Cynical Career

The lesson from Layoffs

Cynical Career — Sat, 21 Jan 2023 19:18:42 GMT

The Layoffs in Amazon, Google, and Microsoft are clear examples that as an employee you only own your health, skills, network, family, and assets. Your job, title, level, promotions, achievements, and tenure are all worthless when your company selects you to be a part of the unlucky few to be laid off. Job security is a myth. Think well about this when you miss your gym to work on a presentation, when you miss a family moment to attend a meeting, when you yell at your kids to let you focus on some email and when you turn down a good opportunity because your current job is more secure. You are just a row in a spreadsheet to your employer and your employer is just a source of a regular paycheck. No more, no less.

You should interview often

Cynical Career — Mon, 30 May 2022 02:36:42 GMT

I hate interviews, but I have recently realized that interviewing is a part of a successful career. When you work for the same employer for a long time you can easily lose connection with your field outside of that employer’s work. When you interview you have to ramp up again on things you may have missed. You gain the skill of representing your work objectively. You learn to give a good summary of each of your projects and represent their successes and failures. You learn to tell your story more efficiently. Think of it as a continuous learning effort.

How often should you interview? You should try to land at least one new offer every year. You don’t need to accept it, but you may get a good pay bump and a better position out of one of these offers. When you turn down an offer from a company, you will be on their radar. You can easily reach out again to get a job if you need one.

If you are comfortable, You are not growing

Cynical Career — Tue, 01 Feb 2022 12:01:55 GMT

We only grow when we learn new skills. Some of these skills will make us uncomfortable. We tend to get used to the status quo and resist change. You have to push yourself beyond your comfort level to grow. Many people are afraid of public speaking, but you cannot have a successful career without giving presentations. Many people avoid writing, but writing is essential to share your ideas.

Say you want to learn to speak in public or write better, you should seek education in that area to learn how to do it. People learn in different ways; they can watch videos, read books, listen to lectures or take courses. Do what suits you but treat that as a skill to learn too. It is good to be able to learn from different mediums.

How to achieve visibility

Cynical Career — Mon, 31 Jan 2022 11:16:54 GMT

One key difference between top performers and the rest is the visibility of their work. If no one knows your work, don't expect rewards for getting a great job. Don't expect your manager to be on top of everything happening in the team. You have to communicate your progress and any achievements.

Utilize your team's communication channels to highlight your work. If you have regular team meetings, make sure that your status updates highlight what you achieved and outline your plan for upcoming work. If you send regular status reports, make them short with the achievements highlighted and the remaining work listed. Most people get lost in details, so save them but be ready to provide them if needed.

Many people shy away from presentations; you should seek them. They will give you visibility and make the leadership associate the project with you. Give credit to your team members when due; this will give your their support and respect.

Think of yourself as a company of one

Cynical Career — Fri, 28 Jan 2022 12:02:03 GMT

You should always think of yourself as a company of one. To make a profit, you should create more revenue than you spend. You can lose for a year or two if you are making a capital investment in your self such as through internships or education. Your education should focus on gaining skills to bring you revenue in the future, don't waste years on a mediocre degree.

You should evaluate your cost in terms of the time and pressure of your current job. If you put more time or get higher pressure than what the job gives, you are in a losing situation. If that losing situation doesn't build a future capital, such as effective on-the-job learning, you have to leave.

How to work with your manager's shortcomings?

Cynical Career — Thu, 27 Jan 2022 12:11:28 GMT

Nothing can make or break your career more than your relationship with your manager. If your manager is good at his job, he can help greatly help you. You can work around some of your manager's shortcomings but not all of them.

A good manager gives you assignments that stretch your abilities and make you learn something new. If your manager keeps giving you the same types of work, you should seek more challenging work yourself.

A good manager represents you well during promotion and compensation discussions. Most large companies do promotions and compensations on a regular schedule every year. If you have regular performance discussions with your manager over the year, you should know the manager's opinion of your progress. The manager should set your expectations. If you don't get the compensation or promotion you expect, you should discuss that with the manager. This discussion could tell you if the manager can represent you in the compensation and promotion process or not. Don't work for a manager who cannot represent you well in these career growth processes. It's time to prepare the resume and interview for other jobs.

A good manager gives you meaningful feedback. You should never be surprised by your manager. Some managers are afraid of confrontation, so they avoid giving feedback. You have to force the hand of such a manager, always ask for feedback when you complete a project. If you cannot get valuable feedback, even after asking, then it is time to leave that manager.

A good manager makes good decisions. If your manager cannot make decisions, you can use that to your advantage. You can make a decision and ask the manager publically to decide whether it is a good decision. A manager who cannot decide will not challenge your decision and cannot blame you for the outcome. If your manager can make mainly bad decisions, you will have a pretty bad time. The only upside is that higher management may replace such a manager quickly. Unfortunately, some employers can tolerate bad decisions for too long; and your career may stagnate as a result. If you work for such an employer, you should look for an exit.

What other manager shortcomings did you encounter in your career? Leave a comment, and I may address them in future articles.

The Myth of Loyalty

Cynical Career — Wed, 26 Jan 2022 11:53:17 GMT

Your employer is not your country or your family. You work for a company to get compensation in exchange for the value you create. Some employers have reputations for selecting great people; joining such an employer can boost your resume, but that doesn't mean staying for life in that job. Being a part of an elite team is a good ego boost, but it shouldn't be the reason to stay if you don't like your compensation or role in that team.

How to get a promotion

Cynical Career — Tue, 25 Jan 2022 11:28:50 GMT

Getting promoted signals growth and increases compensation. Many people want promotions but don't know how to ask for one. Career growth should be a topic in your regular discussion with your manager. You should have regular one-on-one meetings with your manager. During these meetings, you should regularly discuss your growth.

Most large companies have a clear definition for each job family and clear responsibilities for each employee level. If your employer has this ladder documentation, use it as a basis for the growth assessment discussions with your manager. Don't wait for the annual or semiannual reviews to have a growth conversation.

For smaller companies, the growth is not well documented. You have to increase your responsibilities to get a promotion. Here you should find new opportunities to make things better. You can develop a new process, help train new employees, or make customer outreach more efficient.

Growth means gaining new skills. If you cannot get rewarded for that growth at your current employer, it is time to find another employer.

How to manage work messages

Cynical Career — Mon, 24 Jan 2022 11:33:02 GMT

When you receive an email, it will provide you with information or ask you for action. You should check your email when you are ready to absorb information or take the requested action. Don't interrupt your current task to check your email, so the first thing you should do is turn off or customize your notifications.

Assign time blocks during the day to handle email and other messages. During these times, go through each message and take immediate action. When you work on your email, you work on somebody else's priorities. Limit your email time so you can use focus on your priorities.

Your time is your number one asset

Cynical Career — Fri, 21 Jan 2022 11:37:22 GMT

Many people think that long hours equal high value and get disappointed when their employers don't recognize their long hours as valuable. Your manager cares about the value of your work, not the hours you work. If your manager cares too much about hours, that should be a good signal that you need a new job.

When you are new to the job market, you have …

Delivering a Great Presentation

Cynical Career — Thu, 20 Jan 2022 12:44:01 GMT

Many people hate giving presentations. Being a great presenter will allow you to differentiate yourself away from your colleagues. Effectively presenting your work can even be more important than the quality of the work itself.

The first step of creating an effective presentation is understanding the audience and the desired outcome.

Let's say that you are giving a project presentation to senior management. Your desired outcome is presenting the state of the project and letting them know of any risks. The audience of the meeting will influence how you reach that outcome. If all the attendees are not familiar with the project, you should start with a project overview covering the goals.

If you are not moving up, you are moving down

Cynical Career — Wed, 19 Jan 2022 11:29:52 GMT

We all want to raise our standard of living and build our wealth. The key to both is increasing our income from our careers. You get more income when you provide more value to your employer and have that recognized through a raise or a promotion. If you don't get either every year or two, this is a clear signal that your employer doesn't see increased value out of you.

Your career trajectory could be up, flat, or down.

If your career trajectory is up, you get good yearly raises and frequent promotions to take more responsibilities. Good employers track their superstars and try to make them as happy as possible. You will be in the best position within your organization. Your managers may even forgive some mistakes because they see more upside.

If your career trajectory is flat, you get small yearly raises and won't get promoted. That could be fine if you have a unique skill or responsibility that makes it a big hassle for your employer to replace you. Remember, everyone is replaceable, but some people are more replaceable than others. If your career is flat and your skills are easily replaceable, you can easily be laid off during economic bad times or even slip into the downward trajectory territory.

If your career trajectory is down, that means that your employer doesn't see much value in keeping you, and they may actively work on pushing you out. You don't have to be bad at your job. I have seen people ruin their careers by focusing on wrong priorities and stubbornly refusing to correct their course.

You don't need to work 80 hours a week to have your career on an upward trajectory. You need to gain the skills to produce more value using less effort. I will cover some of these skills in future articles.

Don't let email steal your time

Cynical Career — Tue, 18 Jan 2022 13:12:15 GMT

You have a limited amount of time on this earth; you need to use some of that time to create value to exchange for value. Reading useless emails doesn't help you create value; it just wastes your time.

When you work for a large corporation, you receive many emails every day; over 90% of these emails are useless. The further the email is from your area of responsibility, the less valuable it is.

Make your work visible

Cynical Career — Tue, 18 Jan 2022 00:14:54 GMT

We discussed previously the importance of helping your manager succeed to succeed in your job. One important caveat here is to seek all possible opportunities to take credit for your work. You want the management chain above your manager to have visibility into your work. Not all managers are good at what they do; some would take too much credit for the team's work to raise their status.

Know your job!

Cynical Career — Mon, 17 Jan 2022 00:28:16 GMT

Your direct manager can make or break your career in any company. Understanding your manager is the key to having a future in any team in any company. Making your manager successful is your job description.

Some people think that making the manager happy is the same as making him successful. That is not true.

Your manager is an employee, just like you. Your manager succeeds when the team projects succeed. If you are not a part of that, you won't be valuable. Your success in the team will increase as your role increases in that success.

Welcome to Cynical Career

Cynical Career — Sun, 16 Jan 2022 20:01:14 GMT

This is Cynical Career, a newsletter about career mastery! You should be the number one beneficiary of your career. Many People make mistakes that derail their careers because they don’t understand that fact.

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