Today we will continue with the career path discussion and explore ways to build a successful employment record. Then the next entry will move into an overview of personal finances that includes a discussion on why to delay making that first home purchase, and end with a discussion of why it's important to begin your retirement program today...and not when you reach your mid-30s.

Now, let's begin at the beginning with what I feel to be a very important door through which we need to walk:

You must learn to embrace one of the hardest truths that young people have to learn: life is not fair - especially in denominational life. In advancement or daily office politics, do not expect to be treated with what you perceive to be fairness. Inequity happens. Sometimes there is a good reason and sometimes not.

Many times management has to make decisions it would prefer not to make because of reasons far above your pay grade to understand. But in most instances the decisions are fair in the big picture to which you have no access. It's incredibly easy for youth...and I mean those under 30...to be quickly offended in the workplace and to feel self-righteous.

Maybe I'm telling on myself, but I remember that in my younger days I had pretty strong opinions of how I thought my workplace should operate (though I kept my thoughts largely to myself). I felt that I had a very good grasp of what was right and what was wrong; life was very black and very white and there was little room for shades of gray.

That's important to remember because sometimes when life...or promotions...don't go our way we get so worked up we decide to leave our employer to "show them" as an act of personal revenge. That's rarely a good move.

Abuse should never be tolerated and sometimes you may have a good reason to move on. So be it. But be cautious when you think the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. Sometimes you think you are seeing sweet, tender Kentucky Bluegrass only to discover it's really AstroTurf. Every job has its share of "crud" (a great word from the 60s) and many times you're just changing the name on the "crud" when you jump to another job.

Be sure to think through the reasons for why you want to change employers. Maybe you feel mistreated and taken for granted. Sometimes feeling taken for granted is mistaken for not having enough experience to be taken seriously. Your experience is what you use to barter for promotions and advancement. A lack of it takes the trump card out of your hand and places it in the hand of your employer.

While all of us believe we are worth our weight in gold, most of us in our early years are only worth our weight in bronze. Perhaps the best time to decide to leave an employer is when you have thoroughly mastered your job to the point where it becomes predictable and is no longer a challenge. You can try to negotiate for more money, but that rarely works because your job is listed at a particular level (maybe just above entry level) on the pay grade and the salary cannot be increased.

That's how companies operate and it's not an entirely bad concept. Employers have certain jobs that are rated fairly low on the ladder and they save money by hiring inexperienced individuals (like yourself) to fill those positions. While they might like to keep you, you may grow beyond their ability to afford you and match what others may be willing to pay for your skills.

But when you do make that all-important move, be sure to negotiate for as much salary as you can get on the front end. It's tricky business but don't tell yourself that you can come in low and get bumped up later. It doesn't happen. You may think you're good, but you're not that good.

Never, ever, leave your employer in a huff. Don't get mad and quit, especially if you are being goaded by fellow workers who think you have been mistreated. Don't jump off that cliff unless they are willing to hold your hand and go down with you. Chances are they prefer to watch from a relatively safe distance and vicariously watch you "get back" at their shared employer, only to see you also jump to your financial ruin. That's what is known as the Law of Unintended Consequences.

It's incredibly easy to get caught up in below-the-radar office politics and get a buzz from the drama in someone else's life. I have seen this happen on a few occasions and have yet to see any of those still employed take up a collection to help pay the former employee's mortgage or buy milk and bread for his/her children. Those former friends evaporate like the dew on a hot summer morning. It can get very cold very fast outside the company where you have invested several years of your life.

Always leave your employer with a good taste in their mouth and a good memory of your work because they will be the one you use on your resume down the road. Burned bridges are very difficult to walk across. Remember that relationships are all-important in career advancement and even though you may have differences of opinions on how your workplace operated, you still need the goodwill of your former employer to help you locate gainful employment.

Be cautious with what you say in that exit interview because some employers really don't want to hear what they say they want to hear. It's sorta like your wife asking you if she is as attractive at age 50 as she was at age 25. I once worked for a highly respected Christian organization that conducted a very serious study into why company morale was low and getting lower. The result of the study was brilliant: after several months of crunching the data and feedback they announced that staff had a bad attitude and needed to develop a more positive outlook. Imagine that.

After you leave an employer your relationship does not necessarily end, and that's why it's important for them to continue thinking good thoughts about you long after you are gone. There was a day when employers could give very accurate and detailed information on a former employee's work ethic. Now, due to lawsuits, that information is severely restricted and sometimes is limited to simply the time frame of your employment. But don't take too much comfort in trashing your employer because you think his/her hands are tied from doing any damage to your career.

While former employers are somewhat limited on the kind of information they can share, there is one question - asked in a sort of code - that can be used to evaluate your work ethic and has the potential to sink your ship. That question is "If you had it to do over again, would you rehire this individual?" A prolonged reflective pause and a "no" or a "maybe" is all it takes to raise a red flag in the mind of the supervisor you are wanting to impress. An even longer pregnant pause can mean you are dead in the water and the former employer wouldn't touch you with a ten-foot pole.

You earn your salary between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. and your raise after 5 p.m. That statement doesn't mean that you are a slave to overtime for which you will not be compensated; it means you are willing to go the extra mile when your employer's proverbial ox is suddenly in the ditch at 4:30 p.m. and it will take two hours to pull it out. If you remain behind to help with the pulling, your value to the company will increase exponentionally.

These days everyone is concerned about job security. About 35 years ago Pete Bird, the hardheaded city editor at The Jackson Sun newspaper where I was working fresh out of Union University, shared some valuable insight with me after deadline one day. He knew my job as copy boy was the lowest rung of the ladder and I wanted to be considered for a reporter's position whenever one opened up. Gosh, I needed to move up the food chain as quickly as possible in those years and I also wanted to avoid being laid off if the economy slowed.

Here's what Pete told me over a cup of coffee: The surest way to avoid being the first to be terminated is to make yourself so valuable that management cannot conceive of existing without you. Many times these staff reductions are made in a total vacuum and you don't even know when the evaluations are occurring. By the time the grapevine gets wind of impending downsizing the decisions have already been made and it's too late to put your best foot forward.

By following Pete's advice, you are basically building a force field around you and the all-seeing eye of Human Resources is deflected, instead, onto the person of less commitment and motivation.

To paraphrase a biblical admonition from Amos 6:1, "Woe unto them who are at ease in Zion." That poor worker bee sitting in the cubicle next to you never saw what hit him. The fly swatter just came out of the blue and did its work.

Now let's touch on something I mentioned in the previous post, which brushes up against the temptation to take a shortcut to the top.

A few times a year I get a phone call from someone who genuinely senses a call to enter Christian journalism and asks how they can get a job. The vast majority of the time they mean well but have no experience. I share with them the need for professional training in journalism (preferably a major degree) and then urge them to get some secular experience by working at a newspaper or related kind of publication to learn the discipline of the profession - specifically developing a tight writing style and working under the tyranny of the deadline. Only then, I maintain, should they seek the sweet succor of the denomination.

Unfortunately they want to go straight into denominational life with no training or having paid their dues. They own a computer and have a couple of opinions, so they view themselves as a writer. They innocently expect their High Calling to suffice for an absence of years of practical experience. I don't look kindly on hiring someone as a staff writer, regardless of how low on the ladder they may be, if they don't know what an inverted pyramid style of writing is and never heard of the legendary "Five W's and the H."

After a lengthy conversation I begin to sense that the individual believes I am asking too much. I don't think I am taking scripture out of context when I say that even Christ, in Luke 16, talked about the foolishness of building a tower without first counting the cost. While His ultimate lesson was about the cost of discipleship, we in the communications discipline should follow His lead in expecting ourselves and our peers to maintain the highest professional standards. Anything less than preparing yourself for your profession, regardless if it is to be a pastor or copy writer, requires commitment and discipline. If we are ultimately working for Christ, we need to give Him our very best.

If you want to pastor a church, you go to seminary. If you want to be a writer, or photographer, or designer, you go to college and receive the necessary training. It's that simple.

Be sure you don't follow such an easy path with promise of great reward. If you are just graduating, get that all-important "fifth year of college" I discussed in the previous entry. If you are already in the job market, choose employment opportunities that will give you the foundation you need to be your very best...even if, on occasion, the career move is lateral. Lateral is OK if it rounds out your resume and gives you experience you can't get any other way.

When you have solid experience under your belt you are holding a key that will unlock doors much faster than if you took short cuts with lesser experience.

Your career can either be a game of chance - relying on the generosity of employers willing to take a chance on you with a lack of skills (and their consequently offering a much lower compensation package) or a well-executed path with advancement carefully chosen.

Just because you're a Christian doesn't mean that you should not be willing to pay your dues like those in the secular marketplace. You will always be rewarded based on your skill set, and that is the way it should be. There is no short cut to the top, just a series of detours that result in a dead end when someone more qualified enters the competition. You can be sitting on top of the world until your worse nightmare walks through the door and joins your agency - someone with half your age and double the experience. It's your choice.

Career shortcuts are rarely advantageous in the long haul. As individuals with lesser skills creep up the career ladder and find themselves in management they frequently discover they are supervising employees with far better skills who earned their advancement the hard way - by performance. I could (but won't) give you the names of some denominational co-workers who played the political advancement card to the hilt, only to have it backfire on them with a vengeance. They were great folks; they just didn't do their homework. They spent years calling their employer's bluff until someone more qualified came into the picture.

How did it happen? When they were downsized or their job outsourced they suddenly found themselves outside of the warm denominational cocoon in which they had made a very comfortable life. They woke up one day in their 50s with a three-month severance package and discovered they did not have any job skills that they could use in the real world. With no skills, they were virtually unemployable. They may have been department heads or vice presidents, but without real-world skills no one wanted them. It is a situation that is entirely preventable.

To some degree the denomination shares in the tragedy by offering employment to such individuals in the first place and giving them a false sense of professional security. But that is rarely acknowledged and is of little comfort when an individual finds himself or herself suddenly unemployed with no "real world" skills.

While it is a fact of life that some individuals advance up the ladder with marginal job skills, why settle for such a move in your own career path? Ultimately the more skilled you are, the better the chance for advancement.

The field is crowed as it is with incompetence; why settle for being just another member of the pack?

Want to know more about how to succeed on the career ladder? Register today for the BCA workshop in Phoenix where you can pick the minds of veterans like myself. We love giving our opinions. Just be kind and tell us that we look as good today as you imagine we looked when we were your age.