Are you afraid that if you quit too many jobs or switch careers too often, your resume (CV) will make you look undesirable? And who’s gonna hire you then? No one wants a loser who can’t stay put.
You’re probably right to be concerned… assuming your primary career goal is to work for a company that wants to own you rather than simply pay you to do some work for them.
The funny thing is that many people who have extremely successful careers seem to completely ignore this advice, building the kind of resumes that would disgust any reasonable HR person.
For example, whose resume looks like this?
- cab driver
- landscaper
- vitamin distributor
- glass-blowing lathe operator
- travel agent
- gas station manager
- U-Haul dealer
- moped salesman
- restaurant cook
- business consultant
Answer: David Allen, author of the ever-popular productivity classic Getting Things Done. Last I heard he was expecting to do about $6 million in sales this year (source: CNN). That’s a lot of mopeds!
Yes yes, I know he’s the exception. Everyone who gets away with this kind of thing is the exception of course. Damned cheaters! We wouldn’t want to dent anyone’s comfy little excuse for sticking with a job they don’t like.
From the looks of his resume, it would appear that David Allen is a lifelong quitter.
Doesn’t he realize what an amazing career he could have had as a cab driver? He could have become one of the best cab drivers in California. He might be on his 4th or 5th cab by now.
And why did he have to give up on landscaping? Think of all the hedge mazes that will never exist because he quit. Now that’s a shame.
OK, so maybe he just wasn’t cut out for cab driving or landscaping, but surely he could have gone far as a vitamin distributor. Look at all the fabulous supplements we have today. He could have made millions pushing pills. He’s gotta be upset about losing that job. It was pure colloidal silver.
But nooooo… this guy couldn’t hold a job to save his life.
Yet somehow Mr. David Allen is able to convince businesses to pay him $20,000 a day to teach them productivity skills — the same businesses whose HR departments would likely throw him out if he tried to apply for a regular job.
Hmmmm… kinda makes you wonder, doesn’t it? Is it possible that quitting could actually increase your productivity?
Perhaps the truth is that you can switch careers as much as you’d like — and that those who’d judge you harshly for it are probably just pissed that you’re reminding them of how stuck they are. Do they really have your best interest at heart… or are they trying to enlist your support in assuaging their own self-doubt and insecurity?
Maybe it’s not such a great idea to go out of your way to impress the HR person who’s only looking for the most submissive loser they can find to fill a position that no one in their right mind would want to do for more than a couple weeks anyway. If you up and quit on them, they’ll just have to find another glass-blowing lathe operator who isn’t as smart as you.
Isn’t it amazing how social conditioning can teach you to place a high value on something that a free-thinking sane person would perceive as dreadfully undesirable? Maybe we should make the people that fall for that scheme pay more taxes too; they probably won’t even notice. Oh wait… we already do that.
If you can’t seem to hold a job, perhaps you’re cursed with genius. One of the biggest quitters of all was Leonardo da Vinci. I wonder if his parents ever told him to stop flitting about — painting, engineering, sculpture, botany, anatomy, architecture, music, poetry, etc. – and just stick with one thing. Otherwise, no one would hire him. Imagine Leonardo’s Mom saying to him, “For Christ sakes, Leo! Last week you told me you were going to be an engineer… and now I catch you painting! You march yourself back outside, young man, and go finish that Yard-a-pult monstrosity you started last week.”
So dark the con of man.
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以退为进
如果你辞职的次数太多，或者变换职业太频繁，你会不会害怕到时没人会喜欢你这样的履历？这样还有谁敢雇用你？没人会想雇个不能安心工作的失败者。
也许你所担心的是有道理的——假定你的事业目标是希望公司拿你当成公司的一分子而不仅是要你做点事而付钱给你。
有趣的是，很多事业非常成功的人看来完全无视于这点，他们的履历会让任何一个正常的人事工作者厌恶。
比如说，谁会有这样的履历？
• 出租车司机
• 园林设计者
• 维生素销售员
• 玻璃吹制操作员
• 旅游代理
• 加油站经理
• 搬运商人
• 机动脚踏车销售员
• 餐馆厨师
• 商业顾问
答案是：大卫·艾伦，曾经的畅销书—提升生产效率方面的经典著作《让事情做好》的作者。上次我听说他今年的销售额要做到6百万美元（消息来源：CNN）。这个数不知要卖多少台机动脚踏车！
是的是的，我知道他是个特例，任何像他这样的人当然都是特例。可恶的骗子！我们不想驳夺谁舒服地呆在他不喜欢的工作岗位上的小小的籍口。
从他的履历上看，很明显大卫·艾伦一生都是个随时准备打退堂鼓的人。
难道在他最初做出租车司机时想不到他应该做的惊人事业是什么吗？他本来可以成为加州最棒的出租车司机的，也许他现在正在驾驶他的第四或第五台出租车。
做园林工时为什么又要放弃？想想看因为他的退出那些花径树篱就再也不会存在了，现在来说这岂不是他的羞耻吗？
好吧，也许他不是做出租车司机或园林工的料，但做维生素销售员的路他总该走得更远点吧。你看现在我们吃那么多的补品，他本该可以做数百万的这类补药。他丢掉这份工作应该会感到可惜吧，维生素可以说就是胶状的银子啊。
但他仍没有做好这份工，这家伙根本不能把握好一份工作。
然而不管怎么说，大卫·艾伦先生却能说服商人每天付给他2万美元来请他教他们提高生产效率的技能—而如果他去应聘一分普通的工作这些商人的人事部肯定会把他扔出去。
嗯……也许你会奇怪，难道不断辞职真的能提高生产效率？
也许事实的真相是你可以随心所欲地跳槽，而那些因此对你很苛刻的人也许被激怒了，因为你提醒了他们意识到自己是多么的固执。他们是否真的把你的利益放在心上，或者他们只是想从你这里获得某些东西以减轻他们自己的不自信和不安全感。
有些人事只是想找个最会顺从的失败者来做一个按他们的正常思维绝对做不下两个星期的一分工作，但你做得如此出格来给他们看也许并不是个好主意。如果你应聘然后又辞职，他们只不过再去找个也许不如你精干的玻璃吹制员而已。
令人惊讶的是社会的训练会使你觉得某件事非常重要，但一个与此无关的健全人却知道这根本就是个可怕的错误。也许我们应该让那些陷入这种情况的人多交税；他们可能甚至不会注意这些。噢等会儿……我们已经这样做了。
如果你看来无法坚持做一件工作，也许你是个很有天赋的人。最大的一个辞职专家是雷纳多·达芬奇。不知他的父母有没有跟他说过不要再换来换去，要坚持做好一件事，他绘画，工程，雕塑，植物学，解剖，建筑，音乐，诗歌等等全部做。想像一下雷纳多母亲对他说：“雷奥，看在上帝的份上。上星期你跟我说要做工程师，现在又在画画！你这不是在兜圈子吗。孩子，去做完你上周开始做的那个畸形的东西吧。”
人的阴暗面竟是如此地黑暗。