By Jack Molisani | Fellow
This column addresses job hunting and career advancement, focusing on various aspects of career growth. It's written from the perspective of someone who has been a technical writer, technical communication manager, and recruiter, and who worked as a captive (full-time) employee and an independent contractor before finally starting his own company. If you have questions or suggestions for a future column, email them to jack@prospringstaffing.com with ”Career Question” in the Subject line.
In Florida a few years ago, I decided to learn how to scuba dive. My instructor led me through the required pool drills (how to clear your mask when it fills with water, how to free your tank if you get caught on something, etc.). And while the lessons went well, I cannot say I was totally confident in my abilities (this feeling was compounded by the instructor brushing aside my concerns).
I passed the pool drills and moved on to an open-water checkout. Even though the instructor said I was doing “fine,” I didn't feel like I was. I chose to skip the open-water checkout and complete it after I returned to Los Angeles.
Shortly thereafter, I found an instructor in Honolulu who could do my checkout. When I met her, I couldn't have been happier! She was as patient and attentive as my last instructor was impatient and superficial. Anytime we did a pool drill where I didn't feel 100% confident in my abilities, she said, “Do it again!” And I did, again and again, until I knew I had it down cold.
Throughout the course, my new instructor also had me repeat, anytime anything went wrong, “STOP. BREATHE. THINK! Then act.”
She explained that the only time divers get into trouble is when they panic. They make fear-based decisions, they forget to breathe, they forget their training. Even if your tank is out of air and you are in 40 feet of water, you still have enough time for a controlled ascent, but you have to Stop. Breathe. Think!
As fate would have it, I had to follow that advice on my next dive. After receiving my certification, I went diving off the coast of Honolulu with a tour company. I was travelling alone, so they assigned me a “buddy” on the boat. When diving, you and your buddy are supposed to check each others' equipment before you dive, and then stick together once in the water. This guy did neither. But I was so green (new to diving), I didn't think to insist he stick by me.
Then I made another mistake: As a newly certified diver, I was trained to dive to 60 feet (18 meters). But on the day we went diving, the water was too choppy for a reef dive, so the divemaster decided to take us to a sunken ship instead—at a depth of 100 feet.
As you dive deeper, the air bubbles in your wetsuit contract, making you less buoyant, so you need to add air to your “buoyancy compensation device” (BCD).
As I'm progressing down to this sunken ship, I start descending too fast, so I reach for the hose to put more air in my BCD. The hose isn't where it is supposed to be.
I start to panic, I'm still descending, I'm approaching 100 feet, no buddy to be seen! And as if things couldn't get worse, I hit the current coming around the end of the sunken ship, and I start drifting away from the ship, away from my (missing) buddy, away from the group. Then my instructor's words popped into my head: “Stop! Breathe! Think!”
With this in mind, I was able to assess the situation. I wasn't venting air, so I knew the hose had to be there somewhere. And since I had practiced what to do when your gear gets fouled, I was able to avert a crisis, all because I remembered to Stop. Breathe. Think. Then act.
So why this long story about scuba diving in a column about career advice? Because I can't tell you how often I apply, “Stop. Breathe. Think.” in the work-a-day world.
Want to send an angry reply to an email from your boss? Stop! Breathe! Think!
Are you participating in a negotiation (perhaps for a job offer) and it's not going your way? Take a break!
Is something wrong in your online help files that is breaking the software build and threatening to affect the software ship date? Don't panic or start the blame game. Stop. Breathe. Think.
A problem is only a problem because you don't know what to do about it. I prefer to not call such situations “problems” because problems have no solutions (otherwise they wouldn't be problems, right?). Instead, I label such events “unaddressed situations.” Because no matter how bad things look when you are 100 feet down and can't find your air hose, you just need to keep your head, assess the situation, and find a solution.
Do you have a situation in your job, your career, your life, that seems unsolvable?
Stop. Breathe. Think. There is a solution. You just need to find it!
Jack Molisani is the president of ProSpring Technical Staffing (www.ProspringStaffing.com), the executive director of the LavaCon Conference on Digital Media and Content Strategies (www.lavacon.org), an STC Fellow, and a certified scuba diver.
