Help quick! I HATE my job!

What’s your strategy for job hatred? 

Your Rant: I hate my job. But I’ve got a mortgage and braces to pay for. Should I just suck it up and accept that a paycheck requires a certain amount of pain?

911 Repair:

Your e-mail reminded me of Richard Arrendondo. He’s an 18-year-old Californian who recently got lost mountain biking in the San Bernardino National Forest. He and his two buddies had to be rescued by the local sheriff. The next day Richard and his pals went back to retrieve their bikes. You guessed it, they got lost again and had to be rescued.

Unfortunately, many of our careers follow the same path as Mr. Arrendondo’s bike misadventures. We keep going to the same place, getting lost and needing to be rescued. There is a different way to approach your career. I’ve outlined five unusual strategies for a successful career below. For more, check out Frodsham and Gargiulo’s book “Make it Work” (Davies-Black, 2005).

Feedback won’t just happen, you’ve got to ask for it. Feedback isn’t easy to receive and, ironically, it’s often even harder to give. So you can’t just assume that people will tell you the good, the bad or even the ugly about you at work. So you’ve got to ask them — early and often.

It’s not about work/life balance, it’s about finding your life’s work. Frodsham and Gargiulo make an important point: if you love what you are doing it isn’t work. It’s your passion. And isn’t pursuing your passion what life is all about? So rather than lamenting the lack of balance between your work and your life these authors suggest that you need to find your passion and put it to work.

Every organization needs someone to rock the boat. Home runs are seldom hit by bureaucrats. Sure, organizations need company people who can keep the trains running on time. But they also need creative types who can shake up the status quo and create new opportunities for the organization to find revenue, create new markets and to help the organization find the next big thing.

You can’t plan a great career, so be ready to improvise. Don’t believe me? Think about the Internet. Or cell phones. High-definition TV and satellite radio. All of these industries didn’t exist a decade ago and today they comprise a big part of today’s economy. It is no different with your career. Keep your eye on the horizon for new products, services, markets and opportunities to contribute.

Dreaming is required. How many times has someone told you to stop dreaming? They told you as a kid and now they tell you at work. Since I’ve created my last 10 jobs (including the opportunity to write this column), dreams are what has paid my salary for the last 25 years. Dreaming isn’t a luxury; it’s how you get ahead at work today.

Follow these tips and your career won’t be a lost cause. It will have purpose and a clear

User strategy:

Our winning strategy for getting a job comes from V.E. in University Place, Wash.: “I totally agree with the gentlemen who was trying to look for work through the Internet. I, myself, was in the same situation. I had eight months of unemployment and my main complaint was there was no face-to-face. How can you sell yourself on just paper? A lot of my job interviews did not just rely on my experience but how I connected personally with the interviewer. When sending my résumé, most of the time I only had a post office box address and didn’t even have a phone number to make sure they even received my résumé! Thankfully, I now have a job, but it was from me hitting the pavement and not the keyboard!”

Bob Rosner and Sherrie Campbell author the nationally syndicated workplace911 column weekly. Bob’s a best-selling author and award-winning journalist who has responded to over 50,000 emails from employees, bosses and entrepreneurs. Sherrie’s a relationship expert and award-winning comedian who has offered quick, intuitive and humorous responses to over 30,000 people. He’s been called “Dilbert, with a solution.” She’s the counselor with a kick. Together they’ve turned rants into raves via TV, radio, print and live on their website at workplace911.com.