Article by Wendy McCance
Back in the beginning of March, I wrote an article called The Failure of Society. It was about my disappointment in the way companies are treating their employees. I talked about going to a funeral with my husband and how he was getting calls from his office the entire day (even though the company knew why he wasn’t at work). Needless to say, he hasn’t been happy working at this company for quite some time.
Yesterday, we were talking about his career and what he wanted to do differently with his future. He was stuck like I had been in the article I wrote recently, What Should you do When You Are On the Right Path and Get Stuck? What my husband wants to do is work for a company that specializes in robotics. He has learned so much at the company he is currently at, and is grateful. The company is very small and his stress comes from being paid half of what he would get at any decent sized company along with the pressure of having so many roles to play that he can’t even go to a funeral without panicked phone calls from people who can’t run the machines at work.
I know what my husband’s looking for in a career. I know that he has even on occasion looked at some job sites and has written one or two resumes. Here’s the problem, he is doing what most of us, including me have done so many times, he has the want, but hasn’t truly put it into action - he’s stuck.
Having just gone through this very thing myself, it was easy to see where my husband was stopping short and I was able to give him some decent advice on what to do next. What I told him and what we all need to remember when we are overwhelmed with a bad situation and can’t see our way out is to put your worries into action. Like many of us, my husband was so down that he couldn’t see his next step. To an outsider, the next step might seem simple. Asking for help was my husband’s way of seeing the next step which was to seriously look and act on possible job opportunities. This was the advice I gave him:
1. Make sure the resume’ is flawless.
2. Put together a strong cover letter.
3. Find companies in the area that interest you and research them. Get to know who the hiring manager is and write directly to them.
4. Go on a site like LinkedIn and put your resume’ up.
5. On LinkedIn search out the companies that you are interested in and look up their recruiters or hiring manager. Find out what groups they are involved in and join those groups.
These are just a few ideas I threw my husband’s way. The best thing someone can do in this position is move. Do something, anything that might come to mind. Usually once you start to take action, any action, momentum will begin and things will begin to fall into place. All of a sudden you will begin to see what needs to be done and the actions you begin to take will work their way into a solution. It doesn’t matter if the first thing you try is the correct way to do something or not. It’s the action that gets you going that will also help you to sort your way through your issue and make the right steps apparent as you start to take action.
Wendy McCance
To contact Wendy McCance about a writing assignment, interview or speaking engagement, please email her at: [email protected]
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I’d rather move forward and not see the next step then sit on the same step longer than I have to.
I do all of your suggestions- I’m so used to being ‘overlooked’ for lack of ‘experience’ or ‘preferred background,’ that I think this is developing my “elephant skin,” even though it is painful. Notably, it is stretching my creativity. I love how you compared taking any action to momentum. I believe that this march across the Red Sea will inspire others to never ‘give up’ to preconceived notions of success.
Hi Carrie, Thank you so much. My husband is facing the same fustrations as you described. He is taking classes and is in a position at his company that would usually demand a Bachelor’e Degree (he is working on getting an Associate Degree right now). His hangup is how to convince a new company that although he doesn’t have the degree, he has the experience to perform a solid job without the training that would be required of a person fresh out of school. There are so many companies that will look for the degree and if it isn’t shown, it gets tossed before it’s read. So how can you get the attention needed to persuade the company that you would be a good fit? As soon as we get this figured out, you can be sure I will write a post about it. I think a solution would be so valuable to the many people struggling for a better job. All the best, Wendy
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I agree that when we feel stuck taking action can help us get stuck, even if it doesn’t turn out to be exactly the right action. Good suggestions!