In the comments, Marc Miller kind of defends them:

What I found is when people work for large companies like IBM and Dell (two major employers here) the environment is totally consuming. They put there heads down and work and work and work…

I agree. Work is all-consuming. I was consumed in all of my jobs.  But I didn’t network because I didn’t get it, not because I was consumed.

Knowing what I know now, which is how important a real network is for my career, I would absolutely make time to network.  Whether it is within a company or in the community or somewhere else, I would definitely make the time.

Not just because I don’t want to be “that guy,” but because I know that I need my network ready to help me, and between those times of need, I want to help them.

If you disappear between job searches it is only because you don’t understand what networking is, or how to network.  If you did, you would make the time to do it.

Wake up around 4:30.  I’m not a morning person at all, but by 4:30 the anxiety had me fully awake, and I couldn’t lie in bed anymore.

Jump online to see what was new on Monster and other boards.  Usually nothing.

Eat something between 5 and 8am.

More online searching and applying to openings.

Make myself eat lunch.

more online searching and applying.

Join the family for dinner around 5 or 6pm.

Do some family stuff for a couple of hours – I was probably more of a zombie than a dad.

8:30pm – after kids went down, I jumped back online for more online searching.

Crazy? Yes.

Ineffective? Yes.

Unhealthy? Definitely.

I was anxious to land my next job.

I was “too busy” to network.

I thought people would see my resume and KNOW I was the right person to bring on the team.

My physical activity was very, very limited, and involved many hours sitting in my new office, which was a reclining rocking chair in my bedroom.

My mental health wasn’t so hot either… how could it be if you seclude yourself and hardly talk to other humans?

What would my advice be to myself, back in those days?

GET OUT OF THE HOUSE!

Shower and dress up and get out.  Regular showers are good!

Go where others are!  See them, meet them, watch them.  You can talk to them or just observe them, but be around other people, and maybe borrow some of their energy and passion.

Create a regular exercise strategy. Whether it is to walk a mile every day, or do something much more vigorous, you need the endorphins.

You might need the routine.

You might need the social interaction.

But I’ll tell you from painful experience – you do NEED TO GET OUT!

(go on, what are you waiting for?  Get out!)

After years of travelling like I do I have some systems in place. I can pack pretty quickly and have just what I need when I get on the road.

This summer I hope many job seekers hit the road and take a vacation.  Even if it is a campout in the mountains (low cost vacation) or some kind of road trip, it’s good to get out, change your surroundings, and just recharge.

Here are some things you need to continue a job search while on the road:

• A good auto reply setup on your email.  If someone emails you and you might not get back to them in a day or two, make sure they get something that says that. My auto reply says I might not be close to my email for a while, so they aren’t expecting a quick response. When I do respond I think they feel special, knowing I didn’t have to get back to them but making an effort to respond.
• A cell phone, and charger.  My cell phone holds a charge for about five hours, so I always have to have a charger, or else I’m not available.  Make sure you have your cell with a wall and car charger so you can keep it charged.  You don’t have to take every call, but you want it with you in case “that call” comes in and you want to respond to it.
• An internet connect, so you can check your email.  Ideally you would check your messages once a day, just in case “that email” comes through. But don’t be tempted to reply to every single message.  This is a time to recharge, not let your email own you.
• Access to your resume.  If someone emails you asking for an updated resume, the last thing you want is to have to wait until you get back home.  An easy way to have your resume at your fingertips is to email it to your web-based email system (like gmail, yahoo, aol, etc.), so you simply  have to open that email, download it, then forward it on.
• Business cards. Have you ever met someone, though they were really cool, then had no idea how to get in touch with them, or even remember their name?  It happens all the time.  If you are on the road you don’t want to be that person.  Take business cards so people can get back with you – they might be the best network contact you find!

Five ideas to make your road trip work, while still doing a job search.  Treat yourself to a road trip – you don’t have to be chained to your home office while out of work.

Here are some of their snippets (read post for the entire story):

“It’s amazing when people come in for an interview and say, ‘Can you tell me about your business?’ Seriously, people.” (#1)

“A lot of managers don’t want to hire people with young kids, and they use all sorts of tricks to find that out, illegally.” (#2)

“Is it harder to get the job if you’re fat? Absolutely. Hiring managers make quick judgments based on stereotypes.” (#3)

“Another candidate didn’t get hired because the manager was worried that the car he drove wasn’t nice enough.” (#4)

“If you’ve got a weak handshake, I make a note of it.” (#5)

This is dark and ugly… but look folks, PEOPLE STEREOTYPE!

I bet <gasp> even YOU stereotype!

I’d love to see an entire BOOK on this type of stuff.  This is a market – they are buying, you are selling.  The question is, what are the buyer’s behaviors?  And what does that mean for you, as the merchant?

You NEED TO know about this stuff – illegal or not, it’s how it works.

It’s a common problem people face… how to look for a job when you are busy with a full-time day job.

One aspect of the problem is time: by the time you get home from work you are exhausted.  Or, you can’t do much (email/phone) during business hours.

Another aspect of the problem, as mentioned above, is not letting your boss know, which might result in getting canned.

Tim Tyrell-Smith wrote a great article for US News titled Looking for a Job When You’re Already Employed. His tips include:

• Prepare your marketing materials (including your resume) early,
• Establish target companies
• hire a career coach
• be easy to find on LinkedIn,

and 5  others.  Check out his entire post here.

Shortly after we carried our pained four year old into the emergency room and got whisked into a private room right away, instead of spending hours in the E.R. waiting for our turn.

Over the last 10 days I’ve learned more than I’ve wanted to have to know about the face. I learned that a fall and injury like this is very common, especially with kids.  I learned that there is potential to break various parts of the face (lower jaw, upper jaw, nose, etc.), and if that happens you might need surgery.  I learned that it is possible for the teeth to get back into place, and be strong.  I learned the teeth might discolor to dark or black, and that might be okay.

More important, I was reminded that as bad as something might seem, we can choose to find blessings (or, for the non-religious, some kind of pleasant coincidence, if you will).

I feel blessed that my daughter’s face was not broken.

I feel blessed that we have access to the medical technology to know that, and to treat every step of the way to a full recovery.

I feel blessed that my four year old has had a champion’s attitude helping her through the pain and discomfort – not once have I heard her complain about it.

I feel blessed that we have the right insurance in place to take care of the bills this is creating.

I feel blessed that our experiences with the doctors, from the hospital to the dentist, have been nothing but positive.

I feel blessed that I have been able to recognize and appreciate these blessings in a time that I could be mad and bitter and depressed.

I don’t want to sound polyannaish, but I know there are also blessings in losing a job and being in a job search.  In my own job search….

I was blessed to get out of a toxic professional relationship, and be able to start over.

I was blessed to have the opportunity to have a complete change in my career field.

I was blessed to be given the opportunity to grow and accomplish more than what I had on the path I was on.

I was blessed to get and take opportunities to do things right away, which helped propel my new direction quite nicely.

I was blessed to have access to family investments… not all entrepreneurs can tap into family, and we were able to.

I was blessed to be on a path where I felt I can make a difference in this world, for humanity.

I was blessed to be able to renew my relationship with my family, who I was losing touch with because of my hectic work/travel schedule.

I know it’s a hard time to look at or for blessings, but I invite you to quietly think about what blessings your transition has brought to you… maybe even write them down!  Many job seekers do stuff in transition that they have to stop when they get a job… what blessings do you enjoy right now?

>> The economy is going to continue to be in the toilet, despite any reports otherwise.  There will be too many job seekers, too many laid off people, and way too much age discrimination.

In 2010 we heard the ratio was five job seekers for every job posted (which, as we all know, doesn’t mean they were real jobs).

If this continues then we have 4 out of 5 of every job seeker that simply won’t get a traditional job.  SO MAYBE IT IS TIME TO STOP LOOKING FOR THE TRADITIONAL JOB?

Maybe it’s time to look for something else. I wrote about this in my first post for 2011: The Job Search Rabbit Hole, where I talk about how perhaps we are down the wrong rabbit hole… !

>> I don’t think employers are going to hire normal employees like they have because it is so expensive.  Between healthcare, benefits, etc. it is just too expensive.

I don’t see this changing, ever. We’re headed down a bad path. This does present opportunity, though.  Look at how the so-called beltway bandits operate in the D.C. area.  It’s too hard to hire new federal employees, so companies have started to fill the gaps and the owners can make a ton of money off of the inefficiencies of the federal government (and their employees make very good money, too).

Maybe that “traditional job” needs to be replaced by owning a company, whether you have employees or not (in which case you’d simply be a contractor/freelancer).

>> I think we’ll see a lot more people go the freelancer/contractor route, as well as try their hand at a business idea.

Two thoughts:

First, get started now, learn what you need to, refine your pitch and product and get the wrinkles ironed out.  When the opportunity comes you’ll be better prepared than if you have to hustle down to get your business license, etc.

Second, if you have experience with this, perhaps there will be a lot of opportunity to help others navigate this water.  In other words, there will be opportunity to be a consultant to new consultants and freelancers.

>> And maybe more of the deinstitutionalization of the corporate structure, as we know it.

What I mean by this is that companies will continue to change.  This change is painful for us, but it is a necessary part of business evolution.  When some kid from Harvard can make a simple website that has a market cap bigger than many Fortune 500 companies, and is poised to control the world (Facebook), and two dudes from Stanford can turn the way business is done upsidedown (Google), with very little investment and no manufacturing needs/issues (inventory, low margins, etc.), things have to change.

If indeed the world is changing, what does that mean for companies – how are they going to change?  And how do those changes impact us?

I think it means we all need to act more like CEO of Me, Inc. and less like Employee #134982342.  We have to be more aware of our surroundings and more in control of how we act on opportunities.

We can’t rest once we land a job.  We must continue to be vigilent, continue to network, continue to work on our brand, etc.

2011 is a year of intense career management.

It talks about Morris Wilkinson who, at 91, still delivers mail for the USPS.

It talks about Sally Gordon who, at 101, works for the Nebraska Legislature.

It talks about Dr. Howard W. Jones who, at 99, works at Eastern Virginia Medical School.

It seems that each of these people WANT to work, which is great.

But the article made me think about how long we’ll HAVE TO work… which is not so great!  Back in the olden days (a few years ago) we could kind of count on retiring, with a pension, at 65.

Now I don’t know anyone who is seriously thinking of throwing in the towel at 65, mainly because most people can’t afford to.

Working just one more year might help you make ends meet better in retirement.  Or it might provide you with health insurance for just one more year.

I don’t hear a lot of talk about this trend of retiring older, but as we live longer and pensions are a thing of the past I think we’re going to have a lot more working years than we might have thought.

It will be interesting to see if this is a trend that continues, and what it means for our workforce…

And he’s done well!

You can see in his post he shares his week of speaking, which is packed. Thom has a presentation each day this week (two on Monday).  Assuming he charges for each of them he’ll do very well this week.

Last week I emailed an old MBA professor and said “how come no one in school talks about how much money speakers make?”  School seemed to have a focus of going to work for a big, established company, without any exploration of alternative careers.

Speaking is a hard life – I’ve been doing it for a while.  For me it is one revenue stream, but I know many professional speakers who only do speaking (and some of the stuff that comes with it, like products, books, etc. that they develop and sell).

Some speakers make very good money – over $500k/year.

Other speakers hardly squeak out an extra $20k/year.

If you are a speaker you run your own business.  You are an entrepreneur.  Not only do you speak, which might be the thing you love to do, but you also drum up your own business, do lots of marketing to keep your schedule full, keep track of your logistics, etc.  If you make a lot of money you have a staff help you with this, but this is not always the case.

Back to money… let me assume that Thom charges low: $2k/presentation.  For this week, with 6 presentations, he would make about $12k.  If he were to charge $5k/presentation he would make $30k this week.

Assume he can do this once a month (6 presentations a month), Thom would make between $144,000 and $360,000/year.

That is a lot of money!  Again, why don’t they teach this to us in school?!?

Any speaker who is making that kind of money is working and travelling a lot.  It’s not an easy career but it can be rewarding beyond the finances.  In Thom’s post he talks about speaking to more than 1,000 people this week – imagine having the opportunity to touch a thousand people each week.  You can change lives.  It’s amazing.

Are you thinking about a career as a speaker?  I’d encourage you to check it out… read other speaker’s blogs, check out the National Speakers Association, and try and get a few free gigs to see if you have what it takes and really want to pursue it.

Figure skating is a good example. I figure skated for ten years. I was good, until I went through puberty and then was clearly the wrong body type to be doing double flips. I should have been a basketball player. Maybe.

My kids are at that age where they are doing stuff – skating, basketball, singing, piano, etc.  We shell out the money to get them lessons.

I didn’t have these lessons because I came from a big family, and those things were not a priority.  But we are helping our kids get this type of training (and our oldest is actually paying for some of it). Since it’s money out, I like to analyze the value of this spend.

Penelope gives a subtle message that even though she spent ten years figure skating perhaps she should have pursued something else.

I feel like that, sometimes… since I wasn’t uber-successful in something, perhaps I wasted my time and should have done something I could have been better at (like curling?)

At my age I can reflect on all of the things I have done… even though I played basketball for a few years, and really enjoyed volleyball, I never went on to play professional basketball or volleyball.  Even though I enjoyed weigh lifting I never went on to be a professional body builder.

But I don’t think that those were wasted years, or wasted effort, or a wasted experience.  Instead of having laser focus, like an olympic athlete might have, I enjoyed a plethora of things.  For me, the time spent on those activities made up who I am today, and I don’t look back thinking “if only I spent all that time curling, I could really be someone today.”

Can you related this to your career path?

Perhaps you majored in something and you work in a totally different field.

Or your internship was in one industry but you have really gravitated towards a different industry.

Or you worked in different fields for the last 20 years and still aren’t sure what you want to be when you grow up.

Yes, you can think “If only I knew what I wanted to do when I was 45, then I could have started at 20 and not wasted so much time.”

I think this is flawed thinking. Instead of regretting what you spent time on, think about how those things built up who you are now.  Think about the relationships you realized outside of your current industry.  You should have a broad, open way of thinking because of the diversity you bring to your current role.

All of the journey contributes to where you are now.  You can regret it but you can’t do anything about past decisions, except accept them, learn from them, appreciate what you got from them, and figure out how to use them to build on.

(this idea reminds me of my LinkedIn post about channel vs. destination… not totally related but enough that it keeps nagging at me)