BEWARE:

motivated team-player – looking for someone who needs a job badly enough that they’ll put up with lots of unmotivated, annoying people from whom you’ll have to get buy-in on almost everything you do.

high achiever, driven to succeed – must be a complete brown-nose whose sole mission in life is to please and impress management.

customer-focused – can take a lot of abuse from clients AND management and still act pleasant.

resourceful, independent self-starter – since we have absolutely no time or resources to train you, we expect you to figure everything out for yourself…quickly.

attentive to details – we have strict policies and procedures and won’t hesitate to blame you for everything if you make a mistake.

flexible, enjoys multi-tasking – we are unorganized and change corporate directions daily, so you’ll need to be able to clean up our messes and do jobs that A) you weren’t told about in the interview, and B) aren’t trained to do properly – all on a moment’s notice.

agent of change – you’ll be responsible for implementing a bunch of stuff we’ve been unable to make happen with a group of people who are digging in their heels and refusing to convert.

works well under pressure – our management team considers everything urgent and is going to micro-manage you daily.

solution-oriented – we are going to give you lots of messes to clean up and expect you to figure out how to handle them without our direction and with a big smile on your face, even though we aren’t going to give you any resources or support to get it done.

Okay – so if you’ve visited Careerealism.com before you know I’m being sarcastic. But, let’s not forget, all humor is rooted in a bit of truth, right?

I’m not saying that any job posting with one or more of these terms should be crossed of your list of potential employers. I’m just pointing out that every job seeker should do their homework to make sure they have a realistic understanding of what a potential employer’s work environment is really like. (A great post on the need to be selective was recently written by marketing guru, Seth Godin.) FACT: There are no perfect jobs or perfect employers.

I know these are desperate times and many people feel compelled to accept any job offer they get. However, in doing so, you could jump out of the frying pan and into the fire. You need to honestly assess an employer by asking questions that will help you see their flaws (tactfully, of course). Remember: employers are like a potential mate. Don’t fool yourself into thinking you can change them once you are together. Take off your rose-colored glasses (or, beer goggles, for you younger readers) and choose an employer for who they really are – warts and all.

Finally, I leave you with this last piece of advice….

If you do see any of the terms above coupled with “unlimited income potential,” “rapid advancement,” or “ground-floor opportunity,” then before your apply, I just hope you’ll ask yourself, “Why are they trying so hard to impress me?” Need I say more?

Now, who’s got job posting terms they’d like to decode? Post them below and help all the job seekers reading this post translate employer-speak.

Don’t worry…CAREEREALISM is coming to your rescue! The following tips are for college students and recent grads (all 2.5+M of you) who aren’t afraid to hear the hard truth about the American workplace. You may not like what you read, but if you really want to get ahead and find work that makes you happy, then you must face reality head on. Think of it as a paper cut – you can either apply the right care to it now, or you can ignore it, only to wake up and find it infected. Which will you do? I work with hundreds of professionals who always tell me the same thing, “I wish I had known these tips when I was starting out.” So please, don’t ignore the facts. A jump start to a better future is available to those who heed these tips – guaranteed.

TIP #1: You are the most educated generation to enter the workforce, but you are also viewed as the least prepared. Don’t be blind-sided by your generation’s professional reality.

Your generation, Generation NEXT (also known as Gen Y & Millenials) is the largest and most educated generation to enter the workforce in US history (over 70% plan to get undergraduate degrees and another 40% plan to get advanced degrees). Unfortunately, you are also seen as professionally immature and a huge challenge in the workplace. How did this happen? A little historical perspective helps to explain…

Years ago, getting a degree was a privilege and done with intent. If you were lucky enough to go to college, you knew what you were studying and what your career would be before you even began. You could expect a nice starting salary and a bright financial future. You also could count on a lifetime of employment and lots of career development from a single firm. A gold watch and a retirement package were often your reward for loyal years of service.

Fast forward to today: there are thousands of colleges and anyone who wants to go can get in somewhere. Thus, a college degree doesn’t get you a ‘leg up,’ it just allows you to ‘step up’ to the career starting line. Inflation has outpaced starting salaries, and the average student graduates $17+K debt but without the professional experience and focus of those who graduated years ago. As many as 4 out of 5 college students have to move home after school because they can’t afford to live on their own. In short, a college degree today is more expensive – but the return on the investment is down significantly.

TIP #2: The other generations in the workforce don’t have much compassion for your situation. You are being incorrectly perceived as lazy, entitled and arrogant. Don’t validate these beliefs by ignoring their concerns, instead, work to overcome them.

The other generations in the workforce think you deserve some ‘tough love.’ They are frustrated by your attitude in the workplace. The generations before you worked hard, paid their dues in jobs they didn’t enjoy, and now want respect for their professional battle scars. Many of them had to pay for school themselves and didn’t have the option or time to identify a career they could get excited about. The pressure to pay the bills and be out on their own forced them to put their professional satisfaction on the back burner. So, they don’t appreciate you criticizing or challenging the workplace they created. These actions go against how they were raised on-the-job. And while no one expects you to follow in their footsteps, you do need to recognize that work experience is critical to developing your own knowledge and skills. We don’t run until we learn to walk, right? So, it’s time to consider that you your views and opinions on-the-job may not be fully grown yet. Before you offer advice on how a situation should be improved in the workplace, take the time to seek out the varying generational perspectives of those that have been there before you and make an effort to understand their point of view. The best employees know how to ‘manage up.’ That means, coaching those above you in order to get the results you desire. The first and most important rule in coaching is , “Ask, don’t tell.” If you want to change a person’s point of view, you need to broaden their perspective by asking questions that will provide you with a more comprehensive understanding of their position.

Here’s something to consider: Generation NEXT is known as compassionate and socially responsible. You are worried about the world and care about those around you. So why not include the generations above you in your efforts to create a better world? Share with them your ideas and enthusiasm, but respect their knowledge and time spent in the trenches. Assess your thoughts and think carefully about how you convey yourself on-the-job. Your opinions do matter, but will only be heard if you can articulate them in a way that connects you to those you wish to influence. Learn to speak their language, and all ears will be on you.

TIP #3: DON’T road trip, backpack or ‘take a year off’ without thinking about your career first. Those who delay to play, often pay!

As graduation approaches, many students feel the pressure of career and think, “I’ve done what’s expected of me and now I deserve to do something for myself.” However, rewarding yourself without at least organizing your plans for career before you go can make embarking on a job search when you return more difficult. Here are some stats to consider: Landing an entry-level job after school (from start to finish) averages at least two months. The process of finding the job opportunity, going on the interviews, receiving and accepting the job offer, and then starting the job, all take time. It is easier to manage this process when you are close to resources (i.e. campus career center) and a network of peers who are in the midst of finding work too. All too often, college grads put off their career homework until after they’re done having fun. They return home and suddenly find themselves alone and without the support of their friends and school to help them. Add in the potential pressure of parents over your shoulder, inquiring about your progress, and looking for a job can become very overwhelming. I once had an angry father call me to inquire about my services for his son because, in his own words, “My son just got back from a 7-month road trip of fun only for me to find out he has no idea of what he wants to do or how to find a job. What did I spent $80K on a college education for?!?!” This father-son relationship was quite strained, and much of my time coaching this new college grad was spent trying to get him to stop beating himself up for not taking responsibility for his future. Don’t get stuck in this position. You must consider the consequences of your actions.

But, if this isn’t enough reason to focus on your career goals before you go, consider this: opting to play as opposed to looking for a job sends a clear message to employers regarding your professional priorities. Here’s a true story, I was speaking to a manager of a successful consulting practice in March of last year who was looking for an intern. She had just interviewed a young woman who had graduated the previous May and had opted to grab a job as a bartender because in her own words, “I didn’t know what I wanted to do and wasn’t ready for a real job.” The young woman had impressed the manager with her energy and appearance but was concerned with the young woman’s inability to convey clearly how and why she now was ready to commit to a full-time, professional position. The client opted not to hire this graduate and said to me, “I think I’d rather wait two more months and get an intern from the upcoming graduating class. That way, I’ll know the person I hire has a sense of urgency to work and be successful.”

Actions speak louder than words, so choose wisely what you do after graduation. The best way to enjoy taking time off after college is to make sure your professional game plan is in order BEFORE you go. And when you return and start looking for a job, don’t forget to incorporate what you’ve learned about yourself while on your post-college adventure and how you plan to use that knowledge in your career.

TIP #4: More degrees don’t mean more money! If you aren’t sure what to do next, the LAST thing you should do is stay in school.

Several years ago, I was in a meeting with a group of college seniors. I went around the room and asked each attendee what they were thinking of doing after graduation. As I arrived at a young man who appeared confident to the point of cocky, his response was, “I’m planning to go to law school, get my MBA, or get a Masters in Education.” Given that it was April and graduation season was a month away, I was very surprised. So I asked him, “Why law school?” His response was a flustered ‘um, um’ followed by a defensively toned, ‘Because I think I might like it.” Needless to say, six months later, he was seeking career coaching. He had graduated, had no idea of what he really wanted to do, nor how to find the answer. I think many college grads are like this young man. They believe that education is a safe bet. His multi-faceted answer months earlier had been his way to make sure everyone was impressed, while he secretly was confused about what to do next. I’m just glad he didn’t force himself to go to school to save face! Going back to school without determining a financially sound reason to go is a risky investment. Advance degrees only provide career advancement when they offer the opportunity to build a specific skill set for a particular job/career. Don’t go back to school unless you are 100% certain you’ll use what you learn to get ahead. Better still, work for a company who will pay for it. Don’t believe me? Then consider these facts: some studies suggest as many as ½ of the people who get advanced degrees never see the financial return on their educational investment, while another study shows roughly 40% of all advance degree recipients end up taking jobs that they could have gotten without their additional degree.

TIP #5: Don’t succumb to Cinderella Syndrome. The sooner you break your addiction to acceptance, praise, grades, rewards and other bribes, the sooner you’ll find personally satisfying work that is professionally rewarding.

Many Americans, especially young ones, are victims of Cinderella Syndrome. The idea that one day, a surprising event will come along and fix their situation. For example, those that are severely in debt dream of winning the lottery, getting an inheritance, or even marrying a rich person. Others who dream of professional success imagine the ‘perfect’ opportunity will eventually fall in their path and be theirs for the taking. The number of people between the ages of 14 and 28 who believe they will eventually be famous and successful is staggering. And why shouldn’t they? Reality TV and a sensorial assault of marketing imagery tell them that they can have it all and that they are destined for greatness.

Yet, here’s the real problem: Generation NEXT has been raised on the use of external incentives as a way to get them to do things. Focused on a prize for everything you do, many Gen NEXTers are now addicted to rewards that include praise and acceptance from others. But we both know, an incentive is a nice word for ‘bribe.’ And when humans are forced to meet the expectations of others using bribes, they retaliate by putting in the least amount of effort to achieve the goal. Don’t believe me? Then check out Alfie Kohn’s book, “Punished by Rewards: The Problems with Gold Stars, A’s, Praise and Other Bribes,” and you will quickly understand why so little effort is put into identifying a career path while in school today. The average college student’s only goal is to get the piece of paper required to keep others satisfied. In fact, students are encouraged to keep their options open and to address their career interests after graduation. Unfortunately, this is having dismal results. Some say today’s college grad will have as many as 10 jobs in the first ten years of their life – you are becoming perpetual job seekers who don’t receive the benefits of mentoring or professional development due to job hopping. And, as a career coach who’s college grad clientele has tripled in the last year alone, I can tell your confidence will be weakened as bounce around, desperately trying to find career satisfaction, but feeling like a personal failure instead. Yet worst of all, your income potential suffers too. Being a specialist is what gives you greater earning potential. The better you are at a particular skill set, the more sought after you’ll be. However, years of career exploration without any calculated thoughts towards developing critical skill sets that can eventually be leveraged as professionals strengths results in the ‘jack of all trades, master of none’ persona. History is starting to repeat itself, the very generation that wants to stop career crisis and find work-balance is ending up confused and lacking the experience necessary to take control. On-set Career Crisis (the same anger, depression and anxiety felt by Mid-career Crisis individuals but at the first stage of the career path) is rising amongst Generation NEXT.

So, why don’t more college students just pick a career and get going? Well, given the number of career choices today and the lack of guidance given to help them leverage their strengths and narrow down their interests, Generation NEXT is finding themselves ill-equipped to identify and embark on a satisfying career. Imagine being brought into a supermarket and told, “Stand here and without reading the labels, pick one food. But pick wisely, because you are going to have to eat it every day for the next three years,” and now you will get a sense of what it’s like to be a college grad looking for their first job today. And let’s not forget that reality TV and being submersed in the On-demand, Instant Gratification Era has your generation feeling the greatest amount of pressure to succeed at a young age in history. It’s no wonder why, no matter how you spell it, ‘career’ is a four-letter word to Gen NEXT.

So, what’s the solution? Go out and find what you are looking for, then build the plan to make it happen for yourself. I guarantee you’ll get their faster (and have more fun doing it) then your peers who choose to wait for Prince Charming. Generation NEXT can begin by leveraging their experiences as professional students. It’s time to approach your career like you would a term paper. Seek out resources and do your homework. Set up informational interviews and talk to people whom you respect professionally. Get the facts so you can focus on a two-year professional development plan that involves enhancing a skill set in a particular industry that excites you. You are not making a life-or-death decision or a long-term commitment, but you do need to identify a smart, short-term professional goal and go after it. A career path is full of twists and turns, but opting to hit the road without at least some destination in mind can get you lost, not to mention, waste valuable time and resources.

TIP #6: Got a Career Story? If not, then plan on a longer, more stressful job search.

Want to impress hiring managers? Then you MUST be able to articulate your professional strengths and short-term career goals in 30 seconds or less. This is called a ‘Career Story’ and the more compelling it is, the better the odds you’ll get hired. Like it or not, you are ‘selling’ your services when you look for a job. So you need to reflect on your situation, assess yourself, and then put together a brief summary of what kind of employee you are and what you want to accomplish professionally in the near future. The key to a great Career Story is simple: be honest, be authentic, but most of all, be worth hiring! I have my clients write out their Career Story and share it with several professionals they respect. They then take the feedback and incorporate it in so they can rehearse the story and commit it to memory. I’m not suggesting it be rattled off like a line from a play, but rather, learned to the point that it is easy to articulate and converse about. A strong Career Story speaks volumes about your knowledge of yourself and your desire to be professionally successful. Hiring managers hire people who know how they’ll add value to their organization from day one. Share with them how you’ll be a valued asset and the job will be yours.

TIP #7: Spray-and-pray job searches are for people who are willing to settle for what’s available. Get active, create a network, and you’ll get access to the hot jobs nobody else knows about.

The average job seeker has to send out over 100 resumes to get even one response. The automation of the job search process has inundated hiring managers with so much paper, they are forced to be aggressive in their ‘weeding out’ methods. A simple typo or an odd formatting of your resume can land you in the ‘no’ pile in a second. Frustrating, but true. And, if your resume does make it into the ‘for consideration’ pile, know this: Managers hire personalities, yet, an applicant’s personality is severely diminished, and often misinterpreted when limited to conveying it via a single piece of paper. FACT: 93% of communication is non-verbal. That means, your resume, by itself, has a limited capacity to present you effectively. If you want to find a great job, you need to connect ‘live’ with people who can assess your potential and direct you towards the right opportunities.

How can you make this happen? Set up informational interviews with people at companies and in positions that interest you. You are not asking for a job, but rather gathering data on how to land a job like theirs. This is the single best way to build your first professional network. Some stats say as many as 80% of jobs are filled via referral. Who’s going to refer you? If you are shy or feel like you would be imposing on these people, let me change your perspective: What person doesn’t want to take a few minutes out of their day to discuss how they became successful? Moreover, seasoned professionals know the value of making connections. Who knows? Referring you to a job may help them in their own career some day. So, get your Career Story in great shape and start sharing it with the world. Get busy setting up opportunities to meet with people who can share their expertise and knowledge with you too. And soon, you’ll master the right way to get the inside track on those jobs that never get posted, a.k.a. the good ones!

TIP #8: A great mentor is worth a lot more than a good job. The excitement for any new job wears off over time, but the relationship with the right manager can keep you engaged, challenged, and on the fast-track to success. When looking for a job, consider the manager. Can you see yourself learning a lot from her/him? What’s their Career Story? How did they get in their position and what could you gain by being under their tutelage? Most importantly, can you see yourself being comfortable enough to take critical feedback from them and to share your professional concerns with them? Here’s another reason to choose a job based on the manager. People often refer to ‘office politics’ in the workplace. They are everywhere. It’s only natural for an environment of various personalities to have conflicts and differences of opinion. So, office politics will always exist. A large part of success on-the-job boils down to who you know and how you work with these politics. Finding a manager you respect and are willing to take guidance from will help you navigate these politics and rise up in an organization.

TIP #9: Want to quantum leap your career? Then learn to deal with the three C’s …now!

Your generation has been protected and encouraged with positive reinforcement throughout your entire lives by well-intentioned parents who wanted to minimize your exposure to pain, failure, disagreements, and other negative experiences. The “everyone gets a trophy” and “you’re all special” mantras you listened to were meant to build confidence, but this parenting approach had the drawback of not letting you ‘skin your knees’ and build your ability to cope with the emotional impact of the three C’s: Conflict, Criticism and Causing Disappointment. Here’s what you need to know from this point forward: to succeed in your career, and more importantly, in life, you will HAVE TO A) work through intensely conflicted situations, B) receive and internalize criticism, and C) accept that you will cause disappointment, because you just can’t please everyone, all the time.

How do you prepare yourself to deal with these successfully. Begin by focusing in on who you are and how you want others to perceive you. Define your personal and professional goals on your own terms, not someone else’s, and then go after what YOU want, know the reward for addressing the C’s that encounter along the way will only serve to make you stronger. It’s time to develop your critical skills in these areas. Ask any successful professional how they got where they are today and they’ll confirm that building up your resiliency against the 3C’s is the key.

TIP #10: Embrace the equation used by the most professionally satisfied people in the world.

I’ve worked with hundreds of people who were professionally successful, but personally miserable. In fact, I was once one myself. So, I ask anyone who knows someone like this to consider the following: “Can you really call it career ‘success’ if it costs you a happy life?” I realized quickly that there is something flawed in our current professional logic. So I researched the situation and learned that no other culture in the world puts as much emphasis on career as the defining element of their personal worth than America. We base many major life decisions on our ability to answer the question, “What do you do?” For better or worse, we are a society that sizes individuals up and determines how much respect we will bestow on a person, based on what they do for work. Yet, I challenge you to ask yourself the next time you meet someone who appears professionally successful, “But, are they successful in life?”

So, how do you find career satisfaction AND a successful life? You embrace and pursue your career using the following equation as the foundation of what you do: EXPERIENCE = LEARN = GROW. Satisfaction comes through growth. Growth occurs when we learn. Learning comes from experiences. Find things that let you get ‘lost in the moment’ of the experience, and you will find work that doesn’t feel like work. People who love what they do will tell you they wake up every day and look forward to ‘experiencing’ what their career has to offer them. Proactively seek out opportunities to learn on-the-job and you’ll grow to new levels of success and satisfaction. Be grateful for the opportunity to work, get creative in your ways to engage in it, and most of all, get excited about your capacity to expand your knowledge through experience, and a career that satisfies will be yours.

Want to learn how to improve the chances an employer will call you for an interview? (Silly question, isn’t it?)

CLICK HERE to listen to a short, info-packed audio segment where J.T. explains how to improve your chances of getting noticed, and more importantly, getting an interview. Hear how an outdated approach to job search used by job seekers results in failure.

Click this to Listen Why Spraying & Praying While Being Uninteresting = No Interviews for YOU!

If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.

I’m not sure who came up with it, but the first time I heard it, something clicked in my head. The idea that we can change a situation by changing our behavior made me realize how much power I have over how my life. The takeaway: it’s up to us to get the results we want. And this realization actually ties to the next one:

Everything in life is a choice.

This was first said to me by my seventh grade music teacher. I honestly don’t remember how we got on the subject, but the conversation was intense. A room full of students all shouted out examples of situations where we didn’t feel we had a choice, ie. do our homework or get in trouble, etc. She pointed out that it was still our choice, it was just that we didn’t like the consequences if we chose not to do the homework. We didn’t do a note of singing that day, but that teacher’s quote sang to me.

Speaking of teachers, here’s a quote I actually created as a teacher myself. I do a lot of work helping college students and young professionals make the transition into the workforce. I open my career strategy course with this:

You are not special, but you are unique. Career success comes to those who brand their uniqueness into something special.

I have great compassion for younger workers. They’ve been told that a college education is their ticket to career success. Sadly, they enter the workforce and find out that they haven’t been properly prepared. School doesn’t teach you how to be a professional. The result is a young person with their confidence rocked to the core, and a case of on-set career crisis. The solution is to help them connect-the-dots and gain back a sense of control over their future. That quote explains how.

And finally, there’s my personal favorite, which comes from my dear old dad, who told me early in life:

How far you go in your career will depend on how much !@#$ you are willing to put up with.

This is so true! You can look at work as a personal sacrifice or an endless opportunity to experience, learn and grow. When you do the latter, success seems to materialize. It’s the attitude that makes the difference in the outcome.

Now please know, there are also quotes I can’t stand. Here’s one that drives me nuts:

You can be anything you want to be.

I get the point of this quote, but people often fail to think of the ramifications of telling people today they can be anything. How do you choose from anything? What happens if you make a wrong choice? It’s like being told to pick a flavor of ice cream in ten seconds from a list of a thousand – what is supposed to be a treat turns out to be stressful. The idea of determining what you want to be when you grow up is outdated. Americans have as many as 9 careers in their lifetimes with an average of 3 jobs in each one. So, putting all your stock in the idea that you are only going to be one thing is misguided. I think the phrase should be reworked to something like this:

You can be anything you’re willing to put the mental and physical effort into becoming.

How’s that? Better?

Okay, so I’m asking you Careerealism.com readers, what quotes to you love or hate? Post them here and share why. Feel free to rework them like I did, if necessary. What quotes rock your world? What quotes make you want to hurl objects at walls?

Unfortunately, after we talked about it, we recognized two problems with this contest:

1) This site is about promoting a proactive, realistic focus on one’s professional development so readers can learn how to pursue satisfying and successful careers. If we gave you money for your daydream, we’d be supporting career escapism, which my post actually encourages people not to do.

2) There’s all sorts of legal, mumbo-jumbo to consider (you know, all those fine-print epic novels at the bottom of contest rules, etc.) when you give away cash prizes.

Thus, here’s what we decided we CAN do. If we pick your career escapism daydream to be the best, you’ll get unlimited career strategy sessions with me – up until you’ve secured a new, better job. Okay, so it’s not as exciting as winning the actual $1,000 and living out your career escapism daydream, but if I helped you find a new job that paid at least a grand more/year, it’s sort of the same thing, isn’t it? Think about it: besides getting recognized for having a truly grand imagination, you’ll win private coaching until you’ve landed a new position that will no longer require you to want to indulge in career escapism…well, at least for a few years Why? Let’s be realistic – as our slogan says, “Because EVERY Job is Temporary.”

Now, don’t be lazy people, because all you have to do is spend a few minutes on-line, typing up your daydream below. Just make sure it is in good taste and can be shared here for others to ponder (I’ll have to remove any post that is offensive). Again, we’re talking about you having your very own career strategist at your disposal, supporting your job search efforts every step of the way – and let me stress it again, for FREE. FYI – If you are worried about using your real name (i.e. don’t want the boss to know), use a fake one where it asks for your name. Just be sure to put in a valid e-mail address because it won’t show to the rest of the world, but will show to me so I can contact you if you win.

Now…get posting. You’ve got nothing to lose, and the chance to have someone work with you one-on-one to find a great new job to win. And don’t be selfish, be sure to tell your friends to come visit/subscribe to Careerealism.com and post too!

Okay, she didn’t specifically list it as one of her seventeen predictions, but when I put together three of her trend forecasts, I felt capable of anticipating escapism’s arrival. Here’s what Edelkoort said to convince me:

“Mushrooms will be ubiquitous. It’s definitely a time for magic and disproportion. We desperately need relief from too much reality.”

“Eccentricity will be cultivated. There will be a global quest for the unique, decadent, and decorative.”

“Reality: over. We will crave fiction, fantasy.”

Wow. My first thought was, “Ouch, I picked the wrong name for this blog!” But then, I put on my research hat to see what this might mean for our careers. Here’s what I’ve come up with…

Escapism became famous in the 1930’s thanks to the depression (hello history repeating) and is almost universally considered a bad thing because it seems to lead to addiction. Wikipedia’s definition of escapism is as follows:

A mental diversion by means of entertainment or recreation, as an “escape” from the perceived unpleasant aspects of daily stress. It can also be used as a term to define the actions people take to try to help relieve feelings of depression or general sadness.

The definition even goes on to attribute escapism with the creation of a whole host of industries including, fiction literature, music, sports, films, television, role-playing games, pornography, religion, recreational drugs, the internet and computer games. Yep, escapism is alive and well in America, just look at this article by the satirical genius over at The Onion, or the fact that Dancing With the Stars got the highest ratings last week with a whopping 21M+ viewers. (FYI – I was one of them.) It’s a fact: escapism is on the rise.

I guess the good news (and potentially a strategic bit career advice) is that jobs in escapism industries will be in good shape. So, if you are looking for a career with growth potential, I suggest targeting one of the fields above.

But that said, here’s where I get worried about the professional downside to an upswing in the embracement of escapism. You see, escapism can lead to disengagement on-the-job. Taken to the extreme, we could become a culture that just stops caring about our careers. Heck, you might be reading this and saying, “I’m there already J.T.” While I do feel we take our careers too seriously in America (In my observation, we wrongly use our careers as the main way to define ourselves and determine self-worth.), I also don’t feel the answer is to swing completely in the other direction and become anti-career. Yet, the signs show we are headed that way.

First, just look at the increased number of TV and movie plots with an office setting that use humor to show the absurdities of the workplace. Then there’s the hardcore statistics that show as many as 70% of Americans feel they are in jobs that aren’t right for them. And thanks to our tanking economy, more and more seasoned professionals are waking up every day with depleted retirement funds and the need to add years to their working lives. Finally, let’s not leave out the millions of recent college grads with enormous school loans and a job market reminiscent of 1990’s. (I graduated that year – it wasn’t fun.) Scary gang, but it looks like escapism is inevitable, and that careers may suffer from a drone-like approach to them.

As someone who spends all of her working hours trying to help people feel better about their careers, I say to all of you, “Don’t step into the light!” I’m not suggesting that diversions are universally a bad thing and that you should remain miserable. All I’m saying is to keep your head in the game. Look at these down times as an opportunity to grow your skills. While others are drowning their sorrows with excessive escapism, you’ll be strengthening your professional credibility. It’s all about balance. Like the old saying goes, too much of anything isn’t good.

In the meantime, the team over here at Careerealism.com has been told to start brainstorming about how we can become a career escapist’s ideal diversion. So, be sure to sign up to receive our blog by e-mail (click here to do that now) so we can let you know what we are up to.

In the Current Economy, Your Answer Will Determine the Quality, Quantity & Quickness of Job Offers You Receive

I knew of two employees – Mark and Sarah. They both did the same kind of work, had the same level of education and the same amount of experience. One day, an unexpected shift in the economy forced their employer to lay them off. Both Mark and Sarah found themselves looking for jobs. It took Mark a year to find a new job. By the time he was finally offered a position, it was for less money and doing something he wasn’t very excited about. Sarah was a different story. She had three job offers within two months. She ended up with a pay increase and a promotion. How could two people with such similar backgrounds have such different job search experiences? Let’s find out…

Mark spent his career looking out for himself. He was pleasant and professional, but he wasn’t keen on connecting with those he met in order to build a solid network of workplace contacts and resources. He didn’t go out of his way to help co-workers or see any value in building professional friendships. He simply rolled along and did only what was necessary to keep his career on track by his standards. Mark was a marble.

Marbles are people that as they progress through their careers, don’t take the time to connect with others and build meaningful professional relationships. While they maintain a shiny professional persona, they fail to gather any weight in the form of contacts and resources that can help them in the future. Marbles tend to be self-centered and approach all career decisions with the question, “What’s in it for me?”

Sarah had taken a different view. She was also pleasant and professional, but she chose to reach out and build friendships with those she met along the way. She made the effort and invested her time in building a network, helping others with their careers and doing her best to be a valued and respected colleague. She quietly absorbed as many connections as she could. Most were not of any immediate benefit to her career, and might not ever be. Sarah was a sponge.

Sponges are people who make it a point to connect and build relationships with managers, co-workers and clients. They see value in building a strong professional network by getting to know people on a deeper level. By acquiring and maintaining workplace connections, they build professional weight that they can leverage in the future.

As professionals, we all have the choice to be a marble or a sponge. Everyday, with each new person we meet, we are given the opportunity to connect. Research shows that the more connected you are in the workplace, the easier it is to find work. Don’t believe me? Well, in spite of all our technological advances, studies show that more than 80% of all jobs today are still landed by referral. In other words, the six degrees of separation theory holds true when it comes to job search. So, who knows? The few extra moments you spend connecting with someone could lead to your next job opportunity. And, since it can’t be anticipated which of these moments will pay off in the future, each time you decide you are too busy, or don’t want to bother with connecting, you may just have cost yourself a future opportunity.

Now, for those of you who are saying, “I’m not good at networking. I don’t have the personality for it,” I say, quit with the excuses and find a way to connect on your own terms. This on-line test can help you understand different Interaction Styles in the workplace and how you can connect with them.

I recently worked with a very shy person who was often mistaken as rude and mean because of the serious look he had on his face and his unwillingness to interact with people he didn’t know well. He came to me because he could sense his inability to connect was hurting his career. He was right! What surprised him most is that he assumed I would recommend he change significantly. Instead, I simply showed him a few simple ‘tweaks’ to his approach that he could practice, such as smiling more and asking some simple, yet powerful questions to engage people in conversation. It worked and he soon became quite skilled at building connections without having to change his personality.

In summary, if you aren’t making the effort to connect, you could be hurting your career. And, if you feel like your connecting skills aren’t up to par, get some help. The next time you are in the job hunt, you’ll be glad you did.

J.T. O’Donnell is a career strategist and workplace consultant. She has 18+ years experience and currently co-authors the largest syndicated advice column in the country. Her private coaching services and her new book CAREEREALISM, can be found at www.jtodonnell.com.

When it comes to your career, could you be diagnosed as having an entitlement crown on? Perhaps, you don’t even know you’ve been stricken with this very real disease. How is that possible? Well, studies show 70% of Americans today are dissatisfied with their careers, yet only a handful of those will see their career’s health improve. Watch this video to learn about Cinderella Syndrome, and more importantly, what you can do to ensure you’re one of the few whose professional aspirations actually come true.

Fast forward four years later…

The first roommate has had a great time at school, but in the back of his mind has also had this nagging feeling that things aren’t going to be great for much longer. He’s talked to some of his older friends who are in their first jobs out of college and has concluded that ‘work’ is an ugly 4-letter word. He’s not that motivated to get his resume together because he doesn’t know what to put on it. And, after only one visit to the career center, is feeling some panic about the fact that he really doesn’t know what he wants to do after graduation. The fact that he’s just spent more than 60K on an education is weighing on him as well. He spends second semester senior year in a mad rush to trying to learn what it takes to get a job that will impress everyone, but is feeling less confident by the day as he realizes his professional skills are lacking compared to many of his peers.

The second roommate has a different story. He’s had a great time in college too, but, he also managed to read the career blog advice weekly and gained some valuable insight and perspective on how to take control of his professional future while still in school. It helped him choose what courses to take, and eventually, what to major in. It also inspired him to look for an internship after freshman year and he proceeded to work in internships throughout his time in college. He learned how to craft a good resume and how to network so he could set up some informational interviews that netted him some valuable professional contacts. By second semester senior year, he’s been offered a job with one of the companies he interned at with a salary that is 20% higher than the national average for college grads. Not to mention, he feels confident in his ability to develop his career after college.

So…which roommate would you rather be?

I wrote a post last spring when I learned that blogs were considered unworthy of reading amongst the college set. I was shocked. College students are a tech savvy group who understand the power of communication tools. As a result of this discovery, we even discussed the pros and cons of not calling this site a blog. However, we opted to keep the term blog. Here’s why:

Corporate America is very frustrated with lack of professional knowledge college grads have upon entering their workplace – and they aren’t being shy about letting everyone know how disappointed they are with today’s young professionals. At the same time, grads are feeling as if buckets of cold water are being thrown at them by Corporate America. For them, the transition from professional student to professional is a much bigger and harder process than they expected. How can this situation be reconciled? Blogs.

The power of blogs is enormous when it comes to getting better educated on a subject. Your perspective and knowledge of a situation can be enhanced in as little as 15 minutes a day by reading blogs. Especially, if you choose blogs that are both well-written and designed for easy navigation. So, if you are a college student or recent grad who wants to gain a competitive edge in the world of work, here are three examples of blogs (I’m hoping you’ve already decided to subscribe to www.careerealism.com in the upper right-side of this site as a result of this post) that can help:

The Work Buzz – Careerbuilder.com’s newly renovated workplace blog is easy-to-read and the perfect way to get acquainted with blogging. The content is fresh and the site navigation is simple. Kudos to their team for one of the cleanest formats I’ve seen.

Brazen Careerist – Showcases a huge crew (200+) of 20-something bloggers, making it one of the most comprehensive on the web.

Career Journal – The Wall St. Journal’s career blog is a good read simply because their newspaper is standard reading material for most executives. The advice is always solid and takes into consideration management’s viewpoints – a great way for you to learn how to start managing up.

Now, here’s my disclaimer: too much of a good thing is not healthy. The key is to not go crazy with blog reading. Yes, you could subscribe to 50 blogs, but you’d end up tired, bleary-eyed and overwhelmed. Instead, I suggest you find no more than five that you find interesting and credible. Then, carve out time every week to read them, and identify an action or two you plan to take as a result of what you learned. If over time you find one of them isn’t providing as much value to your development, drop it and find a new one. This concept of learning in small doses has a great success rate. Besides, not only is this manageable, it’s free – so no excuses! If you want to make sure that your college degree is worth the time and money spent on getting it, start investing in your professional development via blog reading.

J.T. O’Donnell is a career strategy and workplace consultant. She can be found at www.jtodonnell.com.

If you’re looking to move on to job #2, then this week’s video S.H.O.T. (short, helpful & on-target) of CAREEREALISM offers some insight on what you should do. Here it is…