Your Career Is The Treasury of Your Life - news! | September 2018
Your Career Treasury
newsletter

"Your career is the treasury of your life" - Joanne Meehl

We’re back! Where’d the summer go?!

I hope you had a great one!

Right around this time of year -- "back to school", post-vacation, after Labor Day -- people start a job search. They’ve taken their vacation and are now plotting their escape: from their job.

Are you one of them?

Taking on a job search can be daunting. When should you know it’s truly time to leave? See below for some helpful answers about leaving your current role.

And along the way, I hope you enjoy this new format!
Joanne Meehl
Resume expert who hopes you never need to actually use your resume. "The Resume Queen" ®
LinkedIn profile creator if you want yours to be an employer magnet.
Networking guru who coaches you in elegant (not needy, gimme gimme) networking.
Interview prep that puts you at ease describing why they need you.

BA, MS, IJCDC and Forbes Coaches Council Member

If the (Job) Party is Over, Is It Time to Leave?
4 tip-offs that it’s time for you to leave your current job
Of course I'm a big fan of hope. It's what keeps us going as humans, even in our darkest hours.

But sometimes hope gets in the way. Such as when you hope your current employer changes their salary structure. And you hope your manager stops micromanaging you. And you hope the company would just be more ethical, or more innovative, or more expansive, or more serious about your career development.

When you realize that none of those Big Things About the Company is going to change, you have a choice: either continue to hope they change, or leave. Now this is often where clients say "But I've never been a quitter; I don't want to leave the company in case things really do change."

Quitter?! I'd argue you are already giving up if you're sticking it out waiting with hope that things there will change -- and in doing so you've given the company more credit than you've given yourself. Doing that, means you’ve quit on YOU.

Yes, companies can change course, but my experience is that too often candidates would rather hope than see the reality, and would rather stick it out than launch a job search. Meanwhile, what they're becoming blind to as they are hoping, are the changes in their field that demand they pay better attention to their own career. For example, in the 1980s and 90s, too many New Englanders hoped that Digital (DEC) would turn it around, and while hoping, their own skills began to stagnate. Eventually DEC was bought by Compaq, then Compaq by Hewlett Packard, with massive layoffs each step of the way.

Result: all those "hoping" people had skills that pertained only to DEC. Few other companies needed those skills.

And that's the biggest reason for leaving your company: Don't stay if your skills are stagnating. This is a career killer!

Here are 4 reasons to leave:
  • As mentioned, if your skills are stagnating and you feel you’re coasting on the job, or there’s little new challenge;
  • If the company stops investing in or developing its people; or
  • if if the company is losing sale after sale and isn't changing things to fix the situation; or
  • if your company or organization is putting out less-than-cutting-edge products or services.

Don't let this happen to you. Leave.

So make it more about yourself and what you want for you and your family. It's OK to be selfish in that way -- that's a good selfish. A good reason for thinking ahead, and for launching a search.

Besides: In your one life, who will take care of you if you don't?

More goods for you:

Is it age discrimination or are you just making excuses? Don’t complain to friends; you can DO something about it.
And don’t let the politicos distract you with H1-B visas: it’s a bigger-picture issue than that.
August grad? Employers are looking for you! Get your search going now!
This month’s Sampler:
Sample Email Signatures
I get a lot of questions about email signatures, the way you sign off on an email. This is always important for your career identity, but especially so if you are doing heavy networking and/or a job search.

Here are a couple from the guide I give to clients:

David G. Holley
Technology CEO | COO | President | VP/GM
Creating Revenue by Focusing on Customers
his email address
Twitter: @DavidGHolley

Karen Jensen
Chemical Engineer | Process System Engineer | Control Engineer 
(651) 432-4321
her email address
Joanne Meehl Career Services LLC | 612.216.3855 | Joanne@TheJobSearchQueen.com

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