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Bad Job, Bad Fit, or Professional Development?

Like most people, I have had a good jobs and bad jobs. I was running an errand one day and I ran into a former colleague. She was telling me about her job. She was upset because the position she accepted was different than it was promoted to her during the hiring process. One of the biggest issues was that this former colleague was looking to grow and develop her skills in a certain area and it turned out that her current position will not allow her to do this. After a few minutes, she told me that she was looking for another job, after only being in this particular position for a short period of time.
 
 
Her story is not unique, so many of the job seekers that use the services of the One Stop can relate to her experience. I don’t foresee this problem going away any time soon because many employers are either dysfunctional or the people that do the hiring are delusional. There will always be “bad jobs.”
 

Before we parted, I told her that the lessons she learned from what was wrong with that job would be more beneficial to her in the future than she realizes now.
 
  • When you have a bad job it is usually because the fit is not right for you. Having a job that is a bad fit makes you understand yourself better and what will be a good fit.
 
  • You learn quickly what not to do. When someone has a bad job it may be because of a dysfunctional employer, process, or culture. If you are the person with the bad job, you can see the parts that need to be changed.  As a result, problem solving skills are developed.
 
 
  •  The best lessons in a bad job are about people. I have heard people talk horribly about their jobs, but they love their coworkers. I have also heard people say they hate their coworkers. Good or bad, you get to see the greatness and ugliness in people at a bad job. Can you spot the narcissist, the over-achiever, the slacker, or the party animal?
 
  •  There is a saying a “wise man learns from others mistakes, a fool from his own.” If you work in a position where you are surrounded by dysfunction, you can use that as a lesson.  Someday you may find themselves in a position where you can create change.

Each person’s professional development is a collection of the good and bad experiences and how an individual applies the lessons to his own life. As workforce development professionals, it is important that we help our job seekers in many ways. It is not only getting a job, but keeping a job, and getting to that next step in their career. Everything happens for a reason, even a bad job.
 
Do you have a bad job? Know someone with a bad job? Have you ever made a bad job into a good job? Tell me more about it, either by commenting below or sending me an email. I can be reached at kcirincione@gmail.com~ Karen Cirincione

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