This is a quick follow-up to my Be the Solution post.

It occurred to me that the opposite of BEING the solution is BEING the squeaky wheel. (I know, I’m Captain Obvious.)

The sour grapes of the office. The chronic complainers. The permanently unhappy, miserable.

I’ve worked with a few of those type in my life.

They make life for everyone miserable. They are a drain on energy and joy.

You can even feel your mood shrink in their presence sometimes.

You’re probably thinking of someone like that right now.

When I’ve encountered these types of people, I always wonder how they got to be so miserable.

I’m shocked that there are people that miserable at work because here’s some facts …

We live in America (or at least I do).

With the proper initiative (a resounding theme in my life currently), and some basic job skills, we can choose what type of work we do. No one can force us to do work we don’t want to.

My point is … we have choices. Lots of choices in this life.

More choices afforded to us then previous generations before us. Some of our ancestors even died for the freedom of having those choices.

And I’ve always thought that if someone, living in the U.S. at least, is so miserable by the work they do, then they can change that.

I’ve done that numerous times myself. When I hit some ceiling in my work, or squeezed out the challenge, excitement and potential of a position, I made a conscious decision to find different work.

Most people might think I was a job hopper. On paper, yeah, you could assume that.

But when I went to a job interview for a new position, I could always tell the person who interviewed me: “I’m confident that if those former bosses had a position open for me, they’d hire me again.”

… because I tried to be the solution, to provide value to those organizations and bosses, to enjoy my coworkers, be authentically interested in their lives, to be someone they looked forward to working with, talking to, and going to lunch with … which is the opposite of squeaky wheels.

This is one of the best pieces of career advice I can recommend to someone looking to get ahead in almost any career field.

Learn and get really, really good and proficient at the most popular (or used) software programs in your industry and field. 

When I was aspiring to be a newspaper journalist, I learned QuarkXPress and Adobe Photoshop. Those were the two dominant programs used at newspapers at the time. And knowing them very well got me my first job. Then it helped me get offers and other jobs years down the road.

In fact, because I quit college before finishing my degree the first time around, I know that knowledge was the only reason I kept getting jobs, which typically required a college degree. (Of course, experience helps too, but that’s another blog post.)

Now, fast forward a couple of years, and because I started learning another software program — you might have heard of it: WordPress — I’ve been able to successfully freelance for 10 months and eventually built an entire business around that particular software program.

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After reading Penelope’s post on job burnout, I just took the Burnout Self-Test.

She notes in her article that serial entrepreneurs are less prone to burnout (they are fulfilled in what they do) and nurses, particularly in burn wards where often patients do not get better are the most prone to burnout.

It’s a pretty fascinating article and makes sense.

With my blog design business, I’ve fulfilled a lifelong dream of being an entrepreneur. And I’ve never worked harder or longer in my life. But I’ve loved every (almost) minute of it. And loving what I’m doing (passion), being in control of it for the most part, and the fact that it has helped me achieve many of our family’s financial goals has given me all the energy I need (so far) to withstand any thought of burnout.

But following Brian’s example, I realize it a good thing to take some much needed rest once in a while.

This month marks my one-year anniversary of serious blogging.

Along the way, I’ve maintained it’s been a huge “career” boost for me. Through that blog, I’ve been able to go from a virtual no-name in my field to at least being on the radars of those at the top of it.

My blog has given me personal “brand” exposure I never would have had. Through it, I’ve been quoted and featured in newspaper stories in our state’s largest newspaper and been asked to teach two seminars (one more on Monday) on the subjects I cover.

But those are just the big highlights. There are numerous other benefits I’ve enjoyed as well because I choose to pour my thoughts, ideas and energy into a blog.

Liz Strauss of Successful-Blog made this quote which I think is especially relevant to what I’m talking about here … actually, she does a better job of giving one of the prime benefits of having a personal blog aimed at your career field or industry niche:

“I have a 1600-page resume on the Internet that says I am a marketing person. So, that’s what my blog does for me.”

So for this post, I went to my blog and checked to see how many posts I had written (give or take some for guest bloggers) and I found that I’ve got well over 600 posts on it.

So my blog is MY 600-page resume.

• It’s also 600-plus reasons why I could be asked to talk about my subject field. (I was asked to teach those seminars based on the two main blog series I’ve done).
• Check out the links I’ve received from other blogs and sites and to me, those count as recommendations of me and my thoughts and ideas. (I can feel the impact of those links when people tell me they’ve seen my site link on other blogs they read.)
• With my list of 900-plus subscribers to my email newsletter, you can see how I’ve got a built-in audience for my field.
• My site stats tell me that between 50-60% of my site guests find me and my topics through Google alone (Would they have found me otherwise? Probably not.)

I’m not telling you all this to toot my own horn … I’m trying to make a case for why … if you’d like to get some more exposure in your career or field … you should start a blog resume today.

See also how Penelope says blogs are the new business cards.

Career coach (and one of my clients actually) Penelope Trunk answers 10 questions from Guy Kawasaki …

Her fourth answer on “when you should ask for a raise” is just an incredible perspective that stretched my thinking. Good stuff all around.

Also, I also love No. 6 about how to explain gaps in your resume … tell a good story!