The Writer’s Coin

Trent over at The Simple Dollar has a great exercise in one of his posts for everyone out there that has a traditional job. He puts his readers in a hypothetical situation: pretend you will be fired on Friday (it came out on Saturday so you’d have the whole week to think about it). What would you do? What should you do? And, more importantly, what should you do right now—regardless of this hypothetical situation—to hunger down financially and find better opportunities out there?

I love these kinds of exercises because they get my mind going and I love letting my imagination run wild and then analyzing why I would’ve done this, that, and why I don’t do it now, anyway. It’s the whole impetus behind my All the Money in the World posts.

The lesson to be learned from Trent’s and my exercise is simple: why don’t you make these changes now, regardless of how stable your job is or how much money you do or don’t have? M’s brother-in-law recently got a new job and when I talked to him about it (he’s in his mid-30s and it’s a consulting gig), he told me about how he was happy at his old job—he didn’t really want to leave. But he’s always looking, just in case. He went on the interview almost as a favor for this headhunter who had helped him out in the past. It turned out to be a job (and job offer) he couldn’t resist and now he’s got an even “better” job.

That’s playing it smart.

You may be safe as can be at your current job, but there might be an even better job out there for you. And the only way you’ll find it is by keeping your eyes open and pretending every now and then that you have to find another job.

That’s how I felt at my old job because it just wasn’t rewarding. I liked the people I worked with, but I wasn’t happy with what I was doing and what I was getting paid to do it. Those feelings stewed for a while and it made me feel like I had to fire myself just stay sane. That’s a very strong motivating factor and it’ll get you out there talking to your contacts, polishing your resume, and making the job search a part-time job.

And it took a while, but it finally paid off.

Tags: getting fired, networking, new job, Simple Dollar, Trent