Getting your player ready...
Dear J.T. & DALE: I recently took a job in another state. When I flew in to interview, it was a weekend and the drive was 25 minutes from where I was staying. So I rented an apartment in that area. On my first day, I learned that the commute is really two hours each way! Now I am working 10-hour days and commuting three to four hours. I’m miserable. – Landon
DALE: First, let’s all back up and think through how you might have avoided such problems. One, new co-workers are a great source of advice on where to live, and seeking their opinions is a splendid way to connect. When that’s not possible, commute times can be found out by doing a virtual commute. At local drive time, you go into software like Google Maps and put in potential home and office locations. You’ll see traffic bottlenecks and estimated travel times. J.T.: Going forward, I’d start by seeing if you can move closer. If you can’t get out of your lease, perhaps you can sublet the apartment. If that won’t work, set up a meeting with your managers and see if they will let you work from home one or two days each week. DALE: Better yet, this very situation just happened to a friend who took a new position, still in his same metro area. He, too, was surprised by his new commute time and was miserable. He did what J.T. is suggesting and explained the problem to his management. They suggested he work from home and come in just one day a week. If your bosses won’t agree to something similar, they might see an advantage to time-shifting, with you coming in earlier or later in order to miss the worst of rush hour. You can make a good case for this if you work with colleagues or customers in other time zones. J.T.: If all that fails and you need to seek a new job, don’t worry about that short job tenure on your record, at least not yet. If you make one jump, that’s understandable; however, you’ll need to stay in the next job for a while, so do intense due diligence to make sure it’s a place where you can be happy and where they’ll be happy to have you. DALE: Agreed. Any good employer will welcome concerns about culture, fit and longevity, so don’t be afraid to try to meet potential co-workers and ask plenty of questions. Dear J.T. & Dale: I have several friends who recently conducted job searches and swear I don’t need to write cover letters anymore because recruiters don’t read them. True? – Wendy J.T.: While many recruiters don’t read them, I’d argue it’s because they read the first line and see it’s just blah-blah-blah. So, yes, traditional cover letters are useless. However, I recommend writing a highly customized introduction letter, using what I call the Disruptive Cover Letter Technique. You open with a story that grabs the reader at “Hello.” I’ve worked with thousands of job seekers, and the technique works because you surprise the recruiter into paying attention to you and your credentials.
