Never Apply for a Job Again!: Break the Rules, Cut the Line, Beat the Rest (11 page)

Did she get that role because she had any experience as a non-profit executive director? Not at all. However, through simply meeting and getting known by people far and wide in her field of passionate interest, at some point someone said, “You know, given who you are and what you’re capable of (outside of your titles and background), you’d probably be good for this role I heard about.” It was
finding a reason other than her need for a job
that led her to meet more people, got her on the radar of folks with connections, and opened up this opportunity for her.

All of these clients demonstrated that, when you remove the desperation and single-eyed focus of “I need a job!” from your interactions and explorations, doors open and you elicit assistance and opportunities that would not have come otherwise.

In the next section, we will explore the creation of research projects for your own stealth campaign, similarly based in what you’re truly passionate about. By authentically researching your interests rather than needy job hunting, you begin to attract rather than repel the relationships and situations that truly interest you.

CareerGuy Tip: Being interested attracts. Being needy repels.

But, before moving on to our next principle, first a word from our sponsor: Your Higher Calling! In order to adequately cover Principle #3, I will have to climb back onto the soapbox for a bit.

Your Higher Calling

The fear and uncertainty of the unknown too often shapes the mood of a career transition, which has folks lose out on the blessing of the shift. I believe transitions occur for a reason beyond what we can understand in the moment, yet are definitely directed and guided. I once heard a minister say, “Never waste the opportunity of a good crisis!” What he went on to explain was that, what we often perceive initially as a negative event actually has the seeds within it of a greater overall direction for our lives.

CareerGuy Tip: Never waste the opportunity of a good crisis.

Face it: None of us like change. Left to our own devices, the majority of us would just keep doing what we’re doing— regardless of our lack of enthusiasm, joy, challenge, or even fair compensation for it. I believe a career transition comes as a wake-up call for us to redirect our efforts in ways that fit who we have become since our last transition.

Throughout time, our skills, interests, and values evolve. Often, people don’t recognize or address their evolution. They merely make do with things as they are, suck it up, and sell out on themselves. That’s why Thoreau said most people live “lives of quiet desperation.”

As uncertain as the unknown may be, a transition is an opportunity to reassess, recalibrate, and reengage in a work-life worth living. In the throes of the “busy-ness” of your last role, you didn’t have time to adequately recognize or inventory your evolved skills, interests, or values. Therefore, a transition can be a wonderful opportunity to take stock, just like any business does on a regular basis. Conducting an insightful “career inventory” can net you many surprises to be capitalized upon in an effective stealth campaign.

CareerGuy Tip: A career transition is simply an opportunity to take stock of yourself, your assets, your interests, and your direction.

Many folks are well aware that they are spent in their current job, but live under the maxim that “the devil you know is better than the one you don’t.” So they stay in a dead-end job. I think that is a sad way to rationalize the wholesale forfeiture of self-expression in one’s work, where you spend one-third to half of your waking hours!

The biggest fear in a career transition is simply the unknown of what’s out there…but I personally believe we live in an upwardly spiraling universe where “the best is yet to come” is more than just a verse from a Sinatra tune. It takes stepping forward with faith—even in the face of the unknown—to find that greater expression of yourself.

If you saw the third Indiana Jones movie,
The Last Crusade
, you remember that Indy’s second challenge was to cross a gorge to get to the Holy Grail. With no bridge in sight, it seemed impossible, and therefore called upon a “leap of faith.” He had to put his foot out into the cavernous ravine to, supposedly, walk to the other side. It required all of the courage and fortitude he had within him, but he did it… and discovered that there was, in fact, an invisible bridge underneath his feet that simply blended into the cliff itself— unseen, but there nonetheless.

CareerGuy Tip: In your career, the best is yet to come.

Have you ever had something supposedly “bad” happen to you in life that, in retrospect, you now see as being perfect? Perhaps it was a doorway to another direction you pursued. Maybe it opened you up for something you wouldn’t have been available for otherwise. It may have brought with it a multitude of unexpected benefits you could never have planned for.

Come on, let’s take just a minute to look…so this isn’t just theoretical. Grab your Career Transformation Insights Journal and write out your answers to just a few simple questions.

Bad or Good: You Choose

1. What are some turning point “bad” events that have occurred in your life?

Did you ever get fired from a job?

Did your business close down?

Did a relationship end?

Did you lose money on an investment?

What was a “bad” turning point unique to you, if none of these apply?

2. If I were to pay you $1,000 for each possible “good” result that you could say came out of that “bad” occurrence, what could you come up with?

How did you being freed up from that job help you see or hear the next opportunity for you? Could you have seen or heard it when you were so busy in the other role?

How did starting over, after the closing down of your business, give you a new lease on life or offer you a new direction you would not have had if you were still tied to that business?

How did moving beyond that past relationship allow you to see yourself and what you want for yourself better than you had before?

How did the loss of the money bring about more appreciation for your life or new activities that wouldn’t have happened before? What did you
gain
for the loss?

What potential “good” actually came out of your own uniquely “bad” turning point?

Even if being laid off was the reason you picked up this book, it might not be a bad thing. I’ve been present at termination notices when the affected persons, after being notified by their manager or HR and then brought to see me, actually waited until the HR person left the room and did a victory dance saying, “
Yes! Yes! Yes!
” They had wanted to be out of that situation for a while, but just hadn’t exercised the courage to do it themselves. But even for those who weren’t necessarily so elated, in talking with them, I would often hear that they had secretly wanted to move on for a while.

If we look past our immediate, breast-beating victim-hood on certain events in our life, it’s possible to see that things happen for a reason. Perhaps your hidden prayers were actually answered with that layoff? Maybe you were truly feeling the yoke of that business and it was constraining your new desires for self-expression? Possibly it was just time to let that relationship go so that the right person could finally show up…now that you had done your homework on finding out what you
didn’t
want? And what if you just needed to take life a little more preciously sweet and that lost investment was your wake-up call?

“Do not judge, and you will never be mistaken.” ~Jean Jaques Rousseau

It really all comes down to what you’re going to say about whatever happened. Shakespeare said, “There is nothing good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” As hard as it may seem, if I really did give you that $1,000 per “good” reason, I guarantee you’d come up with some. And often, it really isn’t hard at all…if you just think differently.

If you can see that there are bad events in your life that can be retroactively seen as good, know that you don’t have to wait until the event is in the long distant past to convert it. Jump on it proactively! I invite you to
look forward
from that perspective now. Take each step forward in your own leap of faith, accepting that you
know
that the unknown has hidden and wonderful surprises in store for you.

Everything in life holds both a blessing and a curse. We deny this when we label the events of our lives as either good or bad. The following old Zen story illustrates this lesson most effectively.

A farmer had a horse, but one day the horse ran away, and so the farmer and his son had to plow their fields themselves. Their neighbors said, “Oh, what bad luck that your horse ran away!” But the farmer replied, “Bad luck, good luck, who knows?”