Free Career and Job Search Advice

IdealistFool · Newbie Joined: 25 Sep 2007 Posts: 1 Career Advice: +0/-0

Ok, I am and have been an idealist fool all my professional life. I have since my college years refused to kiss up to anyone pretending - fooling myself - that hard work and ability alone will help me go up the ladder. I have not only refused to be a brown-nose but also behemently criticized and ridiculed anyone who was (even though most would get far ahead of me, funny!).

Well I've had it. I've decided I have been passed over for the last time. I am ready now to do what I must to get ahead. My current boss is about to hire some one else to manage me (though I have repeatedly expressed my desire to supervise). Oh, before you ask, yes, I will most likely train him/her.

Anyway. I need your advice. I need tips from all. I mean it. If you are going to lecture me on what the "right" thing to do is, SAVE IT - I have tried it all! Help me be the biggest kiss-up ever.

lexa10881 · Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2007 3:22 pm Post subject:

Sounds like you have been trying to avoid the office politics game. Now you need to throw yourself in the middle and do the best you can. I don' tknow how to tell you to be a brown noser; i do know that working hard and expressing a genuine interest in your job will usually do the trick and I don't know why your boss keeps passing you over.

http://www.cvtips.com/get_noticed_at_work.html

yanna · Expert Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 102 Career Advice: +0/-0

Oh, come on....you don't really need to kiss that guy's ass! If you want something, you could do it in other ways. Sure, I'm not saying that butt kissing isn't easier so...if you really really want to.....become a boot licker Very Happy

http://www.cvtips.com/bootlickers_at_work.html

KA · Expert Joined: 26 Mar 2006 Posts: 239 Career Advice: +2/-0

I would suggest that you ask for a meeting with your boss & bring up your geniune interest in the job. In the meeting you can bring up that you are willing to change / improve to get the job...etc.

Randy · Posted: Sat Oct 06, 2007 2:39 am Post subject:

Just remember this: Melting spines and cold hearts almost always accompany a fatter bank account.

It'll be interesting to see if you can manage to retain your humanity after you've sold your soul. I've met few people in my lifetime who can do it.

Good luck.

lexa10881 · Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2007 2:46 am Post subject:

Randy!

Actually, he has a valid point. As unfortunate as that seems, those are usually the people who get ahead. It is a matter of can you live with being that? I can't, so that is why I wrote what I did earlier about trying to work hard. I am very honest too, to the point where it can tick people off. But I have gained a high level of respect for it and for the reliability and integrity of my work. For that, I am the youngest but I am usually in charge also. Kinda weird Shocked

http://www.cvtips.com/office_politics_books.html

Randy · Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2007 8:36 am Post subject:

quote="lexa10881"

Actually, he has a valid point. As unfortunate as that seems, those are usually the people who get ahead.

Oh, no doubt about that.

It is a matter of can you live with being that?

I can't. Or rather, I've tried in times past at various employers. It just never works out for me. Manage in such a way that employees are happy, and upper managment resents it. Focus on pleasing one's "superiors" and resentment is bred among the employees who in turn complain to "upper managment" and damned if you don't get in trouble for that as well. Rolling Eyes

I can't, so that is why I wrote what I did earlier about trying to work hard.

At least hard work still makes you "feel good" about yourself at the end of the day, doesn't it? Not much of a "reward," but it's better than trying to be all things to all people.

I am very honest too, to the point where it can tick people off. But I have gained a high level of respect for it and for the reliability and integrity of my work. For that, I am the youngest but I am usually in charge also. Kinda weird

Any hope at all for a return to humanity still being of importance in the workplace is up to young folks like you. Keep refusing to play their silly-assed little corporate games. I much prefer working and being aroung the "younger generation" than I do being surrounded by my "peers," a bunch of aging baby-boomers who, for the most part, became the most greedy, self-absorbed megalomaniacs this country has ever seen.

Y'all seem intuitively to understand that one can takes one's work seriously without taking yourself too seriously and making a mess of things....

CubeDrama · Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 3:40 am Post subject:

No, lectures-you want to get ahead. Come up with ideas for productivity and/or cost saving iniatives. Also remember your pitch is key-if you are not real good at selling yourself-join a group like "toastmasters". Every area has a local chapter. It is usually composed of business types practicing their public speacking skills-pitches. It will help you and the networking is valuable. If all else fails, look for anothe job and reinvent yourself. Keep a positive attitude, you will succeed. cubedrama.com

lexa10881 · Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2008 4:37 am Post subject:

Awww Randy...

Wish I could give you a hug!

i am trying to transfer out of my job, or just simply quit, in order to move away. They have all made the comment, from the sixteen year old to the sixty year old, that they prefer me being in charge because so much more gets done, everything runs smoother, and everyone is in better spirits.

hence, that thing about taking work but not myself too seriously. I strongly believe in working hard and doing much but enjoying oneself also. So long as a football doesn't hit me int he head, no fires are started, and the store doesn't implode on my shift. Rolling Eyes

http://www.cvtips.com/career_survive.html

Randy · Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2008 4:55 am Post subject:

lexa10881

]Awww Randy...

Wish I could give you a hug!

Truth is I wish you could, too. I'm going through the employment version of what writer's call that "long dark night of the soul." As y'all know, I simply call it the "I can't do this any more" syndrome. Sitting here now, watching the clock, counting down the time to "leave for work" with all the excitement of an inmate strapped to the table and watching the seconds tick by until they release the drugs into his veins....

i am trying to transfer out of my job, or just simply quit, in order to move away. They have all made the comment, from the sixteen year old to the sixty year old, that they prefer me being in charge because so much more gets done, everything runs smoother, and everyone is in better spirits.

See? You're a good person. I get that from your writing. I don't have to be "there" to experience in "real life." Those folks, young and old, after you're gone, will be "telling the tale" about you for a long time. You're showing them by nothing more complicated, or exciting for that matter, that "good" people really do still exist, really can make a difference in the lives of people.

It's at times like this I have to follow my own advice. Before leaving for work, I'll listen to "Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World" by Izzy a couple of times, then go outside and stare at the stars and say outloud, "God, they really are beautiful, aren't they?"

Then, of course, I'll get to work and the people there will be complaining about this or that and I'll snap and go into my thoroughly predictable rant which goes this way: "Listen. There's not a thing I can do about any of that. Either go talk to your boss and try to make things better, quit, or STFU, okay?"

After all, when all is said and done, those are indeed our only three options when it comes to employment: Work with those who are indeed in a position to "make things better" and hope they reciprocate, quit, or silently endure it.

hence, that thing about taking work but not myself too seriously. I strongly believe in working hard and doing much but enjoying oneself also. So long as a football doesn't hit me int he head, no fires are started, and the store doesn't implode on my shift. Rolling Eyes

Damn, I hate it when footballs hit me in the head!

And a fire once started at a construction site where I was working. One other chap and I were running around like hell, hooking up hoses and doing everything we could until the "real" firemen got there. We looked around for our co-workers? All those "tough" contstruction workers had run a couple hundred yards away and were standing there, laughing at us. Wussie boys! Rolling Eyes

No, I never tire of saying that people like you are indeed not only going to do well personally, but y'all will indeed be the one who, slowly but surely, bring sanity and civility back to the American workplace.

If you can't, of course, then let the footballs fly, let the fires roar, and stand back and laugh yourself silly as the place implodes! Wink

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