As I started to write today’s blog, I realized that I’ve been inadvertently introducing the 9 lessons of Career Secret Sauce – my upcoming book -- in my first few posts without putting it in the proper context.
I began writing Career Secret Sauce in 2005 after leaving a successful management career in Silicon Valley. My career didn’t start out successful, in fact it was a bit of a disaster. I thought that the best method for career management was to do whatever it took to win the next promotion and land a big raise.
In the late eighties I started doing my own research on job satisfaction and the morale of workers in the work place. From that came the nine proven methods for career management that are foundation for the book.
I found that career misery peaked around one’s 40th birthday. That’s when a person struggles the most with the question of how to balance work and family. At this point, the kids are getting into sports and other activities that demand a reduced work schedule, but you really needed to put in long hours at the office just to keep up.
The original concept of Career Secret Sauce was to give my hypothetical 40-year-old a handbook of proven methods for career management. As my research on job satisfaction piled up, I realized it would be very difficult to write a book that would effectively get someone in this predicament back on a winning track -- so late in their career.
It occurred to me that my work would have the greatest impact on someone who is just building their career, so I changed my focus to helping college students get off on the right foot to avoid the question of how to balance work and family hitting them when they turn 40.
My first threads at Keyboard Culture touched on two of the nine lessons; “I Need Help Deciding What Career to Choose,” which was the focus of lesson 2 and “The Best College Internships,” which is the point behind lesson 1 in my book.
In my next posts I’ll focus on lesson 3 of my proven methods for career management – Your New Job.
You can also read articles from Dave Horne at www.careersecretsauce.com
9 Critical Strategies for Building a Winning Career
Dave Horne
