By Gwendolyn Ward, Principal at FOOW?

I was volunteering in a job mentoring program and reviewing a participant’s job history which included several short-term jobs. When I asked him why he left each position he replied “It was the people.” After hearing him repeat this four consecutive times, my polite-self left and I said “You’re the People!”

He looked startled and said, “What?” I explained that he had two options. He could get a restraining order against these people who were stalking him from job to job, or he could look at himself—the common denominator. He became quiet, looked angry, and hesitantly said, “You may be right.” After this, we discussed creating a stable job history, dealing with conflict, and the art of transitioning without the blame-game.

Sometimes you have to look at your people (me, myself and I) first and with honesty to get to the root cause of your state of discontent or transition. This is hard for most of us because blaming others is much easier than examining the clues that our successes and failures tend to leave. Like any other investigation, ours should establish the facts from the clues, and evaluate them to surmise an objective conclusion. Depending on your objectivity, you will end up with the ugly truth » Read more: Career Assessment: Career Messaging: Are you missing them?