This past weekend, my laptop – the one I use for work and the one we have all our personal photos, videos, etc on – started having trouble. Specifically, the pin where the plug fits into stopped working so my laptop was effectively useless as I couldn’t recharge it to use. The laptop is over 3 years old and has been getting progressively slower but I figured it was all the files, pictures, videos, etc that are now on the machine plus all the junk that has probably accumulated during this time.

I’ve been thinking about taking it into a computer store for a look but hadn’t gotten around to it. The power pin problem was the last straw so I took it to the local computer repair shop and was given good news and bad news.

The good news was that the pin problem was a minor one and since they had a spare pin in stock, they would replace it for free.

The bad news was that the hard drive was failing. This is my second laptop and the same thing happened with my first one around the same time. 3 years seems to be the shelf life of my laptops so I bit the bullet and got the new hard drive rather than simply buying a new laptop.

Fortunately, the tech at the computer repair store was able to get all my files, photos and pictures off the old drive onto the the new one and since I use an external hard drive to save all my files to, I had that as a back up, too. When the work was being done, I suddenly had this vision of the current hard drive failing and losing all my files and then finding out that my external hard drive didn’t work for some reason too, meaning I’d lose everything.

I’m not a pessimistic person by nature but I admit I was thinking worst case scenario. Fortunately, I’m now typing away on my laptop with the new, bigger hard drive so I’m good to go with all my files intact.

This situation did get me to thinking about how I could draw a parallel between a laptop breaking and someone’s career. It doesn’t have to be a laptop really. It could be anything that is important to you that has a significant impact in your life but one whose fate is in the hands of someone else.

In my case, I put my laptop and all my files and information in the hands of a computer tech who I’d just met for the first time when I dropped the computer off, because their location was near where I live and was convenient.

I realized that I essentially had to rely on this guy to fix my computer, save my files and get me up and running again, and preferably quickly too.

In your career, you’re probably going to have to put your fate in the hands of other people on many occasions. In job interviews and on Internet job boards for example.

References, recruiters, HR staff, colleagues, managers. They will all be people who can help to determine your fate at one point or another.

Certainly the best thing you can do is take control of your own career and destiny and try whenever possible to ensure that you’re the one in control and are in charge of your own fate.

It could be the difference between firing your resume off to a bunch of advertised jobs versus picking up the phone and contacting people who can positively influence your job search directly. In the first instance, you’re leaving your fate in someone else’s hands while in the latter instance, you’re taking control and putting your fate in your own hands.

When I got the news that my hard drive was failing, it was a surprise because I actually thought it was just a matter of limited RAM on my laptop and probably junk files that had accumulated that was slowing it down. I figured I’d get some more RAM, get the computer guys to clean up the computer and I’d be good to go.

Obviously, that’s not what happened but fortunately I had an option to fix it. In this economy, “fixing” things might not be so easy. Certainly, getting laid off or finding out that your company is going out of business probably offers no quick fix.

I know what that feels like, too. I’ve been laid off twice. The first time, I was walking into the office one morning and ran into my boss posting a note on the front door saying that all classes had been canceled that day (we were a computer training center). The reason the classes were canceled was that the company had gone out of business. The receiver let us know this about 30 minutes later which was about 5 minutes before we had to collect our belongings and leave for the last time.

With all this being said, what exactly am I saying?

Well, hopefully this entry wasn’t too rambling but the bottom line is that in your career, there will be cases where you are in control and some cases where you have little to no control.

The key is to try your best to take control of your destiny where possible and avoid the surprises, whether a dying laptop or your employer suddenly going out of business with no advanced warning, In cases like this, the net result to you is the uncertainty as to what you should do next.