Answers to Unemployment Number 1:

Make a considered career decision first - the job you truly love is far easier to land than the one you don't!

Job Feed My Soul

For many, many years I was despondent at the complete and utter lack of meaning in my career. And I mean despondent. The expectations of others seem to cloud my judgement. In retrospect, I recognise that I was tetchy, arrogant, unfulfilled and in a constant state of unrest.

As my own story goes I lost my dream job at the age of 32 and slammed into the buffers. I became a resident of ‘Skid Row’ and found myself in an utter and complete tailspin. There were one or two occasions where I questioned whether I could even go on. Life was bleak and the day-to-day outlook did not seem to be improving. I was in a rented bedsit, on the dole, on the breadline, living on baked beans and struggling to cope with being what I regarded at the time as ‘down-and-out’. How damaging we can be to ourselves.


In the depths of my despair someone I had previously regarded as a friend for life, a person I held in hugely positive regard, asked me what felt like being a failure. I thought I’d hit rock-bottom, but I soon found out I was wrong. This kick in the teeth knocked me even further down. I saw my ‘friend’ through a different lens. That was December 1994. I remember it well because I lost my job, reputation and roof-over-my-head on 4th December.


I’ve written about it at length elsewhere, but in the interim period I received my first bona fide career guidance interview with an inspirational Adult Career Adviser called Mike, and I owe him a huge debt of gratitude to this day. His guidance compared to that of an alchemist as he took me from the depths of despair and skilfully guided me towards my renaissance.


By the end of the first week in January 1995 my life started to show green shoots like the snowdrops hale the end of dark winter months. That metaphor still works for me all these years later as I watch for the early Spring. The same way my heart skips a beat when I see the first swallow arrive on my horizon. It is these uplifts that feed our soul. Somewhat ironically, I had been accepted onto a postgraduate diploma in Career Guidance and started the rebuild process and germination of the person I knew, deep down, I had the potential to be.


As my friends who knew me before my transformation will tell you, finding my ‘calling’ changed me deeply. And I emphasise that I use the word ‘calling’ in a completely non-Lutheran sense. (I’m no longer a conditioned Christian, as regard myself far more a Holist in my outlook.) What I mean when I say calling is that I tapped into the innate vocation that lives within each and every one of us. My life transformed because every faculty I possess, every life experience, every career attribute, is drawn-upon and channelled daily in my job and repays me the dividend of meaning and fulfilment.


Having done my year’s postgrad I went on to my Probationary Year as a Careers Adviser, relocating to Surrey and working in three mainstream secondary schools and one special needs school. I tapped into a new-found self belief as young people were mirroring my enthusiasm for my job in some form of virtuous circle that spread the dividend outward.


Gradually, the traction came back into my life. In truth, the traction probably entered my life for the first time! As now I had a vocation my identity and self esteem became more strongly anchored. I found where previously people might have regarded as arrogant and argumentative; I became increasingly comfortable in my own skin, peaceable and contented. No longer feeling hunted and forever in pursuit of fulfilling my potential in some far-flung fantasy. I had tapped into my innate strength and it was feeding me.


Nowadays, I see no greater pleasure in my life than guiding others towards tapping into their inner vocation and uncovering the career attributes that can feed their soul. You can see the ‘before and after’ in their eyes. I know what the experience felt like in my own life; like the dark in a cave and the beach on a summer’s day – total contrast! With and without.


I see the eyes of meaning-filled people sparkle with a perpetual intensity that is infectiously charismatic and nurturing; especially craftspeople building tangible products with their hands. These are especially wholesome jobs – the epitome of ‘Career Sustainability’ – career identities that will last for the long haul of a lifetime.


Whereas, people in dead-end, meaningless jobs, and those unfortunate people not to have any work in their lives, can seem soulless and empty; with tapping into the affirming powers of meaningful work instilling that all-important sense of purpose and virtue being the remedy to our quest for the meaning of life.


Working with what you’ve got within in you is invigorating on every level. It truly uplifts the soul and builds the life. The toughest part is placing one’s trust in others to help decode what your calling is because part of being human is that we’re not always very skilled in recognising what we’re best at. Our filters don’t work this way .


Only the weak and faithless perpetuate their lot by never seeking help. The process of reaching out and connecting builds stronger bonds in stronger communities; the more meaning in the community, the more peace everyone enjoys. Life goes on, sustainably.
Feed your soul and others’ today – tap into your career attributes – help others tap into theirs - purpose feeds all of us and lifts our souls.

Career Action Plan

If you're seriously into self preservation and avoiding unnecessary risk, then why haven't you invested time in your Career Action Plan lately? Not having one is akin to going on vacation without travel insurance, risky and potentially downright irresponsible.

Sit down and contemplate what your career attributes are: skills, strengths, vocational interests, experience, competencies, qualifications... how they piece together and how they dovetail into the World of Work. Plan your way ahead and instill purpose in your life. Develop your perfect interview script for your dream job. Don't give up until you have designed it.

Need encouragement? Why not do the sensible thing and hire a Career Development Professional. You service your car and pay a mechanic. Why not invest in servicing your career because introspection like this is one of the toughest tasks you will ever perform, but when the economy is spiralling downwards, having a preconsidered career strategy detailed in your Careers Action Plan is a key component in any contingency plan and perpetuating your income.

Don't think big companies spend millions a year on contingency plans if they're not important. Why not be prepared, sort your Career Action Plan out without any further delay.

How meaningful work always wins through

90% of the people I meet are in the wrong job. Outspoken words indeed. However, they are true. The reason? 90% of the people I meet don’t love themselves unconditionally.

So few people I meet are cool about who they are. It is a dreadfully sad state of affairs that somewhere along the line we brought Victorian attitudes with us into the 21st Century and we so often spurn a healthy self-image. In fact, if you think about it, our tabloid culture specialises in destroying anyone lucky enough to have a healthy self regard.

What does this mean? Because I understand this needs to be put simply. Let’s start with a sporting metaphor. Successful sports stars would achieve very little if they did not believe deep down inside that were good at what they do. And that they can win! Inner belief is essential. Yet in the workplace there seems to be some kind of expectation that everyone has to be conventional and spend their days conforming to accepted standards regurgitating mundane tasks.

Most companies specialise in hiring conventional people with mediocre skills to deliver unexceptional tasks. Yet business managers and HR managers talk about talent management; managing talented people so that they can perform highly and fulfil their potential and, as a result, help the organisation deliver upon its strategic objectives; thereby growing value.

As I state in ‘How CVs are killing the corporation’, the reality is that if we are outstanding, we are often outside of the building staring in. Instilling and cultivating meaning in our work is critical if we are to survive in an economic downturn. You will be found out if you don’t do your work with a sense of intention. I recommend that you appreciate what you are doing for work is recognisably valuable. If it is not in your work today, what have you got to do to find it?!

I often talk about the ‘Invisible Transaction of Work’; which has nothing to do with money. The ‘Invisible Transaction of Work’ means that we receive a payment for doing something we recognise as being fulfilling. We can see the results of our labour and it makes us feel good. Our work instils within us a sense of purpose and we learn to appreciate who we have become.

What are you going to do to instil meaning in your work life?

Making Modern Careers Sustainable

As of writing, I'm sure I don't need to remind anyone times are really tough if you are out of work right now. In fact, times are really tough for many people IN work right now. The world seems to have a gone a little bit crazy with the global economic crisis and so many firms struggling to make their numbers add up. How did we get so complacent that we allowed ourselves to get into such a mess? Probably because when times are great it is easy not to worry. Many of us have had about ten years of growth and good times. After such a long time we forget to make the usual self-preservation checks and before we know it....Caboooom....we've been made redundant and we have no means of servicing the debts we ran up during the good times.

In the 21st Century, a healthy world depends upon workers working and making our careers sustainable is all about doing the necessary detective work to discover the real meaning in our work. The hard part is tailoring this meaning to actual labour market demand. I watched a BBC programme the other day on how Brazil has switched its focus to bio-ethanol fuel sourced from sugar cane as they have little access to crude oil. The tough reality is that if you live in North East Brazil there are virtually no other options than cutting cane in the fields as this industry is just about the only employment in that region. Doing something else would mean leaving the community to explore other kinds of employment options; which if the worker has a family and strong sense of community., is a tough call. The economic reality can be harsh and history is filled with migrant workers being forced to move to earn a livelihood. So talking about 'fulfilling careers' can be a luxury some workers feel they cannot afford.

My heartfelt belief is that each one of us has a talent within. If we can discover this talent work ceases to be such a terrible chore. Even for those labouring hard in the fields in the hot sun, there will be some who find the work rewarding. They might not grow rich financially but they have the life they prefer. To make a career sustainable is about understanding the invisible transaction that only happens when we identify meaning in our work. Meaningful work will almost certainly involve making a contribution that benefits society around us. This fact is possibly the secret many only learn when it is too late. The banking systems have collapsed as a result of greed when a tiny minority gained disproportionate rewards from unsustainable transactions ignoring time-served wisdom. As long as nurses, care workers, teachers, fire crews and people serving their communities gain such lowly recognition compared to the obscene salaries of professional sportsmen, catwalk models, film stars and celebrities of questionable contribution to their fellow beings, then there will be imbalance and immorality in the economy.

Beware of working transactions driven by self gain alone with such little consideration given to how our work enriches the wider community. The reward of a sustainable career enjoyed over the long haul of a worker's life relies upon a holistic, interactive, vocational system of meaning, contribution and lasting value!! Or, in simple terms, workers channelling their innate talents to better the lives of those around them.