Getting The Career You Want in a Turbulent Economy
In the landmark Elks movie theater in Rapid City, S.D., a town rattled by a turbulent economy, 200 people have turned out for a job-strategies workshop. The speaker asks the participants to pair off and alternate role-playing employer and job seeker. The employer has one question: "Why should I hire you?" Nervous laughter breaks out as the job seekers fumble for the right words. More than one blurts out, "I need a job!" Ginny, a laid off researcher, can manage only: "I'm good at what I do."
Ed, a $75,000-a-year purchasing specialist whose job was automated then eliminated and who's been out of work for three months, wants his old job back. Unfortunately, there isn't much call for what he used to do. He needs to look at alternatives and envision a new direction.
At the nearby South Dakota School of Mines, 30 career consultants from the area are discussing this problem. They wonder how to support clients who are totally unprepared for a rapidly changing future. "People are afraid to look for new ways to combine their skills and strengths in ways that take in new technology and social networking because they haven't learned to think that way, says Peggy Schlechter, dean of student services at National American University. "Their fear gets in the way, and they're looking for someone else to make the choices for them,". Another consultant comments that many people spend more time researching a new car than on the direction to take in their careers. "We are used to the jobs just being there for us," she says. "In this economy we have to get out of our old boxes and think differently."
The decisions and actions you take now will set the stage for your quality of life and livelihood for years to come. Don't panic, panic causes you to waste precious time and could lead you to take a job that is below your potential. Take the time to learn what is happening in the new economy, spruce up your skills, meet with people who know what's growing and how to refocus your talents. Reinvent your job title.
What's In Your Future?
Many of us are like Ed, wanting our old job back but without the old baggage. We rely on past job titles and try to build our future out of our past, using mostly conventional wisdom in our job search. In a rapidly changing world, we need to find a better way.
We must stop the knee jerk job-hunt madness and think about the future. "What future?" you say. "I've got a serious problem. I've got to find a job now. The future will take care of itself."
Actually, it won't. The work world is an ever-changing, dynamic phenomenon. New opportunities that require new skills are being created constantly, while traditional skills are reorganizing in new ways. Relying on your past to build your future and looking in the same places for openings as you once did won't work.
Like a powerful story or screenplay, a job search must be focused for something, and not function as a scattershot. Ideally you should pursue something you're passionate about. If you only want to get back on the carousel where you left off, you likely won't generate enough energy to interest anyone who's breaking ground and hiring in the new economy.
Create a New Blueprint
Still, it isn't surprising that many job seekers resemble the Rapid City folk. Many job search experts say the pressure of being unemployed often spurs people to take the least demanding course of action. They hastily crank out resumes, plug into search engines and make premature phone calls. These tactics keep them from what they really need to do to change course, which is to create a fresh plan focused on a productive future they can construct for themselves.
If you wish to stop doing what doesn't work and focus on what will address your immediate needs and lead to your long-term future goals, you must align with certain principles, answer important questions and take action. This three-part series provides a blueprint to help you achieve this career victory, starting with three principles that will improve your short- and long-term odds of being successful.
Principle 1: There is no scarcity of opportunity.
How is this possible when thousands of people are being laid off? The short answer is that at its most basic, a job is an opportunity to solve a problem or add value to any situation. There's no shortage of problems in the world now, and so, by definition, there's no scarcity of opportunity. What is scarce are people who know how to convert problems into tangible opportunity and to express this ability convincingly to the problem "owners".
The longer answer is that the economy and its work opportunities come from the ground up, not from the top down. Before today's 100+ million Web sites were built, we were living in a different reality with rules appropriate to that state of being. Now the Internet is the fastest growing human-communications system in the world. Use it as a model. As the Internet grows, people hook on at different stages. What's happening now that offers you a similar potential?
The $14 trillion U.S. economy employs 146 million people, up from 144 million in 2001, the Labor Department reports. The overall turnover rate is about 20% annually. That means that last month more than 2 million jobs were filled or refilled. The unemployment rate is about 6%, so the employment rate is 94%. How often do you get 94-to-6 odds in your favor? There's better than a 90% chance that in six months you'll be working. Will you choose the opportunity or will the opportunity choose you?
Consider the entire landscape of opportunity as your shopping field; advertised jobs are only a small percentage of the total. Don't join in or succumb to discussions about job scarcity, the bad economy, lack of responses from employers, bad luck and other negative thoughts. These fears can be paralyzing. You want just one out of the 146 million positions, and you want to be able to choose it for yourself. Choice leads to satisfaction. You can have legitimate choices if you're willing to go beyond the scarcity myth and shift yourself to looking at a full range of opportunity.
Principle 2: The past does not fully determine the future
Job titles and descriptions, plus your accomplishments and duties, are in the past and done. They aren't meaningless, just done--history. Your capabilities (the ability to produce fresh results) are here, in the present. And your future is . . . aimed where? You have to be able to envision your future before you can organize your skills and talents in a way that interests potential employers. Failing to create a concrete image of your future is like taking a car out for a spin hoping to find a terrific place to go, without consulting a map or another source of directions. It's not necessarily a bad tactic, but it's an ineffective one if you're short on time or gas.
Does this mean your experience isn't useful? No. But from an employer's viewpoint, the most powerful conversation speaks to "what can you do for us now?" The nature of work changes daily for every employer linked to our dynamic economy. What worked yesterday may still show up in job-posting systems, but in the field, things have changed. You must go beyond your job title or academic degree. As Bill Stang, a regional manager in Texas for a top tier auto company says: "The billion dollars we bring in next year won't be the same as the billion dollars we brought in last year. We'll have to find a hundred different ways to keep our dealers on top and our customers happy. There are a lot of folks who want to slow us down. We won't let them."
Jerry Sturman, chief executive officer of the Career Development Team in Bedford, N.Y., says: "I talk to so many who just stand there with a folded over resume and ask me to critique it. And when I ask them what they're looking for, many will say something like, 'anything in accounting,' or 'something where I can use my skills.' And then when I look over the resume, it's basically a laundry list of past jobs and duties pasted together by some resume service that made their customer's past look like history warmed over. 'Like what?' I say, pushing the question. Sometimes they just look glum or show me their fresh-from-the-consultant objective statement. 'Did you write that?' I ask. 'I helped,' they say."
Without a clear target or set of targets, the average candidate (and resume) has little chance of cracking the job-search code successfully. A job target is a work direction that combines skills, capabilities, interests, passion, and values aimed at potential employers who seek value for their organization and want to know what you can accomplish for and with them. Creating a target is the first step in your 21st century career.
Look at the Job Search Triad:
A job target (Direction) isn't a dream job or a fantasy. It's a description of how you want to use your strengths to produce the best outcomes for others. The job or jobs you target by thinking clearly and with an open mind likely are those that are most "right" for you--they fit you because you are unique and have distinct capability. George Thatcher, a former chief executive officer in Connecticut and a world-class skier and gifted pianist, quit his position following a company buyout. He didn't limit his vision, but courageously looked at his life needs and eventually opted to become a mail carrier in a small town in Colorado. He loves the exercise, people and time he spends on the slopes with his family. Even if offered, he wouldn't accept another CEO position. Brave or stupid? You decide
Mix and match skills, capabilities, values, interests, family, and environment. Play with the pieces. Brainstorm 50 job possibilities that would fit the matches. Go after three or four of them at once. Let your energy (will) push you in the target direction
Principle Three: Your resume is more than a document.
Your resumes (and cover letters) make up a compelling set of communications that promote your job targets to people who can fit what you're offering with what they need--even if it doesn't match their posted job opening. By their nature, they represent the way you think about yourself.
Targeting your future when preparing a resume will bring out your deepest feelings and vision of yourself. It's common to get resume phobia. Ask Gordon Davis, a cartographer in Silver Springs, Md., "I can't even write a letter to my mom without repeating myself. How can I describe ten years of 50-hour weeks in two pages or less?"
Challenge yourself to look beyond the labels or certificates you received from your family, school, or colleagues. Instead of relying on former titles and functions. Deconstruct each past job and reassemble the best parts from what you did then, to what's next now.
Many pressures and assumptions can cause you to panic, to get someone else to prepare your resume, make useless mass mailings and jump at the first offer. There is another way: research the current opportunities using all aspects of the Internet and associated networks. identify your skills and talents, make informed decisions and take independent action setting the stage for your quality of life and livelihood for years to come. Don't farm out your future.
© 2009
