Interview for a management job coming up

Good luck to you and I applaud you for your tenacity. There is a book you might consider reading. It is around 10 bucks, or you might be able to get it at your local library. The title is Becoming the Obvious Choice by Dave Cottrell. I read it many years ago and it helped me prepare for internal opportunities. You interview for your next job everyday you go to work.

Hope this helps. Getting promoted to your first leadership position seems to be the toughest step due to the catch 22 you describe in your original post. Someone will have to take a chance on you. If you don't have a mentor in the organization, get one.
 
The problem is the management gets used to you "over performing" and expects it from you. If you let up, then they wonder why. And you still don't get promoted.

I believe that you basically get paid for the amount of responsibility you have. By freely accepting more responsibility, even when not being paid for it, you gain trust and respect. If not, you are likely working for the wrong company. Just my thoughts.

Tom H.
 
This reminds me of one of my favorite Chesterton quotes:
"The American will work until he is too tired to play. Then he will thank the Devil, his master, that he is still donkey enough to die in the harness."

Thanks for that. I'm hoping this won't take to much of my time. I'm struggling to keep the weight off and getting back into shape since my car accident last year. I feel like I'm pulling an anchor some days. So I plan to join a gym. My current plan is to join a gym near where ever my side job is. I can get off and do my workout. Then head home. I plan to use some of the extra money on my car and target practice.

As TXBryan said, go for it. I don't know your age or career field but you seem to be motivated and ambitious. Those are traits employers look for. Remember the old saying you only regret the things you DONT do.

I'm still young. 31. But I'm having problems competing with with younger people. It's frustrating how many people under 26 already had management experience on top of college education. I know a 17 year old girl that goes to my sister church with management experience. She assistant manager at a local grocery store. I'm a security officer. I started when I left Walmart back in 2017 when I was 25. I tried to get into law enforcement more than once before that. I was originally planning on just using it as a stepping stone for something better. But life has a bizarre way of subverting your plans.

I believe that you basically get paid for the amount of responsibility you have. By freely accepting more responsibility, even when not being paid for it, you gain trust and respect. If not, you are likely working for the wrong company. Just my thoughts.

Tom H.

Interesting enough that's been true for me. Our group was the lowest paid at my post. After years of hard work… and Covid. we turn our reputation around and earned several huge raises. I tell new hires don't dare make us look stupid or useless. We now make over average in my area.

———

I know some people think little of private security. But y'all won't believe some of the bizarre adventures I been on on my job. I can literally write a book about some of the things that happened. There was one night that felt like a action movie. As frustrating as it is for not wanting to be here at this point of my life. I am thankful to get to see and do what I did. Because I wouldn't have got to otherwise. I told myself when I first got hired that if I can't handle this job then I shouldn't dare to try something more difficult.
 
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Thanks for that. I'm hoping this won't take to much of my time. I'm struggling to keep the weight off and getting back into shape since my car accident last year. I feel like I'm pulling an anchor some days. So I plan to join a gym. My current plan is to join a gym near where ever my side job is. I can get off and do my workout. Then head home. I plan to use some of the extra money on my car and target practice.



I'm still young. 31. But I'm having problems competing with with younger people. It's frustrating how many people under 26 already had management experience on top of college education. I know a 17 year old girl that goes to my sister church with management experience. She assistant manager at a local grocery store. I'm a security officer. I started when I left Walmart back in 2017 when I was 25. I tried to get into law enforcement more than once before that. I was originally planning on just using it as a stepping stone for something better. But life has a bizarre way of subverting your plans.



Interesting enough that's been true for me. Our group was the lowest paid at my post. After years of hard work… and Covid. we turn our reputation around and earned several huge raises. I tell new hires don't dare make us look stupid or useless. We now make over average in my area.

———

I know some people think little of private security. But y'all won't believe some of the bizarre adventures I been on on my job. I can literally write a book about some of the things that happened. There was one night that felt like a action movie. As frustrating as it is for not wanting to be here at this point of my life. I am thankful to get to see and do what I did. Because I wouldn't have got to otherwise. I told myself when I first got hired that if I can't handle this job then I shouldn't dare to try something more difficult.

It can be extremely difficult working for a small business. You would be much better off working for a city, county, state, or federal government.

Many military installations have civilian guards. You would be a government employee. The pay may not start well but the benefits are certainly worth it. Retirement, health care, working conditions are normally better. The pay will come along.

The DOD is the country's largest employer. They negotiate contracts with health care providers. I'm paying a fraction of what I used to for health, dental, and vision. And if you stay employed for at least 5 years, you can keep the same plan at the same price when you retire.

And you'll always have job security.

It's time to consider these things at your age. The next twenty years will go by fast.
 
Good luck to you.


I did 42 years in the Air Force; 25 wearing the uniform and 17 as a civil servant. Social Security, AF retirement and civil service retirement has blessed me with a good retirement income (all tied to cost of living increases), medicare and tricare
 
This thread kind of reminds me of an old Mark Knopfler & Chet Atkins song, There'll Be Some Changes Made:

There'll be a change in the weather
And a change in the scene
How is that?
I'm gonna start wearin' leather
And change my routine
I'll wear dark glasses maybe a toupee
I'll get down and boogie and become risqué
I'll start wearin' make-up like Jackson and Prince
You'll see me ridin' in my Mercedes Benz
Nobody wants you when you just play guitar
There'll be some changes made tomorrow
There'll be some changes made

Y'know Chet, you're never gonna get
To play that rock & roll
Why is that?
You're kinda country, a little bit old?
That hurts
But your money for nothin'
And your chicks for free
Well, them groupie girls
Ain't what they're cracked up to be
Well, not all of them anyway
Well, I'd really like to find out
For myself, don't you know
I've had a kind of quiet life
Down here on music row

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZfB8NFAvRY[/ame]

Note especially the part about "They ain't what theyr're cracked up to be" which is true for most managerial jobs.
 
Remember folks —- the results are always perfect for the choice's we make! It's an inside job. One point worth embellishing; why would anyone turn their business over to someone they didn't trust? I sure wouldn't.
 
Having been "fired" three times in the five years between age 45 to 50 due to pharmaceutical companies "eliminating antibiotic discovery work," I ended up working at the "last refuge of thieves, debtors and scoundrels" aka Uncle Sam. Due to my background I then enjoyed the next 25 years at one of the NIH institutes, retiring at 75 as a GS15. So the suggestion above about Uncle Sam is a good one if you have the necessary qualifications. I ended up traveling extensively around the world (over a 100 pins in my world map with deliberately only 2 in the USA), publishing over 200 scientific articles and even tolerated "traveling in peasant" across the Pacific many times, offset by "being required" to dive in such horrible places as Palau and the Great Barrier reef as part of my job description. I am still on the NIH books in an honorary position and currently at 84 giving invited lectures in such places as Finland (two weeks ago) and other parts of Europe and the USA. The moral is, take every opportunity and do not worry what will happen if you jump (or are pushed). Dave_n
 
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