Are You Bleeding?

I was going to post about the new release of the Job Journal, a premium feature we announced last week (this was released on Saturday, by the way, a couple of days early). I was also going to announce that today is the official day that my LinkedIn book gets shipped (there are already five reviews on Amazon.com, and more blogger reviews). But there’s something that I can’t get out of my head, so today’s post has nothing to do with … me 🙂

Wolves smell bloodLast year, in my job search, I was talking to a close friend who had excellent experience in HR. He was my main contact for a few intranet applications I built, so we had gotten to know one another quite well. After talking with him about my job search he said to me something like:

Don’t let recruiters smell blood. They can smell it from a mile away.

I knew what he was saying. I was in a pathetic place and I’m sure I was smelling wounded, the kind of wounded that recruiters and hiring managers stay away from. It inspired me to write a post, which is one of my favorites.

Recently, on an e-mail list that I’m on, I’ve seen a few people that have this bloody smell. Some are in a job search, others aren’t. But they all have two things in common:

  1. They smell like blood. And everyone can smell it. They think they are venting, or being realists about a sucky situation.
  2. They repel people with this smell. Do you like being around whiners, compainers and negative people all day? You can only handle so much until it’s a total turn-off.

Recruiters, HR and hiring managers aren’t the only ones that can smell blood.

Your family can smell blood.

Coworkers can smell blood.

Customers can smell blood.

Vendors can smell blood.

Peers, subordinates, bosses, heck, even your pet dog can smell blood!

You get the point.

I’m not saying to ignore your wounds, or that you can’t go through a mourning process. But you need to get to a point where you don’t smell wounded, and you don’t repel people.

If you are having problems moving forward, whether it’s with a job search, or in your business, or with company promotions, maybe you should find out if you are repelling people. And then figure out what you need to do to stop repelling people.

Easy? No. Necessary? Yes.

6 thoughts on “Are You Bleeding?”

  1. This sounds so much easier to say while you have a job, versus being in a situation where you don’t have a job. Still, you make great points.

    This post reminds me, Jason, of a post you made last year about substantiating yourself. It’s been one that still resonates with me.

  2. This is not as easy as it sounds when you get laid off or fired from a job. You are right you need to get over it, but you are wounded and hurt. You may feel like your pride, accomplishments, and everything you have worked for and dedicated to the employer was for nothing. You will probably look back a year later and laugh at your old employer and what a mistake they made but it isn’t easy at the time. One of the biggest challenges is during interviews when they ask “Why did you leave your last job.” You need to hold back even a drop of blood!

  3. I think, that best way is learn face dificult situation; make inner talk. Don’t judge ourselves too much, move on, go forward. It’s hard, but also not worth to show person who hire you, that you are bleading, and depend from. If we know who we are, we should reaspect that, be proud of. Patience, is worth it.

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