Need help finding a non-sucky bridge job? Read this.

I once got an email that asked me about bridge jobs – what I like to call “the jobs we take that help get us from right now to our dream business.” 

I kept that email in my Inbox for almost a week, thinking...how can I help my clients not only understand the purpose and meaning of a bridge job, but also find one? Mine was so essential to helping me set the foundation for my own dream business, I wholeheartedly believe not only is it worth talking about, but creating a whole article for clients and prospective clients to use as a resource, too.

Here’s what I got: 

A bridge job is the one that gives you the time and energy to work on your business without having to worry about covering your bills.

Before we go any further, I urge you to assess your current situation. 

Sure, your job might be boring and beneath you. Sure, you might not feel valued. Sure, you’d never want to work there long-term and you feel you’re wearing a mask of someone else when you’re there. I have been there. I have done that. I mean, can you picture me working for a FINANCIAL CONSULTANCY company?!

(I wanted to yell that part because, over two years after working there and only a few months shy of my quitting date, I was reprimanded for talking too loud in my cubicle. I asked my manager if she’d prefer I work from home or get my own office, but neither one was acceptable. I was told to tone myself down, and a week or so later I was reprimanded for not appearing engaged and eager to help at departmental meetings. Well, I wasn’t. I was being quiet. I responded that my communication skills were taken away from me when I was asked to tone myself down, and at that point, I was told to “go back to your old self.” You really can’t make this stuff up.)

But if the job – like mine at the finance company – makes it so that you can have the time and energy to work on your dream business while giving you the money you need to pay your bills (and especially if you can sock some away to pay yourself severance when you quit), it’s probably worth sticking out.

THIS is the HOW of finding a kick-ass bridge job:

Go for something that’s obvious from your resume, and don’t try to climb that ladder too fast.

This is not the time to make the move from office manager to copywriter when you want to start a jewelry business. If you have office manager and receptionist experience, you can probably make the move to admin or assistant to account manager—something in that realm. Spend an hour or so researching job boards or – even better – companies you’d love working for that are local to you. Check out the Career section of their site and see what jobs they have that could be within your reach. Make a shortlist and then tweak your resume accordingly. This worked well for me when I used my experience as an Account Manager to get hired as an Executive Assistant. Don’t tell the feds, but I tweaked my title at that job from Account Manager to Assistant to the Director of Client Development / Account Manager. All the bullet points were totally accurate in terms of what I was responsible for in that job and what I delivered on, but without calling it out like that in my title I might not have been given a second look.

The only exception to this? It’s if you have real experience with what you’re reaching for. If you want to make the move from office manager to copywriter and you have a portfolio or site to back it up, then don’t be shy! You’ll want to be clear that you did that work on your own time, but it’ll show your dedication and passion as well as some real-world work, and that is never a bad thing.

Don’t hide your extracurriculars.

In all honesty, I think the companies with the best cultures are the ones who want workers who have passions, hobbies, and interests. They wanna know you’re the right person for the job and that they’ll like working with you for 40+ hours a week because you’re not a bore. They want to see that you’re a self-starter and that you can bring more to the table than what your job entails. Don’t be shy in giving them a 360 degree view of you! 

So many of my clients realize that where you work and with who is almost as– or sometimes a bit more! – important than what you do at work. Remember that if the company rejects your own personal interests and accomplishments, then they’re bringing the point home that it’s not the right place for you to work. Nothing lost there.

Utilize the help of recruiters when/if possible.

I would not have gotten my Executive Assistant job at the fancy-schmancy financial consultancy company without a recruiter. I can remember meeting with almost a half-dozen of them, incorporating all their notes and suggestions on my resume and taking tests to mark my knowledge in stuff like Excel. (I had never done PowerPoint before, but I got an 80-something on the test. It ain’t rocket science, people, so don’t stress about ’em.) And then the recruiter has the hard part of getting me in the door. It’s super silly for you to not get them to work for you so you don’t have to do that grunt work AND you have someone singing your praises from the get-go. If you’re aiming for a bridge job that you think might work with recruiters, your first step should be to get in front of them.

Send out an All Points Bulletin to your trusted network, and cast as wide of a net as possible.

Forbes once reported that half of all available jobs aren’t advertised. Half! It’s probably not a surprise to hear that “When a job is posted online, hundreds, sometimes thousands, of applications pour in, all from individuals eager to fill the listed position but not necessarily possessing relevant skills or experience.” So, HR managers decide to save themselves the torture and go directly to their own networks. This means you’ll be doing waaaaaay more for yourself spending time personally emailing your trusted peeps to say what I did in August of 2006, when I was trying to get out of working in sales. This is it in its entirety. 

(As a note: Today I fully recommend avoiding mass bcc’s and definitely sticking with as many personalized individualized emails as possible—but alas, 2006 Michelle didn’t learn that lesson yet!):

“Sorry for the big mass email, but I need to cast a wide net to try to find a job that doesn’t suck out my soul every day.

I started my 2nd sales job in under a year this May, and I need out ASAP. However, because finding & starting new jobs are about as exciting as getting a root canal, I want to be able to find something that I enjoy (imagine that!) & treats me as a grown-up ( i.e. provides health insurance, 401K, yada yada yada). I’m NOT exclusively looking for sales (in fact, I think I’m going to stay away from it unless it’s with a major corporation that doesn’t bore me to tears), so I need some help to see what else I can do and where I can go to find that special, magical place that I wouldn’t want to leave.

I’d be so appreciative if you passed along:

• the info of anyone hiring that wants a sassafrass on their team

• any online job database that’s not Career Builders, Media Bistro, Craigs List, or the NY Times, 

• a career counselor that helped you or someone you know 

• a recruiter that won’t tell me I can go sell copiers for Xerox
  
  Thanks for your help, everyone!”

The title of the email was “Help me find a job that doesn’t suck” and I BCCd 36 people including my Mom’s bestie, my voice teacher, former colleagues and trusted friends.  That email led to 3 requests for my resume, a link to 3 job search sites I didn’t know about, information for 7 temp and perm recruiters, a referral to a career counselor, direct numbers for HR people with permission to drop names, and a reformatting of my resume that made it even more awesome. More productive than applying on Idealist like a zombie to black holes, right? Right!

Open your mouth.

This is not magic, lovelies.

Listen, I know that finding a new bridge job is a part-time job in and of itself, which is why you gotta be really honest as to your current situation and what you are and aren’t willing to put up with. However, if you know your job is contributing to poor physical and/or mental health and is leaving you zonked at the end of the day, then the first thing you should do to make your way towards your dream job is to get out of there. 

I know it’s an absolute pain, but take it from someone who made the exact same choice. The first thing I did to become a certified coach was to leave my Account Manager position with a verbally abusive boss and get hired at that financial consultancy company – then I signed up for my coaching school and started classes the same month I started my new job. That was in 2007, and over a decade later I can tell you that it’s one of the most important things you can do in making the choice to get ready to become a business owner - and I know that you’re ready.