Gordon Miller - Quit Your Job Often and Get Big Raises!: The Smart Approach to Making a Lot More Money at Work

1 THE RULES HAVE CHANGED
or How to Make Lemonade When They Hand You Lemons

2 GET IN THE RIGHT INDUSTRY AND GET THE RIGHT JOB
or Toto, I Have a Feeling Were Not in Kansas Anymore!

3 WHEN TO START LOOKING
or Dont Go the Way of Muhammad Ali

4 HOW TO MARKET YOURSELF
or This Little Piggy Went to Market, This Little Piggy Stayed Home (Guess Who Made Out Best?)

5 HOW TO WIN THE RIGHT JOB
or Interviewing for Fun and Profit

6 HOW TO HAVE A POSITIVE IMPACT
or How to Be Noticed Without Being Obnoxious

7 THE PROOF IS IN THE PUDDING
or Get the Spoon Ready, Its Time to Get into Action

S o youre tired of getting 3 or 4 percent annual raises? Or no raises at all while corporate profits are going through the roof? (You may not be aware of it, but Real Corporate Profits have increased more than 50 percent in the last five years while Real Median Wages have decreased during the same period. Just thought youd like to know.) The words merger, acquisition, downsizing, right-sizing and re-engineering have taken on new meaning. You suddenly realize that Dilbert may know a lot more about your work situation than your manager does.

If any or all of those statements ring true, this small volume may be the most important book you read this year. Or any year.

What you will read is a true story. I know that because I lived it. The information didnt come to me on stone tablets or in a dream from some figure clothed in white light. I take a solemn oath that I am not now, nor have I ever been, a guru of any kind. Like most of the things Ive learned, its been trial and error, usually more error than trial.

I dont have an M.B.A. from Harvard or Stanford. In fact, Im not a scholar of any kind. Im a small-town guy from Iowa raised with traditional values and a strong work ethic. My father worked for one company for forty years, retired, lived poor and died broke. I was raised to believe that the old values still worked. The truth isthey dont always. Not in todays world. One of the first things you need to understand is that

and unless youre willing and able to adapt, youll surely go the way of the saber-toothed tiger.

Ten years ago I was making $40,000 a year, plugging along, thinking that if I was loyal, trustworthy, brave and true, the company would compensate me appropriately. Soon enough it became clear that they wouldnt, and though they still believed in the concept of loyalty, they would much rather have it be my loyalty than theirs. Today, a short ten years later, I am making approximately four times that much.

How did I do it? Well, thats what this book is about. It is, above all, a practical guide (well leave the theory to the Harvard and Stanford guys), a step-by-step process of learning how to make the New Rules work in your favor. There will be research for you to do, actions for you to take. I am not about to suggest that you stand on the street corner with a will work for stock options sign. There is risk involved. This book will help you minimize that risk.

O n July 13, 1997, two days after I quit my fourth job in five years, the most interesting thing happened. I got three job offers and a 30 percent pay increase.

Why, you ask?

Simple The Rules Have Changed.

There are several reasons for the changes: the globalization of the economy (over 50 percent of Hewlett-Packards income is now derived from overseas marketsand they are only one of many), mergers and acquisitions, new advances in technology and the concept of outsourcing noncore functions. The entire business economy has changed. The old ways may no longer be effective. Companies are changing strategies in order to stay competitive. They are realizing that they must not only be willing to change but be willing to change quickly in response to new technologies, to new business and manufacturing demands. At one time business drove the market; today its the other way around. Twenty-five years ago it was a different story.

In the fifties and sixties, long-term manufacturing and business planning was a viable activity. And in those days long-term meant years. (I mean, how much difference was there between a 1951 and a 1961 toaster?) Now, long-term is more likely measured in months, sometimes weeks. Technology dictates a fundamental change in attitude and outlook The feeling that everything is going a lot faster is not an illusion.

To Market, to Market, to Market We Go

And youd better hurry, because if you dont Well, need we say more? The corporate landscape is littered with the abandoned dreams of businesses that were not in a position to be flexible and responsive. Workers, too. Faster than anyone could have imagined, 286s became 386s, which became 486s, which seemingly overnight turned into Pentiums and Workstations and Lans and Wans and God knows what else. Whats next? State-of-the-art is whats in the morning mail And thats each mornings mail. As in e-mail.

T he Old Model says that Workers are faithful, loyal, trustworthy and true; they toil long and hard and get small annual raises, work at least five years before a Promotion comes along, at least another five before an actual Position is available. From there, its ten years minimum to a Desk and a tie and a small plastic placard with your name on it. Gordon miller. Youve arrived. At last. But if the process was slow, at least it was usually reliable. Usually Your loyalty was to some extent returned. (That was in the days before the Merger and Acquisition Monster was born. Such a cute baby. How could we have known?) Of course, as you know by now, that kind of loyalty is a thing of the past. It is dead. D-e-a-d. Why? Because its no longer good business. Companies have to change quickly or they wont be in business very long Goodbye, Mr. and Mrs. Worker. Youre not the Mr. and Mrs. Worker we need for this project. See ya

Oh, companies still talk about loyalty. They have Human Resources Departments, Employee Assistance Programs, and they will tell you that loyalty is important, but the truth is youll be down-sized right out the door so fast youll get a nosebleed when and if the company decides that you no longer fit into their plans. The paradigm (now theres a nice Harvard word) has changed. Congratulations, youre now a casualty of reengineering. No Purple Heartjust a plain old Pink Slip.

Some twenty years ago yours truly entered the Wonderful World of Business. Remember now, Im just your basic, no-frills, small-town Iowa guy with the olde tyme work ethic. Some schooling. Nothing special. But eager. And do I ever want to make good. Wanna be a Team Player