People lately have been asking me if now is a good time to change career paths. Well actually they have been telling me they think it’s a good time to do that. I don’t know why someone would think that since unemployment is at an all time high. Some people live in this delusional world, don’t they? What company is going to hire you, in this market, for a position that you have NO SKILLS IN??? The days of running an IT department with a finance background is over.

Five years ago when it was a candidate market you could venture into something slightly different and get a salary close to what you were making. Today, companies are hiring employees that possess everything in their job spec. If you don’t have A to Z then understand they will not be interested. Do you know why jobs exist? Jobs exist because the task is necessary to help someone else make money or because someone is willing to pay you to do a task that they themselves don’t want to do. Like doing your yard work.

The number one issue today is jobs. The Obama administration is going to do their best to try to figure out how to create more jobs. My answer to that is “Really!” If you buy that or even think they would know how to create jobs, then you’re just as delusional as the candidate who thinks that they will find their dream job! I am not an ideologue. I believe that this two party system is a scam and hope that people get their heads out of their ass and change it.

I own my own business and there has never been a day that has gone by that I thought to myself, “How can I get my head count up by hiring more people?” Business owners who create jobs do not think that way. They think how can “I” make more money. When the time is right and the analytic’s show that by hiring someone else will allow them to make more money then and only then will they do it, but you have to understand that NO business is thinking about adding head count simply to help the economy. NO, they simply have their existing employees perform more tasks to pick up the work load.

If the Obama administration really wanted to stimulate the economy then they would cut corporate taxes and tell us the rules of the game. Stop taking our money to run their programs and allow us to build our business so that we can hire more people who in return will pay taxes.

If you don’t buy into “Trickle Down Economics” then you must buy into “Pissed on Economics” because that is the alternative. If you disagree then what that tells me is that you have NEVER owned a business. I get that from academics all the time, you know the ones who are highly educated to the wazoo but are broke financially.

Humor me and allow me to give you an example that perhaps may turn on the light bulb for some. Let’s say you just went out and purchased or leased a new car and your neighbor came over and said “Thanks for the new car.” Would you be upset that your neighbor would be allowed to take and use your car for fifty percent of the time and not have to pay for it? Wouldn’t that just chap your ass? Would that be right and OK for you? Then please explain to me the difference in the government doing that to me. This year they notified me that my unemployment insurance was doubling and I have not had anyone file for unemployment for years. They said “yeah we know but we need the money.”

It is costly to do business in America second only to Japan. Perhaps we need more unions! Yeah that will make it cheaper or perhaps we need to add more government jobs.

Now back to the point of this blog and that is now is not the time to change your career path. It might however be the time to work for yourself or to work on a commission only bases whereby you are assuming the risk. If you’re sitting at home busting your butt trying to find a job to no avail, then perhaps starting something on your own might be the right thing to do. What do you have to lose? I started a wide area network consulting business and a recruiting business with virtually NO MONEY. Don’t buy into the crap that it takes money to make money. You just need some guts, expertise and a dream. Oh, but if you are one of those people who are going to convince me that you can’t “sell” then you’ve convinced me. Isn’t that selling? Don’t you love those people who say they can’t sell. Cracks me up! What they are really saying is they don’t believe in what they are doing or they feel they can’t convince anyone else that what they are doing is great.

Once again it all boils down to self image and what you believe that you can do. Unfortunately for some the hardest thing is the six inches between your ears.