Jobs @ Career Consulting Limited

Return to career-consulting-limited.com
Managing
People
Managing Your Career
CV Examples
Coaching
Cover Letter Examples
Pre-Employment Tests


Why Bachelors Make Bad Decisions: Five Tips to Move from Reality Television to Your Career Change


The Bachelor is one of the many reality shows that have gripped the US television viewing audience.

Premise: A very eligible Bachelor (last season featured an NFL quarterback) stays in a mansion with several eligible young women. They seem to spend their days swimming, tanning, and speculating about the Bachelor's intentions. They meet the Bachelor in one-to-one and group activities. Each week the Bachelor gives a rose to the women who will continue to compete, and two who do not receive a rose go home. (If you're a more faithful viewer than I am, please email me with corrections!)

So what can we learn about career reality from this reality show?

1. Walk out the front door of your comfort zone.

From the women's perspective, The Bachelor is a metaphor for the wrong kind of job hunting. Whenever you're one of a group chasing the same dream, it's difficult to create a realistic game plan and use energy efficiently. But they're chosen to compete and it's so easy to get caught up in the game.

Career changers, of course, aren't stuck in a mansion with a single prize, however dazzling. Like the contestants, though, they can get awfully comfortable. Better to walk out the front door and keep looking until you recognize your true goal and the ink is dry on the offer letter.

2. Prepare for irrational rejection.

If you choose to stay and compete, remember that the decision-maker is looking for reasons to eliminate options because there are just too many choices to evaluate rationally. Interviewers overwhelmed by hundreds of resumes often can find an adequate choice from the first fifty ­ or from any fifty chosen at random. You can't read anything into rejection except the laws of probability and randomness.

3. Look through the windows: there's a world outside!

When you're caught up in an intense contest, it's easy to forget there's more than one race in the world and certainly more than one prize. And I believe everyone should pursue multiple goals at the same time. It sounds time-consuming, but usually you can achieve synergies by creative planning. You learn how to pursue one goal by striving after another. And most important, you're likely to come out a winner.

4. Recognize that choices look different when you're on deadline.

From the Bachelor's perspective, there are pluses and minuses to this series of forced decisions. First, it's easy to procrastinate when you face a tough decision. A deadline often clarifies options and actually makes the choice easier. But when you're facing a complex decision with consequences that last for years, where a mistake can be costly, it's best to take more time.

5. Don't anticipate the final decision until the ink is dry on the contract.

Nothing happens until you get the offer in writing. In one episode, the Bachelor took two different finalists to the same jewelry store to look at engagement rings! Even after you've looked at rings together, the show seems to say, you're not even engaged to be engaged. (We won't go into the ethical dimensions of these actions in the context of romance. But would you want to accept a rose ­ or a ring ­ from someone who just went through the same process with a different potential partner?)

I've heard first-hand accounts of verbal offers that were withdrawn or materially changed by the time they were translated to writing. And even written offers can be withdrawn for sufficient reason. During times of stress, people make promises they don't intend to keep, and others hear promises that were never intended to go beyond light banter.

Bottom Line: It's no accident that Bachelor match-ups seem to fall apart when the season ends. And it's no accident that great decisions lead to empowering, satisfying, meaningful lives.

I offer one-to-one consultations on career and business strategy.

About The Author

Cathy Goodwin, Ph.D., is an author, speaker and career/business consultant, helping midlife professionals take their First step to a Second Career. http://www.cathygoodwin.com.

"Ten secrets of mastering a major life change" mailto:subscribe@cathygoodwin.com

Contact: cathy@cathygoodwin.com 505-534-4294


MORE RESOURCES:
Careers  University of Northern Colorado



Supply Chain  Lowe's



Careers  City of Phoenix (.gov)




Working for ICE  ice.gov



Careers  City of Ontario, California (.gov)


Careers | Home  USDA (.gov)

Careers at FEMA  FEMA.gov



Careers and Jobs at CRS  Catholic Relief Services

Careers - MDOT  Maryland.gov

Careers  Baxter

Current Job Opportunities  City of Keene (.gov)

Work at Fairfield  Fairfield University

Jobs  City of Rochester, New York (.gov)


Employment Opportunities | Game Commission  Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (.gov)


Careers at USCIS  USCIS (.gov)


Careers at TWU  Texas Woman's University


Work at Butler  Butler University

Employment | Department of Corrections  Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (.gov)

Water Services Careers  City of Phoenix (.gov)

Job Search Results  UnitedHealth Group Careers

Work With Us  National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (.gov)


Careers at Willamette  Willamette University

Careers  Johnson & Johnson

Career Opportunities  Gilead Sciences



IOM career gateways  International Organization for Migration

Careers  Washington State University

Jobs at Liberty University  Liberty University

Careers  BASF

Careers at the IOC  Olympics.com

Careers at Broward Health  Broward Health



Jobs and careers | Veterans Affairs  VA.gov Home | Veterans Affairs


Student internships at J&J  Johnson & Johnson Careers



Work for the City of St. Louis  City of St. Louis, MO (.gov)


Careers  WVDE

Careers  The Ocean Cleanup



UF Health Careers  UF Health Careers

Careers in data science  Johnson & Johnson Careers


Job Seekers  Illinois Human Resources

Careers  CrowdStrike


Careers  KPMG

Careers at Union  Union College

March 2025 Preview: What to Expect in the Jobs Report  Center for Economic and Policy Research

Career Opportunities  Advantage Solutions


Careers at Balfour Beatty  Balfour Beatty





Job Opportunities  Bellevue School District



The Job Market Is Frozen  The Atlantic

Careers  Euromonitor


Provincial Government Job Opportunities  Government of Prince Edward Island

Current opportunities  Turner & Townsend







Work at UI Health Care | University of Iowa Health Care  University of Iowa Health Care Medical Center




WORK AT LVMH  LVMH



Work with us  JPMorganChase

Need More Information?
Site Home | Site Map | Links | Contact Us | Privacy Policy
© Career Consulting Limited.com 2011

tumblr visit counter