Stop drinking the Kool Aid!

So, in college a lot of people start drinking the Kool Aid and it’s harmless fun. You wear your college gear to football games, you spend time with your fraternity/sorority, and you’re proud of your loyalty. Go Bobcats!! When you graduate, you need to be careful about carrying that same unbridled loyalty to the workplace. Why? Fraternities and colleges do not ask you to leave for no reason!

One of the saddest things I have to do in my job is talk to someone that has been with their company for 10, 15, or 20 years and explain to them that nobody outside of their company cares about what they’ve done. What hiring managers say when a person works for that long at a company is “how will they transition to a completely different job, culture, industry after being in the same place for so long”? You have no history of how you will handle moving jobs because you have not. You NEED to have experience leaving a company and making a smooth transition. Everyone will say they can handle the transition well but, without proof or experience in the area it will fall on deaf ears. 

I have had the opportunity of working in Atlanta for close to 20 years now and I can remember the cult like loyalty people at Coca-Cola had for the company back then. I had a good friend that actually got upset with me because I brought some pretzels over to his house that were made by Pepsi. Seriously? As if the people at Pepsi are evil and we’re supporting something sinister. That cult died in 2001 when Coke started laying people off in droves.

There are plenty of passionate people working at companies who, while being aware of the organizations amazing culture are also aware of the drawbacks. They can achieve all of their career goals while helping their company.

Not to pick on Coca-Cola but I have seen it happen here several times. The pay might be good and they might promote you around but at such a large company, where is that experience going to help you? Are you prepared to work at a non-beverage company? How much of the business are you seeing? Are you managing Coke sales for one line of products in Madagascar? That is not going to help you. 

Another very common place I see this is in public accounting. Fresh college grads still experiencing the loyalty that college teaches us come out and work 60 hour weeks for peanuts. The partners tell them they should only leave for a 25 to 40% salary increases. The partners tell them they will never be as challenged and surrounded by so many intelligent co-workers. And the employees eat it up! Yet, nobody ever returns to public accounting because they don’t realize they’re drinking Kool-Aid until they leave. They have that “aha” moment and finally realize they were underpaid, overworked, and the partners were the ones making all of the money. 

I love when people bring enthusiasm to their jobs but there is an intelligent way to bring it. Like a loyal boy scout, always be prepared. Be prepared for what? How about a company sale, reorg, Private Equity takeover, company moving headquarters, etc. Have your resume together at all times, listen to recruiters if they have something to tell you, politely decline if timing is not right. Ignore the bad ones or the ones that have little experience and try to build a relationship with the ones that are well networked in your city. But, please don’t drink that Kool Aid that your company is manufacturing and think that “this will never end”, because………..it will!

I have had the opportunity to be a “Kool Aid” drinker once in my life so I feel like I can talk about this from both sides of the fence. I was convinced (as everyone was at this recruiting firm) that our competitors were terrible at their jobs and didn’t have the best interests of their clients and candidates. For 5 years I avoided networking with other recruiters or meeting my competition. When people left our big recruiting firm, it was as if they joined the communist block……they were dead to us now. RIP buddy. 

After 5 years I decided to make a move at it was at that point that I started to meet others and realized something. These big recruiting firms are all the same! The people are just as great as my company and we have so much in common. We do the same job every day and share the same joys, struggles, etc. 

Why did I avoid these people for so long and why did I drink the Kool Aid? Was it the young and fun culture? I hadn’t seen anything quite like that before and I was doing a job that I liked and having success. Just another reason that I should have been more networked and open to knowing others in my field. What do you have to lose from meeting people and networking? If someone offers you a job or asks you to interview you can always politely say that timing is not right. 

Knowledge is better than ignorance. And, gaining knowledge on the job market is a vital part of your career and something that should never be ignored, especially when things are good!