A cover letter and a resume, offering suggestions for getting information from experts in one's chosen field. And it prepares the reader for a job interview, including tips for negotiating salary, coping with stressful questions and maintaining anonymity.
Those recovering from alcohol or drug addiction may find themselves, as Eric A. did, improving their personal and spiritual affairs but unable to cope with chronic career problems. They may be bouncing from one employer to the next, or stuck in a make-do job, unful-filled, angry and frustrated with their poor performance.
"These repeated failures I at-tributed to some submerged character flaw," Eric says. "I believed that the problem lay either in the low quality of my former employer or in my own sick spirit, and that counseling would do no good."
Eventually, Eric sought help from Atlanta career counselor Nat Tanenbaum, who introduced him to a technique practiced by hundreds of his clients - a technique now presented in The Career Seekers: A Program for Career Recovery.
In it, Mr. Tanenbaum outlines a step-by-step approach for recovering alcoholics, addicts, co-dependents and adult children of alcoholics who are straightening out their job situations. Written in a simple, straightforward style, this book contains useful informa-tion for anyone searching for a job.
"I was trying to educate myself on what's different about the career problems of people in recovery, and I couldn't find anything written about it," says Mr. Tanenbaum, who spent 35 years in human resource development for corporations before becoming a career counselor 12 years ago.
"I'm not an expert on addiction, I'm an expert on careers. Many recover-ing people have slips - when they start drinking again - and usually those slips occur because of a career problem."
People in recovery, Mr. Tanenbaum says, consistently display four characteristics that impede taking responsibility for their careers and becoming what he calls "seekers."
Intrusive intelligence - a mind that seems to get in its own way- prevents them from focusing on important goals and lets them rationalize their failures. Perfectionism blurs the distinction between what does and doesn't matter. Procrastination prevents them from taking constructive action. And low self-esteem creates a "system of anxiety" and a pattern of failure.
"Almost everyone suffers in these areas, but people in recovery have exaggerations in all four simultane-ously," Mr. Tanenbaum says. "They become frozen. If they can't gain perfec-tion, they do nothing so they won't do something imperfectly, and this lowers their self-esteem because they're doing nothing.
To become a "seeker" and break this cycle, one must realize three things: that you and only you are respon-sible for your career; that no career decision is forever; and that you're going to lose some and some are going to be rained out."
Mr. Tanenbaum discusses implications of these rules, cautioning readers not to expect sympathy and for-giveness from colleagues and superiors, to manage careers one step at a time and to expect repeated rejection. He further illustrates them with brief sketches based on experience of his clients.
"Career seekers take charge and believe they can make changes in their careers," he says. "Job hunters go out and take the first job that's offered to them, and then cry about it.'
Career seekers succeed, Mr. Tanenbaum says, by first discovering what they want to do, finding their targeted market and then finding the right job.
"The sequentially structured approach is critical," Mr. Tanenbaum says. "Ninety percent of a successful painting is preparation. Seekers need know what they're looking for and be excited about it before they go out look-ing for it."
The book includes an extensive multiple-choice questionnaire designed to help the reader decide what he or she wants to do. It tells how and why to write. -- Reprinted with permission from The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, Aug. 4, 1989.
Steers People in Recovery Toward Job Success -- Rebecca McCarthy
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
Nat Tanenbaum.
"After 18 years of an ascending career path, I found myself with career problems for the first time in my life. Nat Tanenbaum gave me the structure and motivation to solve my career problems.
The comment is typical of the many who turned to Nat Tanenbaum, past president of The Career Center in Atlanta, for career guidance. Having served as senior corporate executive in more than one field, Tanenbaum bridged the human resource gap between employers and employees. He has guided clients to a realistic understanding of their potential and helped them match their strengths with an organization's needs.
Since founding The Career Center in 1977, Tanenbaum has aided over 1000 individuals in solving their career problems. He has worked independently with individuals at The Career Center and as an outside consultant with many businesses. In addition, he is active as a public speaker. "Unfortunately, most people spend more time and effort selecting their automobiles than choosing their careers," Tanenbaum says. He advocates that businesses offer professional career counseling to their employees not only as an employee benefit but to utilize the company's resources more fully.
After making the decision to retire from his own management consulting company in 1977, Tanenbaum sought the services of a national career counseling firm. That disappointing and expensive experience led him to found his own counseling firm committed to helping people learn how to manage their own careers. He packaged the best assessment and testing procedures into a comprehensive plan for a very modest fee. Since then, his unusual insight and sensitivity, wit and wisdom have led many people to say, "You changed my life. I have regained my self-confidence."
A native Texan, Tanenbaum's varied career began after graduating from Baylor University and serving as a naval officer in the Pacific area during World War II. He returned to Texas to work in radio and television and founded his own advertising agency.
Later he moved to Southern California to continue his career in advertising and public relations with Chevrolet and Mutual Savings and Loan. In addition to serving as president of the Advertising Club of Pasadena and vice-president of the Advertising Association of the West, he taught courses sponsored by the Sales and Marketing Executive Association of Los Angeles at the University of Southern California.
Tanenbaum owned a printing business before joining a division of Dart Industries where he rose from sales manager to international director of marketing. During this period he traveled to every state in the USA and to over 70 foreign countries to recruit, train, and manage executives in 43 countries.
After leaving Dart, Tanenbaum co-founded The Management Team, a sales and marketing consulting firm, whose clients included Technicolor, Gillett, Avon and other national and international companies.
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
