To learn about some common errors people make in switching jobs — and how to avoid those errors — check out this video clip.  It’s an interview I did with CNN’s Gerri Willis last weekend:

The final point I would make is make sure you’ve got a safety fund before making a switch. Especially if you leave a job without having another lined up, you’d be wise to have at least six months of living expenses in your savings account.

Johnson gives an entertaining look at his career trajectory in this monologue from “Saturday Night Live.”

(I tried to embed the video, but something didn’t work.) Enjoy!

Q	How important is a new employer’s workplace culture to you when changing jobs?
Very important	75%
Somewhat important	18%
Not important	7%
3109 Votes to date

Also, yesterday’s NYT had a very good article about how climbing the corporate ladder is really a thing of the past for most professionals. Now it’s more like navigating a corporate lattice. Good stuff.

Q	Do you expect to be in the same job with the same employer a year from now?
Yes	45%
No	55%
7858 Votes to date

But still more than half expect to move on, which reflects well on workers’ optimism about the job market.

The trend is taking hold among the massive baby boomer generation, many of whom are hitting retirement age but want to use their talents to “give back” through work that helps society and is personally fulfilling.

The phenomenon is explored in the book “Encore: Finding Work That Matters in the Second Half of Life,” by Marc Freedman. The book features inspiring real-life examples, including an insurance agent now working for HUD, a car salesman who became a social entrepreneur, and a health-care executive who now serves the homeless community as an advocate.

You can learn more at encore.org and Civic Ventures, the organization founded by Freedman.

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof also wrote an inspiring column yesterday about this trend. I am already looking forward to my encore career!

That’s from a New York Times article yesterday about “the new language of loss” when it comes to the awkwardness of talking about your joblessness.

After I got laid off two years ago, I avoided a former colleague on public transit because I knew he was going to ask me if I’d found a job. I went to the gym during times I knew I wouldn’t run into acquaintances.

With U.S. companies shedding nearly a quarter of a million jobs in the first quarter, many people are enduring similar uneasy encounters.  The NYT article has some helpful hints for coping.

Here are a few more worthwhile articles:

• Five ways to make unemployment work for you
• Bullet-proof yourself against a layoff
• Managing unemployment stress

Today’s nurses aren’t much like what you see on “General Hospital.”  They don’t all wear white, and many specialize in management, cancer therapy, technology, or forensic issues, to name a few.

Nurses are the “glue that holds the health care system together,” according to an expert quoted in this article. The field is still growing, offering a lot of staying power.  It’s also a great field for career-switchers who want to ditch a desk job.

All the companies mentioned above are very large, with tens of thousands of employees. Mergers of that magnitude pose several challenges, and the affected employees will face a period of major uncertainty and stress. It could easily happen to you — even if you don’t work in the airline industry.

In any merger of companies, employees can take some steps to survive the culture shock, as this recent article points out. Prepare to be flexible and patient!

Layoffs can also be an unpleasant cloud looming on the merger horizon. If you are facing this situation, you can take steps to protect yourself from a layoff and possibly save your job.

Other relevant articles to check out:

• What ‘right-sizing’ means to your career
  
• How job anxiety can help you succeed
• Job-hunting in an unsteady economy

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