August 2, 2012

Learning from the 'Missed Ops' in your job search

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New job opportunities can pop up when you least expect them. And sometimes, even when you think you've weighed all options, fate throws a wrench in the plans.

A few years ago, I got a call out of the blue from a former employer — one that had laid me off a couple of years earlier during an organizational shakeup. I was already comfortably employed at another magazine, but he asked if I wanted to come back to my old job with a raise over the previous salary (apparently the shakeup didn't go very well). He gave me a week to make a decision.

This was a tough one. At the time, I was deeply involved in a major conference being organized by my magazine and I felt committed to at least seeing the project through over the next several weeks. I also enjoyed telecommuting from home and having a relatively flexible schedule, compared with my last job. It felt nice to be courted again, but then I thought, do I really want to work for the same people who had jettisoned me just two years earlier? Who's to say it wouldn't happen again? I felt I was just hitting my stride at my new employer and was taking on progressively larger responsibilities.

At the end of the week, I called my old employer back, thanked him for the offer and politely declined — I was sticking with my new employer and felt good about my choice. About five months later, however, the entire magazine staff was called into a surprise conference call (uh-oh). The parent company of the magazine tersely announced that it was ceasing all operations immediately. The employer in which I had placed my trust vanished in a single morning; meanwhile my opportunity at redemption at my former company had long since slipped over the horizon.

To this day, I still feel a pang of regret about that fateful decision. But after reading a new book, "Missed Ops: When Opportunity Knocks ... Know What Not to Do," I may finally be able to use it as a learning experience.

The authors — Keith Nelson, a former special agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration, and Anthony Rienzi, a current special agent with the FBI — have made careers out of observing human behavior and all of the mistakes that come with it. In their book, they explain how to spot hidden opportunities, make better decisions and eliminate the many distractions that keep you from attaining your career goals.

The book's central theme is to pay attention to what others are doing and "to do the opposite." Most people, the authors state, tend to plateau at a certain stage in their careers and never move outside their comfort zones. Thus, they rarely recognize or take advantage of new job opportunities. To stand out to an employer, the authors encourage job seekers to continually accrue a wide range of knowledge and abilities. "Whatever your daily routine is, start adding additional skills to your repertoire," the authors say. "Even if you cannot see any opportunities in you immediate future, start separating yourself form the crowd now."

The next time you think you see an opportunity to advance your career, Nelson and Rienzi recommend completing the following steps before you make your decision:

Determine whether the opportunity meets your career goals. To answer this, of course, you have to have goals. A good deal of the book discusses ways to set ultimate goals for your career and then break that down into smaller goals and weekly or daily tasks that can lead you to your destination. Once you have decided what your main ambitions are (to travel the world, to write a best-selling novel, to own a successful business franchise, to be the next Martha Stewart, etc.), make sure that all of your career decisions put you one step closer to these goals.

Thoroughly evaluate the strengths and weaknesses. This can be something as simple as making a list of the pros and cons about the opportunity. In my case above, I should have delved more deeply into the financial state of my then-current employer and more carefully considered the possibility of its demise. Looking back on it now, I also realize how much more I enjoyed the subject matter and extra perks of my previous job compared to my new job.

Ask other trusted people in your network for advice. The decision is always up to you, but it's a good idea to ask around among some peers to get their input about a new job opportunity. A fresh perspective from a different vantage point can help reveal the hidden flaws of a career decision, or it can expose the fallacy of long-held personal opinions.

Ask whether this opportunity will ever come around again. Sometimes the mere rarity of an opportunity can ameliorate a multitude of other risks. For instance, it's not likely I will be asked again by a former employer to come back to a previous job I had enjoyed and accept a higher salary. I was so concerned about not burning any bridges at my new employer that I let a golden opportunity slip from my grasp. Missed-op lesson learned.

Write it all down for review. This may be the most crucial step. After some time has passed, jot down the basic points of your journey and list what went right and what went wrong. "The physical act of writing down this information will ingrain it further into your mind and teach you, through your own experience, what the right course of action was," the authors wrote. "Use this important information to help you make your next decision."

Randy Woods writes about job-search tools, networking techniques and other tips to help you land your dream job.

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