Disclaimer: This post is just purely career advice for anyone starting out in their respective fields, whatever that may be …. I’ve experienced all of this personally and am merely sharing some things I think will make you happier and more successful in your work.

***

I was reading this article on how to find the job you’ll love … and it’s loaded with great advice, but no. 4 really got me: “Ignore salary.”

As an employer, I want to pay our team well … I want them to be paid comparable to what their skills, commitment and their colleagues make. But we don’t just hand out money or raises or bonuses because they believe they deserve it … they, along with myself, have to earn it.

In general, and not just as an employer and boss, I’ve observed that some people think they are worth more salary-wise than they truly are. Just because you think you could make more money in another job doesn’t mean you’re willing to make the sacrifices and effort necessarily to do so.

The ones in this camp are the ones I’m aiming this post at.

They are the ones who will never make enough to satisfy their need for “more money.” They will generally flame out and leave their jobs. Or worse, get bitter because their unrealistic dreams don’t make their paycheck. They are perpetually unhappy and it has drastic ripple effects on teams and companies.

Yes, you need to make sure you and your family can put food on the table and pay your bills. But I love this post by Penelope Trunk (one of my favorite career advice bloggers) that says you need around $40K a year to be truly happy. (Of course it was written a couple of years ago, but generally, it still resonates.)

Live within your means – I really struggle with people who live in America and can’t make it on very decent or even “average” wages. The root of this is typically a skewed perspective on status. They think they deserve to live a richer lifestyle, and I’ve been guilty of it as well. But some of the happiest times in my marriage have been the times when we made the least … when we had one income, lived in an apartment and were extremely frugal with our money. We simply found some creative ways to enjoy and focus on each other. But even then, we lived a quality of life that millions of people around the globe only dream about.

Focus on quality of life – This is why I love living in Oklahoma. My money and salary go a lot further. Penelope moved to Wisconsin for a similar reason: quality of life. As I’ve traveled I’ve wondered how people in San Francisco or Boston make a living. I believed with enough commitment and work I could climb the latter at different organizations and make a lot of money. But I never wanted to make the sacrifices in my quality of life to get there. Confession: In the last couple of months, I’ve had to really assess my quality of life and ask myself, ‘Am I having fun?’ It’s not worth it if I’m not having fun. Trust me. I want to enjoy my work or else it’s simply a prison.

Find awesome work you’re passionate about – if you hate your work, you better be paid handsomely. But your paycheck is payment for pain and suffering and enduring your work, not enjoying it. If you love your work, you’ll generally be content with your pay and … yes, the money will come. Happy, passionate people are a joy to work with … and they do accomplish more. Everyone wins. Some on our team could be making substantially more than what they are making now. But we’ve tried to create an environment where it doesn’t matter because they love what they do and they cherish the environment we provide …. to me, and maybe I’m biased, that’s priceless. Some have turned down better offers to work here because of it.

Yes, you should be paid fairly – and by this I mean comparable to other colleagues and being reasonable about salary expectations. You have to be realistic. If you really want to earn twice what you’re paid, count the cost of what it’d take to achieve that. I don’t know about you but my happiness is worth more than simply twice my salary. Employers should pay their employees fairly and adequately. One value I treasure and repeat often is … those who invest themselves in our business and team will be rewarded. I don’t know exactly how that shakes out. It’s not always money. Often it’s me buying their lunch … or just a verbal word of encouragement … Or recognizing and giving them credit for their work publicly … or sending them on a fun, productive business trip.

If you aren’t happy, change it – I remember a coworker from one of my first jobs out of college. This coworker was habitually unhappy. No one wanted to be around her. I realized she had been working this job longer than I had been alive. She was stuck. In a rut with nowhere else to go. I vowed from that time forward to always enjoy my work or change it. Go somewhere else. But don’t get bitter. You’ll look at yourself in the mirror … and hate yourself. And when you look around you, no one will be there because no one wants to be around bitter people. If you don’t like what you’re doing, do everybody a favor and CHANGE IT.

Conclusion: More money is never the key to happiness. Just ask any miserable “6 figure salaried” person you thought of when reading this.

OK … just my two pennies worth.

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.

Read More→

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!