Career Building Rules

Now that we have exposed some job and career myths, let‘s look at the reality of the work world. What is a good job? How does a job relate to a career? How do relationships with people affect both job and career?

The world reality is often used to label a particularly unpleasant fact or to serve as an excuse for declaring failure. So it is said that the reality of work or earning a living is a necessary evil. Enjoying your work is called a pleasant fantasy—but unrealistic. Company policy is called a reality. Your own view of what your job should be is said to be a dream, devoid of reality.

Carefully examine any statement made to you that is labeled “reality” or “being realistic”. All these frequently phrases camouflage the user’s inability to cope with a problem. You may be told that, realistically speaking, there are no jobs in your field, despite the fact that thousands are working in such jobs. It is said to be a reality that you can not get a good job without a degree, and so on.

Any of the facts described in this book are realities because they have been documented over several decades by tens of thousands of clients, and before that by the pioneers of job and career counseling. They have withstood the test of time and the fluctuations in the work world.

Myths And Facts In Life Career

The saddest thing in the world is a man or woman at age fifty-plus who finds that the thread has snapped. They always found it is easy to get reasonably decent jobs. Suddenly, it is not easy. They never gave any thought to career planning, and now the only visible direction of their employment history leads to old age.

A continuous career, incidentally, is not necessarily related to continuous paid employment. Being a homemaker, for instance, can be very much a part of a solid career.

Myth: You learn from your career mistakes.

Fact: All you learn from your mistakes is what not to do. They don‘t tell you what to do. The founder of professional career counseling in the United States, Bernard Haldane, established that the study of individual successes, not failures, is the most valuable tool in career planning.

Myths and Facts

Myths and Facts How much do you learn from your mistakes? Is it true that the squeaky wheel always gets the grease? Will a career change cost you money?

As you begin the adventure of job and career building, take a look at common assumptions about jobs and careers that you may have taken for facts as long as you can remember. Those assumptions turn out to be myths, on closer examination. They have very little to do with the realities of the world of work.

Our clients have learned that when the job and career myths with which they grew up have been replaced by the facts presented in this book, their careers have taken a noticeable jump forward.

Here are some of the most common myths, as well as the facts to replace them in your thinking.

Myth: Careers just happen.

Fact: Careers are planned accidents some of them lucky or they will not happen. What happens instead is a series of most of them not.