Have you ever found yourself feeling the more you did the worse things got?
That’s called a vicious cycle.
We’ve all been there, the question is: how do we break it?
Well, you might try asking Cecile.
Stand back, here she comes: a determined, high-energy 50-something, who has had five-year stints in midlevel banking positions, a couple of years with the Attorney General’s office and subsequent work at leading law firms as a paralegal. Cecile has a great track record. But the companies where she worked were acquired, consolidated and downsized and now she’s in a vicious cycle.
Cecile is laboring at administrative temp jobs far below her skill level, struggling not to lose hope and praying to get back in a career-stream job. As Cecile philosophically said, “At least it’s a pay check.” But, I could tell when we sat down to talk, she was very discouraged.
The first problem I identified was actually her resume. Hoping to show her strengths and diversity of experience, Cecile had listed a bunch of 10-month temporary assignment jobs. This made her look as if she doesn’t like to hang around long. The more she tried to disguise the temporary work in her resume, the less reliable she looked. The opposite of what she really wanted.
The second challenge was that because she wanted to get back on a permanent track so badly, she had been applying for jobs she was overqualified for, and people weren’t calling her back as much as she would have liked. In trying to reduce her risk of being turned down, she may have actually increased the likelihood that she would be.
Third, because she was nervous, she was opening the interview telling about all the experience she brought to the situation. We talked about how much more effective it can be to ask the potential employer questions: What are their goals for the position? Why did they decide to interview her? This would get them telling Cecile about her strengths!
In short, Cecile was caught in a vicious cycle
So if you find yourself saying, “the worse it gets, the worse it gets”, STOP the cycle.
Here’s how:
- What is my intention? Get any job; get my foot in the door.
- Given what I have chosen to do: Apply for jobs below my skill level. Am I getting the results I hoped for? I am NOT getting the results I hoped for.
- Since what I’ve been doing isn’t working, am I willing to try something different? What other options might there be?
Cecile did do something different. Her first step was asking someone to help her (me!). An objective eye can halt a vicious cycle to a dead stop. Together we were able to consolidate her resume, improve her interviewing style and get her hired and back into a high quality yippee job she deserved.
Just one step out of the cycle (asking for help) and she was on her way to breaking the cycle.
A vicious cycle at work, in your marriage, with money or in any area of your life can keep you stuck in a pattern that feels like it is just getting worse and worse. You can break your cycle by taking one small step!
Let me know if you’ve ever been caught in a vicious cycle. What step did you take to get out?
Until next Tuesday. Can’t wait,
YIPPEE!
Elizabeth