Fine, Don't Take My Advice

I love receiving reader e-mails. I got one this weekend that I just have to share with you all from reader Adam in Illinois in response to my post about stupid snap judgments that hurt your career:

Your advice always seems to benefit employers more than employees or job candidates. You really drive for advice that makes your life easier, not an employee. I wouldn’t tell anybody to use your advice unless they like staying at the same boring job forever without a pay increase or not getting any job because their a stiff and their trying to impress HR.

I’ve got a fairly simply solution for people that think I am biased and that it negatively impacts what I write: don’t take my advice. I am not trying to be mean or uppity about it. If you think my advice is going to hurt your career, you shouldn’t take it. I am humble enough to admit that my thoughts on all matters HR, sports, social media, Generation Y or whatever else I talk about here may not work for all people.

What I have tried to do here is make compelling arguments for my readers. I’ve laid it out in 400-800 words why you should be doing this and not be doing that. Better yet, you can easily figure me out because I lay that out here too. I’ve done HR for over five years. I am pro-business and I lean conservative politically. I’ve hired a lot of people both on the micro level of interviewing and reference checks and supervising a process that brings on hundreds of people a year. I’ve dealt with a ton of employee relations issues and I’ve sat in or conducted hundreds of terminations. I don’t buy most generational differences, I love the Portland Trail Blazers and I eat red meat three times a week.

I think that most people get that what I offer is a glimpse inside the mind of an employer when they are making decisions about employees. So yes, my ideas are going to be biased towards the employer. That’s because they are making the decision based on a lot of pro-employer ideas. And here’s a hint: even those super awesome companies that think the world of their employees and would never do them wrong are doing it for a pro-business reason. And if the choice were ever presented that the business would have to change their employment practices to have their business survive, most would turn on a dime. Ten years ago, Enron was on the list of best places to work and Google wasn’t. Consistency is fleeting because employers are making employment decisions based on business climate.

My piece of advice is to think diligently about career advice before you take it. There are a lot of self-proclaimed career experts out there giving some fun career advice because it gets you traffic in this economic climate. With people willing to do all kinds of things in order to get a job or progress their career, it can be an easier sell than in the past. Just stop and think about the consequences of what you’re doing. How does this put you in the driver’s seat in your career? How will an employer perceive this? Talk it over. Let it sit a day or two.

And that includes anything I say here as well. Ultimately, I’ll keep writing and plugging along here but you’ll be stuck in a bad job or in no job at all if you don’t stop to consider my advice in light of your current career path and employer.