Getting your player ready...
Dear J.T. & DALE: You recently wrote about a woman who was having a hard time finding her passion. My problem is that I have too many passions, too many things I would like to study. The result is that I can’t finish a degree. I’m afraid to choose any one path because I might realize later that it’s truly not for me. I’m paralyzed, and I feel like I’ve wasted the past six years while my friends have graduated from college and begun careers. Please advise. – Mason
J.T.: What you are experiencing, Mason, is a new form of career crisis that is taking hold in our culture. Technology and easy access to information have overwhelmed us with choices. The result is “career A.D.D.”
DALE: Oh my, that makes indecision an illness.
J.T.: It certainly can be a huge problem. The good news is that there is a fix: focus. My favorite resource is a book called “Black Hole Focus,” by Dr. Isaiah Hankel. He, like you, experienced overwhelming paralysis. He found his way out, and wrote a book to help others do likewise.
DALE: Instead of a book, I’ll give you three words: “experiments never fail.” That is the mind-set you need right now, Mason. Your indecision is understandable because it’s based on a correct assumption – yes, you could pick the wrong career. Plenty of people get a degree in, say, engineering, and then find the work tedious or unfulfilling and have regrets. So here’s the wake-up question: Would you be better off today if (1) a few years ago you had gotten a degree in whatever – let’s stick with engineering – started working and found it lacking, or (2) you did what you have done, and waited for certainty? The right answer is No. 1. You would have learned more, and stood on a higher platform from which to see alternative careers. If you decided later that you blew it and you wanted to get into architecture, having engineering education/experience would be a huge advantage.
J.T.: Doing something will help you to experience, learn and grow. Go into a degree or career assuming you’ll need to make corrections, and you’ll understand that you didn’t fail, you succeeded in growing. In other words, “experiments never fail.”
Dear J.T. & Dale: I’ve been working for a major tourist attraction the past year and recently applied to work part-time for shops in the same building. I want to keep the job I have but earn extra money on the side. I am being told that it is illegal to work for two different companies under the same roof. These are separate corporations, with separate identities. Is this as fishy as it sounds? – Susan
J.T.: What you are hearing must be referring to a policy, not a law. Somewhere in your employee handbook you might find a stipulation that prohibits you from working with other companies on the property. Check and see if that’s the case. If not, then you should be OK to pursue the other jobs. That being said, it would be a good business practice to tell your current managers of your plans and reassure them that they’ll continue to be your first priority and that it will not affect your current work. They’ll appreciate the honesty, and you don’t want them surprised if one day they walk through the building and see you working at another company.
DALE: Should you find a stipulation against working for others in your employee handbook, I still would go to your manager and ask permission to be an exception. Your manager may have a realization: It’s time for you to be given additional hours and/or responsibilities. It once was a common duty of a manager to guide the career development of employees. Sadly, after the great squeezing of management, there is little time available to consider employees’ growth. That’s why your question may give your overworked manager the great idea of moving you up. You may end up managing your manager’s thinking.
– Workplace consultant and career coach J.T. O’Donnell has coached, trained and mentored employees and managers since 1994. Her book, “CAREEREALISM: The Smart Approach to A Satisfying Career” is available at JTODonnell.com. Management guru Dale Dauten has written six books on innovation in the workplace. His latest book, “Great Employees Only: How Gifted Bossess Hire & Dehire Their Way to Success” is available at Dauten.com. (c) 2013 King Features.
