Breaking Into Jail
An update from the career advice industrial complex.
I know, I haven’t written in a while. But then, you haven’t written me either!
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What’s Going On
I’ve been away from writing for a while beceause, perhaps like you, lately I’ve found it a bit difficult to feel inspired.
Giving career advice — especially on job search — is especially hard when it feels like most of things I have to say are things that people really don’t want to hear.
The job market is terrible. Recruiting, hiring, and management practices were already becoming increasingly inhumane when I started writing this newsletter. Since then, companies are setting fresh new records for stupid, abhorrent, and counter-productive hiring and firing practices at an increasingly grandiose scale.
My greatest fear is that our culture is changing in ways that emboldens and rewards unethical, crass, and unscientific people for their mushy-headed, feckless, and ultimately unsuccessful practices.
I’ve heard from quite a few people who are choosing to exit the professional workforce, resetting their careers, and their lifestyle. If you have the opportunity to consider changes like those today, I don’t think that’s an overreaction at all.
What’s Next
Going forward I’m going to limit my coaching for job search and career transition to existing clients and referrals. I’ll increase my focus on the topics that brought most of you hear in the first place: Business skills, sales, marketing, business development, and people management.
For those of your who are job seeking and in career transition mode, I’m going to repeat the most urgent advice I can offer:
Most of the billions of jobs posted on LinkedIn are, for a variety of reasons, total bullshit. Do not waste your time reading them, or worse, applying to them. Only apply to a job posting when both of these conditions are met: You’re a perfect 🦄 fit, AND you can find a referral, recommendation, or some other edge to move you to the top of the pile. Every person I talk to who has gotten hired recently met both of those criteria in some sense.
don’t waste time stressing about your profile. Just keep it simple. Avoid comparing yourself to other people whose primary accomplishment is having a nicer resume than yours. They are just as miserable as you — believe me. Ignore the stupid superstitions: resume gaps and background images and all that made-up nonsense that exists primarily to drive social media pageviews and the influencer industrial complex that nurtures it.
When many of my clients look back on their careers, they notice that they got most of their jobs through referrals, references, or introductions. Yet we find it much easier to focus on pursuing job postings then we do on cultivating our relationships with the people who might be able to help them. That’s strange, because the latter task is objectively much less despicable than the former! Here’s a tip: calling it “networking” makes it feel more like work.
Except for those at the top, the corporate world is pretty terrible. It’s an especially dangerous place for women, people of color, people with disabilities, chronic illness, queer people, and just about anybody else who isn’t a young, CIS white male. If you’re from a marginalized community and you need help with absolutely anything, please know that I am always here to help you. The cost of my fees will never be an obstacle.
Regardless of how you are situated, consider the suggestions I made when I launched Safe@Work — it’s the idea the newsletter is named for. Keep your professional identity healthy and safe from your corporate employer.
Diversify your career path, and have multiple paths for your professional development. Have a side hustle — ideally more than one. The best time to get that started was last week. The next best time is today.
What’s Next
See what I mean? Do you really want a career coach who believes that the corporate world is so unhealthy and dangerous as to be unfit for human habitation? It’s a like asking a paroled inmate to teach people how to break into jail.
If you’re looking for help negotiating a job offer, leveling up your business skills, developing your people management skills, or any of the other topics I’ve written about here, I’m available now for 1:1 coaching. You
Anytime you find yourself in need of help at work, please remember that I am always here when you need me. Drop me a line, or head over to Bizlet.org and book a free chat.
And stay in touch!