Like zombies looking for their next meal, your career can start to resemble the survival of the last few humans looking to escape the clutches of a hungry mob.  Someone once said, “Just because your dead is no reason to let yourself go,” which begs the question, Does your career deserve a proper burial or perhaps a resurrection?  It’s no time to give up even when you’ve lost all hope?  You’ve got to decide if you are the type who gives in or gets going when all the world is surrounded with rotting job offers and decaying careers.  When your career resembles a scene from The Walking Dead you’ve got to make a decision-Do you stand and fight or do you succumb and become one of the walking dead?

We all get caught up in questioning the reasons why we choose to work.  Some of us think it’s the only way to build a career and follow your life’s dream.  Others see it as a means to pay the bills, one paycheck at a time.  And others still, have the attitude, “Well, what else would I do with my time if I didn’t work!”  Do you ever stop and wonder why we “work?”  The concept of “work” is a bi-product of the Industrial Revolution where you needed to produce in order to survive.  But today, work has taken on a whole new meaning or has it?  Have we just bought into the notion that we are living in a material world and it’s the only thing we need to focus on in order to move through this lifetime?

Maybe you are afraid to commit?  Maybe you like the feeling that you can test the merchandise before you buy?  Or maybe, you are like one of my friends whose theory about finding the right one goes, “It’s just like waiting for a bus, another one will always come along.”  Your career can start to resemble the dating field, a little uncertain, a little frustrating and sometimes, full of surprises. Not knowing what you are looking for in your next career move is okay.  No one said you have to get it right out of the gate.  Interviewing until you know what is right for you can resemble dating, but at least at the end of the process you won’t need to worry about who is going to pick up the tab.

Like anything you own, occupy or truly possess, you career needs to be treasured like a sacred piece of land.  You just don’t stumble into your career these days, you need to claim it, seize it and by all means retain it if you want to get ahead. Staking your career claim is like venturing into uncharted terrain looking for the last piece of unclaimed land like the Land Rush of the 1800’s.  You are competing against many other hungry and at times desperate folks who are searching for the same thing and are running against the wind to beat you to the finish line.  Your career search may have you looking over your shoulder wondering who might be picking up their pace, closing in behind you.

During this holiday season and sometimes throughout the year, we need to be reminded that it’s ok to give, share and spread the wealth especially in a crowded job market.  Even when it seems like there are hundreds of job seekers applying to just one job like there are holiday shoppers rushing to the stores on Black Friday to grab up the last of the sale items, we need to remind ourselves there’s room at the Inn for all of us if we just slow down and step back and be willing to help.  You may feel the need to rush to get through your “Job Seeker To Do List” wondering how many more resumes you can send out or how many job interviews you can line up before the new year. When you think you’ve done enough for yourself and you are not sure what gifts you can share, think of those who are still struggling this year who have not been as successful as you and next time you hear of a job you are not interested in or perhaps is just not right for you, remember you can easily jus, pass it on.

Most of us when asked, “What do you do?” feel compelled to respond to this seemingly innocuous question in creative and profound terms.  “Oh, I’m a writer” or “I am a division President,” “I am an artist, animator, director, entrepreneur” as opposed to “I work from home.”  It’s not about what you do that defines who you are as a person although I think our society and how we are programmed culturally often portrays a different image.  And so it might seem that the “larger than life” your response is to the question “What you do for a living” may further the  perception that you are as big as your title and your paycheck.

So maybe you’ve been focusing on your Plan A now for quite sometime without any real momentum. Or maybe you’ve been striking out but somehow you keep thinking it’s going to come together for you any day now.  Still, you stick with it, follow through and do everything you were told would help you get a job or move up in the job you currently have but, nothing.  So you might go to a career coach, figure you might need to tweak your resume or maybe splurge for a career makeover.  Trying to stay focused on your original plan, you continue to go out of your way to make it work even when nothing is coming together for you.  Do you dare ask yourself, “Is it time to initiate a Plan B?”

Ring Ring, no answer.  Ping, Ping no reply. Does this sound like a tune you’ve heard over and over again?  It’s called “the silent treatment” and if you’ve ever heard the sounds of crickets when you try to reach out to a recruiter for a job you’ve been dying to interview for, you are probably not alone.  The silent treatment doesn’t mean that a recruiter does not want you.  It just means that given the amount of people banging down their door, you are let’s just say, not necessarily a priority.

It might not be that easy! Jumping, moving, changing are all actions that require you to either think or leap before you move.  Taking a different route in where you want to go in life and in job takes certain courage more than it takes foresight.  Sometimes you think any road looks better than the one you are on.  Knowing you have choices in how you get there might help lessen the burden of thinking you’ve got to decide fast in order to get back on track.  Not so.  There are many roads that lead to your goal.  Choosing one that’s right for you are part of the process and it’s not so much about racing to the get there, it’s just important you eventually get there.

You may make the mistake of thinking that the only way to change your circumstances is to make a clean break.  Sometimes that strategy helps, other times it can be seen as an over-reaction in your attempt to shake things up.  When you are in doubt about your circumstances, whether you should stay or whether you should go, or think about moving to a new job, stop, and ask, “Could I improve my situation instead?”