Which job to take?

A woman came to me,  she's just turned 32 and hasn't found her career stride yet.  She gets jobs but they aren't growth paths and a few years later she moves on to a new one,  but it's always at the same level and she feels herself stagnating. 

Then a friend of the family offers her a job.  She draws

5 swords Reversed / Ace of Swords Reversed / 10 of wands

She wants this to work,  because it's a real offer but the cards don't like it at all.  There's something unclear about his offer,  a sense of betrayal.  It doesn't cut through the confusion and she ends up more burdened than she was before.

Interestingly this news energizes her.  I knew it! she said.  Her grandmother is pressing her to take the job but her intuition is screaming otherwise. 

She has another job,  but he's new in town,  no one really knows much about his company which is from the midwest, but they are opening a branch in her east coast town. 

She draws

star / knight of swords / 4 of wands

She can get what she wishes for here,  she has to ride out,  take ownership,  and if she is trodden on, she will have to defend herself clearly and cleanly.  But if she does so,  she gets to stability,  she is a place she can stay and grow. 

She's really happy now.  She wanted this job but couldn't face standing up to her family without any real assurances.  But the cards show her that it's a post worth fighting for. 

She takes the second job.  When I see her recently,  nearly five years later,  she's still there, now in a management position.   (She came to ask about having children,  another matter about which the cards can be very accurate...)

The second question - finding work

After love,  the other most common question that people have when they come to me is about work.  

If you have options,  I ask you to give me no information,  just think about Job A,  Job B,  Job C etc and we draw cards and the discuss.  I laughed when one client drew the devil for his start up job and the 8 of pentacles for his much more stable,  still in a great industry,  job.  I told him I was glad I didn't know so it didn't look like I was guiding him to the more conservative,  reliable job.  And that it's clear that start ups can be the devil to work for! 

On a more practical level,  I tell job seekers to make sure their linked in pages are bright and shiny and up to date. It's now industry standard for most job searches. For more information on that,  go here.  And once it's gorgeous, put a link to it in their email signatures,  so it's on every email they send out and it makes it effortless for anyone networking for them to pass the information on. 
Clients have also recommended ZipRecruiter and Indeed.  

What I tell people is that job hunting can be exhausting,  and I recommend you do it,  really focus on it,  for 4 hours a day - preferably from 9 am to lunch. And then you give yourself the rest of the day off,  guilt free.  You can't actually job search for 8 hours daily,  all you will feel is burnt out and depressed.  Check sites,  answer emails,  find networking events. And then go to the gym,  have drinks with friends,  have fun.  Allow yourself to have a life as well as look for work.  

Linked In data

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about how OK Cupid had used its enormous cache of information to analyze dating trends.   This week, LinkedIn put out its own data analysis of resumes and college degrees to see which colleges got people into which jobs – something that has solid real world data and so is enormously interesting.  I often do readings for people looking to change jobs or careers.  Having worked at a dating agency and in recruitment, I know well the tension of these ‘interview’ situations, and find having more facts at your fingertips always helps. 

Work questions

The New York Times has a column The Corner Office, where they ask business leaders about leadership and management. 

In an interview with Chris Barbin,  he mentioned “One of my favorite interview questions is, “What are you most proud of?” It’s a fascinating question if you just end it there. People will say, “Well, what do you mean, in business?” And I’ll just say, “No, what are you proud of?” You can always tell when people kind of make-up answers to impress you. Another one is, “What do you stink at?” Some people will say, “Oh, I take on too much and I work too hard.” Then I’ll say: “That’s a pretty common answer. Give me something better.”

I speak to a lot of people about work changes, and I think these are good things to think about before the interview, but they are also interesting things to think about life.

sculpture from Bondi to Bronte beach walk