I read a lot of career advice, and I dispense my fair share of it, too. In the past couple of months I have done both of these activities with above average vigor, and I must admit, tension.
Until I read Eve Tahmincioglu's post yesterday on CareerDiva, I was only vaguely aware of a restless and unsettled feeling I was having reading and writing career advice. Was it the proliferation of gloomy economic forecasts? The effect of hearing too many personal stories of loss and discouragement? Was I just needing a vacation?
Although I wouldn't turn down a trip to Hawaii right now, Eve's post articulated exactly what has been bugging me - the over-reliance people are placing on following advice at the expense of creating their own game plan.
No wonder people's heads are spinning, including mine.
Career advice is general, Eve's post reminded me. It's targeted to corporate employees in cities. It's often geared towards the younger generation.
Your situation may not approximate in any way the typical situations career advice addresses, and this is probably pretty frustrating.
There are fabulous, knowledgeable people giving out incredibly useful career advice for free, on blogs such as Career Hub and others. I'm grateful we can get key information when we want it on all kinds of career strategies.
Tempting though it can be, when we make too many of our plans based solely on the advice and opinions of outside experts, we get stuck.
First of all, the experts often disagree with one another. We've got to keep our own critical thinking skills sharp so we can take in what's useful and weed out what isn't resonating. Otherwise we don't know what to do with the contradictions we're hearing.
Secondly, no one knows your priorities, needs, wants, or opportunities better than you. They may not be easily apparent to you right now, or they may be disguising themselves, but you are still the expert on you.
When you make a career decision based on what a magazine article advises, for example, how good a fit is that likely to be? What if you don't have the education, skills or local job opportunities that would make it a good option for you?
So my advice, which I encourage you to ignore, is to limit the career advice you are taking in. Let the advice have a supporting role, and allow your own wisdom to be the star. If your head is spinning from all the career advice you've been reading, stand still for a few moments and regain your balance.
