Today I was part of a panel at #ATCSM discussing the candidate experience when using social media for recruitment. I talked about my story and was asked a question around searching for a role when employed, wasn't I worried that my company would find out and I would be fired?
When I first started my search this was the thing I was getting told over and over again, 'there's too much risk, they'll find out, you'll be out the door'. Well, to be honest, I don't think my last employer would even know now more than a year on how I was able to secure my role. There wasn't much of a risk for me as I was taking my search to a medium that wasn't used by my employer at the time.
If I had been fired, it probably would have made a good blog post and would have provided me with another direction to take my writing in, but more important than that, is that I was unhappy and if I took no action then I'd still be unhappy. At the time losing my job wouldn't have been the worst outcome.
As far as I'm concerned doing nothing would have been worse as I'd still be stuck in a role I didn't want to be in. We often don't make a decision or a choice because of the consequences, but don't consider that doing nothing is still a decision.
If we do the same things we've always done, we'll get the same things we always get. Yes, some people will use the concept of 'risk' as a reason not to do something, not to step out and to protect themselves from disappointment but that would lead to a pretty mediocre existence in my opinion.
I've said many times I wouldn't do things any differently, that's not just because I was ultimately successful but because I proved to myself and to other people that taking a risk won't actually end up in the world falling down around you.
The same argument is often used for not using social media, 'but what if someone says something bad, what if I write the wrong thing or I make a mistake'. There is such a culture of fear around stepping outside of our default behaviour that we can lose sight of the opportunities and only see the risks.
But really, what's the worst that can happen?
