I Love My Job. I Just Want to Keep It.

I got an email the other day from a very smart young lady that worked in the agency game.

She always knew her stuff.

I was checking in with her. She replied that all was good. Love my job she said. I just want to keep it.

It struck me with reflection.

Yes keeping Your Job is the Career Path of The New Normal. No matter how good you are. No more where do you want to be in 5 years? The iPad was launched in 2010. No more stupid questions.

That’s the world of today. I didn’t make this up. I saw it and I see it. Look around you.

The incoming can come from thousands of miles away on org chart. I often hear about the staffing strings being pulled from way up high in an organization. Why don’t they just take a vacation and go to Italy or Argentina I think. Leave it to the people on the front line.

People making lot of money get the idea that departments need to get reorganized in a new way. People sent to the pavement they have never walked before. They have to call loved ones with muffled calls that hopefully others can’t hear. Tears can flow.

As Leonard Cohen wrote. “I love the country. I just hate the scene.”

I was at a networking event just last night. Met some people that used to work with at a global billion dollar company. They are smart well educated technology people. They were jettisoned into the New Normal and now wander and wonder around adrift. I always see the lost ones. I don’t know if it is gift or a burden. They have no clue. They could go home but that can often not be a happy place.

Oh yes they rationalized their exit. It was not their fault. The company made an acquisition in an area where we were weak. The new company had 100 employees so the whale company had to cut 100 of its employees. Noah this is not fair. Make it right tonight.

Bad news can arrive even from the clients that promised to love you and have always covered your back. They always throw the solicitations from other agencies into the garbage without a look. Unexpectedly they give you a call and say we need to get together. After the small talk they get to the heart of the matter. We have a new President here on a 5 year rotation and he wants a change, they confide over lunch or drinks or a Latte that tastes like hemlock. Either I am going to go or you. Sorry is the hardest word.

Since I haven’t had a job for over a decade I can see all these worlds.

I was fortunate to foresee the New Normal by learning from the past. I have stumbled into how to adapt.

You see in the end only one person can control your career path and that is you.

Impossible you might say. I am a clog in the wheel of 50,000 employees. I work in Metropolis. Yes you do.

Today you need to be ready to be fired each and every day.

You also need to dedicate your time to the little voices most people have in their heads about monetizing your passion into a business that can sustain you. You need to turn I have got this idea to I have some people helping me with this. The resources to achieve that weren’t available to John Q Public in the Old Normal. They are today in the New Normal. You just need to capture them.

Jiminy Cricket did. I always liked his song. When you wish upon a star it makes no difference who you are.

Connect with Hank on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook: