Many of us experience this at some time. You hate your job, don’t like your boss, or your company isn’t providing much value to your development or future. You feel unhappy and unmotivated. You plan to leave. So why put any more effort into your current situation? Why continue to work hard for the benefit of others who seem to care little about you?
As a recruitment professional for many years, I’ve met many candidates who feel this way about their job situation. Actually, it’s normal to not want to work hard for people or a company that you plan on leaving. But if a much better job situation is your goal, then here are four good reasons to still work hard in a situation you intend to move on from.
1) This is how you get out of your current situation and into a much better one. – When you’re stuck in a bad job situation, better opportunities aren’t going to just approach you. To get into a significantly better situation, there have to be things you’ve done or things about you that can impress good companies and employers.
2) What do you plan on talking about when you interview with potential employers? – So even if a great opportunity does come along, what are you going to say in the interview? Are you just going to complain about your former boss and company? Will sharing reasons that aren’t your fault impress others? Of course, it won’t. What will impress others is talking about the capabilities and achievements you’ve gotten from your previous job.
3) Delivering results in a difficult situation is very impressive. – You know what is even more impressive? The ability to do things and get results in the face of very challenging, less-than-ideal job situations. It shows your maturity, professionalism, initiative, and ability to drive and self-manage yourself.
So turn your situation around and make a positive out of your negative. Of course, it’s not easy. You have to overcome obstacles and do more than what it would take to achieve the same result in a better situation. But that’s exactly why potential employers will be more attracted to you. However, if you sit around doing very little, you’ll have very little to impress others in your job interviews.
4) You take everything with you! – Working hard and getting results for people and situations you don’t like or see a future with is not about them. It’s all about you. Their future success may not be important to you, but yours should be.
Everything you do benefits you and your future. Every capability you develop, every achievement you attain, you take with you wherever you go. They accumulate and become part of what will make you more successful.
Sometimes, job situations just aren’t what you expected.
Actually, I experienced my own undesirable situation early in my career. I was sent from the U.S. to Taipei to help our sales organization there sell our company’s newest technology and product line. I was told Taipei was the company’s top, overseas market for this product line.It was my chance to apply my consultative selling training to real client opportunities. I was very excited.
After meeting several clients though, I found a much different situation. The technology was far too advanced for most businesses in the market. Instead, products were mainly being bought by government clients who had to spend their remaining annual budgets or have it reduced the next year. So they were mainly buying our WIIS products for this purpose and as a novelty technology.
I can’t really say that I had a bad boss. But he had no idea what to do with me, since it was headquarters’ decision to send me to Taipei. When all these realities became apparent to me, I pictured two wasted years ahead.
When self-drive, initiative, and resourcefulness become essential.
After feeling sorry for myself for two weeks, however, I realized I could still do what I came to Taipei to learn and do. I just needed to take greater initiative. The market wasn’t ready, but I could still engage clients and improve the Taipei office’s ability to sell our company’s technology. So that’s what I did.
I approached clients, introduced our technology solutions, and convinced them to let me assess their processes. I performed workflow and cost/benefit analyses. When my two-year assignment ended, I delivered a product manual of client proposals and case studies to the Taipei GM, which he was very happy with. For me, many of the consulting and solutions selling skills I use today I learned from this experience. I also learned how to drive my own development, be proactive, and deliver solutions on my own. All these have benefited me throughout my career.
Hey, if better opportunities are knocking down your door, then forget everything I’ve just said. Move on and don’t waste any more of your time in your bad situation. But if you don’t know or can’t tell when a better opportunity will appear, then you need to prepare yourself to capture it when it does. So think beyond your current situation. Think about what will help you attain a better one.
Yes, a crappy job situation will kill your drive and suck the desire out of you to work hard. But continuing to do so and find ways to build your capabilities and achievements is what will get you into a much better job and company. Otherwise, you’re likely to just end up in another so-so or bad situation for your next job move.
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