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What to Do When You Are Stuck in Your Career

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What to Do When You Are Stuck

stuck
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We have a number of members of the Career Pivot online community who are just flat stuck. They are paralyzed by indecision because they either have too many choices or are not knowledgeable enough to make a decision.

They choose to stay stuck. Yes, doing nothing is a choice.

Why do we choose to do nothing? It is an easy decision.

What prevents us from getting unstuck? It is usually either inertia or fear.

Inertia is powerful and often is difficult to overcome.

Fear is something that we can overcome by just trying stuff and seeing if our fear is rational.

What Are My Choices?

When you are stuck, there are 2 logical choices:

  1. Get more educated, but put a deadline on making a decision
  2. Just make a decision

When making a change, there is often no right answer. There will be many shades of grey, and when we are looking for the right answer, it will never appear. What we need to do, is a risk versus reward analysis, and then make a decision.

I do not know about you but I was raised to be risk-averse. I was always told to make the safe decision but the problem today is playing it safe is the new risky.

When Stuck You Just Need to Start Poking

Years ago, I taught a problem determination class to technical support employees.

I would teach the concept of just start poking when you are stuck. It is kind of like the doctor, who pokes their patient while saying:

Does this hurt? No. Then does this hurt? No…. 

The doctor will keep poking until he/she discovers something.

By continuing to poke, you will discover something new that makes the decision a little less risky.

A good example of this is finding people who look, taste, smell like you AND had made the same kind of change. What did they do? Did they take a direction that you did not expect? How did it turn out?

Several years ago, I was approached by a gentleman who had lived in Africa for 10 or more years. He was translating bibles into obscure languages, and the theological significance of the work was very important to him. After a family member became ill, he returned to the U.S. and did not know what to do. He was stuck.

This gentleman has a Ph.D. in Linguistics. I told him to search LinkedIn for people who had Ph.D.s in Linguistics, who graduated  5 years before and after his graduation. He could then search their profiles for keywords like theology, religion, or any other word that represented what was important to him.

He should then reach out to these people to find out what decision they made and why. It is a very surgical way of poking. He was probably looking for a needle in a haystack but still, he needed to just start poking.

Just Choose

I have had, at various times in my career, became stuck. In the late 1990’s, I was working in an IBM product briefing center. I was bored, and the IBM business unit where I worked, was in trouble. The product line was stagnant (I should know as I was doing confidential product briefings for IBM’s top customers). I narrowed the choices down to going to work for a former manager as an IBM consultant, or moving to a sales support role in the Lotus division of IBM.

Boy, was I stuck. I spent a lot of time with my psychologist working through my decision and finally made a somewhat random choice to become a consultant. This turned out to be one of my biggest career failures. It was a miserable experience, but I learned a lot and recovered.

As it turns out, if I had taken the position in Lotus, I would have been laid off as the entire department was eliminated a year or two later.

Neither choice would have turned out well. I could have stayed at the briefing center but would have made myself miserable.

Sometimes, you just need to choose.

Randomly Choosing

Sometimes it is very helpful to employ chaos theory. Just try stuff, whether it makes logical sense or not. You may discover you like doing something that you would not have believed.

I have had several closet creative clients who I have had them randomly try creative endeavors. This might include taking a jewelry making class, an improv class, or going to iFly Indoor Skydiving. By trying something that you have never done before, could get you unstuck.

Being stuck is a very unpleasant experience. Unfortunately, it is often perceived as the only logical choice, because making the decision to change is scary.

You just need to make a decision and do something!

Are you stuck? What are you willing to do to get unstuck?

 

How To Demonstrate Expertise When You Have No Experience

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Expertise but No Experience

expertise but no experienceI have been hearing the mantra, “I have a lot of expertise but no experience. How do I get people to give me a chance?”

You may be pivoting into a new area where you have a lot of expertise from that Masters degree you just attained, you have life skills or maybe you have studied the topic on the side and now you want to apply it. Your problem is you have not a lot of real-world experience.

Every job description you read says it requires 3 years experience in the topic area that you have expertise in but no experience.

So how do you demonstrate your expertise when you have no experience? How do you get hiring managers to take notice and give you a chance?

The idea for this post came from the Problogger Podcast episode #247 called 247: How To Create A Blog On A Topic You’re Not An Expert In.

The theme of this podcast aligns perfectly with how you demonstrate your expertise when you have no experience.

Show Me Don’t Tell Me You Know Your Stuff

When you have minimal or no experience you will need to demonstrate in some form that you know your stuff. In my post, How Do I Know That You Know Your Stuff? I show a number of ways for you to be able to do this but this post, I am going to focus on creating a blog.

Darren Rowse aka Problogger describes are eight different kinds of content you can create but I am going to discuss six of them:

  • Personal stories
  • Case studies
  • Interviews
  • News items
  • Curated content
  • Research results

Let me take you through each category and give you some examples.

Personal Stories

Darren asks “What can you witness to?”

For those of us in the 2nd half of life, we have a wealth of experience. Write about your personal experiences.

When I started Career Pivot I wrote a 31-part series on how I made my six career pivots. I had no credentials, formal education or training in a career change or pivoting.

I wrote about my personal experiences. By the way, I have deleted most of that series as with most bloggers, my early posts were not very good.

However, I have written a whole series of posts on my failures. Check out:

I take you on my career journey and it has not always been pleasant. My readers have told me they most relate to this kind of content.

Tell us about your journey to get to where you are today. Telling the world about your journey demonstrates your expertise.

Case Studies

What are other people doing? Case studies are a great way to demonstrate your expertise.

Find a topic in your area of expertise and write a critique. A gentleman in my Career Pivot online community (you can learn more about this project by clicking here), is working on making a pivot into virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) industry.  Just last week he contacted a VR podcaster and asked if he could help him with his podcast. Last week he was on an episode where he discussed with the podcast host the features of one of the hot new VR headsets. After I finished listening to the episode, my only reaction was “wow this guy knows his stuff.”

You could write a review of a book. Find a book in your area of expertise and write a thoughtful review. A good example of this is on this blog Prepare Now to be Healthy and Happy in Old Age [Book Review] where Pam Willenz reviewed the Joy Loverde’s book, “Who Will Take Care of Me When I’m Old? Plan Now to Safeguard Your Health and Happiness in Old Age”.

Interviews

I know, I know you are thinking who would let me interview them? You would be surprised at how many times I am approached for an interview of one kind or another and if it is easy enough, I usually will say ‘yes.’

Darren Rowse tells the story of Michael Stelzner who runs the mega conference Social Media Marketing World and created the website Social Media Examiner. In the beginning, Michael would just show up at conferences with a video camera and approach speakers for a short interview. He looked polished and professional so that speakers usually said ‘yes.’ In reality, Michael did not know a lot about social media. He was still learning but he was able to produce a lot of great material which gained him credibility.

I told the story of Daniel Elizalde in the post, Changing Industries to Smart Grid about how Daniel interviewed influencers in the smart grid industry to gain credibility. Daniel has since moved on but the visibility and the knowledge he gained have proved invaluable.

Another good example is my good friend Jim Peacock with Peak Careers. Jim regularly interviews career thought leaders via video conferencing. He records the interview, uploads it to his YouTube channel and creates blog posts with the videos embedded.

News

You can write about events, new products, technology innovations, or anything else that makes news in your area of expertise. Do not just write about what is happening but interject your opinions and thoughts. The point here is to demonstrate your expertise, so you will have to put yourself out there which can open you up for criticism.

Curated Content

Curate content from around the Internet on a regular basis and present it in a blog post. The best at this is my good friend Hannah Morgan aka the Career Sherpa. Hannah produces a Summary Sunday post every week where she curates career content.

Hannah has been doing this for years and has developed a lot of key relationships with others in the industry by sharing other people’s content. She creates good Karma and at the same time demonstrating expertise.

Darren suggests that you add your opinion or take the topic a little deeper.

Another option is adding embeddable content to a post. A classical example is to add a YouTube video to your material. I did this recently with my post Our Perceptions of Ourselves and Others and Their Impact where I used a video produced by Birkman International.

Research Results

Did you write a thesis to get your new Masters’ degree? If so use that to demonstrate expertise.

Is there a topic that you would like to research? Go ahead, research the topic, and write a comprehensive blog post. A good example of this is my post – Strategic Networking Playbook – Who, How and When! 

It was a topic that I wanted to research and then write a comprehensive article to demonstrate expertise.

Hard Work and Being Bold

This is going to be hard work and you will have to put yourself out there. You may get criticism but be willing to engage with your readers.

If you want to demonstrate your expertise you will have to be bold. Producing a blog to demonstrate your expertise is hard work.

Are there other ways to demonstrate your expertise? Sure!

You could produce videos like Alexander Buschek or create a podcast like my good friends Mark Anthony Dyson and Ryan Rhoten. 

All of these require hard work, being bold, and putting yourself out there.

Go ahead and demonstrate your expertise even if you have no experience.

Marc Miller  

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Should I Take the Buyout Package? [Updated]

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Buyout Package

buyout packageHave you or someone you know been offered a buyout package?  If you work for a large multi-national corporation or the US federal government, the answer is probably “yes.”

How do you determine whether to take it or not?

The idea for this post came from a New York Times article, Making Money Decisions When You Lose Your Job. I have also had multiple clients who were offered a buyout package or severance. You will find references to them in my post, 4 Signs That You Are Working for a Failing Company.  Rather interesting—I reposted that same material on LinkedIn Pulse and it went viral. Check out the comments.

I then recorded a podcast with Roger Whitney, the Retirement Answer Man, on this topic.

Note: This post was originally published in May of 2015 and updated in April of 2018.

Evaluating the Buyout Package

You need to consider the following:

  • Immediate financial needs
  • Tax implications
  • Health insurance
  • Provisions of the separation, including ‘non-compete’ clauses
  • Long-term financial needs
  • Mental health and well-being

Immediate Financial Needs of the Buyout Package

How are you going to make ends meet financially?

  • Check out unemployment benefits
  • Consult your financial adviser immediately
  • Perform a careful budget analysis. How much money do you actually need to live?

If you plan to return to work, a good rule of thumb is to allow one month of unemployment for every $10,000 of annual income. If you are making $100,000 annually, you can expect your job search to take 10 months.

As I update this post in April of 2018, the economy is humming right along but …. there is also a lot of age discrimination. I would plan on it taking longer than you think it will take to get back to full employment.

For a deep perspective on this topic read my post, How Long Will My Job Search Take?

Tax Implications

If you get a lump sum severance in the second half of the year AND you get 6 months or more of severance, you may move into a higher tax bracket…especially if you find work quickly.

I had one client get contract work within 6 weeks of being laid off. This was in the September/October time frame. He told his new employer to withhold payment until the following year. This helped him in two ways:

  1. He did not need the money now, and the extra money would’ve pushed him into a higher tax bracket
  2. He would receive a lump sum check in January, which was an emotional relief

If it is late in the year, you may be able to negotiate to delay receiving your severance until the following year. Larger multinational companies may not do this, but smaller companies will likely negotiate.

As the tax laws changed pretty extensively in 2018, please consult your tax accountant before you do anything.

Health Insurance

When I originally wrote this post back in 2015, I was encouraged by the availability of individual health insurance made available by the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Well, that has exploded, especially if you are over the age of 60.

Are you eligible for COBRA? Will they offer you group health insurance via their retirement program?

No matter what, group health insurance via your employer is EXPENSIVE! It is good insurance, probably a PPO plan, but you will pay for it.

You paid for it indirectly via lower wages and your employer purchased it. Check last years W-2 statement. It clearly states what your employer spent on your health insurance. When you continue your company health insurance via COBRA, it will be pricey.

Now go to the either your state health insurance exchange or the federal exchange to check out prices. How do these compare to the COBRA options?

Are you eligible for Medicare? That is another maze that you will have to traverse.

Roger Whitney recorded a couple of excellent podcasts on healthcare before Medicare:

Your options have decreased considerably since I originally wrote this post back in 2015.

Provisions of the Separation, Including Non-Compete Clauses

Read through the separation agreement. I suggest you take it to your lawyer.

Do you have your original signing papers? For those of you who worked for many years at the company that you are separating from, the answer is probably no. You might ask for your personnel jacket from the company to see what they do have.

If you do have your originally signing papers, take that with you when you speak with a lawyer.

If you have a non-compete clause in your contract and you live in a right-to-work state like Texas, that non-compete is likely not enforceable. I cannot emphasize enough that consulting with an employment lawyer is money well spent.

Long-term financial needs

Review your retirement accounts with your financial adviser. When I left my last company, I was completely stressed out. My blood pressure was very high and I was becoming physically ill from working there. I had to get out.

I went to my financial adviser and asked, “Can I retire? Can I retire now?

After running numerous Monte Carlo simulations, the answer was yes. I had no plans to retire and I had already started Career Pivot legally, but it gave me peace of mind to know that I would be okay.

I have had multiple clients who have been offered both voluntary and involuntary packages. I always tell them to talk to their financial advisers.

I have also had clients who are extremely distrustful of the finance industry. I am a big fan of Hanson McClain Money Maters podcast. They have an excellent article on their website called How to Select a Financial Advisor Guide.

Mental Health and Well-Being

Your mental health and well-being are critical in evaluating a buyout package. One of the key factors to consider is that you will likely not have a paycheck. No matter how well prepared you are, emotionally giving up the paycheck is really difficult.

When I gave up the paycheck, I still woke up at 4 in the morning in a cold sweat saying to myself,

“I do not have a paycheck!!”

Do not underestimate the emotions that will surface. Find someone—a spouse, friend, counselor, clergy, social worker, etc.—to help you work through these emotions.

For a deep perspective on this topic read my post Demise of the Paycheck – Good Riddance.

When a buyout package is offered, evaluate it using expert advice. You may be tempted to wait for the next round.

When a buyout package is offered, the next round is almost never more lucrative.

Have you been offered a buyout package? Tell us about your experiences!
Marc Miller  

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4 Signs That You Are Working for a Failing Company [Updated]

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Are You Working for a Failing Company?

failing companyI have multiple clients who currently work for failing companies.

These companies fall into a variety of industries:

  • High Technology
  • Pharmaceutical
  • Telecommunications
  • Oil and Gas

Each of them has worked for these companies for many years. Do they see the signs that the businesses are failing?

Well…they see it, but it is easier to bury their head in the sand than to admit they really need to get out!

This is a very dangerous strategy given the acceleration of creative destruction that is blowing through whole industries.

So, what are the signs?

Note: This post was originally published in February of 2015 and was updated in April of 2018.

Repetitive Layoffs, RIF, Resource Action, or Redundancy

I have one client who works for a major pharmaceutical company. The building is starting to look like a cemetery—hardly a living being there. When there are more open desks than filled, that is a sure sign that you are working for a failing business.

How many times have I heard, I made it through the last layoff – I am safe!

When a company is downsizing there are several factors in how they do it. First, they will eliminate contract labor, that is easy. Next, they will start preparing to layoff staff in different locations and/or geographies. It is much easier to lay off staff in the U.S. than in Europe and it is easier to lay off employees in right-to-work states. Some states have thresholds on the size of the layoff. If they do not exceed that threshold, they do not need to report the layoff to the state.

Depending on your location it will affect the timing of the layoff. Do not think because you were not laid off but someone else was at a different location means you are safe.

No, it is not if you get laid off, but when.

This may well be a sign of a failing company!

Circling of the Wagons

This can typically be seen in upper-level management, where the old guard circles the wagons and protect their own. One symptom I have been seeing is bright up and coming women being pushed out by older, more established men. You might call this the return of the “good old boy” network.

This usually happens before a major layoff. Upper management starts to maneuver themselves into prime positions before they screw everyone else.

We have seen this multiple times in the tech industry with their male bias in hiring. You might want to check out Bloomberg’s Decrypted podcast April 14th, 2018 episode called A Female Engineer’s Fight for Equal Pay at Google.

This may well be a sign of a failing company!

Generous Pension Buyout Offers

I’ve had many clients who have been offered lucrative pension buyout offers. They are “take it or leave it” offers, with the requirement that they retire. Most of these clients have been at their companies 30+ years, and are not in a position to retire (with children heading off to college, a spouse with health issues, other mitigating factors, etc.).

They tell me, “If I can last just five more years…” Their response is almost entirely based on fear of the unknown. These are not times to make decisions solely based on your emotion.

But beware—these offers expire quickly and will never be offered again. I tell them, “They want you gone! Figure out how to make it work!”

You really need to seek outside financial advice. If you do not have a financial advisor, I suggest you find a fee-based advisor who can give you a third-party viewpoint.

This reminds me of 1999 when IBM converted my pension to a cash balance plan and then switched it back for everyone who was over forty years of age. Oh yeah, minus a whole bunch of perks—like health insurance. A former boss of mine said:

They took it away and gave it back, they would never do that again.

IBM stopped funding the pension in 2008. I left in 2000 with a lump sum pension payout. In hindsight, it was the best financial move I ever made! The individual who replaced me at IBM was better at the position than I was and he was laid off 3 years later. I dodged the bullet.

This may well be a sign of a failing company!

Management Bad Behavior

Have you seen bullying behavior? Have your manager’s emails become more and terser? Do you feel like you are being shouted at in e-mails?

These are all signs of stress in the workplace. When a business is failing and in a tailspin, there is more work to be done by the few that are left. Stress levels increase exponentially. This brings out the worst behavior.

We all saw this during the great recession. When things were spiraling down management bad behavior became rampant.

This may well be a sign of a failing company!

Do Not Ignore the Signs of Working for a Failing Company or Industry

Does any of this sound familiar? If so, you may be working for a failing company.

It may be time to move on in your career! You should never ignore these signs.

Disruptive technologies like mobile communications, cloud computing, and fracking are wreaking havoc on many long-established multinational giant companies.

Playing it safe in your career is the new risky!

Marc Miller  

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The Challenges and Strategies of Changing Industries [Updated]

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Changing Industries

changing industries

Many of you are or should be thinking of changing industries. Creative destruction is wreaking havoc on so many industries that if you are not looking – you should be.

I have written multiple posts on the need to be vigilant:

Are you actively looking at changing industries but find that you’re running into a lot of roadblocks? If so, you are not alone.

Several years ago, I had a client who was a PMP certified project manager. He had a lot of project management experience managing IT projects, but he wanted to transition to the healthcare industry.

I arranged for him to meet the COO of a rapidly-expanding healthcare provider. The COO told him that his credentials were impressive, but he had no healthcare experience. The COO said they really should not care that he had no healthcare experience, but … they will.

Skill Sets

Whether you are a project manager, product manager, business analyst, or any other position, you will likely have two sets of skills:

  • Business skills
  • Industry skills

Which is the most important? Your business skills!

Which will the hiring authorities care most about? Your industry skills!

This why changing industries is so difficult.

If you think that this is not fair then you are right! You might be saying, “These folks are not any good at interviewing candidates” and you would be correct!

A good project manager should be able to manage any project. A good business analyst should be able to work in any industry. There should be peace on earth and goodwill towards men! There should be no wars! Well, there I go again. I am using the “S” word—”should.”

Employers today are frequently looking for the purple cow candidate—or a candidate that likely does not exist. They want a candidate that has both business and industry skills. If they have to compromise, most will lean on industry skills.

Strategies for Changing Industries

Whether you like it or not, when changing industries, you will need to show that you have some industry experience. If you have no industry experience you will have to demonstrate that your current industry maps to new or adjacent industries.

Let me give you some examples:

Create a Blog and Interview People in the Target Industry.

In 2015, I told the story of Daniel Elizalde.  Daniel wanted to make the shift to the Smart Grid industry. He created a blog where he published monthly interviews with experts in the smart grid industry. Daniel very methodically interviewed experts that he could learn from, and after 18 months he found he had developed some “street cred”.  Managers at companies that were on Daniel’s target list of companies were reading his blog and were now willing to talk with him about future opportunities.

Check out Daniel’s story in the post Changing Industries to Smart Grid.

Rebrand Yourself via a Blog, Videos, and Whitepapers

This is what Alexander Buschek did when he wanted to become a digital transformation thought leader. Alexander created the Digital Transformation Blog to demonstrate that he knew his stuff. He wrote the whitepaper Your Existing IT Strategy Won’t Work Why SMBs have to rethink their IT strategy and embrace Digital Transformation and published it on his blog.

He then spent much of the holiday season in late 2016, creating videos around all of the facets of digital transformation. Alexander had a lot of fun doing this but I suspect he drove his wife a bit crazy creating a mini-video studio in their house.

The blog, videos, and whitepapers clearly demonstrated his expertise and from that came numerous opportunities to speak at industry conferences. A good example of this was his Speech at IIoT Talk Conference in Berlin.

From the blog, Alexander was able to move from being a CIO for a valve manufacturer in the oil and gas industry to being a CIO at a high-tech hardware company where he will be able to implement digital transformation strategies. Look for Alexander’s story on the Repurpose Your Career Podcast in early April of 2018.

Publish LinkedIn Publisher Posts on Topics Related to the Target Industry

Write about relevant topics that you have researched thoroughly. Make sure you get someone in the target industry to review them before you publish.

The advantage of writing LinkedIn Publisher posts is they will be seen on your LinkedIn profile. When a recruiter or hiring manager find your LinkedIn profile, they will see that you have published and, thus, have demonstrated your knowledge of the industry.

Other Options to Build Credibility

When changing industries you can demonstrate expertise by commenting on blog posts and social media where you will be seen by others in the target industry. Make sure and target individuals that could be good connectors to the companies on your target list. This is a slow, tedious process, and it will take a while to be noticed.

I would also suggest that you attend industry conferences and make sure to interact with individuals from your target companies. Get as much face time with individuals who can either help you get to the next step. This was part of Alexander Buschek’s strategy to rebrand himself as a Digital Transformation thought leader. Alexander was able to meet executives at numerous companies that allowed him to get both speaking engagements at industry events and introductions to hiring managers at target companies.

Demonstrate Your Industry Expertise on Platforms You Control

When changing industries, you will need to demonstrate your industry expertise. You may notice that the concrete examples I gave you were from individuals who created their own platforms that they controlled. You can do demonstrate your expertise on platforms like LinkedIn or Medium but you do not own these platforms and therefore, they can change overnight outside of your control.

You need to plan on demonstrating your industry expertise if you are changing industries.

Do this before your existing industry goes away!

 

Marc Miller  

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