcoal fires. He ran happily on the sand beneath the sea wall, giggling and dragging seaweed behind him. It was one of those moments when you catch your breath and feel the warmth, figuratively and literally.

In my careers, I have had a few days feeling cold, dread, and anxiety. They make me appreciate my warm, carefree days. From age 16 to the present, I’ve cried, been enraged, hated my life – my work – you name it. But everything passes – whether it’s because I hunker down and wait it out, or I leave a job or career.

It’s cliché to say “life is a journey” – but ups and downs are what it’s all about. I wouldn’t give up those cold days for a comfy career in a cubicle with no demands or stress. Boredom would drive me crazy.

When it comes to your job and your career path, it pays to see your level of satisfaction with them in the proper perspective. Are you consistently in “hell” in your current situation? Or is it a rare bad patch? Is it related to personality conflicts with your work and coworkers or a temporary glitch? You can learn more about the different types of job satisfaction at The Career Key website.

As time goes on, I know more about what success means for me. Success is about being able to recognize those warm days and enjoy them. And being able to handle cold days when they come – by letting them pass, or taking action.

Family Loyalty vs. Career: It’s not just for The Godfather

Keeping your priorities straight, even in a recession, is an important part of being a Career Free Agent. Your long term happiness and job satisfaction are at stake. Tips for being loyal to yourself and your family are part 5 of my 6 part series on The Free Agent Outlook on Work.

Loyalty is such an unused and forgotten words these days. It seems counter intuitive and impractical to think about putting yourself and your family before your job in a recession. But if you truly consider your daily routine and your long-term sanity, you’ll see how this makes sense. Whether your “family” is just you and close friends or two kids, a spouse and a dog – the loyalty principle holds true.

• Know what is important to you and what you value – and protect and nurture them. If you need to write your own eulogy to figure this out – do it. Hint: relationships are probably first. Not sure if your current career conflicts with your values or your personality? Learn more about yourself and how that impacts career choice.
  
• Don’t wait until there is a crisis – a job loss, a divorce, a health problem; maintain your relationships (professional, personal) in good times.
• Follow the ACIP model of decision-making when you need to make a tough call that you won’t regret. Do you need to find another job to avoid an unethical boss – but you’re worried about the financial consequences? Do you need to quit your job ASAP because it’s so stressful that you have physical symptoms – yet your job options elsewhere are slim?
• Have a life outside of work. Develop personal relationships and satisfy your interests in activities unrelated to your job. Heard of “diversification”? It’s not just for investments. That way, if one part of your life suffers a blow you have another part to rely on.
  

Still to come, the 6th and final Free Agent Principle: Think “Right” Thoughts. And no, it will not involve stimulants (except a fancy caffeinated beverage, maybe).

For the previous posts for this 6 part series see:
The 6 Principles of the Free Agent Worker
Principle #1: Know and Strengthen Your Marketable Skills
Principle #2: Stay Mobile
Principle #3: Watch Your Company and Industry
Principle #4: Do Your Job Well

Embracing Challenging Career Options: Part 1, Careers for Women in Science

After an inspiring Inauguration Day, it seems appropriate to talk about taking on challenging career options. This post is one of several I'll be writing about them. This week, it's women in science.

If you’re a woman considering a science career, you’re already aware of some of the challenges that lie ahead – whether you encountered them in the classroom, in an internship, or on the job. I don't just mean outright discrimination, but also peer pressure (anti-geek chic), not having as many female role models, and a lack of female supporters/like-minded friends.

Some believe/hope President Obama is ushering in an era of “geek chic” and greater support for scientific inquiry – and women in science. I recommend Natalie Angier’s excellent article yesterday in the New York Times about the status of women in science careers.

No matter what changes President Obama brings to federal grants and support for scientists and their families, I don’t think the fundamental challenges facing women in science or working women in general will change until the American culture and workplace embraces more practical support for family loyalty and obligations. By practical support I mean flexible schedules, penalty-free “time outs” for women to meet family obligations (children, illness, or parents), and top quality affordable childcare, to name my top three.

What inspires me is not how many women are in certain positions, but what kinds of lives they lead.

• Have they been able to have a family if they wanted one?
  
• Could they pursue other passions outside of work to enjoy a full professional and personal life?
  
• Do women feel satisfied with their professional and work goals at the twilight of their careers?

Contribution to society, family and work/life balance are likely some of the issues you’re examining in your career decision and as part of completing your Decision Balance Sheet.

If you want to see how other women are managing, I scratched the surface and found some inspirational, fun, and informative websites and blogs on women in science. Their blogrolls and links lead to others…Please suggest others you find helpful.

List of Women in Math websites, Agnes Scott College
Biography of Dr. Shirley M. Tilghman, President of Princeton University
Women in Science Blog
Sciencewomen: a scientist and an engineer being the change we want to see (Blog)
Association for Women in Science, see their comprehensive list of women in science organizations.
iwaswondering.org: a curious look at Women’s Adventures in Science (for young women)
On Becoming a Domestic and Laboratory Goddess (Blog)
See Jane Compute (Blog)

My advice is to embrace the contradictions of raising a family alongside a career path and find female mentors who had and achieved similar goals to yours. It won’t be easy, but you should write your own plan that fits you best. Whether it takes 10 years to get tenure or 5. Who wants to sit around and wait for change? And don't forget your sense of humor - you'll need it!

6 Principles of the Free Agent Worker

No matter what the economy is doing, following these timeless 6 Principles of the Free Agent Worker will lead to greater control over your career and more success.

1. Know and Strengthen Your Marketable Skills.
2. Stay Mobile.
3. Watch Your Company and Industry.
4. Do Your Job Well.
5. Be Loyal to Yourself and Your Family.
6. Think “Right” Thoughts.
   

What often trips people up is not paying attention – just going through the motions wherever they work. Being in denial about your boredom or unhappiness is almost as bad as actively hating your job - the result is the same, job dissatisfaction.

If you lack the opportunity at work to use skills you enjoy, then it’s time to learn about and identify your motivated skills. It’s time to pay attention to yourself and what you need for satisfying work. Following the 6 principles listed above will give you a well-rounded approach to your work – keeping you in control of your future.

In the next six blog posts, I’ll examine each of these principles in more detail. I have a few examples from my own life to share...Feel free to share yours too!

Let's get started: Principle #1: Know and Strengthen the Job Skills You Enjoy

Work/life balance – post recession career planning

For many in this recession, getting a job, much less a family friendly job, is the goal. But for those of you choosing a long-term career path, what does the current economy mean for your future flex-time schedule? Probably not much - time is on your side. While these positive benefits, seen by some executives as “frills,” may be cut back now, chances are they will return .

In her blog post, “Will Family Friendly Jobs Disappear?” NYT reporter Lisa Belkin describes some of the preliminary impacts of the recession on flex-time policies, on site child care, and nursing mom benefits. These types of family friendly benefits are mostly from large employers in the corporate world and some government agencies, not small businesses. See Working Woman Magazine’s 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers. Of course if you’re self-employed, you can set your own rules; the only catch is you need to be self-sustaining.

If one of your primary career concerns is to have a family friendly workplace or flex-time for a favorite hobby, then you should include a strategy for achieving it in your decision-making. This recession won’t last forever.

Choosing a Career and Avoiding the Costly Impulse Buy

Just like shopping, many career choice mistakes are made from impulse buys – where you really haven’t crunched the numbers. Instead you react to feel good advertising messages, a desperate job situation, or the seductive admiration of friends and family. For example, think about well-intended but wrong money-saving choices – like the person who skimped on buying fancy soup (a few bucks savings) but bought new dog beds (hundreds spent). I suspect most of us have been guilty of trying to save money but spending more instead. Overbuys at big box stores anyone?

I’m not suggesting your financial situation or family opinions shouldn’t matter – they should. Just include them as part of a well-thought out career decision process. Poor impulses derail good career decisions.

Common poor career choice impulses:

• you react to what you think people want you to do, but it’s not a career that matches your personality – “I always said I wanted to be a doctor, but I’m really more Social than Investigative…”
• you choose a career you think will pay you a lot of money and bring you prestige, but after factoring in school loans and little work/life balance, you end up in the “hole” – “my investment bank works me like a dog, I have to pay Manhattan rent – and people think Wall Street is evil”
• you choose something with unrealistic expectations and are badly disappointed and discouraged, leading to lackluster work – “I thought being a park ranger would be perfect, but the pay is lousy and I hate all the government bureaucracy - I'm taking a 2 hour lunch to get away”
• you act out of desperation due to money concerns, without mapping out a long-term plan to the career you really want – “I’ve been stuck in this customer service job for 5 years and gone nowhere…”
  

Here are 3 ways to choose a career without detours from costly impulses:

1. Choose your career using a high-quality, science-based decision making process. Get started with your matching careers and research on career options, and then make a good decision using our free website resources. As part of the process, you’ll be asked to include family and friend opinions and your financial situation.

2. View your career as a series of stages. It’s hard in an instant gratification society to be patient. But if you see school and/or a series of introductory jobs as part of a long-term plan to reach a specific goal, instead of just a place to be, the more likely you’ll be successful and to get promoted.

3. If finances are an issue, consider starting your career in a supporting role. The Career Key organizes your matching careers by work groups so it is easy to spot similar and supporting occupations. Support and technician positions in certain careers require less financial and training commitment in the short-term and give you the advantages of:

• learning more about what it’s like to work in the field,
• putting you in a position to make a new professional network and develop mentors, and
• teaching you new job skills that not only may get you into a better school, but give you a leg up in a future job.
  

When emotions and stress get involved, as they often will in choosing a career, it's easy to act on impulse. But slowing down and putting together a long-term plan will avoid most costly mistakes.

A Little Perspective on Survival of the Fittest

Walking on Seattle’s Alki Beach this morning, I came across several markers commemorating the first white settlers landing in Seattle during a November storm in 1851. Among other survival techniques, the native Americans taught the settlers how to nurse their babies on clam juice. To a mother like me, if this isn’t survival of the fittest, then I don’t know what is. These two pictures (courtesy of WestSeattle.com) show the cabin the settlers lived in and the schooner “Exact” they arrived in. And then think about Seattle in November. For the most part, it's windy, wet, dark and cold.

So as we go through this economic crisis, it helps to get a bit of perspective on hardship. Most of us, like my Generation X, know nothing of the Great Depression; our grandparents’ money quirks are the only connection we have with that time. So the story of these settlers and the native people that helped them, reminded me of how fortunate we are to have electricity, warmth, and shelter - the basics. And puts our other worries and concerns in perspective.

5 Ways to Look at Negatives of Career Options

When you don’t work in a career, it’s hard to know what it would be like to work in it. In the process of choosing a career, it’s common to learn negative things about a career option like long hours, poor pay, few jobs, on the job stress, lack of job security, or physical demands. All careers have negatives so whatever you do, don’t ignore them. So how should you consider them? Here are 5 ways to look at negative information about careers as part of a good career decision.

1. Consider the source. Is the negative information coming from one angry blogger? A friend who “heard” the information? A reputable resource like the Occupational Outlook Handbook? Someone with whom you did an informational interview? Multiple, reputable sources are better than just one or two who may lack the firsthand knowledge or objective viewpoint you need. Some people don’t like their jobs for a variety of reasons so the more people you talk to, the wider variety of viewpoints – and more accuracy, you’ll get.
2. Dig deeper. Does a negative depend on what part of the country you’re in? (e.g., number of job openings) Or who you work for? Some employers make you work more hours than you would work if you were self-employed – or vice versa. Most careers exist in a variety of physical and social environments. Working for a nonprofit can be very different than working for a private company. Informational interviews will help you get the additional depth and perspective you need.
3. Can you handle it? Based on your personal, past history, how well do you think you would handle the negative? Some people like flying by the seat of their pants. Others are more conservative. You may like physical labor and working outside – others don’t. Be honest about what you are willing to take on – your past behavior will help guide you.
4. Are you willing to make sacrifices for long-term goals? If you want the admiration and fame of being a collegiate sports team coach, are you willing to put up with job insecurity (depending on the success/failure of your team) and moving around to different geographic locations? If you want the larger pay and prestige of a job in a big law firm, do you want to put in the grunt work, long hours and job stress to get there? Every job has its “dues” and are you willing to pay them?
5. Follow the ACIP model of career decision-making. Take into account all the negatives and positives of the careers you’re thinking about and see how they balance out. The four steps are: consider all your alternatives (A), think about the consequences of following each option (C), get all the information you can about your options (I), and plan out your next steps of your decision (P).
   

Nobody said life was easy or money grows on trees (well actually, they did - see recent financial turmoil), but if you know what you’re getting into with a career choice and make plans for dealing with the challenges that come up, the more likely you are to succeed.

Don't be Blind to Family and Friends' Influence on Career Decisions

When you have trouble making a career decision, you may rely on family members' and friends' reactions to break a "tie." How can you include their reaction and input in your decision to choose a career, make a career change, or start a business? You're going to get their feedback anyway so you might as well wisely use it. That means considering the "Consequences" of your different career options by looking at:

• The gains and losses to significant others (e.g., parents, wife (or husband), other family members, close friends, or groups you value: social, political or religious).
• Whether important people (see bullet above) in your life would approve or disapprove of your choice.

You can write down your thoughts about these issues on a free "Decision Balance Sheet" you can download from our website, along with other suggested activities, so that you won't fall into the trap of making a decision you'll regret.

One of my favorite columnists, David Brooks at the New York Times, published a column today on "The Culture of Debt" that describes most decision-making in a realistic way:

"... people are driven by the desire to earn the respect of their fellows. Individuals don’t build their lives from scratch. They absorb the patterns and norms of the world around them.

Decision-making — whether it’s taking out a loan or deciding whom to marry — isn’t a coldly rational, self-conscious act. Instead, decision-making is a long chain of processes, most of which happen beneath the level of awareness. We absorb a way of perceiving the world from parents and neighbors. We mimic the behavior around us. Only at the end of the process is there self-conscious oversight."

The key to making a good career decision is to avoid the blindness and lack of self-awareness Mr. Brooks describes. If you do that, you'll be more likely to accept or reject friendly advice on a more rational basis. There is nothing wrong with or abnormal about considering other people's opinions and advice in making a career decision; just consider them as part of a larger process. The suggested, scientifically proven steps described in our website article "High-Quality Decisions" will help you make a good decision.

4 ways to include community service in choosing a career

Combining your career and community service goals provides more options than you think. We hear a lot in the press about Generation Y opting for big money career goals instead of helping people. (I think they said the same about my Generation X and every one after the 1960s) "Going Green" is a slogan now applied to careers, in addition to household cleaning products. With all the buzz, this may be a good time to ask, where does community service (including environmental advocacy) fit in with your career goals?

The best way to include community service as part of your career goals is to follow the guidelines for making a good career decision, and include service goals along with consideration of your Holland personality types.

Helping people comes in many forms, both on the job and off. You do not have to choose a well-known service-minded occupation like Social Worker or Health Educator, although for some that will be the best match. If you do not score high in the Social personality type, then Social occupations will not be the best choice - but that doesn't foreclose your ability to help others. Most people are a combination of types and some combinations are unusual. So if you are highest in the Realistic personality type, it may be better to choose a Realistic occupation if that is your highest score, and serve your community after work. Or choose a Realistic occupation, like a carpenter, and work for employers who primarily serve others (i.e. affordable housing nonprofits, Habitat for Humanity).

4 ways to include community service in your career plans:

• Adapt the jobs that interest you to a community service goal, if you make that your priority. For example, a pulp and paper scientist with a multi-national paper company can work on environmental initiatives - if you develop your skills in that area and seek out those projects.
  
• Make community contributions "off the clock." As part of volunteer work, church activities, or even a part-time job completely different from your regular work, you can make significant contributions. For example, a building contractor can volunteer his or her skills to Habitat for Humanity.
• Develop and grow your skills so that you have the maximum job mobility. That way, if your employer acts in ways that conflict with your personal morality, environmental, and social views, you can leave.
  
• Recognize that you do not need have to do everything all at once. Sometimes the ups and downs of life makes demands on your energy and time that make showing up to work and maintaining a career an achievement itself (having a child, caring for a sick relative, illness, etc.). By planning how community service fits in with your career and life's ups and downs, you are more likely to include service and go back to it after a needed hiatus.

Fitting community service into our careers and lives is an ongoing process and according to well-known psychologist Martin Seligman, PhD., important to happiness. Being creative and practical about how it fits in with the rhythm of our lives and careers will make community service a greater part of our society - benefiting all of us.

Balancing housework skills with your career

Recently I evaluated my time management and problem solving skills at home because I was feeling overwhelmed. As a typical working mom, I was starting to feel like I was not doing everything as well as I could be. Although running a household is not mentioned in our Foundation Job Skills, solving the problem of efficiently keeping a clean, good house is part of our required "Thinking Skills," right? A recent NYT Shifting Careers blog post about Laura Vanderkam's "core competency mothers" and the outsourcing of housework was particularly relevant to this question. I left a comment on that blog because I feel that outsourcing everything, if you are in the financial elite who can afford it, seems like a failure of imagination - and a failure of education, not to mention, God forbid, laziness. And I am sometimes guilty of the latter.

But it's all about Thinking "Right" Thoughts - it's how you think about housekeeping chores that determines how you feel about them. When you're tired on a Monday night doing laundry after work, it doesn't feel "fun." But if you get it done all on Monday night according to your system, then you feel a sense of accomplishment that it's done and you're running your own house well. Truthfully that's how I feel. No martini necessary.

If as an educated person, I can't figure out a system to get our household laundry done - or the floors vacuumed in an efficient way, then I must have missed acquiring problem solving skills. I'm not opposed to house cleaners. In fact I am fortunate to have some that come once every 4 weeks to do a deeper clean than I can do on a regular basis. But to outsource changing beds, regular laundry, cooking, grocery shopping etc. is to me, a little crazy and frankly, an admission of failure in basic living skills. Besides, it take more time to hire, pay and maintain people than it does to think about how to get things done, do it yourself and have your family participate. What a concept!