Would Your Hobby Make a Good Career Choice
Wednesday July 15, 2009
Last week a reader who is contemplating a career change sent me the following email (I've changed some details to keep things anonymous):
I am looking to make a career change. I have always enjoyed photography and writing as hobbies. My family and friends have told me "you should do something with that," but I don't know what I should do about it or where to begin. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Here is my reply to him:
Your family and friends may be right — many people successfully turn
hobbies into careers. The most important thing to know about career
planning is that in order to increase your odds of choosing a satisfying
career, you should make sure your career choice is a good fit for someone
with your personality, abilities, interests and career-related values.
With that said, enjoying something as a hobby doesn't necessarily mean you
will enjoy it as a career. It certainly is worth exploring though. Please
take a look at How to Make a Career Change, a guide I put together to help people in your situation. You should also
read my article Turn Your Hobby Into a Career
What Not to Do When You Leave a Job
Monday July 13, 2009
Perhaps I omitted an important piece of advice from my article
Five Things Not to Do When You Leave Your Job. Honestly, it never would have occurred to me to tell readers not to ramble on and on, almost incoherently, when resigning ... not until I heard Alaska Governor Sarah Palin give her
resignation speech. A simple "I'm moving on due to family responsibilities or to pursue other interests" will suffice when you're quitting your job. Okay, maybe Palin's employers, Alaska's citizens, deserved more of an explanation than that. So, if you want to go into depth about your reason for leaving your job, stick to a few main points, explain them clearly, wish your successor and your employer good luck and exit stage left.
Can Unemployment Be Fun?
Friday July 10, 2009
What an odd question! I don't know anyone who finds unemployment fun — stressful is more like it. Or if we're looking for other words to describe getting
laid off from work and looking for a
new job, particularly in this economy, how about scary, frustrating or depressing? Yet, CBS' the Early Show managed to find people who are actually having fun, not in spite of being unemployed, but because they are unemployed. I learned about this report on "Funemployment" (certainly not my term) from
The Work Buzz. Blogger Anthony Balderrama, in his
Thursday's Good Reads Roundup, linked to an article about it on
Gawker.com. Take a look at the video. It's almost laughable.
Sure, it's important to have a positive attitude when you are job hunting. It certainly makes you a more attractive candidate. The people the report features certainly have a positive attitude. As a matter of fact, they've embraced that concept, but not in regard to seeming self-assured about finding another job. They seem more resigned to the fact that nothing is out there for them so why bother looking. One spends his time at the beach or golfing. Another, after leaving a stressful job in advertising, is now a starving artist who spends her time having coffee with friends and gardening. I wonder when she does are artist thing. I guess if you're single, don't have kids to support or many bills to pay, that's fine. I do wonder, though, how they plan to explain the lengthy gap between jobs to prospective employers once they do decide it's time to move forward. What do you think of this? Click on comments and let us know.
Be Careful With That Email
Thursday July 9, 2009
If you needed another reason to carefully proofread your
email before you hit send, take a look at this survey sponsored by
The Creative Group, a staffing firm that works with marketing, advertising, creative and web professionals. The survey asked 250 advertising and executives via a telephone interview, "Have you ever mistakenly emailed someone the wrong message or copied someone on a message without intending to?" Seventy-eight percent of those surveyed responded "yes." Wouldn't you rather be among the 22% that responded "no"?
The respondents were also asked to describe the worst email mistakes they know of, either ones they made themselves or ones they've heard about. Here are a few of them:
- “I once sent a job offer to the wrong person.”
- “Someone made a nasty comment about a supervisor and it was sent to the supervisor by mistake. It eventually led to dismissal.”
- “Confidential information about one client was sent to a different client. It was certainly embarrassing.”
- “I once sent an internal memo about restroom etiquette to a prospective client by accident.”
- “Someone meant to send a racy picture to a couple of friends but ended up sending it to the entire staff, which caused her much embarrassment.”
Of course mistakes happen, but you can take precautions that will help you avoid them. The Creative Group recommends some tips. They include giving the email your full attention, saving the distribution list for last, checking attachments to make sure you are sending the right ones, avoiding sending emails while you are angry and keeping your emails professional.
Share your email blunders? Click on "Comments" and tell us about a time you hit send and wished you could take it back.
Read More:
Tips for Professional Email
Questions to Ask Yourself Before You Hit Send
Mistakes at Work
