HELP! I Took The Wrong Job

Most job-seekers spend all their job-search energy trying to please employers. They turn off their radar, and that's a bad thing. Their gut could be screaming at them "Don't take this job!" but their fear of missing a mortgage payment wins out.

When that happens, you take the wrong job and you wake up a month later asking yourself "How will I drag myself to work today?"

The problem is that during a job search, everyone around us tells us "Take any job you can get, and be grateful that you have any job at all!"

That's ridiculous.

Of course, we can be grateful to God or Mother Nature for putting us here to experience all the lovely things on our planet, but that isn't the same as being grateful to someone for hiring you.

You don't have to feel lucky that you have a job. Anyone who hires you is going to make money from your services. They're going to make a lot more money than they're going to pay you. That's how business works. It wouldn't make sense for someone to hire you and pay you only as much as the revenue your services generate. There would be no point in that.

So you know, as soon as you get a job, that you're making money for someone. Don't feel lucky that you have a job! That's a disempowered view of your of own worth.

Rather, keep your radar on and your antennae on full alert all the time. If you're not happy in one job, start a stealth job search and go get a new one!

It's a new day in the job market now. We are all consultants. We are all entrepreneurs. If we're paid on a payroll, that's a detail. Our careers are still ours to manage!

You can easily fall into the vortex during your job search. You can stop listening to your gut when somebody is interested in hiring you. You can lose your bearings in the vortex, and end up taking a job that will suck your life force away.

The best way to stay out of the whirling vortex of "Oh my God, they like me!" during a job interview process is to choose a worldly, cynical friend and tell him or her every detail of every interview and every interaction with the folks who are thinking about hiring you.

Run it down in excruciating detail. Your friend will say "Now wait - she said WHAT about your salary target?" Your friend will stand in for your gut, if you've silenced your gut out of fear of remaining unemployed any longer.

There are always signs when people are planning to misuse your talents. They broadcast their intentions. It's easy for us to miss the signs when we're caught up in the vortex.

Especially if you've been out of work for a while, you may be blind to the less-appealing aspects of the job you're about to take.

That's okay! If you take the wrong job and wake up one day with a sore jaw and a headache from grinding your teeth in frustration all night, you don't have to suck it up and soldier on in misery. You can start a new stealth job search.

If it depresses you to think "Oh no, I just got done with a job search!" then focus on the positives:

• Your Human-Voiced Resume and LinkedIn profile are set to go
• Your interviewing skills are sharp! and most importantly,
• Your radar is back in action.

You won't get bitten by the same snake again! If you had other job-search irons in the fire when you accepted the job from hell, check in with each of those hiring managers or recruiters. If you didn't have other job search activities cooking, get the fire lit now!

How will you explain why you took a job and want to leave it so quickly? You can fall on your sword and say "That was a great learning experience. I took a job too quickly. It's not a good match for me at all."

You can say "I could see right away that what I'm doing now is really a short-term project. That's why I'm looking for my next adventure now."

You were a catch when you were on the job market recently, and you're still a great catch now. The key is not to feel like damaged goods because you're job-hunting again after a short stint in your current godawful workplace.

It's just the opposite. Many or most job-seekers would hunker down and figure they used up their one chance on the open talent market, drag themselves through each work day and tune out playing Team Fortress Two on the weekend.

Not you! You'll get your job-search engine up and running again, rev up your network and be on the lookout for any sign that you're close to the Vortex that can confuse your senses and dull your reflexes.

Only the people who get you, deserve you! Everybody has taken the wrong job at some point, and you'll laugh about the story nine to twelve months from now.

Here's to the right job, which is just ahead of you, waiting!