Career Advice Archives - Page 3 of 11 - The Voice of Job Seekers

How To Be Informed About Your Career Regrets By 40

How to Be Informed By Your Regrets Before 40 by Mark Anthony Dyson

Not all career decisions are amusing stories we can tell later, even if things turned out OK. We often lack foresight and insight when we’re in our early 20s. Sometimes our “yes” should have been “no”—and vice versa.

Setting career strategies and goals takes work. Yes, we want to take control of our careers by accepting full responsibility for our actions, creating opportunities for ourselves, and staying connected. There are those times when we put lots of food on our plates, but we will only eat some and often waste the food.

Some decisions seemed horrible then, but it was the right call. You may only appreciate those later, like when you’re over 40. I thought of a few, and perhaps you can spot them sooner than I did:

1. You said “no” and missed out

When you’re young, you value moving up the ladder and want life experiences with friends. You want both, but saying “no” to career opportunities (or a single one) leaves you with feelings of unrequited love. On the trip back to reality, your values mean more than status, and contentment means more than confinement in a career.

It’s bittersweet, but those relationships you built through your experiences were too valuable. Now you understand these relationships start the process way before any crisis.

You gain intelligence from coffee conversations, networking events, and a few informational interviews.

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Only after a few interactions, your resume will take a relevant shape.

2. You were fired, and afterward, your career stalledHow does it feel when you realize being “fired” was either a great new beginning or a shareable life lesson? Being “let go” was not judgment day, but it felt like it. It feels as if Satan, in the form of disappointment, is stalking you. It took years to get over the sting. The needles and pins of pain. The cloudy and stormy feelings of shame.

Some people need help in understanding why it happened, but others discover freedom and relief quickly is what was supposed to happen. You lost a job for reasons not uncommon to man. If you haven’t reframed it positively, now is the time to do so for the rest of your career.

3. You chose life over money.

Our parents told us to have fun and work hard in our 20s. Some of us were underemployed but refused to go home because we loved our freedom. We ate Spam or Ramen noodles to survive because we decided to immerse ourselves in our lives. The sting remained for years, but we can go to that place when challenges cloud our vision.

Sometimes we gain wisdom from there; other times, clarity or novocaine. You can see the ending to your story clearer, so now you save. Even better, happiness used to have a different cash value. Your ability to career management brings a smile and not a competitive smirk.

4. You lost track of tech and professional relationships.

Certain technologies can become old-school in a short time. Your career path can become irrelevant quickly if you are not on top of trends in your industry. Your friends indirectly challenged you to keep up because they were moving, and you knew you had to keep up.

Somewhere along the way, relationships changed, priorities rearranged, and we feel we should start over again. Tech is infused with life now, so you have to catch up. It will take a little while if you work on it daily.

5. You couldn’t accept “no” from a potential employer.

Rejection makes us more robust, and boy, is it painful at the time.

You spent more time over “what could have been” and less on what you have.

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Sometimes it turned out great, and then you’re grateful for the “trial.”

Remember those who benefited from your path and how it turned out because they are not better without you. Whether you just started a new job yesterday or 20 years ago, you can list 20 ways you’re valuable to your next employer. And do yourself a favor: Keep adding to the list.

6. The lousy boss had value, after all.

We may not like the messenger, but the message was on point. Sometimes our jagged little life-saving pill was brought by an ugly carrier pigeon, and we reject the message for the wrong reasons. In our late 30s or early 40s, we realize when a more acceptable package our ugly acting boss was right. We hated the message and the messenger.

Don’t worry, most of us have been there, but it would have saved us or someone else much heartache if we had looked much deeper at the message. The diamond isn’t in the delivery but in the package.

We get to where we realize what’s most useful and valuable lessons are only sometimes recognizable at first. We may have reached a more straightforward space before 40. But the one thing we do know is upon arrival. We appreciate our career journey more because clarity is an irreplaceable part of our experience.

About Mark Anthony Dyson

I am the "The Voice of Job Seekers!" I offer compassionate career and job search advice as I hack and re-imagine the job search process. You need to be "the prescription to an employer's job description." You must be solution-oriented and work in positions in companies where you are the remedy. Your job search must be a lifestyle, and your career must be in front of you constantly. You can no longer shed your aspirations at the change seasons. There are strengths you have that need constant use and development. Be sure you sign up to download my E-Book, "421 Modern Job Search Tips 2021!" You can find my career advice and work in media outlets such as Forbes, Inc., Fast Company, Harvard Business Review, Glassdoor, and many other outlets.

by Mark Anthony Dyson

There’s Career Advice You Should Add Context or Ignore

We see and hear lousy advice daily, but if people want advice for immediate application, they are vulnerable to following anything partially anecdotal. Bad advice is often outdated advice. It worked, and then it stopped working. Like low-fat diets and Jane Fonda workouts, it worked for a few people at the time. Just as sure as mumble rap seemed cute at the time, it has the same effect as the old game telephone. Bit by bit, the main point gets misconstrued as it’s passed on from person to person, and the advice loses its essence and relevance. That’s why job seekers need to filter the advice they hear, vet it carefully, and customize it to their taste.

By the way, mumble rap never made sense to me, either.

Whether in one-on-one career coaching or reading a LinkedIn post, it must target your specific situation. If it doesn’t, but it makes sense, you can apply and modify it to your problem. At one time, copying and pasting the job description to your resume was a thing, and it worked. When I was traveling to Army bases in 2010-11, training and coaching federal workers’ current job skills, the Ctrl + C and Ctrl + V method was taught and encouraged to do it by people who should know better. It worked for many workers.

The copying and pasting methods weren’t working for most workers then or now. Thus, the training I and about two dozen others provided helped them modernize their job search skills. To the dismay of resume writers and career coaches worldwide, this advice is still given and works, but for very few. Maybe a few more people than the number of dinosaur pet owners.

Some advice that seems good at the time expires and becomes bad advice.

My last two articles mentioned how the after-effects of lousy advice could impair good career professionals or reputable advice because of the lack of data or information. One piece of advice could work well in one industry but may be detrimental in others. Years ago, I had a guest on the podcast who wrote resumes for a specific sector and said his clients benefitted from having photos on their resumes worked well. I wasn’t willing to argue with success, nor should anyone else.

The other thing I stressed was how broad sweeping advice to will on others turns bad and sometimes mislabeled because offered to the wrong audience. I’ve heard for years why everyone should learn to code, but it’s rare when someone breaks it down to why it applies to me. For the medical and computer fields, it’s very applicable, even if it’s for two different reasons. For every else, without context, it sounds great, but it doesn’t answer why.

Here are things to consider when you hear and want to implement this career advice:

This advice is worth a try because others in my industry are using it and winning
The guidance has supporting data and evidence showing why it works
This advice plays to my strength and resonates with me
I need to do something out of my comfort zone to get traction
I see how I can modify it for me

What (possibly) is considered bad advice?

“Well, it depends…” is a frequently used response to a vague advice offering.

The list below has something for everyone, but I want to emphasize how some advice needs better context than one size fits everyone.

With context and understanding, it may fit one person but not the next. I know it applies to me as a career professional, too. General advice lands on the ground most of the time.

Let’s say advice givers and advice takers have work to do:

Advice: You’re too young, you’re too old.

Why it’s bad: The advice has irony for everyone. Those older were young once and thought and said these very words. People are breaking age barriers daily. There are the Mark Zuckerburg’s and Colonel Sanders’ waiting and “got next” worldwide. And there’s data to support arguments opposing either side.

The reframe: Always assume age is nothing but a number unless the job may have physical limitations to abilities. The worst thing to do is take age to keep you from building skills. Ageism is a thing, but learning there are no boundaries. You will need to modify how you present and market yourself in most cases and not avoid it because someone says there’s a boogie man in the bushes.

Advice: You should have X amount of jobs on your resume.

Why it’s bad: Content and audience are everything regarding your resume. People find it challenging because it requires thinking, research, and knowing their industry.

The reframe: If you don’t write to target a job, company, or industry, you will miss everything. Many people benefit from writing their resumes for each position, while others benefit from understanding the industry and the problems they solve.

Advice: Follow your dreams, passions, heart, and fantasies.

Why it’s bad: It’s inspiring to get people’s attention, but it’s intellectual insulin. It’s empty calories in the process of being bloated and nothing more. Follow dreams or “follow” anything advice has inspired millions and sounds good at the time, but lacks substance.

The reframe: It works if practical steps follow it, then it works. By itself, it’s a slogan.

Advice: New graduates, don’t negotiate your salary! Just work hard, and you’ll get noticed.

Why it’s bad: Young graduates are normalizing innovative tactics without the burden of asking for more money. Gen Z is making it work for them in the long game by asking for mentorship, more PTO (Personal Time Off), and paid Professional development.

The reframe: There are many parts of a compensation package to create a more attractive competitive offer. Remote or hybrid work days, flexible schedules, gym memberships, and stock options are possibilities to create an equitable and tangible package. Oh yeah, more cash still works, depending on the industry.

Advice: Don’t do your old job.

Why it’s bad: My take is different on this philosophy for two reasons, 1) Your old job skills often help set an example for those you may manage who currently do your old job, and 2) Your old job may be a transition job as separations of all kinds happens.

The reframe: Leverage the good and transferable skills from your old job. My ability to “diffuse bombs before they blow up” was my calling card as a call center manager. In my experience, middle and upper management personnel with excellent people skills fielded complaints mild and hostile with ease.

I barely touched the surface of the broad but unuseful advice we often hear. I would love to hear what advice is terrible to you, why, and how it would work once you reframe it. You should also reframe the advice given out of fear of just avoiding something because there is an unknown factor. Use the same strategy to reframe advice from fear and understand why it wouldn’t apply to you.

Here are others to rework in your mind and reframe:

Loyalty is everything.

I have no respect if they didn’t do better when they resigned.

Don’t be friends with your coworkers!

Don’t be afraid (to take chances?).

Never stay at a job X amount of years.

Include all of your education on your resume even if the position doesn’t require it.

Never work for free.

Job-hopping looks bad.

“Everybody has dues in life to pay…”

Always Do more than required.

Think big.

“Do something you love and never work a day in your life.”

Never quit.

You can do anything you want if you want it bad enough.

Fake it til you make it.

About Mark Anthony Dyson

by Mark Anthony Dyson

Bad Career Advice is Given By Good and Bad Career Advisors

Bad Career Advice is Given By Good and Bad Career Advisors by Mark Anthony Dyson

Bad career advice is freely offered these days and pretty reckless at times. People will give advice coming from an experience or life experience. While sharing what happened to them took place, the assumption of “it will happen to you” is projected to their listeners. The real question for you to ask is, “Is this advice for me?”

For reasons unknown, some will wonder if the advice applies to them and will fill in the blanks with context themselves. Others are gullible and will use it and project the same direction (maybe with a bit of variation) to their audience.

It’s time to talk about it. I just read this Havard Business Review article published a few days after my article on bad career advice.

While a career advisor’s intent sometimes is pure, lousy career advisors advise others for selfish reasons. I hear certified career coaches’ cries saying this is why people should pursue advisors with coaching accreditations. I can make a case contrary to suggest more than a few career coaches are greedy and have misplaced motives for bad advice.

But I digress. Well, slightly.

Good and reliable career advice from reliable sources is vital now. It’s time for people to be discerning through their advice-seeking, even if it’s from coaches who have vetted experience. Yes, follow the career professionals with a history of great advice in YOUR eyes. It will be great to have several people you trust consistently show up unselfishly and thoughtfully. Still, people taking advice must work hard to apply it to their situations and beware of shallow and misguided advice.

Watch out for the wolves.

Unfortunately, some people masquerade as good advice-givers will appear as great people. They know the game: give good advice to get your services. Remember, 95% of them will repeatedly offer the same recycled advice, but more often than not, they are looking for low-hanging fruit. Usually, they are folks who are intelligent but at wit’s end. They will borrow some universally sound advice to bait people and claim they have testimonies on their website as proof of quality services but are quick to pounce on people to onboard with them.

Some signs of wolves in sheep’s clothing:

They are (at best) one or two-trick ponies. They often advise without real-life examples or context of how and to whom it applies.
They’re more interested in being right than being suitable for your situation. The same people don’t try to understand before being understood (Shout out to Stephen Covey).
Their advice is aesthetically pleasing or a fine-sounding argument, but it doesn’t work. A good example is when someone is dissatisfied with someone having a one-page resume (and caveats if you’re under 30 years old). It’s outdated since young professionals have had four jobs with substantive training, accomplishments, and professional development. Yes, college students with five or more jobs before graduating college may have career-relevant achievements.
They try to become your friend TOO fast. Cults aren’t the only ones recruiting you and trying to prove their worth. They want you to follow them, maybe give you a discount, and buy one or more of their services. Vet them and take time to see how they are beyond their presentation. Google them, see whom they associate with, and vet who recommends them.
Their best advice is always the next episode (“if you want to know, sign up for my…”). You should sell to get your money, but is everything you offer come with a sales pitch? Offering value is the currency for the long game. Selling is not bad. Just the illusion of good advice through overwhelming sales pitches is terrible.

The good ones will assess incessantly.

A good personal trainer will conduct some assessments before training and ask many questions. They must do because the wrong prescriptive exercise can cause injuries and exacerbate additional damage before their assessment.

I remember seeing a personal trainer at a gym (use your imagination) having their client perform weighted step-ups on a chest bench press and favoring her left side than the right. She was not enjoying the experience, grimacing in pain and looking like she would fall at any moment. Had the trainer assessed, he would have chosen another exercise that was safer, doable, and perhaps more enjoyable. Similarly, a good career professional would do the same.

Career professionals have their moments, tho!

I’ve noticed good career advisors, from time to time, have good intentions but occasionally give bad advice. Likely it’s because of the lack of context or experience in the industry. But they’re not hiding behind obscurity or generalities. In my experience, they are generous and are always looking to perfect their crafting. The job market constantly shifts, and they need to understand industry trends. Many of us belong to a professional group or two and are connected to reputable career professionals.

They will also uphold integral practices and transparency and invite insight from other career professionals. They understand that not everyone’s path is the same or one-size-fits-all. Since March 2020, our advice may generally change and sometimes be trumped by engaged industry professionals (like an engineer who just changed jobs to get a promotion in engineering). An established could give the most updated advice for their industry—better than career coaches, advisors, counselors, or anyone like me(ha!). Most of us have gone through job searches at a time in our lives. We empathize with job seekers’ frustration and want to make things easier and provide help.

I can’t emphasize every job seeker needs to vet any career advice, even if it’s sound. The best advice you’ll find is ones aligning with your goals, situation, and energy. Your job search can function without a dozen advisors, but it doesn’t hurt if they all add value. It’s detrimental if you’re looking for shortcuts and fast results. There aren’t any.