In the early years of my career, I was in a bad job and struggled to get out of bed every morning, much less get through the day. A corrosive and toxic office environment coupled with an insensitive boss drove me to despair. I was interviewing furiously, but nothing materialized and each day was sheer torture. Amidst this cycle of doom, I toyed with quitting every single day. It was actually my non-MBA mother, who knowing nothing about careers and corporates, gave me the best advice. She put it to me simply – Don’t resign today. The emphasis was on the word “Today”. We understood that I would leave this dead-end job, but only when I had another confirmed offer from a company which would let me escape from my current hell. So she effectively ruled out the option of quitting without a job in hand, tacitly banning me from sitting at home, unemployed. Thanks, mum.
Today, I want to share an unspoken rule of corporate life.
To get a job you must have a job
Ridiculous? Absurd?
Think again. Think from the standpoint of the executive search consultants and prospective employers.
What does being unemployed connote? Incompetence, poor temperament, inability to handle pressure, unable to work with people, poor fit in the command-and-control corporate world. The list is endless.
Maybe none of these are true. But this is how an unemployed executive is perceived. It feels unfair. Given a chance, you could prove them wrong. But perception is actually an accepted version of reality. The onus of redefining and correcting this view of reality is on the unemployed executive. For anyone who has tried, it is easier to push water up a mountain.
Companies assume the worst when they meet an unemployed executive. If they deign to invite you for an interview, the first half of the discussion will be an exploration of your current circumstances and what brought you to your knees. Every explanation you offer will be viewed with suspicion and doubt. As the candidate, you are guilty until proven innocent, with limited weapons at your disposal to prove your brilliance. In a field of equally qualified candidates, corporates will prefer to pick the “regular” guy or gal who wants to leave his current job for “better prospects”. Someone who is sitting at home trying to get lifted out of his current morass is the least attractive candidate in the field.
So, to all of you suffering the “bad job” nightmare, my message is simple. Stay put, however horrible your current circumstances. As long as you are not being subjected to physical torture, grit your teeth and plough ahead. Fight every battle as if your life depended on it. Use the time to choose what you never want to be. Model yourself to be the opposite of your bad supervisor. Remember and relive every miserable moment you have gone through, so you can create a better world when you become the boss. Be clear, you will become whatever you wish to be. Your day will come. Until then, stay put.
To get your next job, you need to be on the search radar. The only things that show up on this radar are your current workplace email address, company phone number and visiting card. This is what will get you noticed. Sitting at home makes you invisible to the search radar. You don’t exist, for all practical purposes, specially if you are in the early stages of your career.
To every young executive stuck in a bad job and entertaining thoughts of chucking it all up, I can only repeat the great advice I received from my mum.
DON’T RESIGN TODAY!