No BS Career Advice: August 17 2025

By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter

“It is never too late to be what you might have been.” —George Eliot

One week of treatment down; two more to go! And my wife is back tonight from England. Woo Hoo!

Every summer for almost as long as I’ve known her, she has gone to Ulverston to attend a Buddhist festival and retreat there. This year, she delayed her departure while we sorted out my treatment and whether I would need her support (I didn’t). So, instead of flying off the last week of June, she left in late July and is back on Sunday night exhausted from a day of travel.

I’ll have a late meal waiting for her. The house has felt empty without her.

People hire me for No BS job search coaching because I make finding work much easier. I don’t write resumes, although I do critique resumes. I leave it to people who are experts at that. I am someone who has helped tens of thousands of people find work. I have free information available at JobSearch.Community. Also, scroll down to receive my Wednesday email with job search advice. Becoming an Insider at any level gives you access to all my video courses, books, and guides to job search, the ability to ask me questions and, if you choose an option above the lowest tier, you can receive job search coaching from me, too. I have several new pieces of content on the site. Become an Insider and get access to it all including my newest book, The Over 50 Professional’s Guide to Job Search Success: Proven Techniques to Overcome Age Bias, and Thrive in Today’s Job Market.” It’s my 15th or 16th. It’s available on Amazon, too as part of my Job Search Essentials series.

Madness

This morning, I was struck by how maddening careers can be.

We start off thinking we can enter the workforce, do great work, be recognized and rise through the ranks to an executive role with an organization that sees our work as extraordinary wants to reward us with money and authority.

When the reality of our first choice disappoints us, we realize that we are hired to be little more than ants in a big machine and are rewarded with 3% raises. We notice that people are being brought on from the outside to step into those positions we crave, and while some of them are quite deserving of the positions, we learn something from that. Sometimes, we see that the new hire is nothing more than an Emperor missing clothes… an empty suit who has hypnotized management with wonderful stories during their interviews.

We are told how much management appreciates us, but their behavior is incongruent with their words.

Little by little, an emotional death by a thousand cuts occurs, leaving us hollow, depleted of our desire to succeed, and trying to get along.

I know that was true of me at the agency that I contracted through for many years. I was a solid performer from a sales standpoint, but management, despite words to the contrary, really didn’t want me to succeed. It’s hard to imagine in a sales organization that management would go out of its way to interfere with a sales staff being successful, but many of you who work in sales (and many who don’t) have your versions of what I experienced. Management talking out of one side of its mouth and then saying, “Don’t look at what’s behind the curtain. Don’t notice the contradictions.”

I know parts of me became tired and surrendered to acceptable mediocrity for years. Maybe the same is true of you, too.

You won’t be the leader you dream of being without rocking a boat or two.

You won’t be the man or woman you dream of being if you allow managers to instill fear in you with the implied or real threat of you losing your job unless you are an obedient slave boy or slave girl.

The responsibility of leadership is far greater than someone can imagine who has not held its mantle.

It is not enough to be the critic who points out the failings or mistakes made by others from the sidelines. It is far more important to approach a person in authority and work with them to effect the change and learn from their difficult choices.

Madness can be instigated from many sources, but resides within your willingness to accept your small allowance of authority and power. If you accept the terms you are given (work as long as we need you, do what you are told, for this amount of money, and go away when we don’t need you), you will probably find yourself shocked one day when someone comes to you and invites you to a conference room or a Zoom meeting where HR and a group of managers (plus someone from legal) are waiting for you with a letter for you to sign marking your termination.

“I was a good employee,” you’ll think.

“Why me,” You’ll lament.

There’s an old fable about a turtle and a snake. The snake wants to be taken across a river by the turtle who asks what guarantee does he have that the snake won’t bite and inject its venom into the turtle and kill them.

“I promise I won’t,” the snake offers.

But half way across the river, the snake bites. The turtle exclaims, “You promised you wouldn’t bite!”

“A snake does what a snake does.”

Business is not a snake, per se. It does have to do what it has to do to stay in business and live for another day. It has to protect the owners, investors and others to live for another business cycle.

Your madness may be putting strong faith that you will be dealt with in a kind way. That when the next downturn occurs, when the next promotion is to happen or next position opens you want, that they will look kindly at you and allow you to cross the river.

With clear eyes, you already know that is unlikely you will grow from junior to C-level executive or manager to SVP, or go from $70000 TO $180000 with your firm, yet your madness distracts you from reality like a narcotic.

It’s time to get off crack, detox, and plan for yourself and your interests.

Many LinkedIn users have lost their jobs in the past two years. For many of them, there is a depression going on. For some, it is a recession. No matter, you are in charge of your career and your manager is too far down the chain of command to do anything to protect you.

For those of you who are still working, the next recession is coming. I don’t know when it will happen, but I know one will occur. It always does. It’s time to start planning NOW before it is too late.

© The Big Game Hunter, Inc. Asheville, NC  2015, 2020, 2025

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Schedule a free discovery call with me at www.TheBigGameHunter.us/schedule to discuss my coaching you. I don’t bite . . . at least not too hard.

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#BeGreat

Jeff Altman

The Game Hunter

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