Topic : Career Goals

Why??? don't you have confidence - has anybody told you that your wothless to any degree??? 

Confidence I feel to a large part is what is inside of you and how you view the world.  Why are employers so blind to what's going on, because they are trying to run a business and don't take the time to find out how their business is operated until something goes wrong - and then the employees will cover their own backs and the weaker ones will not stand up for themselves. 

I know and you know that YOU are good at something.  If your afraid at receiving a No from people, 

I get that all the time - do you think that I let that bother me - NO! 

AS Phil says YOU have to be your own best friend. 

I guess I should just start at the begining. I had my first son the week I turned 17. I finished high school and went to college. I have always gotten very good grades. I graduated college with a BS inbiology and chemistry. 

I had started off as a pre-med, but realized that I don't want to go to medical school. In the meantime, I have student loans to pay off and children to support. SO, I have had a series of secretarial and factory type jobs. I always go to work with a positive attitude and I try to never even let people I wok with know how educated I am. But it always comes out. And then people act like Everything I say is an insult and I end up being fired. 

Entry-level positions for a biologist are few and far between. I am working on teacher certification and subing a few days a month, but that won't pay all my bills.  

I guess I just want to hear thought on why people are so threatened by me?  I may have a degree, but then when I ask how a particular peice of equipment works, or how to do something, they get snotty.  

my way of dealing with bed co-workers is to basically kill them with kindness and to not be a complainer, but then I get told that "People" have complained about me and called me rude. 

How is a person supposed to modify their behavoir if they are not told it is bad until they are beign shown the door? How am Isupposed to support my children if theis keeps happening? 

Unfortunately, I believe the business world has taken a nose-dive over the past 15-20 years.   

If employers (managers) were smart, they would realize that cultivating a healthy work culture with employees -- coaching instead of barking, running interference for employees when they face obstacles to their work, and most importantly, helping to promote a career path for their employees can only help the manager in the long-run.  I have been a manager of employees and have done everything within my power to help them propel and succeed.  And hey, some of them have surpassed me in their careers.  I feel so proud and not at all resentful.  Maybe it means that I did something right as a manager.  Growing (mentoring) an employee is the greatest accomplishment that a manager can achieve. 

I think that many managers are so protective of their territory that they do whatever is in their power to keep their employees down in the dirt.  This only hurts the manager.  When the employee is successful, the manager is successful.  Tom Peters . . . where did you go????  (Read "In Search of Excellence",  "Passion for Excellence", and "Thriving on Chaos".) 

Being in the world of work is like walking a tightrope.  We are all different people.   

I've worked at four different institutions (three companies and one major university) over a period of 30 years.  I've had 19 different job descriptions of escalating responsibility, worked for 25 different managers, supervised 22 employees, and  with have had over 1,000 direct co-workers. My first company was two years, my second was 19 years, my third was 3 years, my fourth was 6 years.  In my last two positions, over that period of time I have supervised a total of 22 employees.  So, I guess what I'm trying to say, with regards to this, is that I didn't just fall off the turnip truck yesterday. 

The one thing that I believe has helped me "climb the ladder" so-to-speak is that the feedback I have always received from so many people is that I'm "easy to get along with" and "everyone likes you", "you are the calm voice of reason through all the insanity".  This feedback has come from my managers, co-workers, as well as employees that I have had report to me.   (I'm an INFJ for anyone familiar with the Meyers-Briggs.)   Okay, done bragging. 

Sure, I've had my share of problem managers, co-workers, and workplace bullies (but only a handful compared to the number of people that I've worked with).  When I've had to, I would agree to disagree with people.   I've tried to stay true to myself while realizing that there are so many individual personalities in the workplace, many agendas, many injustices, and lots of politicking.  But I've found that if I try to stay on the high road and keep my attitude on an even keel, concentrate on doing a good job, produce results, it does pay off in the long run.  In the end, it's the paycheck. 

Thank you so much for the kind words.  I appreciate your feedback.   

I have to say, that I learned effective leadership techniques over a number of years from some extremely wonderful managers that I had worked with and for.  Those were the best years of my life.  Those leaders gave me opportunities that were well beyond my job descriptions and trusted me to sprout my wings and fly.  They let me take on special projects, they allowed me to attend special training opportunities, and encouranged me to go beyond what I thought were my limitations.  They enabled my sense of self-esteem and self-worth.   I will be eternally grateful to each and every one of them.  I don't think they even know who they are, let alone how much I appreciate their coaching, mentoring, and guidance, so my thinking has been to 'pay it forward' when I gained management responsibilities of my own and just try to give a little bit of that back to the people I supervised.  I'd like to think I thanked those great bosses of mine along the way, but I don't even know if I did it enough. 

Things changed (as always) and my work situations evolved over a period of time.  So I have been able to measure the contrast between a healthy work environment and a not-so-healthy work environment. 

And, of course, you can be with me on the team any day.   If you go back into the work world, I hope you will have a better deal than what you left.  I wish you all the best.  You deserve it.  Just don't let anyone bring you down.   

Why is it that no managers are posting on this board giving their perspective??