The Really Big News

Would it surprise you if I told you that the reason I could speak with so much authority about looking for a job was because I was looking for one?

Well, I was…And now I have one.

For obvious reasons, I didn’t want to say anything about it beforehand. Now that I’m transitioning to the new gig, let’s talk about what that means for us: not much. For instance, I’m not talking about the new gig or the old gig except in very broad-stroke descriptions. This blog is to share about what I’ve learned technically and professionally, nothing more. I’m handling my exit pretty much the way that I described in “Looking for Love – Part II”. No big speeches, no dirt to dish. I’m simply ramping myself up for the next challenge.

I learned a lot about handling job exits from my previous job and this one – I hate to sound like a cliché but, keep it classy. Let everyone know how much you enjoyed working with them. There’s no such thing as “I’ll-never-see-you-again-so-let-me-tell-you-what-I-really-think”. It doesn’t work for reasons I’ve already described…but here’s another point: If that’s what you really think and it’s all you can do to exit cordially without busting, have you ever given it some thought as to why you feel that way? I guess what I’m saying is, not only should you NOT do the ‘let me tell you what I really think’ speech, you shouldn’t even be thinking like that in the first place.

We spend a third of our waking lives (If we’re lucky…) at the job. It’s easy to start thinking that our relationships at our job and relationships elsewhere are one and the same. It’s also easy to start putting negative meanings to everything that is happening to you. Trying to make sense of it all – you start thinking that everyone is out to get you. You shouldn’t do this.

Why not? Let me put it this way: Stop Thinking That the World is Out to Get You. You give yourself too much credit by assuming that anyone is thinking about you at all, more so by assuming people have the time and inclination to be executing some malicious plan against you. It’s close to the “to understand everything is to forgive everything” philosophy. I’m not suggesting that you forgive everything, but at least take the time to understand why it happened in the first place. You may just find that a bad situation happened simply because it happened and not out of personal pique.

Taking yourself out of the picture, sometimes – stepping back and looking at everything that’s going on – helps to regain perspective. You start to see that the business has challenges of its own, your boss has challenges of his or her own, your coworkers have their own problems and then on top of it all – it’s you, demanding to be paid attention to. Stop it!

It’s difficult, of course, to keep that kind of perspective when you’re relying on your job to make the mortgage and keep food on the table. It’s also difficult when you’re hearing gloomy news out of the economy and the 12^th potential employer has told you “You want how much?” Salary negotiation is an interesting topic for another time but don’t worry about hearing that kind of news – no matter how low you bid, there’s always someone to complain about how much you want. It’s a negotiation tactic.

So, I’m off to the next big thing and I am excited about it. New challenges and new opportunities – Let’s continue the journey together.