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Relocating to follow a dream? Answer these questions first.

June 28, 2013 by Jana 5 Comments

Remember the other day how I said I would talk another day about moving to chase your dreams? You’re in luck because today is that day. Also, I promise that this is my next to last Nashville inspired post. You have to bear with me on that because I was there for a week and I had a lot of time to myself. This is what happens when I’m left alone.

Maybe it does. Maybe it doesn't. Are you willing to work to find out? — Maybe it does. Maybe it doesn’t. Are you willing to work to find out?

The idea of moving to follow your dreams is not a new one. After all, it’s the basis for dozens of movies and books and one of my personal favorite songs (Poison’s Fallen Angel. No judgment). It’s the reason Nashville and New York City and Los Angeles are filled with so many aspiring actors, singers, writers, models, and their ilk. It’s the belief that if you want to make it big, you have to move to the heart of your industry. And maybe there’s something to that (let’s be honest, there is). And if you have the balls to do it, I give you a standing ovation. Because it really does take a strong person to leave everything behind to pursue a dream. I don’t know that I’m that strong so I envy you a bit.

However. Even if you are that strong and are seriously considering moving to chase a dream, I want you to ask yourself these few questions before you do it:

Is it really necessary? Can I figure out a way to do this without actually moving? It is possible to fulfill your fantasy without uprooting your entire life. There’s things like local theater, local politics, semi-pro and amateur sports contests and leagues, the Internet, and numerous other outlets for you to do use to build your dream career. Quite frankly, before you move, I recommend that you start at that level, and I do so for 2 reasons: 1) it’ll give you practice, a good foundation, and beginning resume if you do relocate and 2) it’ll give you a good feel if this is, in fact, something you’d like to do as a career. If you can’t handle an open mic night with 17 people present, how are you going to handle an entire arena?
Can I afford it? Do you have the start-up capital to begin life in a new city? It’s expensive to move and, if you’re going to do so, you need to make sure that you have money to support yourself those first few months. Before you hop in your car and make a run for it, take some time to research cost of living. Figure out how much money you’re going to need to get started. And, if you don’t have it now, delay leaving. Stay where you are, save some money, set a target date and then go.
How will I support myself once I’m there? It’s the rare person that moves to a new city to begin a dream career, particularly one in the entertainment industry, with a good paying job. Or any job at all. You need to make sure that you have some sort of income source (which, thanks to the Internet, is easier than ever) in order to provide your basic needs once you’ve relocated. For instance, my little sister’s BFF from high school worked as a ticket collector at a museum after he finished college so he could support himself while he auditioned. It was a job, and that’s all that mattered. Are you willing to work that kind of job to support yourself? If the answer is no, then stay put.
What’s my backup plan? Maybe you’ll succeed. And I hope you do. But what if you fail? What if you spend 5 years doing everything you can think of and you never make it big (or even medium)? What will you do then? While it’s great to be optimistic and confident (can you give me tips?), create a backup plan. Just in case. A backup plan is why a number of athletes stay in college instead of going to the draft after their freshman year. A backup plan is why child actors go to college in the first place. It’s why, if you become successful, you need to manage your money really, really well. Because whatever you’re doing may not last. And you need to be able to do something else.
Am I willing to do whatever it takes? When you move, are you willing to do crappy plays or play to 6 people or write obituaries or work as a tour guide at a studio or waitress at a bar just to get your foot in the literal and figurative door? Are you willing to start from the bottom, doing things you feel are beneath you because you see the long term benefit? Most people who are successful didn’t fall into it overnight. They did it through blood, sweat, tears, hard work, maybe compromise their morals, doing things they wouldn’t ordinarily do (no, not porn. Stop it) to promote themselves. Are you willing to walk around a bar with a bucket in hand, asking people to tip you and your band? If not, maybe you should reconsider some things.

If you can’t answer these questions with positive, affirmative, and concrete responses, then my advice is to stop (collaborate and listen). Right now. Do some serious thinking about your choices and then revisit the questions in a month or so.

It’s great to dream. I do it all the time. I have some (okay, fine. A lot) delusions of grandeur about becoming an incredibly successful writer. And it’s something I encourage everyone to do (both dream of my successful writing career and whatever it is you’d like to do). However, if you have a dream, please consider if moving and changing your whole life is the best and only way to achieve it.

My tale of two jobs

June 12, 2013 by Jana 10 Comments

Last week, in my birthday post, I mentioned that I took a government job over a job at a consulting firm upon my completion of graduate school. I had asked if anyone was interested in hearing why and, surprisingly, people were! Since I appreciate feedback and content suggestions, I bring you the story of why I choose a government job.

I finished graduate school in 2001 with a degree in Urban Affairs and Public Policy, concentrating in nonprofit organizations and a specialization in program evaluation. This, my undergraduate degrees (yes, I have 2. I double majored as my majors were closely related), and my internship and work experience put me in a pretty decent position for employment (which one would hope for after 6 years of college). Encouraged by my advisor and the fact that I needed to do something after graduation (and I had no interest in a PhD), I applied to a number of jobs. And, by some stroke of luck, I wound up with 2 offers.

To this day, I’m still not sure how it happened. Or how it happened twice (once when I completed grad school and the second time, a year later, when I was looking for a job after I got fired from my post-graduate job).

Picking between two jobs is never an easy task. It’s not made any easier when the jobs you’re offered are equal in a number of important ways (salary, benefits) but completely different in other ones (location, job function, permanency). That’s the situation I faced both times I had to choose between two offers.

The second time, the decision was a bit easier. I had to choose between a possible temp to hire job doing institutional research at a suburban community college (I know! I used to be smart!) and a reintegration social worker in a major city. While the research job was more in line with my education and employment history, I wasn’t willing to take the risk of not being hired at the end of my contract (the whole “it’s your job to lose” speech is not exactly inspiring). So, I took the other job.

In my book, permanent will almost always trump temporary.

The first situation, though? That decision was rough. I had to choose between a consulting job in Washington DC (one of my favorite places) and a federal government job in Philly. Both had the same starting salary, benefits, and I needed to move. But there were some key differences that warranted much discussion both out loud and in my head. This is pretty much how my thought process went:

Cost of living. Neither Philly nor Washington DC is an inexpensive place to live. But when I started comparing the two, the Philly suburbs were, without a doubt, less expensive than DC suburbs (I have an aversion to living in a city). When I looked at how far my $30K salary (not a bad starting salary in 2001) would go for all my expenses, Philly won. By a landslide.

Scope of work With the consulting job, my duties would vary from project to project, as would my clients, and there was no guarantee that I’d do what I had just spent 2 years in grad school learning to do. With the government job, I had consistent clients and I’d get to use all the skills I’d just learned in school. My 24 year old mind couldn’t see the potential in the consulting job, so the government job made more sense.

Stability While both jobs offered a great deal of stability and security, there’s clearly more of that with a government job. Upon graduation, I needed the immediate assurance of stability without understanding that a consulting job could be not only be more secure in the long run but would open up so many doors, even in government positions. So again, point for the Philly job.

Promotion potential Again, as a 24 year old with little guidance, I could only see the move through the pay grades as an opportunity for promotion; I didn’t think about all that could happen in a consulting firm. And when I did the research, it seemed fairly easy to move up the ranks in pay without having to assume any more responsibility (like supervising people). So that was awesome. Which again made the government job more appealing.

Work hours I don’t mind working. I really don’t. But when I thought about how I’d have to work twice as hard for the same pay at the consulting firm, the government job really made more sense. Working less meant more time for fun and friends!

As a more experienced, mature adult, I can look back at what I was thinking and realize how messed up it was. If I could go back and talk to myself (anyone have a Delorean?), I’d tell myself to ignore the immediate and look at the long term benefits of the one job over the other. I’d ask myself which job has more potential? I’d command myself to take a chance and go live where I’ve always wanted to live.

In other words, I’d tell myself to do a lot more thinking before I made my decision.

But…

While I look back and regret my decision making process, it’s hard to regret the ultimate decision. Because without those bad choices, I wouldn’t be in the position I am today, finally realizing what I think I’m meant to do.

10 simple ways to suck at life

May 24, 2013 by Jana 12 Comments

I’m not one to push products but today I’m going to. You see, I’ve devised a very handy guide that will give you a set of 10 very specific instructions on how to do epically fail at anything or everything you choose. And the best part about this guide is that it’s 100% free. You don’t have to spend a single cent to learn these well kept secrets.

But you might be thinking Why? Why do you need this completely free guide? Well, I’ll tell you. You need it because staying stuck in one place, depressed and miserable sounds like something you’d like to do. You need it because having goals just seems like too much work, being successful and accomplished is overrated, and you prefer to sit back, dreaming of the things you’d do if only you could. You need it because you want to figure out why your life isn’t turning out the way you wanted and you just can’t understand why. You need it because you need to figure out what you’re doing wrong. You need it because maybe you don’t want to suck at life and this will tell you exactly what not to.

How’s that for a great deal? (You don’t have to say it. I know.)

So, without any further ado, I give you the absolutely free, completely informative, Daily Money Shot’s Simple Guide to Sucking at Life:

Overwhelmed and eliminating it, day 4: At work

May 13, 2013 by Jana 2 Comments

This week, we’re going to talk about how to handle being overwhelmed in 3 key areas: home, work, and obligations to others. Today, we talk about work.

If you ask anyone how work is going, they’ll probably answer “busy”. It’s just the standard response because if we say anything other than busy, others might assume that we’re not busy and don’t have enough to do and that just looks bad. No one wants that. At least that‘s how it was for me when I worked in a traditional office.

Besides not wanting to look bad, I liked being busy at work. I figured if I was going to get up, get dressed, put on makeup, get my daughter to daycare, spend 9 hours away from her every day, and sit in traffic, I better have a lot to do. Otherwise, I felt my job was a waste of my time, regardless of the paycheck I received every 2 weeks. Usually, I was pretty good about finding work to do. If I wasn’t working on a project, I would tweak my training program, write case notes (when I was a probation officer), edit reports…any little task that needed to be done but often got pushed aside for the major tasks. And yes, I would read the news and blogs and maybe browse Amazon. Even busy people need breaks!

For the most part, I maintained a system that kept my workload manageable and the quality of my work up to my standards.

However, I had one particular job that managed to keep me overwhelmed on a daily basis. This job, as a social services administrator (state lingo for “we don’t really know what to call this job so we’ll give it an important sounding title that’s not really important at all”), kept me busy to the point of being chronically overwhelmed. We’re talking so overwhelmed to the point that on some days, I just didn’t do anything because every project was a top priority and no matter which one I worked on, it was going to be wrong. So I did nothing. All day. Maybe some days I cried. Maybe some days I yelled. Most days I looked for a new job. But until I found that job, I had to find a way to manage the overwhelming workload and the complete lack of direction and input from my supervisor.

I know I’m not the only one who’s been in that position. Many people I’ve talked to over the years have, at one time or another, been so overwhelmed at work that they just can’t function. They miss deadlines, make mistakes, forget meetings, and slip up in other ways that negatively impact their performance reviews and potential bonuses and raises (and promotions). Enough mistakes and you can be out of a job.

And that really, really sucks. (Unless you really, really hate your job and then you’re thinking of getting fired as sweet relief. That’s totally okay, too.) Since most of us aren’t fortunate enough to be so wealthy that we can forgo employment, it’s crucial to learn how to handle being overwhelmed at work. Here’s a few ways to do that:

Ask for help. If you’re tasked with something you just don’t know how to do, seek out someone who knows how to do it. Sitting at your desk, staring at the information you can’t process will only make you more frustrated and overwhelmed. It’ll make you do shabby, incorrect work, particularly if you’re just guessing at what you need to do. Then you’ll have to redo it all and that’ll just make you angry and cause mistakes and the cycle will repeat. So, instead, just ask for help. Remember, though, if you are going to ask for help, don’t ask someone to do the task for you; rather, ask if he or she can show you how to do it. Make sure to schedule a meeting and put it in writing. Also, make sure to come to the meeting prepared with specific questions and information. Not only does this make you look more professional, it shows a respect for the person’s time which may make him more apt to help you in the future.
Close your email. Leaving your email open all day is not only a complete distraction but it’s a surefire way to get overwhelmed. Imagine you’re working on a big project and in the midst of it, an email from your boss pops up. You feel that, because it’s from your boss, you need to attend to it right away. So you stop what you’re doing to deal with the email, come back to the abandoned project three hours later, forget what you were doing and freak out that you’ll never finish in time. That’s not good for anyone. So, close your email. Eliminate that distraction for the time being and when you’re done, open your email back up and deal with those new tasks at that point. Believe me, if your boss wants something from you that badly, she’ll interrupt you anyway.
Take breaks. I’m not talking about calling out sick every time you’re freaked out about your to-do list or the 16 mandatory yet pointless meetings in 2 days or the major presentation you need to put together and deliver in front of an entire department. I’m talking about stepping away from your desk, getting some fresh air, going out to lunch with a co-worker, or anything else that gets you away from the never ending list of items to finish. Getting away, doing something fun and non-work related allows you a mental health reprieve that, when it’s over, leaves you feeling empowered to return to your desk and deal with whatever it is that’s staring you in the face. Having that break snaps you out of the sinkhole of overwhelmedness that causes you to freeze in the middle of a task, or worse—stop caring about the quality of the work you do. And, while it’s important to take breaks no matter what your industry, it is essential to do so if you work in a service oriented field like social work or retail.

Being overwhelmed is not a fun feeling. It’s even less fun at work. It’s important to learn how to manage that feeling in this environment because when you can’t, those negative emotions seep into other aspect of our lives. And that really sucks.

Readers, what are some ways you handle being overwhelmed at work, whether you’re self-employed or work for someone else?

4 benefits to working for free

April 26, 2013 by Jana 11 Comments

Many of you know that I run a blogger mentoring program. Many of you know that this program is completely free and voluntary. What many of you might not know is that not only is the program free, but I do not earn one single dollar from administering the program. And I’m completely fine with that.

Admitting that you work for free and don’t mind is an unusual statement to make. I’ve thought and planned out numerous ways to make money off of my mentoring program but when it came down to it, I nixed every single one of those plans for several reasons. Although I spend a good amount of time working on all aspect of the program each week, I’m still fine with working for free. Because when it comes down to it, there really are a number of benefits to working for free (whether it’s as a freelancer, intern, volunteer or any other title that can apply to unpaid work):

Portfolio building. If you are just starting out, you need a portfolio of work to show potential clients. This is extremely essential if you work in any sort of artistic freelance capacity such as makeup artist, hairdresser, photographer, graphic designer, even a musician. The best way to build up your body of work is to offer services for free. Once you have a few clients and examples under your belt, you can start showing proof of your outstanding work to potential clients and customers. In exchange for the free work you can ask for…
Testimonials. These are so important in the life a freelancer or new business owner. Not only is it great to have examples of your handiwork but having feedback and statements from existing and former clients praising your work allows new clients to have an inside look to what people think of you (and your business). The better the testimonials, the more inclined others might be to work with you. You can also gain positive testimonials if you are effective at…
Networking. Ah, networking. The shy, unconfident person’s nightmare. But it’s so crucial to running successful business that there’s no way around it. Networking can lead to paying jobs or opportunities to engage in projects to build your portfolio (which can lead to testimonials. It’s great how they’re all connected). If you find it hard to network in person, there are plenty of ways to do it online. This works particularly well for freelance writers, graphic designers, copywriters, and others in those types of fields. Also, when you offer work for free, you might get asked to do so at an event with dozens of top people in your field. This can lead to exposure for you, your work, and your business and might even land you a…
Paying job. The ultimate goal when we work for free is to land a paying gig. It doesn’t have to be a full-time job; it can be a bunch of little jobs cobbled together to make for a decent income. But income is the ultimate goal. In fact, I know a number of people who have started their businesses by doing free work and it’s landed them a paying job. When you work for free, your employer or client get a chance to see firsthand your work ethic, the quality of your outputs, your ability to get along with others, and they get to test your creativity. These are all characteristics that are difficult to ascertain in an interview and can give you the upper hand when it comes to hiring (and can lead to good testimonials which also will help with obtaining paying jobs).

Other potential benefits of working for free include: building work history (extremely important for high school and college graduates looking to enter the traditional workforce), obtaining references, expanding your skill set, and you can be a little pickier about what projects you choose to work on (if you’re freelancing). It also gives you the ability to talk about concrete, specific examples during a job interview rather than giving hypotheticals and abstract answers.

Working, putting in a full-time job hours, and not getting paid is hard to digest. After all, free work doesn’t pay the bills and it doesn’t put food on the table. I really only recommend working for free if you have another source of income for life’s necessities. But if you have that, and you can think about the long-term benefits, then working for free becomes much easier to handle.

Readers, have you ever worked for free? How did it turn out for you?

P.S. While we’re talking about working for free, here’s an opportunity for My friend Ryan owns a career/education company and he’s trying to do some research. He wants to help at least 3 people (for free!) in the following categories:

1. Unemployed people who need a job now, but want to advance their career as well

2. People stuck in a so-called “dead end” job (serving, bartending, sales, etc) but want to start a professional career in another field.

Essentially he’s promised to get you a job if you do what he says and let him document the process. If you’re interested, please send me an email and I’ll put you in touch with him

Relocating to follow a dream? Answer these questions first.

My tale of two jobs

10 simple ways to suck at life

Overwhelmed and eliminating it, day 4: At work

4 benefits to working for free

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