CAREERS NOW 06-30-10

When the Job is a Bait-and- Switch

DEAR JOYCE: I am planning my escape. Three months ago I was dismayed to learn that a managerial job I had accepted in good faith was about 5 percent of how it was presented to me - the other 95 percent is an unwelcome shock. This is not a question but a heads-up to your readers to get the dimensions of a job in writing, as well as the expectations held by an employer before they accept an offer. No initials. - Fooled Once.

When an employer promises one thing and purposely delivers another, I call it a bait-and-switch. The cause may simply be an overselling of the job's quality, parameters and potential because the decision maker was in a hurry to get back to other work and you looked like a good choice. Another possible reason: The decision maker knows the job is a loser and feared you wouldn't take it.

Whatever the cause, innocent or calculated, fast exits are often the outcome when a boss pulls a bait-and-switch on a newly hired executive.

DEAR JOYCE: I have an associate degree and my boss has a master's degree. But he doesn't have a great deal of common sense. When I spot a train-wreck in the making and mention it with a possible solution, he looks away, then tells me to "let it go." When the job situation improves, I'm out of here. But in the meantime, what? - M.T.

I'm not sure you'll ever get a wise word in edgewise, but perhaps your boss prefers written words, charts and diagrams to a verbal presentation.

DEAR JOYCE: How does one find a job in a small town? So far I'm batting zero in trying to find employment in this community of 40,000. - N.B.

Personal contact is the key. Instead of professional organizations and trade associations, your meeting ground will be civic groups - chamber of commerce, service groups, churches and charitable causes; all are often attended by decision makers.

Bear in mind that any whiff of condescending behavior or patronization from a former city slicker will slam hiring doors.

If hiring in a small town isn't happening for you, consider starting your own online business with neighbors as a source of staff.

As a single example, I noticed an interesting remake of an old idea in today's incoming spam. Instead of a traditional telephone answering service that operates after business hours, Receptionist Pro's is a service that provides "a live remote receptionist" to small firms during business hours. The remote receptionists greet, screen and announce callers as though they were on the customer's premises. Customers are any type of home-based or small business willing to pay $10 per day for a live receptionist who is located in the U.S.

DEAR JOYCE: I have heard that resumes are going out of style. True? - Y.W.O.

Virtually no hire is made from a resume, but few interviews happen without one. Networking and verbal solicitations of job interviews are effective, but somewhere in the process you need a document (paper or digital) that says who you re and the value you can contribute.

DEAR JOYCE: I am considering careers in nonprofit organizations and am surprised to find references to what I would call cut-throat behavior in do-good fields. Is this commonplace? - H.H.

Don't make the mistake of assuming that lofty callings are above politics. They aren't. Mud wrestling occurs in all career fields. Research "office politics" online and in books.

DEAR JOYCE: I've had 14 jobs in 10 years and am supposedly an intelligent person. What am I doing wrong and what can I do about it? - R.M.

The biggest reason for career failure is not a lack of technical skills to do the job, but too few interpersonal skills (people skills) to navigate in the workplace. Other than having a personality transplant, what can you do? Start by analyzing what went wrong in each job and what you disliked about each job and then take your analysis to a competent career coach.

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