Dear CareerBabe:

Five months ago I took a new job at a major university as the coordinator of their residence hall computing efforts. I turned down an offer from a major media corporation at that time. I had been developing relationships with several headhunters and employment agencies in town, and several of them were very disappointed when I took the job and told me I was making a mistake by not staying in the private sector. They said that a university job on my resume would be off-putting to future corporate employers.

Is there any truth to that or was it just sour grapes about my not giving them a commission?

Dear Sour:

I do think the headhunters were correct -- to some degree anyway. If your goal is in fact major media work, you need to have a long-term focus and then figure out and execute all the logical steps to get there. If you go off in too many directions, while interesting to you, it is diverting and people (recruiters, potential employers) become confused.

Think about this: when you write your resume or present yourself to companies and recruiters, it is important to have a single personality moving step-by-step in one direction. Too many diverting paths can create the impression that you are a short-term player and have no real staying power in a particular industry. This does not, however, mean if some opportunity that is the chance of a lifetime comes along you should ignore it. It just signals using some logic about what you do so you know the opportunities you are creating and what you are potentially giving up later on.