DISTANCE LEARNING | CONTINUING EDUCATION | ONLINE DEGREES

A new year brings new opportunity. People want to kick their bad habits. Some people want to change the world. The old man with the toga gets kicked out, replaced by the baby. You know, second chances and all that good stuff. If you find yourself in a career that has you dissatisfied, maybe because of low pay, lack of growth potential, or toxic environment, you may be thinking this is the year for a new career.

Depending on how far along you are in your career, jumping to a new career might be a big step for you. Switching careers might mean a significant pay cut. It might mean going back to school. It might mean moving to a new area. It might mean returning to square one, where you are the underling and you know nothing. What I’m trying to say is, moving to a new career is a big jump and should be decided on only after thorough research and soul-searching.

How do you know if you should start a new career? Dozens of questions could follow to answer this question. To start off, consider the following three questions:

1. What do I want? Too few people ask themselves what job they want to do, what they could do everyday and feel satisfied and engaged, or what their life’s passion is. The lucky ones are passionate about the big ticket jobs, like i-banking, entrepreneurship, or the law. Too many of us are truly passionate about things that are not considered secure or profitable.

Don’t get me wrong. Money is very important. But it isn’t the only consideration. I’ve harped on this before but only because it is regrettably true. Too many people pursue careers they have no passion for because of concerns over money. They mistakenly believe that the joy of being financially secure will replace the boredom and resulting mediocrity of being in a career that puts you to sleep.

A mentor of mine, a very rich one at that, once admonished me to work in whatever field I am passionate about. His words were, "Passion breeds excellence. If you do what you love, you will move up, be noticed, and make a contribution to the world. If you don’t do what you love, you will always be mediocre and second-rate." Consider that advice. "Pragmatism" tells us to take whatever we can get, give up what we love for security. It tells us passion won’t put food on the table or a roof overhead. But this so-called "pragmatic" viewpoint, a relic of the industrial age, includes one sadly false presumption: that one cannot follow one’s passion and make enough money to pay the bills. We live in the information age. Never has anyone been so able to take whatever their passion is and turn it into a very good living. The choice now is not passion versus security; it is passion versus mediocrity.

If you really want to move beyond just surviving from one unfulfilling job to the next and you really want to shine, consider this question first and consider it carefully. Remember: passion breeds excellence.

2. What do I need? Speaking of pragmatism, bills need to be paid, food does need to be provided, and shelter and health is preferrable. So, after zeroing in on what you are passionate about, it’s time to ask yourself what basic needs you need to have covered. This may mean determining how much you need to make at a minimum. It may also mean determining family obligations. Ask yourself what you can survive on and what you can really do.

By way of caution, be careful not to pad your projected budget with too many luxury items. For example, you may be budgeting several hundred dollars for a new Coach handbag. You may be used to taking Tahitian vacations every month to restore your tan. As long as you consider these items a necessity, you will find yourself tied down. Be willing to give these up (at least temporarily), and you may find you have more flexibility than you think. That career in ice sculpting may be closer than you think.

Of course, you may find that your needs eclipse what you can make in your dream job. If, for example, you’ve always loved collecting and arranging acorn tops into geometric patterns, but you’ve got a wife and seven kids to provide for, following your passion full-time might not be a responsible course of action. That does not mean, however, that you can’t begin working on your acorns on a part-time basis. A lot of people who have gotten into doing jobs they love have accomplished this by building it gradually on the side until it is big enough to sustain their lifestyle.

Be realistic about your needs and look for opportunities to work toward your passion.

3. When is the best time? Timing is everything. Deciding what you love to do does not necessarily make this the perfect time to make the jump. You need to take a variety of factors into consideration. Do you have the right educational basis or do you need to go back for some training? Do you have a solid financial position to work from? Do you have the personal contacts and relationships you need to make it work? Do you need an extra year or so to get ready? Is there an opportunity currently available that will disappear if you wait too long?

Carefully plot out your timetable, decide where your window of opportunity will be, and go for it.

Here’s wishing you the best in your career progress in 2008. If you make it big as the prime provider of acorn decor, Classes and Careers does accept donations and don’t say I never gave you anything.

"Quit." The word is usually synonymous with giving up, surrendering, or rolling over. In the workplace, however, quitting a job is a pivotal moment in your career progression. It can be done poorly (telling the boss, "You can’t fire me. I QUIT!!!" and then storming out, sobbing like a child) and haunt your track record for the rest of your career. Or it can be done strategically and keep your resume strong and unblemished.

Now that I’ve covered some of the signs that quitting is a good option, I want to share some successful quitting strategies to help those dissatisified employees out there to move smoothly from unpleasant occupations to job bliss:

1. Prepare other options. When you are in a difficult job, everything in you just wants to get out of the situation. The moment you realize the job is a bad thing for you, you really just want to grab your things, collect your last paycheck, and run. But to what would you run? A Caribbean vacation? A month-long marathon of all the Days of Our Lives seasons you’ve missed while working? Then what? Sooner or later your last paycheck would run out, and, frankly, soap operas get pretty repetitive. You need another job to jump into after quitting.

So, if you’re planning on saying sayonara to the workplace, start developing options months in advance. Start sending out resumes, networking, and attending job fairs. This may mean polishing up your interviewing skills or your resume.If you time this right, you will be able to step seamlessly from one job to the other without any interruption in cash flow. Some people like to take a short sabbatical in between jobs to get refreshed and rested and go into their next position with guns blazing. If your pocketbook can bear it, I recommend this.

Also,- and this may seem elementary- be honest with yourself in picking your next career move. If you really hated all of the lawyers you dealt with in your last position, think twice about taking that legal secretary position. If accounting work put you into a coma at your last job, be careful about taking any more accounting jobs. In short, do not move from one mistake to another. Do your very best to find a job that will engage your interest and allow you to grow. This will keep you from finding yourself in the same situation a year from now.

2. Patch up old bridges. You may hate your boss. You may firmly believe that they wronged you and you have every right to complain. However, one day, you will apply for bigger and better positions. Hiring managers will want to know about how you really performed at ABC Corporation. They will want to contact that boss you didn’t get along with. And you will want that boss to give you a positive recommendation. Thus, no matter how much you would really like to just rearrange your boss’ dental work, it is in your best interest to repair bridges with them instead of burning them.

All this requires is a mature, professional conversation in which differences are addressed and some level of understanding is reached. This may be difficult for some. Talking with your boss, your arch-nemesis, may seem less pleasurable to you than drinking raw sewage. But you’ve got to take a larger view, be the better person, and initiate the conversation. Otherwise, this person’s unfair opinion of you will continue to haunt your career. Don’t let them have any more power over you. Talk it out and repair those bridges.

3. Finish strong. Once you know the end is near and you really have no allegiance left toward your company, you can just coast, fool around, and make mischief, right? Wrong. The point made in number 2 is also true here. These people will one day tell others what kind of employee you were. Make sure they can give you a favorable report card.

As you are preparing for your departure, be extra helpful. Help managers train your replacement. Speak positively to them of your experience with the company. Get all of your work done. Volunteer to help others. Don’t be caught with idle hands. Make your manager wish they had treated you better by showing what a great asset you are. Keep up your hard work until 5 o’clock on your very last day. At the very least, you will leave knowing that you upheld your part of the bargain. You also leave the opportunity open for your boss to think and speak well of you.

Have you felt trapped at work? Unappreciated? Underused? Can you not stand the smell of your boss’ cheap Old Spice another day? Then join the thousands of U.S. workers that will tell their bosses adios this holiday season and move on to greener pastures.

It turns out that December and January are the ideal time to quit because of two words: holiday bonus. Employees have been holding their tongues all summer long, holding out for that precious extra cash. And managers have been dangling it in front of their faces like the carrot before the horse. Once December rolls around and you get that check in your hand, it is the perfect time to hand in your two weeks notice.

In all fairness, of course, every job has its rough times. Every employee has something about their job that they dislike. Unfortunately, many hasty individuals have made the mistake of overreacting to the unpleasantries of their job and jumping ship early, only to find themselves drowning in a sea of unemployment and no-money-ness and wishing they had never left. Also, hasty ship-jumping can leave a nasty black mark on your resume. The lesson: quit strategically and only after careful analysis of the consequences.

To assist the dissatisfied in this analyses, I present the following three sure-fire signs it is time to move on:

1. You dread going to work every morning. Normal employees have the odd morning where they do not want to go into work. It’s natural. That’s why we have paid leave. But, if the thought of going to the workplace makes you sick to your stomach every morning, your job may not be the best fit for you.

Generally, you should find some satisfaction in your chosen profession. It’s good for you, for your mental, emotional, and physical health. It’s good for your family and friends who have to be around you after work. Conversely, dissatisfying jobs rob you of peace of mind. They make you irritable, withdrawn, and just plain unhappy. And there is no shame in admitting that you hate your job and need to find one you like. Ultimately, it’s best for you, your loved ones, and your employer.

2. You haven’t been promoted or had a raise in a long time. Promotions and raises are signs of progress, a sign that you are a contributing member of the company. The lack thereof indicates, at least from the boss’ perspective, that an employee has stalled in their progress or outlived their usefulness.

The wise employee will discuss this concern with their manager. It may simply be a matter of raising one’s voice to get their attention. Often, managers innocently fail to track their employees’ progress. By bringing the issue to their attention, you may get back on their radar. Simply put, communication is key.

If you find out that they haven’t promoted you because they think you are incapable of anything more advanced than placing files in alphabetical order, consider this a good sign that it’s time to move on.

3. Your workstation doubles as a storage area. Managers have ways of delivering hints to unwanted employees. Often they want to toss someone but are silently awaiting a legal opportunity to do so. Other more cowardly managers take a more indirect route. They make things difficult for the problem employee, trading out their computer for an inferior model, moving their workstation to that narrow space between filing cabinets, and stacking piles of boxes in their cubicle. This means the boss doesn’t like you. Most likely, you don’t like them either.

If you experience this kind of behavior from your superior, you have a few options: 1) wait for them to lay you off, which will at least probably come with some kind of severance but will mean explaining at future interviews why you got canned; 2) wait for them to fire you, which would mean they found a legitimate reason to send you away with no severance pay; or 3) quit, which would give you no black marks to discuss in future job interviews but also no severance package. Quitting is the best option if you have another job to jump right into.

Everybody deserves to have a job that they like, at least some of the time. Don’t stay in a job you hate. Take note of these signs and know when to quit.

About the author

Marcus Varner earned his BA in English from Brigham Young University with a Creative Writing emphasis. He is currently in his second year at BYU’s lauded MBA program studying Marketing. He blogs, writes fiction and screenplays, loves movies, and can’t resist playing superheroes with his kids.

The first day you walk into a workplace, you can’t help but notice how everyone seems to be a certain kind of character. And each character comes together in that place where everyone would rather not be to make this weird microcosmic stew.

Needless to say, getting to know and getting along with your co-workers can be an interesting game. To help you out, I’ve provided the following guide to five common types of co-workers:

The Guffaw

Their loud laughter carries over every surface, every cubicle wall, so strong and crisp it sounds like they could be right next to you. Interestingly, the laugh is usually disproportionately large in comparison with the actual joke told. Often, there is no joke told at all, and the laugh represents the Guffaw’s confusion, embarrassment, or lack of intelligent things to say. Although an effective ice breaker at first, the Guffaw’s laugh quickly becomes an annoyance to co-workers as they catch on to its seemingly illogical pattern and especially when they are having a bad day.

The Guffaw can vary in its appearance. Many Guffaws wear a large grin that seems ready to burst with laughter. Oddly, other Guffaws wear an almost melancholy expression most of the time until presented with a joke, an embarrassing or confusing situation, or an opportunity to end a conversation quickly, at which time their gloomy countenance bursts into eerily lively laughter.

The Guffaw’s motto: "He who laughs loudest covers up his ineptitude, low intelligence, or fear." My advice: Laugh before they can and see what they do.

The Jester

Every workplace needs one. Since ancient times, kings have included jokers in their courts for the purpose of lightening the mood. The modern workplace does the same. The Jester continues to serve a vital function in today’s organizations: to keep everyone from throttling each other. The Jester gets most people to loosen up. Especially during very stressful times, the Jester gets people laughing and being themselves, providing very necessary distractions. They’ve always got a joke, a controversial comment, a drawerful of gags, and a bunch of dirt on every co-worker, which they jovially put to use for the greater good of the workplace. The Jester creates an essential counter balance to the corporate drive to turn all employees into automatons.

A word of caution, however: the Jester can be a double-edged sword for one key reason. They don’t know when to stop, their comedic urges being pretty much uncontrollable. This means that they will keep joking and roasting people without sensitivity for the situation. They are known to make comments about taboo bodily functions when a VP visits. Although managers enjoy the Jester’s contributions to team sanity, they also fear the Jester for their tendency to turn on leadership and burn them in front of the group, thus demolishing any semblance of authority or power. In today’s litigation-phobic business environment, Jester’s are a real risk as they can easily cross the line into sexual, racial, or other harassment.

The Jester’s motto: "Make ‘em laugh." My advice: Out-jest the Jester. That will humble them, gain their respect, and keep you off their hit list. For a fun time, match up the Jester with the Guffaw or the Jester with the Fuhrer (see below).

The Mouse

Their frightened, beady eyes dart about as they peer out of their cubicle. They hunch over their workstation like a squirrel over a nut. They wear a concerned look on their face. When confronted by the predators of the office, they stare up at them as if gazing into the headlights of an oncoming semi. These people seem born to cling to the bottom of the food chain, and they are called the Mouse. The Guffaw, the Jester, and the Fuhrer (see below) scare the Mouse to death- heck, everyone does.

Ironically, the Mouse can be in any position from the lowest underling to the manager. Regardless of rank, the Mouse is everyone’s victim; in fact, they can be your victim. If the Mouse is your boss, you can easily get time off, better chairs, and top-of-the-line equipment from them; they are especially useful when you want a raise or a promotion. If they are beneath you on the totem pole, they become a very accessible resource in times of need. Unfortunately, they are not ideal for representing your team to higher-ups. If this is your case, be prepared for the Mouse to come back empty-handed.

The Mouse’s motto: "I’ll do whatever you want. Just don’t hurt me." My advice: Talk very softly and never trust them to deliver an important message.

The Fuhrer

Flyers appear regularly on every surface of your workplace reminding employees of rules. You have to look over your shoulder before even thinking about disobeying protocol. Your managers seem to know your every move. A misplaced keystroke results in employees being scooped up by company secret police and never being heard from again. Your desk creaks under the crushing weight of piles of company operating manuals. These you are required to recite by rote once a month. Your company dress code has been narrowed down to charcoal gray, unisex jumpsuits made of the most uncomfortable material. Sorry to tell you this: you’re living under the reign of the Fuhrer.

The Fuhrer is best recognized by their inability to laugh, slouch, or otherwise act in violation of company policy. Seeing others violate, or even talk about violating, company policy is first incomprehensible and then deeply upsetting to the Fuhrer. They will first return to their workstation to return to optimal body temperature and then they will proceed to systematically eliminate the negative behavior.

You see, long ago, the Fuhrer rejected free thought in favor of rigid company policy. Every facet of their life, from the time they open their eyelids to the time they go to sleep, is performed in accordance with the company policy manual. They have the CEO’s autographed photo on a golden shrine in their cubicle. Every article of their clothing has the company logo embroidered on it. On Friday nights, they watch company propaganda videos. The Fuhrer can be found at every level of an organization, from entry-level to top management.

The Fuhrer’s motto: "Order." My advice: If you’ve amassed a significant undergound, stage a rebellion; if you are hopelessly outnumbered, quit.

The Cliche

"Step up to the plate." "Hold a pow wow." "Shoot an email." "Heads will roll." "It is what it is." "Put out fires." "Tighten our belts." "Throw them under the bus." "Turn it around." "Give 110 percent." "Value added." "Win-win situation." "Wheels coming off the train." "Have vision." "Think outside the box." "Paradigm shift." Everyone uses these- that’s why they’ve become cliches. However, the Cliche uses only these. They’ve become so immersed in the uncreative language of the workplace that they have literally lost their ability to form original phrases. Whatever part of the brain is responsible for original speech has withered within the skull and become useless.

The Cliche can be as easy to recognize as the Guffaw. When they open their mouth, it is as if someone has activated a tape recorder that replays the same things they said yesterday. The odd word is thrown in here and there to make it fit the current situation. When the Cliche encounters a situation that cannot be answered by a cliche, they suddenly fall silent, and a look of utter helplessness befalls them. On the bright side, the Cliche is relatively harmless, unless you find yourself adopting their vocabulary.

The Cliche’s motto: "You can say that again." My advice: To fight the mind-numbing effects of the Cliche’s verbology, read Shakespeare when you get home. You may also be able to reverse the Cliche’s condition by reading to them.

So, now that you’ve read the list, admit it: these people sit right next to you. And there are plenty of other types. Comment below and give me your list…