I Feel LIke I Owe It To Someone: A Blog Reboot
A dear friend of mine used to keep a cartoon taped to his office window. One dog was talking to another saying, "I used to blog, but then I just went back to howling at the moon."
In May of 2015 I posted on this site that I was taking a break from blogging. You can find that easily so I won't repeat it. At that time I had not posted in almost a year, so now two years have gone by without original content. I felt, and feel, that the risks of a social media misstep must be outweighed by some greater purpose. Without that, like the dog in the cartoon, all you do is risk your job and reputation howling at the moon.
In the last few weeks I believe I have found that purpose. A former colleague contacted me asking for my help in his job search. I counseled with him and casually mentioned afterward on LinkedIn that I would do the same for any former Nelson colleague still in transition and would never charge. Then I had a family member decide to change careers, then refer me to a colleague of hers who wanted to do the same. One day I looked up and I was working with, in some form or another, five different people in career transition.
And then it hit me. If you don't work for a company that provides career transition services when you lose your job, if you resign, or if you are just unhappy at work where do you learn how to transition? Some of my past colleagues got skinny outplacement packages from a so-so outplacement provider. Some people want to voluntarily change jobs and don't have transition services available to them. There have always been companies out there that would charge for this but it was a pretty smarmy industry, and people in transition are watching their pennies. There really isn't a business here, but there is a ministry.
And that's the big idea of rebooting this blog. I used it as a forum to communicate to a workforce when I was HR VP, but not longer have that need. However there are people out there who need practical advice like I used to give if you walked into my office, and the kind that I give to my current clients. Best thing of all is that giving career transition advise is totally separate from my current consulting and thus not in conflict or competition with my day job. It feels relatively safe and has a greater purpose than howling at the moon. The Business of People will not be a corporate communications tool. This time around it is for the reader who doesn't have or can't go to their own HR department.
So over the next few posts we will discuss how to find your next job. It is not a proprietary program; just things I've developed over the years and that I am working through with the people who have asked for my help. In life and in business I am blessed and doing well: I feel like I owe this to someone out there. Whatever content I post is not copywrited, non-monetized and free for your use.
In May of 2015 I posted on this site that I was taking a break from blogging. You can find that easily so I won't repeat it. At that time I had not posted in almost a year, so now two years have gone by without original content. I felt, and feel, that the risks of a social media misstep must be outweighed by some greater purpose. Without that, like the dog in the cartoon, all you do is risk your job and reputation howling at the moon.
In the last few weeks I believe I have found that purpose. A former colleague contacted me asking for my help in his job search. I counseled with him and casually mentioned afterward on LinkedIn that I would do the same for any former Nelson colleague still in transition and would never charge. Then I had a family member decide to change careers, then refer me to a colleague of hers who wanted to do the same. One day I looked up and I was working with, in some form or another, five different people in career transition.
And then it hit me. If you don't work for a company that provides career transition services when you lose your job, if you resign, or if you are just unhappy at work where do you learn how to transition? Some of my past colleagues got skinny outplacement packages from a so-so outplacement provider. Some people want to voluntarily change jobs and don't have transition services available to them. There have always been companies out there that would charge for this but it was a pretty smarmy industry, and people in transition are watching their pennies. There really isn't a business here, but there is a ministry.
And that's the big idea of rebooting this blog. I used it as a forum to communicate to a workforce when I was HR VP, but not longer have that need. However there are people out there who need practical advice like I used to give if you walked into my office, and the kind that I give to my current clients. Best thing of all is that giving career transition advise is totally separate from my current consulting and thus not in conflict or competition with my day job. It feels relatively safe and has a greater purpose than howling at the moon. The Business of People will not be a corporate communications tool. This time around it is for the reader who doesn't have or can't go to their own HR department.
So over the next few posts we will discuss how to find your next job. It is not a proprietary program; just things I've developed over the years and that I am working through with the people who have asked for my help. In life and in business I am blessed and doing well: I feel like I owe this to someone out there. Whatever content I post is not copywrited, non-monetized and free for your use.
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