FORK IN YOUR CAREER's Workover Interview

Oct. 6, 2004 — -- Careers are often as much about the things we decide not to do as they are about the things we do. Let's begin with FORK IN YOUR CAREER's e-mail to Workover:

"I'm unemployed and not sure how to proceed. For the last ten years or so I've worked at home as a freelance writer. My preference would be to do more writing, but writing projects are hard to get. Before turning to writing full-time, I worked in a number of museums and nonprofits. I have a lot of experience in management, program planning, project direction, fund-raising and generating earned income — all skills that would be valuable to any nonprofit organization. I've also started applying for secretarial jobs just to get some kind of income. Frankly, I'm not having a lot of success anywhere."

Workover conducted the following interview with FORK IN YOUR CAREER:

Workover: You've identified three paths, writing, nonprofits and secretarial jobs — please rank them in terms of your interests.

FC: Writing definitely comes first. A secretarial job that makes no overtime demands and leaves me time to pursue my fiction writing comes second. A full-time nonprofit job would be third.

Workover: Now please rank them in terms of your attractiveness to each set of potential employers.

FC: I am probably most attractive to people in nonprofits because I have a lot of experience in program management and earned income fund-raising. I have a great track record as a writer but writing jobs are proving very hard to find. I am unattractive to people hiring secretaries because they see me as overqualified.

Workover: Why hasn't your job hunt been successful?

FC: I have been very unfocused because I haven't known what I'm really looking for. So I've looked for everything and for nothing. I've applied for jobs that I didn't really want and stood very little chance of getting. Which has been a major waste of time.

Workover: Do you use different resumes for writing vs. nonprofit vs. secretarial jobs?

FC: I'm currently using only one resume.

Workover: Describe the perfect job.

FC: Priority number one would be to work at home so I can be there for my daughter. That's a big part of the attraction of writing jobs.

Workover: Have you thought about a part-time job?

FC: I haven't pursued either a part-time job or contract work. The more I think about it the combination of a part time job and doing contract nonprofit and writing jobs could give me a lot of flexibility.

Workover: How much effort have you put into networking?

FC: Clearly not enough. I find it very hard to do. I hate picking up the phone and calling people. I hate selling myself. To get anywhere you have to call people over and over and keep reminding them about you. If I could network by e-mail I'd be in much better shape.

Check out next week's Workover to see the five strategies we offer to FORK IN YOUR CAREER and the one thing we suggest that FORK shouldn't do.

Bob Rosner is a best-selling author, speaker and internationally syndicated columnist. His newest bestseller, "GRAY MATTERS: The Workplace Survival Guide" (Wiley, 2004), is a business comic book that trades cynicism for solutions. Ask Bob a question: bob@workingwounded.com or http://graymattersbook.com