The Mixed Story of Women in the Workforce

First to the good news for women in the workforce. Women in America are enrolled in greater numbers in higher education than men. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, during the fall of 2021 female students comprised 61% of the higher ed student body with men at 39%. A year earlier the stats were 58% female and 42% male. Projections for 2030 indicate that there will be 2.37 million more women in postsecondary institutions than men. The trend is clear. Women are more drawn to improving their levels of education compared to men.

This was not always the case. In 1970, male enrolment outnumbered women registrations. By 1980, the admissions records were at parity. And now here we are. The result of this direction shift should tip the balance of education’s benefits toward women more than men.

What are these benefits? Even at a time such as ours when the high cost of college education is causing more people to question its return on investment, there are still documented advantages to getting an undergraduate degree. These include:

  • Higher earning potential and incomes
  • More employment possibilities
  • Increased job security
  • More abundant compensation packages
  • Enhanced personal development
  • Greater networking opportunities
  • Improved job satisfaction

It is not a stretch to predict that these merits will eventually give women the edge in business leadership and economic clout. A feminization of the economic picture may or may not be an overall gain. That has yet to be seen. Will competition be strengthened by defanging it to some degree or at least softening its sharpness? Again, this has yet to be seen.

However, the outlook for women employment writ large is not so rosy across the board. Among the policy-driven data Third Way examines is the non-college economy. And in this category their data dive into the numbers provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reveal a troubling forecast for women who do not pursue a college education.

Estimates are that over the next decade the rate of job loss among non-college women is expected to increase significantly. Unfortunately, many non-college women are currently employed in industries that are predicted to decline.

So, let’s look at the big picture. BLS has identified the industries projected to decline economically and by extension employment-wise over the next ten years. Among these industries, 97% of the positions not requiring a college degree will disappear. Incidentally, 60% of these job losses are now middle-wage jobs. And here is the kicker. Two-thirds of these precarious jobs are currently held by women without a college degree!

Most non-college women work in jobs considered low-wage or middle wage. Examples of low-wage jobs include cashiers and fast-food cooks. Middle-wage jobs are like office clerks and retail sales supervisors. Historically, middle-wage jobs provided the means for women to support themselves and to get established in the middle class. With many of these jobs facing elimination, the strain on non-college women to afford middle class lifestyles will become more pronounced.

To add insult to injury, it is these middle-wage jobs that are most likely to be abolished, even when compared to the low-wage jobs. In fact, low-wage jobs, those under $36,700, are under less threat according to BLS than the middle-wage jobs. If true, it becomes easy to see that a migration of non-college women from middle-wage to low-wage work is likely.

The decline of middle-wage jobs is largely being caused by automation and outsourcing. And who knows to what extent Artificial Intelligence will acerbate this movement? Examples of middle-wage jobs include:

  • Administrative assistants outside of legal, medical, and executive
  • Customer service representatives
  • Assemblers and fabricators
  • Bookkeeping, auditing, and accountant clerks
  • Frontline office supervisors

One possibility to avert this disturbing development is to hope the proliferation of industry credentials, certificates, and badges which qualify women (and men) for middle-wage positions without the need for college degrees will continue. Although such credentialing will not replace college degrees, in the short term they may stem the tide of disappearing middle-wage jobs.

Another thought is that the college educated women who will have more decision making authority in the future will design economic and employment solutions for the women who have been unable to go to college. My fingers are crossed.

 

The Need for Versatile Leaders

There is no shortage of disruptions to our workplaces and to our careers. They come in two styles, one transient and the other sustained. There are the short-lived perturbations, for example our current experiences with inflation, Covid, the war in Ukraine, and spotty supply chain shortages. Then there are the disturbances which have roots in recent history and continually transform, such as the evolutions of globalization and technology, including the advent of generative AI. Taken as a whole, it can seem as if there is little time for complacency or work that is of slow tempo. 

Managers seem especially exposed to the fluctuations and inconsistencies of the modern workplace. They are called upon to guide direct reports through turbulence and insecurity while attempting to follow strategic policies. This can be quite challenging. The way leaders handle threats and turmoil matters for the health of their careers and of the careers of workers who are impacted by managers’ approach to volatility. 

Versatile leaders have been identified as valuable resources for a workplace to have during times of upheaval. They can be beneficial when the need arises to manage resources efficiently to remain productive. Maintaining employee engagement and adaptability during periods of uncertainty requires a special kind of leader. Organizations are increasingly aware of how important it is to have versatile leaders. 

Rob Kaiser of Kaiser Leadership Solutions and Ryne Sherman and Robert Hogan, both of Hogan Assessment Solutions, have been studying versatility in leadership for twenty-six years. They note how from the late nineties to the mid-2000s co-worker ratings of leadership identified the trait of versatility as an important leadership trait 35% of the time. By the time of the Great Recession in 2008, versatility was seen as a significant leadership attribute in 50% of the ratings. And by the time of the pandemic, it shot to 63%. The demand for versatile leadership is growing in recognition. Given the rate of change expanding as it is, it is easy to see why. 

Kaiser et al define versatility as the leadership ability to function effectively in a context characterized as volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. Within that setting, versatile leaders can quickly adapt by applying a range of appropriate skills and behaviors that reshuffle and redeploy resources to preserve productivity. This type of leadership manifests in two distinct ways. One style is more forceful and direct as in a single point of command tasked with making the hard choices. The other approach reaches out to employees in an empowering and supportive way to provide tranquility and to ease concerns. The skilled practitioner of versatility knows how to shift between these modes as the situations dictate. 

In fact, a leader who may be well versed and experienced in one of these modes, but unable to adroitly shift to the other does not qualify as a versatile leader and indeed may be a lower quality leader overall due to their situational limitations. However, the good news is that versatility can be an acquired capability. Counterintuitively, versatile leaders are not correlated with any specific personality type. To the contrary, versatile leaders are represented across multiple personality types. Given that the research of Kaiser et al identifies fewer than 10% of the leadership workforce as versatile, the incentive is there for increased versatility training. 

Although personality alone may not be a strong predictor of versatility other background elements are. It has been documented that leaders who have had many kinds of work experiences requiring the development of a diverse range of skills in circumstances for which they were not already highly qualified can be de facto versatility training. The more a leader finds herself or himself faced with assignments that are a stretch, combined with an innate attitude that sees these duties as learning opportunities, then versatility is enhanced. Potential leaders who want to be relevant in today’s world should take note. 

Love Video Games? Make Gaming a Career With These 6 Tips

Another Guest Post from contributor Leslie Campos

Photo by Michael Boskovski on Unsplash

 

Video games are an enjoyable hobby, but what if you could make gaming into a career? With the right skills and education, it might be easier than you think to build the career of your dreams. Bill Ryan Writings offers this career development advice for gamers who want to make their passion into a profession.

Plan Carefully

The video game industry involves countless careers and job paths. Since you want to make quality decisions in planning your career, explore the options carefully.

 

All types of roles support video game development, including art, technical, programming, engineering, business, and marketing positions (and many more). Consider your interests, strengths, and possible job paths.

 

Then, determine how much time and energy you can invest in education and skill development.

Build Skills

Playing video games is practically a prerequisite to building a career in the gaming industry, but it’s not the only requirement. Playing games does build many soft skills, notes ZenBusiness, but to be competitive in the job market, you also need to hone skills related to your career path.

 

For example, learning to code, use editing software, and check for bugs is crucial in video game careers. Yet the specific skills you need will depend on the role you want to work in. The good news is that many skills are ones you can build on your own.

 

For example, you can self-study to become fluent in computer programming languages and begin coding projects. Practicing various types of art and graphic design could improve your craft. Yet formal education may still be an important step in building your career.

Get a Degree

For some job opportunities, you might need more than casual skill-building to get an interview. Earning a degree in graphics, software engineering, game development, or another technology discipline could make your resume stand out.

 

Online degree programs let you study and earn a degree while working and maintaining a personal life. Choose an accredited school with competitive tuition; this could be the ticket to an affordable education and a new career path.

Network Online

Gaming, as both a hobby and a career, is popular around the world. That makes it easy to connect with people you can learn from and share ideas with. Video game communities exist for every type of game, as Game Designing outlines, and joining them can help you find opportunities and network.

 

Gaming clubs may also be a way to get feedback on your work. Sharing with a gaming group could help you polish up a project for your portfolio, increasing your odds of getting a gaming gig.

Create a Resume & Portfolio

Writing a clear, professional resume is the first step in any job search. Use the resume format that best fits your experience, whether chronological, functional, or hybrid. Include relevant keywords for the gaming industry, and highlight your skills, certificates, and education.

 

A strong resume is a must for any job search, but a portfolio levels up your application, especially in the gaming industry. But because video games or graphics are hard to insert into a resume, take time to build a portfolio site to display your work.

 

Buying a domain name and creating a website may sound like a lot of work, but it’s the best way to design a professional portfolio. If you code the website yourself, it can also serve as a portfolio piece.

Apply to Jobs

With the right skills, community, and degree, finding a job might be the easiest step in your gaming career journey. Especially if you enroll in a degree program, internships are readily available for on-the-job experience and skill-building.

 

Or, you can apply to be a video game tester, start in an entry-level quality assurance, art, or journalism job, or join a gaming company in an administrative or support role to get in the door.

 

A career in gaming might seem like an unconventional path. But for people who are passionate about video games, developing skills and even pursuing a degree will be worth the effort. The result is a professional path you will love and grow in.

American Business Needs Good Teachers

A disturbing trend could befall the quality of job candidates available for business hiring in the not too far distant future. We are at risk of finding that the pool of potential hires may be deficient in language and mathematical processing skills and in their ability to think critically relative to past generations. Why might this be so? Simply put, the United States is now experiencing a shortage of highly qualified teachers. And there is no end in sight of this problem. 

A weakening of the teaching profession consequently leads to more students receiving less instruction and lower quality education. It is hard to imagine how a nation that is unable to educate its children adequately can expect to succeed commercially, especially in a globalized economy. Yet, this is the situation the U.S. is now facing. 

Tuan Nguyen, Chanh Lam, of Kansas State University and Pula Bruno of the University of Illinois in an August 2022 paper entitled Is There a National Teacher Shortage? revealed there are 36,000 vacant teacher openings and 163,000 teaching positions being occupied by underqualified instructors. They contend these are conservative estimates. 

Josh Bleiberg, an education professor at the University of Pittsburgh, claims the quantity of qualified teachers is falling nationwide and the few states seeing an increase in certified teachers are still not able to keep up with growing enrollments. 

One does not have to look too deeply to see why this is the case. Professor Bleiberg’s research discloses that teacher wages, when adjusted for inflation, have been mostly stagnant from 2000-2020, while student caseloads have been consistent. 

Also, during this time teachers and administrators have witnessed an expansion of accountability initiatives designed allegedly to improve teacher proficiency. Although some accountability measures are necessary, too many have been based on student test scores, leading to needless stress, system gaming, and dilution of curriculum. Making maintenance of teacher credentialing more rigorous with no corresponding compensation increase is bad business. 

The National Center for Education Statistics reports that students earning bachelor’s degrees in education has gone from 176,307 in 1970-71 to 104,008 in 2010-11 to 85,058 in 2019-20. And this decline is before the pandemic. 

We cannot underestimate how negative Covid has been for the teaching profession. The terms and conditions of teacher employment degraded overnight. Concerns about their own health and safety while trying to manage instruction remotely or in super-spreader classroom environments while also dealing with students who had experienced the loss of family members has been extremely detrimental. Many older and more experienced teachers chose early retirement rather than risk their physical and emotional health. 

Moreover, we now have the politicization of education and use of teachers as punching bags by those who claim students are being brainwashed with various culture war issues of a racial or sexual nature. Let’s throw in the risk of school shootings and we can see why a national problem exists. Given the relatively low pay, high productivity demand, health and safety risks, and politically oriented pressure it is no wonder many otherwise great teachers are saying, No Thanks! 

This is not just a problem for one industry. It is a potential loss for our economy if we have ill-prepared students growing up to become our available workforce. It is in the best interests of business to recognize the looming threat and to get on board attempting remediation. 

As a nation, we can start by accepting the value teachers provide and offering them the prestige they deserve. Teachers are much more of a resource than they are an expense. It is past time to honor them for being the assets they are. From there we can tackle issues of adequate compensation, reasonable employment conditions, and greater self-determination. 

It is for the greater good of our economy, our country, and our children that we get this right. 

A Coming Workforce Transformation

Career prospects for women during the economy of the past couple of years show significant disillusionment. By the end of 2020, 140,000 jobs in the U.S. which had been held by women were lost in female-dominant industries like education, hospitality, and retail according to Business Insider. The National Women’s Law Center reported in 2021 that about two-thirds of all minimum wage jobs are held by women. Unemployment rates remain high for women of color and women with disabilities. 

The past years have also not been encouraging for professional women seeking to secure leadership positions, particularly in highly capitalized businesses. Julia Boorstin of CNBC reported in 2020 that of the 500 largest American companies only 6% of CEOs were women. Not only that, but there is this occurrence of women being placed in CEO positions of troubled companies struggling to hang on. The phenomenon is known as the “Glass Cliff” problem. If the ship cannot be quickly righted to profitability, then it can be easier for some to say how a woman was given a chance to show leadership, but it just did not work out. 

McKinsey reveals another stunning circumstance. The proportion of women in jobs declines as the amount of responsibility embedded within these jobs increases. Women make up 50.8% of the American population, but account for 47% of entry-level positions, 38% of management assignments, and 33% of senior management occupations. For every 100 men who move into management roles, there are 85 women who do so. 

The history of women in the workforce facing discrimination, unequal pay, and harassment in one form or another is a painfully long one. However, there are some other statistics which curiously suggest more positive changes may be coming for women in the workforce. 

The writer David French points to some recent education stats showing men are slipping in acquiring the schooling necessary to stay highly qualified and competitive for the good jobs, and for leadership roles particularly. For example, at the end of the 2020-2021 college academic year women comprised 59.5% of the overall student body, the highest ever, and men only 40.5%. This data is from the National Student Clearinghouse, a nonprofit research group. 

Furthermore, the 2020-2021 school year showed a decline of 1.5 million students relative to five years earlier. 71% of that drop was in men leaving U.S. colleges and universities! For a reason I cannot explain, men’s attendance has fallen such that they have become a minority cohort in higher education. Can a drop in men’s career prospects relative to women, including in leadership, be far behind? 

One does not have to look far to notice an unmistakable correlation between levels of education and career success. Acquisition of knowledge, skill, experience, contacts, and confidence are all derived from furthering one’s education. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics most recent data concerning earnings and unemployment rates by educational attainment show median weekly earnings for those holding only a high school diploma to be $781, but with an unemployment rate of 9%. The bachelor’s degree college graduate in comparison earns on average $1305 per week with an unemployment rate of 5.5%. 

To be sure, the traditional four-year college degree program model is under serious review, as it should be, by those who foot the high cost. More targeted and lower cost education and credentialing options are providing increasing competition to legacy college and university programs. That’s fine. But if men think the good jobs and leadership positions will always be waiting for them as in the past, while women are actively preparing to compete and hold those occupations for themselves at rates superior to males, then men may be in for a rude awakening soon. 

As women gain more of the good jobs and leadership roles, they are likely to open more doors for other women to participate more fully in quality education and work opportunities. As education attainment shifts more to women, so too will their employment and leadership strength. 

Workers Are Flexing Their Muscles

An unmistakably big story in the 2021 career space has been about what is being dubbed “The Great Resignation” or “Turnover Tsunami”. Of course, I am referring to the throngs of workers in both the relatively high paying knowledge economy, but also in the lower income sectors, like hospitality and retail, who are leaving or not returning to their pre-pandemic fields of employment. 

A whopping 40% of the global workforce has left or is planning to leave jobs this year. The U.S. Labor Department has never seen such an acute spike in resignations in the twenty plus years it has been tracking such statistics. 

The popular media has for months now been pumping out pieces referring to the phenomenon and the suspected reasons behind it, such as higher savings rates thanks to government financial assistance, fear of catching the virus at work, insufficient childcare options for working parents, and a growing realization that a lot of hiring is now going on.  

However, the monumental reason for this employment churn appears to be a dignity factor. The Covid pandemic is allowing for a massive reassessment, and by extension, a realignment of what truly matters in one’s work and life. 

Shelter-in-place directives, social distancing, and closed office buildings, restaurants, and stores shook people’s mindsets in numerous ways. Many front-line “essential” workers who were heralded as heroes early in the pandemic are now either burnt out or tired of the abuse they get, like healthcare workers. Many well compensated workers ensconced in jobs pertaining to information flows and the means of production are bailing from positions because of the stress levels and long hours. Those on the low socioeconomic end feel abused, disrespected, and exploited and are not going to take it anymore. The number of workers and the type of worker taking the employment shift plunge are both expanding. 

This spectacle is causing economic hardships for a range of stakeholders from business owners to customers. The flux in employment is helping to fuel in part the larger pandemic-related worldwide economic convulsion. Shouldn’t we all be really concerned about this dramatic and disruptive turn of events?  

Yes, we should be, but not of fear for the interests of the wealth holders becoming suddenly inconvenienced, but in support of workers who are all in different sounding ways and from different points of view collectively saying they want and expect fair compensation, respect, and a voice in how their careers are going to develop. This brief period in history may be seen as a possible inflection point in the 21st century morphing of work and career into something different from the way it has been in the past. 

I come back to the three intrinsic motivators for professional workers eloquently described by Daniel Pink about ten years ago. Pink wrote and spoke about the need and quest for autonomy, mastery, and purpose as to what gets successful and satisfied workers out of bed in the morning. We are more motivated and driven to perform well at our jobs when we feel we have relatively free rein to innovate and produce, when we feel we are developing a skill or talent, and when we feel that what we are doing at work matters in a value sense. 

It seems to me that what many of these job searchers are looking for comes very close to what Pink is describing. Combine dignified levels of compensation with workplace cultures that honor worker autonomy, mastery, and purpose and a job can become more satisfying and sustainable. 

I get that some just want a decent job and not a career, but what makes an employee want to stay and thrive is fundamentally not very different between a highly educated contributor and an hourly employee. Dignity and respect can go a long way. 

How Students Can Get Their Career Started on the Right Foot

I am pleased to present a Guest Article from Leslie Campos of Well Parents. For more information about this wellness resource targeted for parents please visit https://wellparents.com.

High school and college students can’t wait to launch into a career and start gaining real-world experience. However, when graduation nears and it’s time to start applying for jobs, most students don’t know where to start. Before the job search begins, students should take these steps to get their professional life started off right. Below, we explore some ideas that can help you start off your own career planning on the right foot.

Building Strong Credentials

New graduates lack work experience to put on their resume, but that doesn’t mean they lack experience. Without career positions to highlight, recent graduates should focus on internships, apprenticeships, volunteer experience, and extracurricular activities to demonstrate their relevant experience.

Listing roles isn’t enough. Applicants should highlight skills and accomplishments from each role, focusing on skills that are related to the job they are applying for. Many of these will be soft skills, but that’s not a bad thing. Employers can always train an entry-level employee in the technical skills they need for a job, but instilling soft skills like communication, conflict resolution, and leadership is much harder.

To further hone your capabilities, an advanced education might fit the bill. Programs like WGU’s market-responsive online business program brings relevant, real-world knowledge to the table, and you can even flex the course load to suit your needs. Explore your options to find industry-relevant, practical programming that will give you the advantages you need.

Networking

Outside of developing their resume, networking is the most important thing students can do to set themselves up for a successful career after graduation. Networking with professors, campus staff, fellow students, and alumni is a good start, but students should also look beyond their school’s walls for networking opportunities.

Internships are ideal networking opportunities for students. An internship is a way to develop hard skills needed on the job, but more importantly it’s a chance to meet potential employers, learn about career paths in a field, and gain strong references for a future career search. Naviance recommends college students pursue internships as early in their college career as possible rather than waiting until senior year.

Crafting a Strong Resume

Skills and a strong network alone won’t land recent graduates in their career of choice. Entry-level workers also need strong application materials that appeal to today’s hiring managers. A strong resume is partly about content, but design is equally important. A resume and cover letter that are visually appealing and free of errors demonstrate an applicant is diligent and detail-oriented, skills every employer wants in their staff. At the same time, students should be wary of sacrificing professionalism for the sake of design. For first-time job-seekers, premade resume templates are an essential tool for creating a resume that balances good design with a professional appearance.

While filling in a resume template, applicants should be sure to include keywords from the job posting they’re applying for. Many companies use electronic applicant screening systems to find resumes with keywords that pertain to the job. Monster explains how to select keywords along with other resume tips for recent grads.

Pursuing Non-Traditional Career Paths

Pursuing a college degree and a white collar career isn’t the only path to economic success. Many recent graduates find they are better suited for entrepreneurship or a career in the trades.

Entrepreneurship is a challenging route for people without real-world experience to build off of, but many recent graduates are finding success in starting online businesses such as ecommerce businesses based in dropshipping. These types of businesses require much less start-up capital than traditional brick-and-mortar businesses, making them more accessible to young people with limited financial resources. As long as entrepreneurs can deliver unique value to customers and build a strong website with good customer service, they can find success in online business.

The trades are another field in high demand. High school students can enter the trades without a four-year college degree and earn an income comparable to their college-educated peers. As NPR reports, trades such as construction and plumbing are experiencing labor shortages in much of the US, so students interested in this path face little trouble finding opportunities.

The transition from student to professional isn’t an easy one. The shift is made even harder when students don’t know the right way to land the job they want. While these tips can’t guarantee students will land the entry-level position they’re aiming for, they’re the necessary first steps toward a successful career.

 

Image via Unsplash

Strengthening Knowledge Sharing Online

The news is not that we are continually shifting most of our knowledge-economy work time online, but rather that we are learning more over time about what works and what does not work when doing so. Take the Training & Development (T&D) field. Here is an industry which experienced a head start long before Covid in providing digital and distance learning opportunities. By designing and preparing virtual and hybrid instruction programs for a relatively long period it is reasonable to expect there are lessons which can be derived by this industry informing other business sectors about how to disseminate intelligence in an online environment. 

Another area sharing distance learning, admittedly more than they want to currently, is the education arena in both K-12 and higher ed. Like T&D, their shared mission is to leverage the power and ubiquity of computers and similar devices, along with the public’s basic tech literacy abilities, to deliver teaching and learning possibilities when it is impractical to house students in traditional classrooms. Here too, best practices are being identified as teachers, schools, and communities face the challenge of providing quality education online. 

Together T&D and education are revealing methods and conditions to consider establishing when the online workplace involves information sharing, change management, customer engagement, and staff development. An analysis of peer-reviewed literature, the T&D/education marketplace, and anecdotal reports from distance learning practitioners suggest key practices when formulating and implementing remote instruction courses and programs. However, it is insightful to understand the finest of these procedures are not merely disjointed techniques produced through trial and error, but rather rest upon a philosophical foundation. 

Lev Vygotsky was a Soviet-era psychologist renowned worldwide to this day for his scholarship on how humans make meaning, in other words, cognitive development. His theory in short is that people acquire cultural values, beliefs, problem-solving strategies, and practical knowledge through collaboration with others, especially more knowledgeable people. Comprehension and meaning, according to Vygotsky, is derived in a social context, which makes community the fertile ground from which people learn. 

Today, Vygotsky’s theory compels developers of online educational and training curricula to migrate characteristics of in-person community to the digital environment. In doing so, instructors and trainers are better able to facilitate concept and knowledge acquisition among their students and trainees. 

We need therefore to trust in the interconnectivity and interplay possible through virtual contact. Although still a novel concept for older generations, society is clearly moving toward a norm characterized by remote connections with others, whether through our use of social media, FaceTime, or online short-term credentialing courses.  

Three ideal practices which take advantage of social cohesion include: 

Being Present – This can range from presenting direct instruction in a synchronous or live-time manner to being available for individual student/employee questions to mentoring. There will be occasions where asynchronous (non-live time) communication, such as message boards, forums, and course policies, need to be visible for all participants, but in general being directly available or on call during set hours leaves participants feeling less abandoned and insecure. 

Interactions – Encouraging participant interaction advances information sharing and social learning, which leads to literacy. Three key dialogues to learning involve teacher to student, student to student, and student to content. Promoting such exchanges generates effective growth-oriented connections among teachers and students; purposeful explorations conducted within a student-to-student context; and investigations between a student and the topic areas’ facts and concepts. 

Discussion – Promoting opportunities for students to participate in synchronous and asynchronous discussions creates substantial educational value. Encounters involving questions, reflections, responses, and decisions support participant growth. Thanks to digitization, well-structured discussions and deliberations can strengthen any course. 

When tasked with planning for distance training and teaching opportunities keep in mind the importance of generating social coherence. You may find less has been lost going virtual than you initially feared. 

Future Career Planning

Disruptions. Unforeseen events. Misguided strategies. All of these are possible for businesses. Also, for careers. In 2020, we do not have to look very far in the past to see how the best laid business and career plans can go awry due to a surprising and unpredicted event. 

We could conclude, well that’s life. No one ever guaranteed us long-term certainty. This is true. Unannounced and unintended curve balls are part of life’s churn, but that does not mean we cannot proactively prepare for sudden changes and develop an agility which may result in competitive advantages and success despite unanticipated perturbations. 

Many of us still operate by a model which views the most difficult parts of executing a career as first determining which career path to follow, followed by education and training, landing the great job, retaining employment, and staying current with best practices. As important as these features are, I would encourage the addition of at least one more — enhancing your ability to foretell where your career may be headed and what hazards may ambush your planning. 

Regarding our careers, it is wise to allocate time and energy to a style of future planning which embeds intentional forecasting of trends and movements that carry the potential for threat and disruption. Although no one can definitively predict the future, by practicing the formation of projections over time we can hone our capacity to more accurately make predictions, test our hypotheses, and peer ever deeper into what makes our professions tick. Sharpening our prognostication skill could be the difference between thriving or losing in today’s turbulent economy. 

Preparing for the future requires at the outset a shift in attitude and a challenging of our assumptions. Here are some basic conjectures I encourage shaking up. The good times do not roll forever. Luck can only carry you just so far. The world is more dynamic than static. That said, alter the way you plan for tomorrow. Future planning should not be confined to assessing the present and then looking forward. Rather, determine as best you can the most likely future prediction and plan backwards from there. 

Interpreting the future is a matter of creating a vision. This vision displays greater resolution the more in-depth is our knowledge of our profession, including the proclivities of markets and customers. Vision is not certitude, but an estimation of what is possible. 

The more we know the closer we get to refining our analysis. Therefore, structured ongoing learning is the core activity to practice. By looking at every angle of our profession, including the influences and disorders impacting our lines of work along with practice in making and reviewing our predictions, we better refine our ability to forecast. 

When estimating the direction of our professions, assume opportunities will always be out there. Become your own agent of change and a magnet for locating these possibilities. How best to proceed? Smart organizations deploy a strategic method known as scenario planning. It involves forecasting and integrating a large degree of flexibility into long-term planning. Scenario planning assumes adaptation is necessary for survival. 

The same mindset applies to our careers. In general, this process involves merging known facts about the future, such as demographics, geographic limitations, cultural characteristics, government structures, etc. with social, economic, political, technical, and environmental trends. From this blend we can formulate simulations that function as prototype strategies. 

For example, is it feasible to think climate related disruptions may manifest in novel ways over the next three decades prompting potentially sudden market fluctuations? Are you confident the U.S. has learned its lesson about pandemic preparedness and is ready for the next such assault? 

Developing a heuristic approach to prepare for uncertainty may very well be the necessary system to best weather whatever the future is going to throw at us next. 

The Good and Bad of Personality Testing

I’ve always been fascinated by personality tests, in particular the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). As a young education major many years ago, focused on the psychology of growth and learning, it seemed natural to accept a need to categorize people, whether students or employees with all their variability and complexity, into types, identities, and groupings. I came to believe that this knowledge could be used in many organizational ways including team building, workplace efficiency, student body cohesion, leadership training, personnel development, and general hiring to name a few. 

Today, there are many personality tests on the market with the MBTI remaining among the most popular in use with HR departments and management/training teams. DiSC, Color Code, CliftonStrengths, and Insights Discovery are also well known tools in this field. Other personality inventories are continuing to come on the scene as the science of type and application of AI becomes more refined. 

We are now looking at a $500 million industry with future growth rates estimated to be robust. Corporate, and in some cases small business America, are always in search of higher efficiencies. Some see personality testing as a means of achieving such an outcome. 

Business leadership may ask themselves, “Why wait for organizational culture to evolve when it can be shaped and structured according to my wishes?” As flippant as this sounds, there may be a sound rationale embedded in the question. Throwing a group of people together in the hope that company goals will be realized based on the strengths and experiences as seen on resumes and evaluations alone may be strategically weak. 

Individuals bring a myriad of personality characteristics, some of which may translate into positive contributions, while others may interfere with business processes. Applying tools that assist management in assessing their direct reports’ strengths and weaknesses more effectively could potentially result in more efficient sorting and assignment of talent. 

A doctrine underpinning personality testing is that there are no bad people, only bad fits of people. Someone who fits well with kindergarten students will probably make a lousy state trooper and vice versa. Cooperation, collaboration, and camaraderie are critical soft-skill practices for any workforce. Establishing conditions to encourage developing these soft skills can be a worthy management goal. If the edges of chaotic interpersonal dynamics can be smoothed and negative workplace politics mitigated, then why not intervene with data internally yielded by widespread use of personality inventories? It stands to reason productivity will be improved within a more satisfying work environment. 

A powerful criticism leveled for years concerns the lack of scientific validity of personality tests. Indeed, the MBTI is the least scientific of them all despite its prevalent use. Based on type theory developed by Carl Jung, a psychologist contemporary of Sigmund Freud, it can be said to be more art than science. Despite the MBTI’s uncanny ability to accurately identify a range of personal attributes as noted by the many people who have used it satisfactorily, including myself, there remains a persistent skepticism of its applicability due to a lack of experimental stringency regarding its claims. 

Additionally, there are claims by workers of being denied promotions, hiring, or leadership opportunities because of personality instrument results. Is it reasonable to expect there will be misapplications of these tests by managers whose skills lie in areas outside of psychology? As one who was trained in the interpretation and administration of the MBTI, I can attest to the deep levels of complexity and nuance to be considered in its use. Worth mentioning also is the likelihood of having employees who simply are uncomfortable with the ‘hocus-pocus’ of anything based on psychology. 

Whichever test is used, there should be trained professionals involved in an appropriate application of results. Regardless of potential downsides, personality instruments can occupy a favorable and constructive place in organizational management. 

Thoughts on Career-Long Learning

As has been frequently reported, the nature of work is undergoing profound changes due largely to automation, technology, artificial intelligence, and globalization. This exacerbates fears among students and workers of how to succeed in an ever-transformative economy and contributes to the current and expanding situation of a workforce not possessing the skills required by modern and future-oriented employers. 

To keep up with groundbreaking changes in employment requires an educational approach to training and learning that is flexible, relevant, and targeted to the capricious and volatile state of the economy. At present, traditional education institutions of high school and customary higher ed bachelor’s degrees appear to be lagging behind innovative industry methodologies like short-term credentialing and user-responsive professional development. Businesses recognize the value in foresight and pliable learning strategies necessary to uphold a workforce prepared for unpredictability. 

Education systems are not known for their elasticity and capacity to adjust to change. Take a typical public high school curriculum, the stage through which most American workers first pass on their way to employability. Has there been much reorganization in the basic course load or method of earning a diploma since the mid-twentieth century? I think not. This is an area where increased pressure to innovate is warranted. 

Beside a reassessment of curriculum relevance, another key concept we can hope for from high schools is that the message is getting through loud and clear to students that education does not stop with a diploma. The modern world is one in which continuous learning needs to be embraced if there is any hope for enjoying the fruits of professional mastery and robust compensation. Linking the pursuit of happiness with the pursuit of learning is a valuable lifelong lesson. 

To this end, workers will benefit from a more accommodating and welcoming world of pathways designed to prepare entry-level professionals, upskill existing workers, and assist career changers in a manner consistent with the metamorphosing economy of work. In addition to an acceptance of the importance of career-long learning is to realize credentials matter. 

From a college degree to a professional license to an industry-specific certification, possessing evidence from a reputable instructional source, in which a worker can demonstrate training and education within an area of expertise is critical to advancing one’s career. The challenge becomes how to best earn pertinent credentials in a time effective and affordable manner. 

Career, employment specialists, and economists are suggesting several practices to ease credential acquisition. Kelsey Berkowitz is a Policy Advisor for Third Way’s Economic Program and has looked closely into this issue. Among the suggestions she makes is to: 

  • Increase the amount of credential stacking that is available. In other words, design short-term credential modules that can be combined into larger certifications or degrees. This could provide highly relevant on-demand training while also providing a means for adult workers to achieve higher education goals in more easily managed steps. 
  • Develop more apprenticeship programs. Evidence exists, particularly in Europe, of the effectiveness of industry-based programs that onboard entry-level workers and within a year or two produce trained and credentialed employees committed to the profession. 
  • Recognize prior experiences related to work by offering credit. It is not unusual for individuals to gain skills and insights applicable to their current jobs from events that occurred before being hired. Examples include acquired knowledge from the military, school programs, previous jobs, or other situations where pertinent learning took place. 
  • Streamline onerous licensing mobility. Twenty-five percent of all workers today are in fields requiring a professional license. However, in too many instances licenses are not reciprocal across state lines, creating burdens to reacquire licenses for those pros relocating to a new state. 

The need for instructional and training flexibility will become increasingly necessary in order to keep a nimble and ready workforce. Let us reform learning to better address this imperative. 

A Call to Appreciate the Direct Care Workforce

Rebecca Bryant, the president and CEO of Lakes Region Community Services, a New Hampshire social services organization, penned an impressive opinion piece in the March 1-14 issue of the New Hampshire Business Review that concretely highlighted the plight of direct support professionals, those who care for the elderly and disabled. To this cohort I would also add childcare workers. 

As a whole, this segment of the New Hampshire workforce is underpaid, under-appreciated, disrespected, and lacking in the placement of esteem they deserve as employees tasked with providing key services to needy populations. 

Why is this? Unfortunately, social services have historically been viewed as somehow less urgent or worthwhile than economic pursuits resulting in manufactured goods and services supporting commercial viability. The money has not flowed to caregivers. Since money appears to be a solid metric of worth and value the unmistakable conclusion drawn is that giving care to young children, old citizens, and the disabled just does not carry that much weight. 

Interesting. Economics is all about the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services to improve lives. How is it that the life improving work of caregivers is different? 

Many would say that the individuals who make up the direct care workforce are generally under-educated with many also coming from low income backgrounds. Thus, the thinking goes they are not meritorious or qualified enough to receive living wage compensation. The time has come for us to stop assuming there is a causal relationship between low valued work and low paid workers in the direct care context. 

We are faced with a contrarian situation of low paid workers toiling through high valued work. Even though low paid direct care services continue to attract, albeit at inadequate levels, those willing to work for low pay in order to do something they like and are good at doing is no reason to continue the practice. It is time right a wrong. 

Let us first look at the root of the problem. Direct care services are historically performed by women. Presumably, they have been drawn to this work, because of the longstanding social and cultural expectations for women to nurture others. It is fair to say that women have performed laudably with direct care services for many years. The benefit to society is immeasurable. 

However, as we know, compensatory equity has been and continues to be elusive for women. “Women’s work” has rarely if ever received reparation on par with what men make. Let’s be honest. Traditional views regarding remuneration says that an occupation primarily composed of women will not be seen as worth paying much for. 

It took men becoming teachers and nurses to spur the evolution of living wages in those fields. Regardless, it should not take a replay of that model to boost the earnings of competent and hardworking direct care service providers, whether female or male. 

There are two reasons for a balancing of resources to occur. Firstly, we should recognize that high quality care directed to those among us who are not or can no longer be high producers is virtuous and enriches lives. This alone should diminish any resistance to fair pay. That said, there is another factor to consider: unequivocal changes already underway to reshape the nature of employment are ushering in a reevaluation of what it means to “work”. 

Many jobs will be refashioned and eliminated as automation and artificial intelligence increasingly impact the economy. Labor directed to personal care may emerge as progressively appreciated employment. A paradigm shift recognition of the value added to society by direct care givers may finally remediate this excessive pay disparity. This transformation in attitude is needed. 

In a state ranked third for the percentage of the population growing old you would think New Hampshire would be intentionally reaching out to strengthen its direct care workforce. We have a chance now to show the country how fair pay for our direct care providers can be accomplished. 

Is an MBA Worth Pursuing?

Earning a Master’s in Business Administration or MBA has long been considered both a difficult challenge to confront, but also a career boosting achievement. An MBA has been shown to increase promotion and employment opportunities and to jump start compensation. However, by the time most business professionals consider returning to school to earn the degree chances are good there is a family with children in place needing considerable attention and a mountain of bills to juggle, including a mortgage. Not to mention, MBAs can cost from $25K up to $100K in tuition, fees, and transportation costs. 

The inevitable question business managers ask themselves is, “Is this worth it?”. Don’t you hate it when someone answers such a question with, “Well, it depends.” So here goes, the answer to whether an MBA is worth pursuing or not is, “Well, it depends”. 

The value of an MBA should depend on more than compensation and promotions as alluring as those are. To obtain the most benefit from the work and expense of earning the degree largely comes down to if you think it is in your career’s interest to develop your talent in several key areas. And it turns out, these are the same attributes many executive managers look for when considering whether to hire a candidate who holds an MBA. 

You probably think I’m talking about astuteness in topics like organizational behavior, finance, accounting, supply chain management, enterprise IT systems, and economics. Of course, these and other subjects comprising an MBA curriculum are important, but what really sells the executive hiring managers are competencies like leadership, communication ability, strategical thinking, interpersonal relationships, and entrepreneurial spirit. These traits can be thought of as the building blocks to managerial excellence. Therefore, it is important to select an MBA program that assists you in developing these strengths. 

Some other useful facts about MBA programs can assist one in their decision making about whether to take the plunge or not. MBA programs most often occur over 18-month to 2-year time periods with students typically earning approximately 40−60 credits representing about 500−600 class hours of graduate-level work. Some programs allow up to 6 years to complete the program. 

A full time student must be dedicated to a concentrated approach but given that many mature MBA students are full time employees there are several alternatives. These include: 

Accelerated: Fast-tracked program with a greater course load and more condensed class and examination schedule over one year. 

Part-Time: Taking three or more years students attend classes after usual working hours, including weekday evenings and/or weekends. 

Modular: A tightly prescribed approach involving a progressive curriculum of class components presented in one to three-week segments. These programs seemed most often to be aligned with EMBA degree programs (see below) or Accelerated programs and are most often to be completed within one to two years. Also, modular often means on-site residency for the length of the given module. 

Executive MBA (EMBA): Designed for working professionals with 10 or more years of management or executive experience. These programs allow earning the degree in two years or less while working full time. 

Distance Learning: Involves classes held off-site from a campus and can include courses held via correspondence, broadcasts, videos, teleconferences, videoconferences, and online formats. 

Hybrid: Also known as blended programs these are a fusion of distance learning with traditionally styled face to face classroom instruction. 

Mini-MBA: This method combines on the job training regimens and requirements that can also be counted as credit-earning coursework toward a university MBA program. Typically, this requires a partnership between a work setting’s training program and a university MBA program. 

Finally, it is important to make sure the program you select is reputable within your industry. Not all MBA programs are of the same caliber, and you do not want to work hard only to find out later that your degree is not enthusiastically embraced by your superiors. 

It is a lot to consider but seeking this level of mastery may just lead to the breakthrough your management career needs. 

Employment Skills Gap or Lack of Fit

During the Great Recession and ever since we have heard about a skills gap in America. This is in part responsible for slow productivity, and by extension, slow economic growth. There does seem to be evidence of an employment gap. There are currently 6.2 million jobs unfilled, up from 5.6 in 2016 (Forbes); 45% of small businesses cannot find work-ready candidates (National Federation of Independent Business); and the results of a January 2018 survey of 500 senior executives found that 92% think the candidate pool is not as skilled as it needs to be (Adecco). 

There is plenty of finger pointing going on. Some of the principal criticisms include: 

The education system is outdated and is poorly adapted to preparing students for a fluid economy — one that is heavy on technical and math-based skills. 

Employers at both the corporate and small business levels are not allocating adequate resources to training and apprenticeship programs, leaving workforces skill deficient. 

There is a growing cultural bias against the machine and tool-oriented skills useful in construction, manufacturing, and the trades, discouraging younger workers from selecting those careers. 

Increased automation is creating demand for a more technically proficient job candidate than the current labor market can supply. 

Old jobs are becoming obsolete while newly created ones are being generated at a brisk pace which the economy struggles to keep up with. 

Soft skills, such as those which emphasize collaboration, communication, and teamwork are not being acquired sufficiently at home, school, and in the community. 

Job creation is so fast and unemployment so low given the robust economy that labor does not have the time or means to adjust. 

The problem is unmotivated workers who do not want to take menial jobs or work the night shift, or who like their drugs more than work, or who are spoiled youngsters used to having everything handed to them. 

It is likely that all these factors play some role in why there are so many unfilled jobs. One would think this is a simple supply and demand problem to remedy. Identify the specific skills needed by most employers and then have the education and training providers upskill students and workers to learn and master the required competencies. But apparently doing so is not so simple. 

What strikes me in the research on this topic is that there are practically no lists of specific skills that are in short supply. We can find the career areas where there are shortages, for example in nursing, industrial technicians, computer network specialists, and so on, but exactly what the elusive skills are appears to be largely a mystery.  

This suggests to me that there may not be a skills gap at all, but rather a failing in the way individuals are aligned with work for which they are best suited. In other words, there may be a lack of fit between too many workers and employment opportunities. 

This lack of fit problem is not new. Over the past century or so it has been a challenge to match increased numbers of workers with burgeoning career options. Indeed, the career development field arose out of a need to address this issue.  

What is new, perhaps, is the escalating scale and scope of unprecedented numbers of prospective workers and career opportunities. The degree of guidance, counseling, and training by schools, businesses, professional associations, and other stakeholders to better improve aligning available labor with employment demand may need greater attention than has been accessible to date. 

If true full employment is to be achieved, and with it the benefits of economic growth and widely spread prosperity, then it seems it is in everyone’s interest to insist on refining the processes whereby workers can access high quality counseling and training to best meet employment scarcity. Government, education, and business could partner more effectively to forge solutions. 

The gap we are now facing may be more of shared commitment and engagement rather than of skills. 

The Age of Mobility

Mobility has become something of a buzz word these days, particularly in the context of one’s economic and employment condition. Increasingly we see movement among people, whether in terms of place, jobs, education, or social groups as more common, at least among a growing segment of the population. 

There has always been the phenomenon of socioeconomic mobility, the upward or downward movement of economic status with its resulting standard of living levels. As Americans, we pride ourselves on having created a meritocratic system, in which ability and talent rather than simply inherited wealth and privilege, can lead to upward mobility. And ingrained in that potential is of course the risk of failure and descent. 

The mobility I am emphasizing, however, goes beyond this more historic form. It is a mobility that in part defines the changing nature of career and economic success in an evolving economy. It is mobility that is encouraged and motivated by discovering and acquiring that increasingly elusive premium known as opportunity. 

If the work you want to do is more likely to be found in Los Angeles, then you leave your home in New Hampshire. If hiring is more robust in accounting, then you do not follow your parents’ careers as teachers. If the variety of diverse lifestyle and work choices within a multicultural neighborhood is more appealing, then you leave your mostly white and Protestant hometown. If your impetus is to develop truly innovative and groundbreaking services, then you don’t follow the path of anyone else. 

As one prepares for adulthood and career there appears to be a fundamental choice to be made — opt for a career characterized more by features of mobility or more by tradition. Throughout much of our history we were content to stay close to where we were born and to do work, whether in or out of the home, that was done by our parents. We continued family farming, worked in the same paper mill as our father and grandfather, raised children full time at home, and provided goods and services for families much like ours in the area. There were social and economic benefits, in short the opportunity, to carry on these traditions. That continuity still has appeal for many, but perhaps for a decreasing number of people. 

Economic opportunity now is seen by an expanding number of people as requiring mobility. For home grown and newly arrived Americans the ticket to a broader range of career options is education. It may be difficult to know exactly what the right thing is to study at first, but a belief is widely accepted that continuing education beyond high school and indeed throughout one’s working years is necessary to keep one economically viable and marketable. Similarly, is the understanding that one’s career now has an inherent mobility with many twists, turns, and iterations. (For example, most CEOs did not major in business administration, but rather in subjects like history, political science, and communications, according to Investopedia). 

Immigrants continue to serve as examples of assertive mobility. Sure, the attraction of the US has long been there for those from abroad who have wanted to put America’s socioeconomic upward mobility reputation and principles to the test. Indeed, that continues to happen. But many of today’s immigrants to America also know that to achieve a decent or higher standard of living they need to more intelligently hunt for and snag opportunity. The word is that opportunity will not be handed to them. Immigrants disrupted their lives intentionally, leaving much of their past and what is familiar behind. Their energy, enthusiasm, and drive are worth paying attention to and perhaps emulating as much now as ever. 

Hopefully, we can make our world friendly and prosperous for those with inclinations toward both mobility and tradition. Collectively, we should not have to conclude one way of life survives and the other does not. Yet, the trend toward mobility is mobilized and gathering steam. No matter how you choose to engage your career and livelihood your relationship with mobility must be considered. 

Networking Can be More than Self-Promotion

A difficult career development concept for many to accept is the notion that networking, by which means the building and cultivating of a group of professionally oriented contacts, is necessary to grow and flourish a career. Many smart and valued contributors to the workplace are uncomfortable with an exercise that for them feels unnatural, contrived, and manipulative. There are of course those who are extroverted and who blossom at opportunities to engage in lively social interaction, but for many others the tedium of incessant outreach is viewed as an awkward burden and obligation. 

However, networking is not to be entirely avoided. One does not have to research too deeply to find that networking has powerful advantages such as increasing the amount of job, business, and advancement opportunities available; deepening one’s understanding of their profession’s best practices and current trends; and enhancing one’s reputation and status within their chosen profession. Taken together it is reasonable to say that networking leads to greater career satisfaction. 

So how can one bridge the gap between a practice that should be followed, but which also invokes such negative feelings? The answer may be in re-framing how networking can be viewed. Instead of seeing it as an inauthentic and unscrupulous display of self-promotion, try embracing one or more of several different outlooks. These can include: 

Networking as a learning opportunity: Approach interactions with fellow professionals and others related in some way to what you do as chances to learn. Other stakeholders in your career field have had similar, different, and varied experiences that together can provide you with valuable information and perspectives leaving you more informed and open to more possibilities. As you approach more knowledgeable resources for assistance to become more educated when needed, think of the individuals with whom you interact in networking similarly. 

Networking as sharing and teaching: The converse of the point made above is another method to be considered. You undoubtedly have information that can enrich and inform others in your field thereby initiating and establishing quality relationships simply through sharing. Be open to disclosing what you understand professionally in addition to what you do not know. Also, be clear in your own mind about what you have to offer others. Comprehending what you know that may be of value to others could be difficult, especially if you are reticent to recognize your accomplishments. Therefore, try to not hesitate to share your achievements in the spirit of helping others. 

Networking as finding common ground and shared concerns: It is a typical practice when we meet someone for the first time to look for a piece of information or experience that we have in common. Doing so gives us a connection from which we can build a relationship. Networking is no different. Reach out to others with the goal of finding common ground, areas of agreement, identical perceptions on trends, similar problems to solve, or networking contacts you both share. The list can go on. Finding where your spheres of experience intersect can make these types of interactions more pleasurable and productive. 

Networking as group representation: A significant part of the discomfort with networking is that it is seen as too self-centered. What if you engaged in the practice by seeing yourself as a proxy for your employer, professional association, or for your career field as a whole? By doing so your promotional oriented outreach becomes part of a larger goal or aspiration intended to benefit others on behalf of your profession and not just abetting yourself. While presenting yourself on behalf of others you will necessarily be authenticating your own position, standing, and reputation. 

In a world where extroverts are in the majority, it can be arduous for the one third to one half of the population who are introverted to function in highly social situations. Hopefully, re-orienting how you view networking activities can make them more positive and advantageous for your career. 

Educating for Impending Careers

Many of us in the United States were educated as children and young adults so that we could succeed both as citizens sustaining our democratic way of life and as productive workers able to sustain ourselves and our families economically. For the most part, the combination of public and private K–12 schools and higher education universities and colleges has served us quite well. We are by and large a well-educated and constructive populace. 

But can we rely on the old-school methodologies to sustain us for a world of work that will be characterized as mercurial and erratic calling for agility, adaptability, and rapid evolution? There is reason to think not. An economy that is experiencing increased speed and transformation will not be well served by an educational structure and model designed to prepare students for a relatively static and predictable work world. 

Let us examine the existing paradigm that traditionally and currently defines most American high schools and colleges. There are two patterns at play based on the concepts of liberal education and career-focused education. By the time a student reaches high school they select or have selected for them one of these persuasions or the other. 

Liberal (or liberal arts) education refers to an approach that encourages a broad and diverse exposure to fundamental and diverse subject matter with the goal being to educate a student for a complex world requiring a variety of perspectives, skills, and areas of knowledge. When and if college is reached, the student fits into this mix a concentrated focus in one or more disciplines. 

A career-focused or vocational path on the other hand focuses much more on preparing the student for a relevant job that is in demand in the workforce. Breadth gives way to depth in that a craft or skillset demonstrably employable is chosen, studied, and eventually mastered by the student. 

To be clear, I am not suggesting that there is anything fundamentally wrong with these models. My concern is in the traditional modes of delivery of the designs. We are still under the assumption that a high school diploma and/or college degree program that terminates upon graduation is enough to provide a student for a lifetime career. It used to be. However, projections are that it will not be enough going forward. 

The workplace and its career needs are becoming increasingly digitized and globalized, resulting in an urgency for malleable, resilient, and entrepreneurial workers to address the ever-vibrant economic demands across the planet. To maintain these attributes workers will need to accept and embrace continuous lifelong learning, upskilling, and training to keep up and stay ahead. Schooling will never end. In fact, it will become an integral and ongoing part of any advantageous job worth having for most people. 

We will likely see a time when liberal and career-focused methods become more of an as-needed hybrid with a greater proliferation of skill and knowledge-based certification and training programs not necessarily tied to slow moving traditional education settings. Students, employees, and educators will begin migrating more intentionally into online, virtual, and yes, brick & mortar learning facilities that offer the highest quality, data driven, short and long-term instruction essential to the requirements of the emerging economy. 

As an educator myself with 31 years in public schools and 5 years as a part time college adjunct I can say with some certainty that this industry will not on its own move in this direction without a lot of resistance. There are many entrenched interests compelled to resist such changes.  

A more responsive and pragmatic instructional delivery will likely arise from a combination of innovative educators and demanding students and employees requiring relevant reactive instruction. We can all begin by getting our heads around the concept of lifelong learning. I predict it will be far more energizing and efficient and much less stuck and draining. 

The Challenge of Working Class Employment

The recent presidential election has put the demands and anger of the working class front and center in America’s attention. The economic and cultural influences brought on by encroaching globalization and automation are changing employment — and by extension many people’s lives, in ways that are deeply unsettling and unpredictable. 

The short-term fix appears to be an electorate choosing a new president who has a penchant for, shall we say, over-promising what he can do about the situation. If these promises are combined with under-delivering in the creation of jobs for this cohort over the next few years, then we will likely be playing out another struggle for what, if anything, the government can do about employment during the 2020 election. 

I hesitate to look to the professional class for solutions to the employment and lifestyle anxiety being felt by the working class. Ultimately, this more economically disadvantaged group needs leadership to help them assess and adapt to the new world order that is increasingly being driven by globalization and automation. 

Neither political party is adequately providing the needed tough love leadership and straight talk to the working class. We hear plenty about nostalgia for the good old days or that the real problem was due to hoarding by the rich, but when has anyone acknowledged that world markets are moving toward knowledge-based economies that call for fundamental changes in the way workers plan for employment? Unfortunately, we never hear it. 

We are witnessing large-scale worker displacement. I for one do not see an end in sight. So, when contemplating the best course of action for those who have chosen to curtail their education at the high school level and work in traditional industries it is difficult to see a quick and easy fix. 

To say everyone should go to college is over-simplistic. To say we should reverse the march of time is unrealistic. This country has a serious problem on its hands and if nothing else the presidential election of 2016 has given us substance for a serious debate about where we go from here. 

One thing is clear — employment will continue to go to those with skills and expertise that are marketable. Increasingly, these jobs will be technical and specialized and require considerable education and training. However, not everyone is going to be driven to be a maven in some area. It still should be okay that some people just want a half-way decent job with reasonable compensation and not be looking to set the world on fire with their careers. The question becomes how should an individual with limited education and a strong desire to work in a traditional or straightforward job plan for their future? 

I was recently drawn to the November 2016 New Hampshire Economic Conditions issue published by the state’s Employment Security department’s Economic and Labor Market Information Bureau. Their feature story looks at both “Specialized” and “Baseline” skills most in demand in New Hampshire’s labor markets as derived from an analysis of online job postings. What struck me when reading this report is that it is a window, albeit a small one, into a way of measuring what employers want, in other words what is marketable. And given the context of this piece it is the baseline skills I’m most interested in, since as the qualifier suggests these are skills that do not require a lot of education. 

The most frequently listed baseline skills were communication, writing, multi-tasking, time management, detail orientation, planning, and being organized. Nothing too earth- shattering here. These are the kinds of things someone can do that are desired in the workplace and do not require sophisticated preparation. Perhaps, identifying the basic old-school abilities is where the working class should look to begin or restore their marketability in an uncertain world. 

Let us keep this conversation going. The people showed they are willing to overlook a lot of things in a new president in order to be heard. So, what should they be hearing? 

The Growth of Cognitive Careers

Economies, and by extension careers, reward those human characteristics most in demand. When muscular strength was most in need during times dominated by agriculture and mechanical ability became required to operate and maintain machinery during the industrial age, those abilities were rewarded and revered leading to employment for those possessing such skills. 

The age we have now entered, particularly since the invention of the microprocessor, is one around which cognitive competency or intelligence is highly honored. High paying and stimulating jobs are increasingly going to the smartest among us and there is no end in sight of this trend. 

Historically, there has always been a need for intelligent people, but the correlation between cognitive ability and compensation was never as strong as it is today. One could have been an astute lawyer, financial planner, or mathematician at the turn of the 20th century, but the economy just did not reward those people at the levels that can be done today. We have created a much more complex economy requiring well-informed, inventive, and knowledgeable people who can navigate and derive value from what is for many of us a puzzling network of esoteric information in so many areas. The employment landscape for people with certain kinds of cognitive capacity is flourishing. 

For years we have heard about high unemployment rates and at the same time we have heard there is not enough talent to hire for hard to fill positions. The jobs that are vacant seek individuals with know-how in management, engineering, data analysis, and many other areas where information processing, creativity, and workforce resourcefulness is called for. 

Professionalism is deepening across fields that include medicine/healthcare, law, higher education, the sciences, the military, advanced manufacturing, and finance. Routine and relatively low-skilled operations will not bring competitive advantages to these career categories. Only accelerated thinking will. 

As a result, we are seeing the growth of an educated class. According to the U.S. Census Bureau only 4.6% of the U.S. population had attained bachelor’s degrees or higher in 1940. Today it is 32%. As this educated class continues to earn at relatively robust rates it appears to create an impression of inequality and disenfranchisement, such as we see being exploited in our current presidential election. 

However, meeting the cognitive demands of a more intricate and perplexing economy requires educated people. Blaming success is not enough to improve the lot of us all. Directing one’s individual energies to where the expertise is most needed will. 

The number of us prepared to optimally function in the globalized cognitive economy is not enough if we are to continue being among the world’s leaders in innovation, business, and social transformation. Without relatively easy access to higher education for those with the potential to take the most advantage of this opportunity means we all lose. Let us agree that lifelong learning is essential for each one of us and entry into a college experience that challenges and pushes us to maximize our cerebral capacity benefits us personally and collectively. 

However, the expense of higher education is too high and makes going to college prohibitive for too many Americans. The cost of college has risen too much and too fast. To put this cost hike into perspective the New York Times’ Economix blog shows that since 1985 the cost of general consumer items has jumped 200+%, gasoline prices have risen approximately 300%, and medical care 350%. But college tuition and fees — 575%! Are you kidding me? How is this in our best interests? This destructive level of inflation needs to be controlled. Our long-term economic development relies on it. 

Equality of opportunity is a virtue and should be the basis of much of our public policy. Opportunity is stifled when only the rich can afford to go to college. Opening the doors to higher education invites more participation in cognitive careers and expands the education class to more inclusiveness. 

The Employment Challenge of the White, Blue-Collar Worker

So, here we are amid the 2016 Presidential race, an election cycle that is likely to go down in American history as one of the most unusual and unpredictable contests ever for selecting our next president. A chief factor contributing to the volatility of this election concerns a rarely seen and powerful reaction coming from a cohort that has been with us for well over a hundred years — the racially white, economically middle class, high school-only educated worker, once commonly referred to as the blue-collar worker. 

The anxiety, fear, uncertainty, and anger of this significant electoral group has shaken up and defined this cycle’s race in a way that most of us, including the political pundits who follow this stuff for a living, did not see coming. This class angst has led to the rapid rise of at least two presidential candidates, who were not expected to be major players when they entered the fray and is driving much of the conversation among all of those still contending for the big prize. 

There are concrete and measurable reasons for the white, blue-collar worker to be apprehensive and they fall across economic, racial/ethnic, demographic, and educational domains. Technology is eliminating many low and mid-skilled jobs. Globalization is increasing competition. Whites are seeing minorities increase in numbers and power sharing. Having less than a college degree puts one at a greater employment disadvantage. When members of this contingent, particularly males, see that their fathers had an easier time achieving the middle class dream than they can, then a deep demoralization sets in. 

A report by two economists that received much attention at the end of last year showed that death rates for white, less-educated Americans aged 45–54 have increased since 1999. Drug/alcohol-related deaths and suicide are propelling this boost. Clearly, something is amiss, and it appears to have reached a breaking point with this election. 

The social and economic causal conditions mentioned are colossal and not reversible. Oversimplified diagnoses coupled with over-promising, which is what presidential candidates largely seem to be offering, will not allay the real fear people are feeling. Strong leadership that empathically acknowledges the discomfort, unease, and confusion people are feeling is a start. But rather than offering unrealistic and bombastic “solutions” it needs to be recognized that as a country we need to rally around outcomes that do not pit one class, race, or ethnic group against another, but instead meet these complex challenges with national resolve. 

In a word, jobs are at the crux of this issue. It is reasonable to ask, what is the white, blue-collar worker with only a high school education to do? To begin answering this I go way back to Aristotle who said that in order to achieve true happiness we must depend on ourselves. Of course, collective action politically and economically is important, but most fundamentally each of must assess on our own the world we are now in and determine for ourselves the best course of action to take for sustainable employment given the daunting headwinds we face. This takes clear, critical, and reflective thinking, resulting in high quality decision making. 

Each of us needs to think of ourselves as an entrepreneur. No, we are not all going to start businesses, but we are going to be approaching our careers similarly by developing, organizing, and managing the enterprise of “myself”. This involves initiative, risk, and when done well, reward. A good entrepreneur finds opportunities from among many distractions, they are innovative when conventional approaches do not work, and they are organized and productive in meeting their goals. Does being like an entrepreneur require a college degree? For many yes, for others no. 

There is a lot of need in the world. We are far from saturating all the actual and potential jobs that are or will be available. Triggering an action with an uncertain outcome is not easy and it is fraught with unpredictability, but our careers depend on it — even for the white, blue-collar worker. 

Promote Your Expertise with LinkedIn

There are significant reasons for sharing your career field expertise with others. Doing so, 

  1. a) establishes you as a qualified and trusted resource among colleagues, management, and customers;
  2. b) aligns you with other experts, thereby enhancing your comprehension and skill capacity;
  3. c) better positions you for future career advancement opportunities; and
  4. d) brings you the profound satisfaction that comes from becoming an emerging master within your profession.

LinkedIn, the professional social media platform where we have all heard we are supposed to be present, has developed into an excellent tool for communicating, sharing, and promoting your expertise. Utilization of LinkedIn and its core features can result in you having the means of crafting a powerful and multi-dimensional message for all those seeking the sound judgment and competence you can provide. 

Given the LinkedIn development team’s commitment to dynamism and continuous improvement, today the site is a fine-tuned mechanism for you the career specialist to hone and project your know-how. Let’s review the ways this can happen. 

I predict the online profile/portfolio hybrid will eventually replace the traditional resume. I cannot say exactly when this will happen, but we seem to be headed in that direction. Easy access to your profile will be mandatory and expected. So, there is no better time than the present to start getting on with this trend. 

LinkedIn allows you to tell your professional story in the first person without the constraints of resume conventions. Fill out your profile as completely as possible. Use the Summary to introduce yourself in an engaging manner that discloses how your journey began, how your passion was ignited, and where you see the industry and your role in it headed. 

The Experience section should be packed with accomplishments — the more quantifiable the better. 

The Skills & Endorsement piece should be keyword-rich, and your headline needs to communicate your career title, not your current job title. Oh, and don’t forget a professional headshot, not a detail cropped out of a wedding picture. 

LinkedIn’s advancement in becoming a repository for work samples, slide shows, videos, and yes, your traditional resume among other valuable pieces, has been a smart move permitting professionals to now have the means to post performance evidence that can speak louder than words alone. Populate this area with artifacts that pop and make your efforts shine. Show future employers and potential business opportunities what level of quality you can deliver. 

Blogging and publishing online pieces where you expound on industry-related topics and issues of the day is now available with LinkedIn. Have something of peer interest to write and the readers will come out of the woodwork. Let this feature be a megaphone for your expertise. Clarify current trends and best practices. Showcase pertinent strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats impacting your terrain. Detail the steps that need to be taken to improve conditions. Be a regular contributor and become a respected voice. 

Perhaps, one of the strongest elements in LinkedIn is the Groups. Here is where you can boost your industry presence and generate and cultivate high value connections. Involving yourself in timely and relevant subject matter with other experts and stakeholders benefits all participants and deepens your career association. Not only can you increase your visibility, but you can amplify your knowledge to those wanting and needing to hear your input. Also, being able to contact individuals directly gives you favorable circumstances for building that all important professional network. 

I still hear from too many clients something that goes like, “Yeah, I’m on LinkedIn, but I don’t really know what to do with it.” Well, I hope this is in part, somewhat illuminating to you in this cohort. In short, if you are serious about your career, you need to be serious about LinkedIn. 

Your Identity and Your Career

Many of us tend to think of ourselves in terms of what we do. When asked, “Who are you?”, we give answers such as, “I am a dental hygienist,” or “I’m a firefighter,” or “I do banking.” The work we do, which takes up large amounts of our time and energy and that we are particularly proud of doing, can serve as the springboard for our identity or how we come to think of ourselves. 

There is nothing inherently wrong in linking our self-concept to our work and careers. When we apply labels to ourselves, we feel a kind of stability and having an identifiable place in society. However, there can be a degree to which we perceive ourselves too closely to our career pursuits, such that we risk isolation and identity confusion should our work routines and conditions change in ways that are beyond our control. 

The phenomenon I am trying to describe became glaringly obvious during the many years of recession layoffs. Millions of professional workers whose self-identification had for years been bound to their careers suddenly found themselves not only out of work but feeling severed from a specialist status they had long enjoyed due their inability to any longer find suitable employment in their respective fields. 

To compound this disruption, especially for those who held employment with the same firm or institution for years if not decades, came the loss of the day-to-day affinity with co-workers, many of whom became close friends. Often we find spending as much or more time with colleagues as with members of our own families not at all unusual. The undoing of these compatriot relationships was quite jarring. 

So, how do you know if you are dedicating too much of your identity to your career? If you are fearful of a resulting void should your career dramatically change or dissolve from under you that is an indication you are investing too much of your identity in what you do for work. If those closest to you frequently remark that you are a workaholic, then it is possible you are too hitched to your career. If your social network amounts primarily to those with whom you work on the job, then you are truncating what could be a more expansive community. 

But you might ask, if we strip ourselves of our career identity what is left? Our careers are certainly major players in our lives. They deliver more than just a livelihood; they consume so much time and energy that it can become natural to think we are what we do. 

The challenge is to expand the vision of ourselves so that it comprises a 360-degree perspective of which career is a part, albeit a big part. When we think of ourselves as primarily a teacher or an accountant or whatever, we give short shrift to those other valuable elements, which together compose a full personality or identity. Our emotional, behavioral, intellectual, and spiritual attributes expressed during, but also beyond the workplace, contribute to making each of us a unique collage not easily summarized. 

Perhaps, now is a good time to begin thinking of our legacies. Now, I am not trying to rush anyone into an early grave, but by imagining how we will be remembered allows us to get a clearer view of who we are.  

We are made up of a vast number of qualities that hopefully make us interesting, trusted, and pleasant to be around. Basically, we want to be thought of as exemplifying positive traits and contributing to making the world a better place. Reliance on just career accomplishments, as important as they are, can limit our reputations and identities. 

Establishing and cultivating an overall dignified distinction and legacy of merit just might leave us with an identity with which we can be content. 

The State of Careers in New Hampshire

The 2014 In Review: Recovery report recently released by the New Hampshire Employment Security Department and the Economic and Labor Market Information Bureau is a very detailed and informative analysis of New Hampshire’s post -recession economy.

In addition to being concerned about the economic health of my state as a citizen, I am also intrigued by the report’s implications for the careers of all New Hampshire workers. I have read the report in an attempt to identify some useful indicators in determining the current and future status of career development opportunities for the state’s workforce. What follows are my career-related takeaways from 2014 In Review: Recovery:

There are several labor market-related indicators used to view the economic health of New Hampshire. The ones I think that can be used to derive the desired career information are Unemployment and Current Employment Statistics; Employment by Supersector (broad employment-industry categories); Average Hourly Earnings; Business Employment Dynamics; and Population. When taken together a picture emerges of a state with career promise for many, but within a limited number of industries and a long-term pattern of slow economic growth.

News flash! Unemployment rates rose during the Great Recession! So where are we now? The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for this past March in New Hampshire was 3.9%, which was eighth in the nation. We are essentially tied with Vermont in having the lowest rates in New England. Nationally, the rate in March was 5.5%. Statistically, eighth out of fifty does not sound too bad. Anecdotally, the “Help Wanted” sign are reappearing in business windows state-wide.

This sounds like good news, but if we dig into the data deeper we see some sobering facts. New Hampshire has a shrinking labor force that appears to be influencing the unemployment rate. As an aging state we are experiencing a trend of fewer people participating in the workforce. This fact, combined with low rates of in-migration and limited entrepreneurial expansion, is resulting in slow economic growth. To be sure there are a few bright spots, such as in advanced manufacturing, but this is not translating into being a game changer.

In looking at employment by Supersector we see that the four most robust categories of hiring are in Trade, Transportation, and Utilities; Education and Health Services; Professional and Business Services; and Leisure and Hospitality. Among the hiring laggards are Manufacturing and Construction. When we examine earnings in these Supersectors there have been increases in Education and Health Services and in Trade, Transportation, and Utilities. Pay reductions occurred in Manufacturing and Professional/Business Services. Leisure and Hospitality held steady.

Viewing current hiring in the context of near-term economic and demographic trends, including steady or declining population growth, a low level of in-migration, relative high levels of well-off retiree disposable cash, and a listing as sixth nationally in median household income tells me hiring tendencies are not likely to change dramatically. If you intend to live for a while in New Hampshire, plan your careers accordingly. We do not have an economic climate that is significantly attracting many skilled workers from other states or countries. Therefore, competition for jobs is likely to come from other NH residents.

Taken together, all of this news may suggest that careers oriented toward a graying population, such as in certain types of retail and niche services given this population’s spending capacity, financial management and wealth preservation wishes, leisure and hospitality, and of course healthcare needs should be considered.

Beyond that, Professional and Business Services hiring has recovered well from the recession. New Hampshire businesses still need accountants, HR professionals, operations managers, and technicians among many other business service pros. Career areas to watch out for include those feeling downward pressure from an aging population, such as public school teachers facing declining enrollments and construction workers encountering curtailed building expansion.

A direction that would be encouraging to see turned around is our level of entrepreneurship. More creative ideas and risk-taking on the part of individuals willing to start businesses targeted to improving the lives of New Hampshire residents just might enhance our standard of living and boost economic growth simultaneously. Now there is a career option!

 

 

 

Preparing Your Career for a Binary Star Economy

Career Development is as fluid a field of study and method of personal improvement as can be found anywhere. Its progressive elasticity and growing erratic nature are due to the changing state of the world of work. In an environment that requires continual improvement, adaptability, and thorough planning as does ours, long-term career design can be a difficult and uncertain endeavor. 

As discovered by ancient mariners when navigating vast and strange oceans, it helps to have a North Star to serve as a beacon and guide. As we each seek to chart an unclear and enigmatic career development landscape for purposes of changing existing careers or determining new ones, we too can benefit from a North Star. However, Binary Star may be the more apt metaphor — a system consisting of two stars orbiting around their common center of mass. This is because the duality we must now regularly consider are the two interdependent powerhouses known as globalization and automation. 

The future of work appears to be heavily influenced, if not governed, by these two harbingers. In tandem, globalization and automation are in a process of modifying the way we live, and therefore how we work. The expanding utilization of technology combined with the spreading integration of people, businesses, and governments around the world is altering economic history in a way that has not happened since the Industrial Revolution. 

As paradigm shifting as the change from hand work to mass production was a hundred plus years ago, we are now witnessing a transformation just as groundbreaking, if not more. When people like Ray Kurzweil, the 67-year-old Director of Engineering at Google, predicts that by 2029 computers will be able to perform all tasks humans can now do, only better, then I pay attention — and you should too. 

It is not just the prognostications of one man that matter (and he has some doozies), but the unmistakable short and long-term trend lines indicating rapid proliferation in new and disruptive technologies and business models (think Airbnb, Uber, SaaS, MOOCS) and increased activity in what the International Monetary Fund refers to as the four basic aspects of globalization: international transactions; capital movements; migrations of people; and knowledge dissemination. 

Ask yourself, how well do your career plans hitch themselves to the forces of globalization and automation? It is wise to look for some connection. Enough current work is already being made redundant and new ways of organizing work tasks are in the process of being discovered. If I was as prescient as I wish I could be, I would now present a neat and tidy list of specific and guaranteed jobs of the future. But alas, I am not that farsighted. Nevertheless, here is what I think will help in preparing for the Brave New World and strengthen our decision making as we move forward. 

Paramount is the need to remain optimistic in the face of uncertainty. Pessimism and hand wringing will not fortify us against ambiguity. Those who will find success are those with a positive attitude allowing themselves to see and grasp an opportunity others do not or cannot. 

We also need to get back to having big ideas. The Hoover Dam, the Golden State Bridge, and the Empire State Building were all built during the Great Depression. Winning World War II, constructing the Interstate Highway System, and launching six crewed moon landings followed. Today we are all in a twist about whether to extend health insurance to the uninsured and whether to fund bridge repairs. Big problems exist that need substantial solutions. Let us find our lost courage to make grand proposals and realize lofty outcomes. 

Free thinking of the type that stimulates innovation and entrepreneurship also needs to be encouraged. This has always been America’s strong suit and it demands continuation, if not invigorating, in an ever-competitive global economy. Our schools for one can do a better job of transitioning from the mechanized industrial-aged model to one more consistent with a broad-minded enterprising ethos. 

Business dedicated to sharing, rather than old fashioned consumption and disposal of resources is becoming fashionable — and profitable. Making money by sharing homes, cars, locally grown foods, breweries, office spaces, etc. is becoming increasingly common. Disruptive of legacy business models to be sure, but isn’t that the way it is going these days? From an ecological viewpoint, an economy that utilizes resources in common with others may in part reverse the throw-away trend of the last half century. 

Reframing our attitudes and ways of thinking about the binary impact globalization and automation is having on our economy, careers, and ways of life may be the best approach we can profitably take away from this economic conversion. 

New Hampshire’s Career Outlook

In reading about the current and projected employment picture for New Hampshire we can draw some conclusions about which careers are likely to thrive going forward. Such information can be particularly useful for workers and residents who have decided New Hampshire offers a desirable lifestyle and who therefore intend to live and build their careers in the state for the long-term.

The local sources I like going to in order to find the information necessary for getting the state’s big employment picture include the New Hampshire Center for Public Policy Studies, including anything written by NH economist Dennis Delay; The Economic and Labor Market Information Bureau from NH Employment Security; and of course regular reading of the New Hampshire Business Review.

By looking at these resources over time impressions are formed about the direction our state is going with regards to employment and careers. This is very helpful when advising clients, students, and others about where their energy should be directed in making career choices, whether at the start of a career of during the evolution of an ongoing one.

A couple of points help frame my outlook about career decision making in New Hampshire. One is that we are not a poor state. In both Median Household Income and Per Capita Income we rank 6th in the country. Secondly, we are a graying state in that our demographic trend favors an aging population. In general many of our young people go elsewhere to build their careers and there is not a robust in-migration of youth coming here to live and work. My own adult children form a case in point. One lives and works in LA and the other is just outside of Boston. My takeaway? Jobs that serve an older and somewhat affluent population should be considered.

Another trend of note is how strongly linked New Hampshire’s economy is to Massachusetts. When our friends to the south do well, so do we. Fortunately, many of Massachusetts’ numbers are looking good. The bad news is that NH has lost its former status of being a place with lots of job growth. The Boston area is attracting population and jobs more than NH is.  It is not appearing as if we have the same level of economic prosperity relative to metro Boston, but some of their economy does spill into NH, at least as far north as Concord.

So with all that said where are the relatively bright industry sectors NH residents and workers can look to start and develop careers?

For reasons having to do perhaps with our state’s high percentage of college educated workers we see sectors such as business services offering opportunities. Professional services, for example consulting, accounting, architecture, engineering, company management, and staffing services are high paying jobs that have recovered beyond what we lost during the Recession.

Another sector showing an increase in jobs beyond those we lost during the economic downturn is leisure and hospitality. Tourism remains strong in NH, especially when the unpredictable weather cooperates. So food servers, hotel and inn staffing, and related jobs will be around for some time.

Health services would appear to be stable if not growing due in part to the aging population. Nursing, home health aides, dental hygienists, medical assistants, medical secretaries, and physical therapists are examples of positions likely to grow.

Computer system design and other IT and technical jobs have a bright outlook. Computer user support specialists, computer systems analysts, computer-controlled machine tool operators, IT administrators, and software developers are career areas with a future for now.

Also now with the foreclosure crisis having largely abated carpenters, plumbing, electricians, and other building trades, while not necessarily very strong, are seeing some resurgence.

Beware though of many manufacturing and government jobs, including in K–12 education. They are shrinking.

New Hampshire still offers a great environment in which to raise a family, enjoy nature, and build a career. And those factors looking forward are not going to change.

 

 

 

 

The Future of Careers

The official U.S. unemployment rate is down to 6.1% (in New Hampshire 4.4%). This is the lowest it has been since September 2008, the month we all realized the U.S. economy was in a tailspin. The raw number of employed workers has also recovered from the start of the recession. 

So why do we still feel in a funk about the employment recovery clearly underway? Perhaps it is because the recovery is taking so long. Or maybe it is due to the poisonous political relations turning into a national fratricide. It could also be the growing mainstream realization that capital has become densely concentrated among a relative few while the middle class feels its power and influence waning. 

I think all these developments play significant and disturbing roles in our continued malaise. However, there is another factor tugging at our collective insecurity. It is an insidious threat running just below the surface and not yet apparent to most, except for those who see their jobs and careers steadily dissolving. Call it automation, robotics, technology, or robo-sourcing. Whatever you call it, the reality of machines replacing people in the workplace is as historic as craftsmen and artisans being replaced by factory workers during the Industrial Revolution. 

I am not talking about just low-skilled jobs which do not require much education being erased. We all know that has been going on. The news is that computers are becoming better at replacing mid-level jobs and there is no end in sight to this trend. 

Here are some examples of a possible near-term future: Why hire a paralegal when computers can research and collate case histories and precedents? Let’s reduce family expenses by eliminating auto insurance, since our new car is autonomously operated. Who needs mid-managers when employees are now empowered by sophisticated software to give them direction? 

Examples such as these (and there are plenty more) of automation reaching into and killing traditional careers will become more numerous. No wonder we feel unsettled. Uncertainty for our jobs is the new certainty. 

Every great story involves individuals or groups trying to handle adversity with the goal of regaining equilibrium in their lives. Among the great stories of our age will be how working people adjust, manage, and flourish given the challenge of ubiquitous career disruption. This will not be easy. There will be a lot of anguish, questioning, indecision, and yes successes as we share in the development of a new economy characterized by new rules and choices. 

How we as individuals adapt to a world in which technology handles all the work tasks comprised of rote, logical, ordered, and sequential attributes will be centered around one fundamental question —What can people do that computers cannot do? 

In answer to this question there appear to be at least two areas in which people are superior to machines. One, people can be creative, innovative, and novel. We have viewpoints and experience leading us to devise new and exciting ways of doing things. We can make decisions and present new perspectives as opposed to merely accomplishing tasks and computations. 

Secondly, Hollywood movies about falling in love with operating systems aside, people can relate emotionally with other people. We can touch feelings, inspire and comfort others, understand, bless, and believe in other people. To date no automaton can do that. 

Careers subsisting on creativity and human contact will survive and thrive. They are already the basis of many careers currently and jobs requiring facility in these areas will likely expand. We will have our machines, but above all we will still need and have each other. Maybe even the Creative Arts could experience a boom the likes of which we have not yet seen. Time will tell. 

So yes, we feel that despite the hopeful employment numbers we are not very hopeful. Since we are not going to return to the past let’s start looking forward to and planning for a future that will certainly be different, but not necessarily bleak. 

Seven Must-Have Transferable Skills

As career adjustments and job switching pick up pace, resulting from a somewhat improved employment picture and with the trending migration from long-term employment with one employer to a more free-lanced economy, the need for establishing and cultivating transferable skills becomes more important. 

Transferable skills are those capabilities one develops in one employment context that has currency in another. For example, a teacher may find that her or his skill in curriculum instructional delivery translates well to a training & development position in business or that a police officer’s ability to confront behavioral conflict situations with the public translates well to managing order and productivity among a large retail workforce. 

Transferable skills are most often not specific and discreet competencies, such as being able to make a metal forming roll in a tool and die shop, but rather more general qualifications that lend themselves to a variety of expressions. Convertible skills describe proficiencies that have value across a diverse set of employment situations and for this reason are skills the aspiring employee should know about and develop. 

Here is my list of seven transferable skills each worker with a proclivity for a lattice rather than a linear career should work to expand and refine to increase their chances of customizing their career the way they want. 

  1. Making Quality Decisions — Knowing how to make high impact and consistent decisions that take into proper perspective and consideration relevant information and that balances risk appropriately is a strong skill appreciated almost anywhere. Decision theory is like game theory, involving a durable ability to rationally reach an optimal outcome. If you are making decisions based mostly on fear and inertia, then you have something to work on.
  2. Solving Problems — Name me a business or organization that does not have a significant need for someone who can find resolutions to perplexing problems both big and small. Refining a problem-solving approach that is orderly and technique-based with a track record of success is best. Being able to cite examples of accomplishments as performance evidence of your steady problem-solving methodology is even better.
  3. Persuasion and Negotiation — What is the thing most workers hate about their boss or irritating co-workers? It is when they bully and intimidate to get their way rather than engaging in a thoughtful and genuinely persuasive argument. And yes, although it does not appear to be practiced by members of Congress anymore, reaching compromise through good-faith negotiations usually yields outcomes that satisfy the greatest number of stakeholders.
  4. Analysis — Being able to examine a task, phenomenon, procedure, or problem can go a long way to interpret the meaning of data or to determine the best course of action. By reducing complexity to constituent parts, a better understanding and new prospects can result. This can be useful when trying to assess and grasp the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of a venture, business, or mission.
  5. Synthesis — Conversely showing the skill of combining, mixing, and merging ideas or materials into new and novel concepts and products is the basis of innovation and creativity. Sometimes perspectives need to be reframed so that new and different viewpoints can emerge, from which a competitive edge can arise. Freeing up and training the mind to develop unusual, but valuable means of expression allows organizations to provide improved ways of doing things.
  6. Collaboration — Working in concert with colleagues and stakeholders increases productivity, more efficiently achieves quality outcomes, and effectively reaches shared goals. The process of sharing knowledge and reaching consensus is essential at a time when the means of production grow ever more complex. Let’s face it, having a workplace where people get along and work together is energizing and spiritually uplifting, dare I say even fun.
  7. Networking with Talent – Ambitious and competitive employers know that having talent in their organizations is a good thing. Now, if that talent frequently interacts and learns from other gifted individuals then there is a value-add. When you fertilize your career with esteemed people who you respect and who respect you there comes an increase for the mastery of your career and perhaps even the bottom line for your employer.

When Did the Job Seeker and Employers Become Mortal Enemies

In my last piece I shared with readers the perspective of a long-term job seeker who had engaged in the job search process and the employment success she eventually found. Of course, for many others who ultimately get hired, “success” can often mean being underemployed or taking a pay cut from their previous position. It is a difficult pill for too many to swallow. 

For this piece a very different job seeker viewpoint, that of Linda Norris. As you will see the arduous hunt for employment can leave the searcher questioning what has gone wrong with the selection process. For many trying to obtain employment today, it has become an agonizingly slow, frustrating, and demoralizing slog. Below are the comments of an actual job seeker with a professional background and what she has found to be the new normal. In short, a daunting and often frightening search for work.
 

In years past, a job seeker would create a clear, concise resume, purchase a few local and city newspapers and apply for new jobs. The process would continue with a few phone calls, one to two interviews, a salary discussion with dual party agreement and a few distributed benefits brochures. The candidate would agree to the new job description with all its trimmings, dress professionally and start their new job. 

Then the internet arrived and the race for every company to get their job postings online. This worked for several years, until the arrival of Big Data, job coaches, job recruiters, job boards and concierges, job consultants, online job applicant profiles, pre-pre-employment online testing, candidate profiling, and other assorted job seeker tools that employers now use to weed out, but not hire candidates. 

Job seekers today must sort through a maze of confusing, conflicting, often out of date job boards and misleading employer web pages. There are lengthy job applications, which consume hours and hours of job seekers online time and resources. 

We are expected to willingly participate in online Pre-employment testing, Pre-Candidate quizzes, candidate profiling, multiple resume and document uploads, software testing downloads, Skype interviews, video conferencing from home, and multiple, time-wasting phone screens. 

Many job application interviews run into 5-hour stretches. These multiplex, invasive candidate selection processes are like the torture methods used in the Middle Ages. While the job seeker is not actually tortured physically, they often are intellectually. 

Once the online job seeker profile is completed and submitted, then there is the Candidate’s Application, EEO statement, resumes/documents to upload, the Pre-employment tests, applicant’s job scorecard and the applicant’s dashboard to be reviewed. After that there is ongoing, internet searches of the applicant to gain insight to their inner thoughts and deeds. If they have a Facebook page, a Google page, etc. this too is evaluated before the candidate can be hired. If the candidate rejects social media, then that rejection is also interpreted. 

Educational GPAs are evaluated, from grade school to college. The amount and fluency of foreign languages spoken or not spoken, is a criterion for hiring a job seeker. The candidate’s neighborhood, city, and state are also used as criteria for hiring. Driver’s license numbers are requested on applications, so that driving records can be interpreted, even library cards, overdue books, and fees paid are subject to interpretation by a future employer. 

What does all this invasion of a candidate’s privacy have to do with a new job? How does all this over-detailed, invasive micromanaging of a potential candidate’s lifestyle prove abilities to an employer? 

Why has the job seeker been placed in the position of being a mortal enemy, all for want of a job? 

Six Characteristics of Success in the Modern Workforce

Entering this twenty-first century, post-Recession, globalized, and digital workforce can be daunting. Whether you are young and just entering the job search fray, middle aged and trying to maintain or build upon your competitiveness and value, or mature and desperate to stay relevant, securing meaningful work that is well compensated is still a major challenge. 

Just look at the principal obstacle facing us. Job creation is anemic. Sure, it is better than a few years ago, but way too many workers are either underemployed or have given up looking. While Wall Street booms, employment lags. Anxiety remains high for even the employed who still seem reluctant to leave jobs they have, but do not like, for fear of not finding anything better. Why is this? I see several reasons at play. 

  • More and more wealth and power are continually concentrating on the very rich and they do not appear incentivized to be creating many jobs with it. 
  • Perhaps because of #1 the incomes and purchasing power of the middle class is shrinking, which depresses both demand, supply, and jobs. 
  • Globalization has increased competition and innovation, meaning if you are not an over-caffeinated go-getter, you are finding yourself at the back of the line. 
  • Technology expands productivity with fewer workers needed to produce than in the past. 
  • The nature of many jobs is changing. New and ever-changing skills and knowledge bases are in increasing demand. 
  • Government is being constrained to help. There seems to be nothing government can do anymore that is welcomed. Imagine trying to start a Roosevelt-like CCC program today? There would be a revolution from the political Right. 

What’s a job seeker to do? To begin with realize it is tough, but not hopeless. There are characteristics I believe it is wise to possess that will increase your chances of being seen by employers as valuable and desired. These traits transcend most careers and specialty areas and have as much to do with attitude as with training and education. Here is my list of must-have work style attributes for the times in which we live: 

  1. Stay Connected: Build and cultivate your network however you can. Meet face to face, connect on social media, join and participate in groups, volunteer, email and text, and outreach, outreach, outreach. Isolation can be a career killer.
  2. Stay Optimistic: Project hopefulness and positivity. Downers are a turn-off for people, especially co-workers and bosses. Sure, there is a lot going on to depress us, but being angry and negative rarely builds dreams or improves challenging situations.
  3. Stay Confident: Showing a can-do spirit prepares a person for difficulties and inspires others. Confidence, along with its cousinsself-motivation and goal-orientation, generates an energy that leads to high quality outcomes.
  4. Stay Technologically Current: Be curious about the skills and products surrounding us and which define our times. Keep an eye on the latest innovations that will shape our future. Resist the urge to be a luddite who thinks the old ways were always the best ways. Truth is the good old days were not in many cases.
  5. Stay Diverse: Accept and thrive on a multiplicity of ideas and perspectives. Get energized by all the richness inherent in different viewpoints. Varying ideas come from the mixed gender, ethnic, racial, and multigenerational makeup of workforces. The more sources of input the higher the likelihood of success.
  6. Stay Educated: Embrace lifelong learning as a key to staying abreast of current trends, best practices, and what works in your field. Continuous training and education enrich you professionally and will make you more of an asset to employers both current and potential.

Reframing the dismal jobs picture as an opportunity to better your employability and improve your position as a valued employee is one way to cope and perhaps succeed in the modern workforce. 

The Declining Middle Class and Its Jobs

The middle class is being displaced and with it the jobs typically held and performed by labor. This trend is threatening the way of life for millions of Americans and could change the economic, social, and political fabric of the United States. 

There are two principal occurrences underway driving this phenomenon with no end in sight for either: 

  1. The migration of low and mid-skilled jobs to developing countries with cheaper labor compensation.
  2. The automation or robo-sourcing of tasks typically performed by minimally skilled employees.

If you are now in a job that can be outsourced or automated start making plans immediately for an employment change, because chances are your job is not going to be around much longer. 

This is a good news/bad news story for business. As more relatively lower-skilled workers are finding themselves increasingly irrelevant their erstwhile employers are finding productivity does not suffer as a result. On the contrary productivity is increasing.  

Outsourcing and robo-sourcing are growing in popularity among business owners because they increase productivity and decrease costs. Good deal for the bottom line…bad deal for labor. Look at the stock market. It booms while the employment numbers generally lag. 

Much of what has historically made the middle class possible has been the availability of mid-level jobs — those that require more skill and knowledge than menial tasks, but not the more sophisticated, analytical, and critical decision-making work performed by well-educated executives. Manufacturing is where many of these jobs used to be found. But the decline of U.S. manufacturing means the loss of mid-level blue collar work. 

Thankfully, there are still mid-level service sector jobs in healthcare, hospitality, retail, the trades, and elsewhere. Unfortunately, these jobs do not often satisfy the middle-class standard of living we have become used to. The jobs are hard to come by and many of them do not pay very well. 

The labor movement is in trouble. The collective strength of labor, which in the twentieth century helped assure decent middle-class compensation and placed the worker in a position where he and she could share in the fruits of production, has been significantly weakened. These days unions only represent about 12% of the workforce and the competition for fewer and fewer good paying jobs is growing fiercer. Even government work is drying up.  

The guy with only a high school diploma is competing against cheap labor from overseas and increasingly robotics here at home. This is not a solid negotiating position to be in for finding and retaining a decent paying middle class job. 

There are no quick fixes or easy answers for the middle class. Sure, aspiring to great paying management and executive work can and should be a goal for many, but realistically that is not for everyone. 

Sustaining a viable middle class will require availability of mid-skilled employment that can be achieved with mid-level education, say the equivalent of an associate or bachelor’s degree. This type of employment should also pay a salary between minimum wage and executive compensation. What a critical mass of those jobs will be moving forward is unclear. But if we are to be more than a nation of haves and haves-nots in the 21st century, then we had better figure this one out soon. 

Career Web Services Review

It is no secret the Internet is where people go for almost everything from house hunting to car buying to job searching. Although I, and most career advisors, will not tell you to sit for hours searching for jobs on Indeed.com and CareerBuilder and call that a job search, there are nevertheless some interesting and potentially beneficial job search related services popping up on the web besides job boards. 

Here are four applications that attempt to combine and leverage well tested and proven job search best practices with the ease and power of Internet use. Conceptually I find these apps promising, but I want to be clear that I am not endorsing them. At best I have dabbled in them and do not claim to be a power user. But as more of our functionality, including career development, becomes digitized it is worth seeing what the entrepreneurial class is cooking up out there. One never knows where the next great Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn will come from. 

  1. VIZIFY — In this age of versatile multimedia it can seem odd we still place so much on a black & white paper or word-processed document called a resume. Vizify asks why don’t we spiff up that boring old doc and present it instead as a visually more appealing graphic display? Here is an opportunity to import resume and online profile data, essentially your value proposition or professional brand, into a graphical bio. This can then be included on email signatures, QR codes for business cards, and online profiles to show a brighter side of you. For job candidates looking for placements in more hip work settings this may have possibilities.

[Vizify was acquired by Yahoo! in 2014.] 

  1. JOBS WITH FRIENDS — Here’s a cool idea. We all know (or should!) that networking is the best route to go for finding meaningful employment. I recommend to clients they spend at least 70% or more of their job search time outreaching to contacts in their networks in searching for employment opportunities. Jobs With Friends identifies all your social media connections and friends and gives you tools for finding who they list as their employers, what the current job openings are where they work, and a means of asking for referrals from them to give to their employers.

[Jobs With Friends is now a service offered by CareerCloud.com.] 

  1. PERFECT INTERVIEW — Although this is an array of multimedia interactive interviewing solutions for job seekers and HR departments there is one feature, I’d like to focus on called Interview Coach. Ever notice how being videotaped can be a great learning tool? Watching yourself played back teaches you more about your performance than any other method. Interview Coach places you in front of your computer and webcam, shoots tough questions at you from professional interviewers, and records your responses. You get to see how you answered and can then better refine your interview technique.

[This service is still alive and well in 2022.] 

  1. VIZIBILITY — Here is a service that totally gets the future of career development and brand management tied into one’s online identity. Vizibility tries to cover all the bases by offering the user data analytics to show how often you are being searched, mobile business cards, ways of finding common social media connections, your Google ranking, online identity sharing, and other ways to help you push your profile to potential high value decision makers. If you believe exposure leads to opportunity, then check this one out.

[Vizibility is now vizCard, maker of digital/mobile business cards with analytic features.] 

As clever as these and other services are I think it is best to view them as tools to help the job searcher implement tried and true practices such as networking, self-promotion, and determining what efforts are time wasters vs. what has value. It is hard to imagine at this point that good old face-to-face communication can ever be completely replaced by web-based services. But meanwhile, have fun seeing how career and software-as-a-service development merge in some innovative ways. 

Careers are Idiosyncratic — and that’s a Good Thing

I had an opportunity last week to hear Dr. Temple Grandin deliver the keynote address at the National Career Development Association’s annual convention, held this year in Boston. And am I glad I did! The animal science professor and autism rights activist definitely has something to say, not only to career professionals, but to all of us. 

I have only recently learned of Temple Grandin from hearing her being interviewed recently on NPR. That piece made me stop and ask out loud, “Who is that?” 

She clearly has a message and delivery style that is out of the mainstream. However, beyond her unique and unconventional look and enunciation is a powerful exposition about individualism and the priority we should all place on honoring people’s differences when assisting in career decision making. 

Temple Grandin has become a renowned spokesperson for the humane treatment of animals and for encouraging tolerance and civil behavior directed toward individuals impacted by autism — a reality she has lived with for 65 years. Her advice for the mainstream of society goes far beyond telling us to be respectful and kind to people who act, speak, and think differently from the norm. 

Dr. Grandin is putting us on notice that the talent diversity necessary to fuel an innovative workforce and culture requires us to encourage and cultivate the very idiosyncrasies so many of us shun and dismiss. 

It is no secret that STEM careers are all the rage. Many of the most lucrative and potentially available jobs for the future lie in industries seeking employees and contractors strong in science, technology, engineering, and math. To those of us not immersed daily in these jobs we tend to think of STEM work as heavily rules-based, formulaic, and straight forward. 

It is helpful to have been reminded that American ingenuity results when deep scientific knowledge and creative thinking merge. The development of the light bulb, integrated circuit, Internet, and many other inventions came from just such thinkers. NASA is chock full of geeks and nerds. Think about it. Where would we be as a nation without them? 

Although it may be human nature, there is a downside to building a society that places too strong a premium on conformity when it comes to career development. You do not have to be on an autism spectrum to sense the fear, insecurity, and lack of self-confidence that can come from the pressure to think and behave like everyone else around you. In so many ways we give each other the message that to be different is bad, but to conform is good. 

Yet our American value proposition as a key player in the global workforce is defined by our inclination to be innovative, inventive, and groundbreaking. This cannot be done unless a holistic individualism is encouraged and enriched. 

Careers flourish when individuals engage in purposeful work leading to mastery. Careers are also undergoing dramatic shifts and transformations as the global economy and technology change the employment landscape. Allowing for and encouraging creative ways of combining, expanding, and morphing careers helps to assure we Americans continue to have economic viability in a rapidly changing world. Embracing individualism, even when it is outside of the norm, can pave the way for successful careers and a competitive economic edge. 

Temple Grandin’s call for acceptance and advocacy is positive and relevant for our time. Let us join in giving power to all the people. 

Know What Your Performance Evidence Is

“Hiring me will add value to your operation.” 

“I am prepared to take on the biggest challenges and come out a winner!” 

“You can count on me to tackle all obstacles and generate profit growth simultaneously.” 

Having the confidence and drive to be strongly competitive in this dog-eat-dog hiring climate is great. The meek unfortunately do not appear to be in the lead in inheriting this earth in any way that says employment success. Reaching out, promoting, in short, selling yourself is as combative as ever in employment and those with the stomach and skill for it can come out ahead. 

But making claims of greatness can be as fragile as a house of cards in the wind unless there is substance to back up your superlative declarations. You cannot call yourself a star performer if there is not some credible performance evidence to show in fact you can do the things you said you could do. 

Knowing what counts as solid performance evidence in your field and being able to clearly cite examples of your achievement in these areas boosts your standing among those making hiring decisions. These deciders can be listening about your performance affirmations at a networking event, job fair, or in an interview. They can be reading about them in your resume or on your LinkedIn profile. However, it is that they learn about those valuable accomplishments of yours that scream, “I’m qualified!”, the better off your career can be. 

So, what really matters in the work you do? Is it meeting quotas, raising profits, mitigating threats, improving lifestyles, expanding market share, stopping hunger, bringing joy to others, elevating student test scores, saving lives, or any number of the important things that show you have done what you were hired to do? We all have a rather limited set of crucial outcomes or objectives to realize in our jobs. Knowing exactly what they are and keeping track of your attainment of these goals is a good place to start identifying your performance evidence. 

Examples of execution carry more weight when they are quantifiable. Numbers can take a statement from subjective to objective, from opinion to fact. But be strategic about the quantities you select in your power statements. 

Now let us say that I am trying to prove to stakeholders that I am an excellent retail store manager. Do I talk about how demanding it is to track inventory, handle customers, and make good hourly-wage hires. That may all be true, but they do not speak to key performance indicators. Instead talk about numbers of units sold and employees supervised. Mention specifically how much you reduced operational costs and grew annual sales. Point out the increased percentages of surveyed customer satisfaction ratings and improvements made in associate training sessions. 

If vetting a candidate, which would you rather hear or read about concerning that person’s accomplishments: 

“Reduced expenses related to manufacturing operations.” or “Reduced costs, inventories, and cycle times of manufacturing operations, resulting in 52% – 68% gross margin increase, 4% –10% annual inventory turn increase, and 25% cycle time decrease.” 

Or how about this: 

“Managed operational and capital budgets.” or “Furnished operational and capital budgets for 18 commercial properties, comprising over $30M in expenditures for over 3.5 million square feet of space.” 

Not all professions embed the collection of performance data into their jobs like sales, financials, and medicine, among others. Sometimes it may be necessary for you to do your own quantitative logging, even if it is retrospective. 

Sure, it is a hassle, but in less than an hour, and maybe with some help from those who know your work well, you can compile a generous list of quantitative achievements from your recent past. This information can then be presented as demonstrations of your good efforts and workplace worth. 

Communicating in terms of performance evidence to hiring managers and recruiters strengthens your position as a job search candidate. So, go ahead and announce with confidence your capabilities and potential, but reinforce the message with the important deeds that count. 

The 70/20/10 Career Model

70/20/10. It is a development model that is turning up in a lot of different places. I think it should play a role in career development as well. (My apologies to anyone who has gotten to this realization before me. If so, I have not yet seen your work.) 

So, what is it? Let me explain. I see it is a breakdown of time and energy spent on evolving an undertaking. Think of it as 70%/20%/10%. Some examples of its application may help: 

In education: Learning often comes from recognizing problems and the need to solve them. According to this approach 70% of our time is spent performing day-to-day and challenging tasks that contain problems we ponder by trying to think of solutions. 20% is occupied by interacting with others to collect data useful in solving these problems and 10% comes from formal course work or training to build one’s expertise. 

In business: To be innovative (and what business does not need to be?) requires what Eric Schmidt of Google says is a 70/20/10 approach. 70% should be on basic operations, i.e., making the doughnuts. 20% of the time should be spent dedicated to experimenting with different ways of implementing the core business. 10% should be on completely novel concepts not related to the core business. 

Diet: Livestrong promotes eating 70% proteins, 20% fats, and 10% carbs. 

Social Media Marketing: There is a posting rule for business to get the most ROI exposure while on social media. It goes 70% brand building, 20% sharing others’ posts, and 10% advertising and promotion. 

Job Search: Heck, even I and other career types find we recommend to clients that when job searching spend 70% of the time networking, 20% reaching out to recruiters, and 10% on job boards. 

70/20/10. It is infectious. Isn’t it? Perhaps even elegant. 

This is what I am thinking in terms of using this formula in career development. Assuming we want to mature and progress in our careers it may be useful to have a grand action plan for doing so. This plan should be easy to remember and not very complicated. Starting with 70/20/10 is good, because it is easy to keep in mind. Here is how I propose using the 70/20/10 career plan: 

70% of our time, energy, and spirit can be committed to practicing our craft. This is what we do to attain our 10,000 hours, Malcolm Gladwell’s mastery threshold. It is what gives us our sixth sense of professionalism. Sure, we may be on cruise control to some extent, but the repetition, the deep experience, and the number of times you can say, “I’ve seen this one before,” will over time build expertise. 

20% is what we devote to trying things out of our box. We allow ourselves to play a little with our career. The rule now is to think creatively and experimentally. The time has come to approach the same-old with a fresh perspective and novel approaches. Embrace change and look for new ways to perform tasks and meet responsibilities. Always improve and refine. Do not get locked into thinking the 70% is where 100% of your time should be spent. Allow yourself to play with the 20%. The 20% is not to be set aside. It is crucial. 

10% of our work time, yes 10%, is spent doing something completely different. It may be difficult to see that it is even tangentially related to your day job. Are you an accountant? Spend 10% of your time watercolor painting. Are you a parole officer? Spend 10% of your time learning how to play the clarinet. Are you an artist? Spend 10% of your time studying nutrition. But here is the connection, be mindful of what new things you learn and how they may have applications to your fundamental work. Remember, you are looking for new avenues to grow professionally. And maybe you will enrich your life at the same time. 

70/20/10. Lots of possibilities with these numbers. Think of using them with your career. Growth, purpose, and success may result. 

Is It Becoming a Women’s World?

As an aging male with 60 years of perspective, I cannot help but note the huge change American women are undergoing in terms of their career options. As women have demanded and experienced a shift in social, political, and economic power sharing there is a wide and growing range of work choices available to them. 

I still remember how odd I thought it looked to see my first uniformed female police officer and big rig female truck driver and woman on a construction crew. It is not that I thought it wrong, but it did seem out of place. Growing up in the 50s and 60s I basically thought as a young person that work for women outside of the home was limited to being a secretary or an elementary school teacher or a nurse. 

Now women seem to be in nearly every profession, including the running of companies. In retrospect, I suppose observing the integration of women into traditional male jobs was my first eye opener to cultural change. It has since only increased in pace. 

For those of us who think increased equality among citizens is a good thing, then the news is great. The power structure long dominated by male viewpoints is yielding to a more balanced approach enriched by ideas contributed by women. Conventional wisdom suggests this is leading to a society that is fairer and representative of every person’s interests. 

While I applaud this historic development and in no way wish for a regression, I also notice an angst and relative lack of direction on the part of men. In general, while the career prospects for women are expanding men appear to be more adrift with their changing role. Here are some of the signs I see: 

  • Men took a greater unemployment hit during the recession than woman. Jobs requiring brawn like construction and traditional manufacturing were being shed faster than jobs requiring nurturing and education like healthcare and business services. 
  • Women now outpace men in receiving college degrees. In a world that is going to rely only more on an educated workforce, this bodes well for those individuals embracing higher learning. 
  • The trend in leadership roles is to become more gender neutral. As women move more into management and executive positions it displaces the men who formally held those spots. 
  • The competition field for securing jobs is getting deeper. Not long ago, men had to form job search strategies that pitted them against other men only. Not anymore. Now men must compete against women. This is not a comfortable place for many men to be. 
  • The nature of work is changing in that physical strength, the greatest value point men have traditionally had, is increasingly less in demand. Technology, mechanical engineering, and robotics are already handling much of the digging, lifting, and carrying once done by strong men. And as time goes on, there will be even less need for physical strength on the job. 
  • Increasing numbers of men are wanting to spend more time with their kids. Men putting their careers on hold or at least slowing the pace of development in favor of parenting seems to be becoming quite acceptable among the children of Baby Boomers. How this choice is seen by hiring managers once the man wants to re-engage with the workforce is still unclear, but potentially damaging to his career. 

How this all turns out is hard to say. Perhaps work is becoming completely gender neutral, and we will no longer think in terms of male and female jobs. But for men who like things traditional, facing these employment adjustments may be rocky for the foreseeable future. 

Telecommuting and the Innovative Environment

A very interesting and potentially watershed story has emerged in recent days in business news. It concerns the top-down working conditions decision made by the recently selected CEO of Yahoo! Marissa Mayer. Ms. Mayer has announced that telecommuting among the company’s employees is to be eliminated. Although this decision was intended for internal dissemination only, it quickly leaked to the rest of us and has sparked a rapid and vociferous debate about productivity and innovation in cutting edge companies — and by extension to the rest of us. 

To be clear, I have been and continue to be an enthusiastic proponent of any workplace practices that promote creativity, collaboration, autonomy, productivity, and civility. Among the exciting changes emerging within the post-industrial workplace has been employer recognition to adopt flexible working conditions, many of which achieve these very goals. 

Common examples include open concept “office-less” workplaces that promote interaction and sharing, remote working via technology whether from home or other places conducive to production, and work settings that include benefits like childcare, gyms, and ping-pong tables. 

The underlying management belief in these types of arrangements is that workplaces should be results-only-work-environments, encouraging employees to produce individual and even idiosyncratic styles, if measurable deliverables are realized. 

A management approach embracing an attitude that trusts its employees to be value-producing when they are given freedom to choose schedules, environments, colleagues, and problem-solving approaches is the trend in working conditions. So why has Ms. Mayer, a product of Google, Silicon Valley, and data-driven decision making, made the move to eliminate one of the fastest growing flexible workplace practices, telecommuting? The apparent answer is to re-establish a lost culture of innovation. 

Innovation has become the holy grail of business, particularly in the fast-paced Internet-based industry of services and content. Yahoo! was once a big player in the early days of the web. It was one of the first to establish one-place shopping for search, email, news, shopping and much more.

Since its mid-1990s launch, however, it has been losing market share to much bigger innovators such as Google, Apple, and Amazon, who currently dominate the web. Yahoo! is in trouble. Survivability is in doubt. 

So, is corralling all employees back to the ranch going to reinvigorate an innovative edge and competitive advantage or is this a desperate move based in fear that if old fashioned business standards are not reapplied the company is going to sink? Time will tell, but this story does raise the question of what it takes to create work conditions that inspire workers to innovate and produce at optimal levels. 

Encouraging high levels of creative performance in any workforce will result from valuing original problem solving and adaptability. When management applauds new ideas, the exercise of imagination, and learning from rather than avoiding mistakes, then innovation flourishes. 

For most of us, unlearning the way we were educated can lead to more creativity. Our schools were designed to produce workers for the industrial age, not the much more sophisticated information age we have only just entered. Sameness, rigidity, and compliance characterize the way most of us were educated. Assessment methods have been little more than a means of measuring accountability or adherence to these standards. 

This outdated education model is often replicated in too many businesses that value hanging on to tradition more than innovation. As a result, innovation is often stifled at a time when it is needed most to stay competitive and relevant. My concern with Yahoo!’s latest move is that it appears to be a reach for an old-styled accountability practice during a time of anguish. It is as if the thinking is non-traditional workforce practices are not giving us a competitive advantage, so let us go back to what worked in the old days. 

I have no doubt Marissa Mayer will use data over time in determining what works and what does not work for fostering innovation at Yahoo!. For the rest of us we will have an interesting experiment to observe with lessons to be derived for the future of business and the facilitation of innovative workforces. 

Internet Privacy and Our Careers

Social media appears to be growing in functionality beyond being just a way for friends to share interests. Marketing professionals, for example, generally accept that getting their product or service shared and discussed among connected individuals is now a solid and preferred part of any business’ promotional plan. Facebook and Twitter have become an essential part of many marketing campaigns. 

The power of social media is also playing a factor in career development. Sharing career related tips, job openings, employer reviews, and more is occurring among trusted peers. But perhaps the most powerful advantage of social media is the way it exposes individuals to those sourcing and background checking talent. Each of us has the option of crafting our information and building dynamic profiles that reinforce the professional brand we wish to project. 

In fact, we are at the point where not having a robust presence on social media places us at a distinct disadvantage in advancing our careers. Remaining in the digital shadows could very well mean we do not get found by the very stakeholders we need to have find us to move forward. This phenomenon is particularly a problem for the older end of the workforce, who still do not accept or who harbor a mistrust of social media and its implications. 

Despite the growing advantages of leveraging social media for talent searchability it does raise a significant social issue that is increasingly becoming relevant, the value of individual privacy in the digital age. A disconcerting correlation is now evident — the more we increase our Internet presence the more we diminish our privacy. 

The web is becoming ever more invasive. Cookies that track our Internet use, location tracking apps, and other user-identification functions means others can and do store and re-purpose data about us. Simply using the Internet engages us in personal data sharing of some sort even though we rarely or ever give anyone permission to collect and use our personal information or Internet-use behavior. 

Maintaining some semblance of personal privacy in the Information Age may soon become the next big civil rights issue. What we now know is that keeping a relatively unregulated Internet yields individual privacy rights in favor of those with some degree of economic power and capital, i.e., big business. So, what is new? Power always seems to concentrate on the haves vs. the have-nots in an unregulated environment. In time we will see how it all turns out. 

There is a legitimate concern when we use websites for information gathering and research purposes that our personal data or web use is collected and tracked behind the scenes. The use of social media specifically is intentional sharing of information about us. When we essentially advertise ourselves online via social media, we have a harder time crying foul when we are found out. 

Each of us needs to weigh the potentiality of an Internet display with the concurrent erosion of anonymity. Although this is a very personal decision, the reality is that being searchable is a best practice in job searching and recruiting. 

Controlling what is known about you online with a professional-looking profile and website is the recommended way to go. Applying a 20th century concept of privacy to these times is not practical for career movers. At least to some extent we need to get over the privacy angst. However, each of us does need to advocate for stronger opt-in controls of what is displayed about us online. There should be options beyond no web involvement at all and full unregulated exposure. The Internet should serve us, not the other way around. 

Are Job Boards Worth Your Time?

Job boards, such as Monster, CareerBuilder, Indeed, and SimplyHired are getting a bad rap these days. The word is out that job boards are no longer effective or relevant for job searchers. Their image problem can be summed up in the words of a client who recently said to me, “C’mon, have you really heard of anyone getting a job from Monster?” 

It was not that many years ago job boards were seen as the next great thing. Instead of going to newspaper classifieds, job seekers could now go online to these supercharged job listings that held many more postings of descriptions from all over the country. Not only that, but they were being constantly reviewed by recruiters searching for talent. I remember speaking to a recruiter in 2008 who told me most of his day was spent trolling Monster and CareerBuider. They certainly were an improvement on the old and restricted methods available pre-Internet. 

In the meantime, however, the job searcher experience has deteriorated using these sites. Users now find themselves flooded with cheap emails from for-profit “career” schools asking them to spend money they do not have or from New York Life and Aflac and the like trying to convince them to become 100% commission salespersons. Oh and of course, starting your own franchise for whoever will really change your life for the better. Right! I have gotten to the point of recommending to clients who heavily use job boards to dedicate an email address to their job search, so that their regular email does not become inundated with this junk. 

Another concern for many regards posting their resumes to these sites. Yes, many more eyeballs will be on them, but maybe not all the eyeballs belong to people you want to see them. In particular, is the worry about contact information. Of course, you need to have a way for potential employers to reach you, but do you want your home address seen by a large anonymous audience? This is one of the reasons why more and more people, particularly women, are opting out of having their mailing addresses included on their resumes. 

Probably the biggest problem is that many jobseekers think sitting at the computer for a few hours each day submitting their resumes for positions that have great sounding job descriptions, but for which they have no networking connections at all, is job hunting. It may feel like you are doing something valuable, but the truth is very few jobs are acquired this way. Too much time can be wasted, and your frustration increased. 

So, are job boards passé? Not necessarily. They still have practical uses. I often recommend they be used for research. For example, individuals who are either trying to enter the job market or who are hoping to transition to some different type of employment can find the job descriptions included on job boards revealing. By finding appealing descriptions you can more easily determine how you are a fit for such jobs. Does your list of qualifications closely match the required skills for the job? If not, what can you do to reinvent or improve your professional status? 

Another great use of job descriptions on these boards is to use them for harvesting relevant keywords. When tailoring your resume, it is important that it contains keywords like those contained in the job description you are targeting. Alignment of what you have to offer with what a potential employer needs is key to securing an interview. 

And yes, sometimes people do find jobs on Monster. I place it far below good networking and even outreach to recruiters in effectiveness, but it can happen. In general, I recommend spending about 10% of your job search time looking at job boards, 20% getting the attention of recruiters, and 70% on effective networking. 

The challenge for job boards is to stay relevant in the ever-changing world of job searching and career development. Time will tell if they can do it. 

Ten Best Career Development Practices for 2013

A couple of years ago I penned a piece called The 10 Best Career Development Practices. It remains one of my most read blogs. But in the time since it was written I have come to feel that this list needs some slight adjusting. A combination of more time delivering career development services on my part along with a growing recognition of the realignment occurring with effective career practices leads me to revise this list. What follows is my 2013 take on the ten most advantageous steps a professional person can do to enhance their career. 

  1. Know Your Professional Value — Conduct a self-assessment resulting in you feeling comfortable, confident, and focused about your value proposition. Think of yourself as a subject matter expert with reliable and consistent qualities that set you apart from the competition.
  2. Develop the Three Capitals — Consistently be involved in building and growing your intellectual, social, and emotional capital. This leaves you well informed, well connected, and energized about your profession. Career growth is a 3-legged stool. For balance, work on all three simultaneously.
  3. Write a Strong Resume — The document that most anchors and communicates your value proposition is the resume. Although its primary purpose is to secure an interview do not forget that its overall marketing potential can be crucial.
  4. Prepare Intriguing Cover Letters — Making that first impression is of course key. Promoting your own skills while aligning them with the potential employer’s needs and following up with a great resume may open the all-important door to an interview.
  5. Engage in Networking — Yes, who you know and who knows you does matter. Most of the high-quality employment arises from referrals among trusted contacts. The best way to get to a hiring decision maker is to know them in the first place or know someone else who knows them.
  6. Manage an Online Profile — Recruiters and hiring managers tend to fish where the fish are. If you are not in the pond, then you will not get caught. The Internet is the pool where talent is found and investigated. Additionally, being online helps you to share your brand, build your network, and cultivate your professional relationships.
  7. Engineer Your Job Search Process — Knowing what comprises a truly comprehensive job search involves implementing a complex set of procedures. Understanding what techniques can motivate you and using an organization tool like a career management CRM can make the process much more manageable and successful.
  8. Use Power Statements and a 30-Second Pitch — When introducing yourself to high potential professionals realize their time is tight and attention spans probably short. Making impactful statements that leave you remembered and hopefully valued requires an economic delivery.
  9. Conduct Informational Interviews — A research technique that assists you in building intellectual and social capital is the informational interview. Seeking out and conversing with professionals who can provide useful information you can use in determining the direction of your career is a powerful tactic.
  10. Perform Well in Your Job Interview — This age-old conundrum is as elusive as ever for many, but it does not have to be that way. Preparing without cramming by rehearsing your upcoming performance such that you dovetail your background knowledge with the potential employer’s needs is well worth the effort.

You may have noticed that developing a career is an ongoing pursuit not limited to the times when you receive a pink slip. It helps to get over the natural but inhibiting desire to be complacent with a single job or relatively unchanging career.  

For those not held back by inertia, but rather eager to enter the career fray this list of practices should help the career-oriented individual form a continual improvement strategy. 

The Continued Growth of the Independent Worker

Among the workforce phenomena already underway prior to the recession, but which has picked up pace since, is the increasing role of independent workers. These soloists are typically defined as part- or full-time workers who do not violate the employee-defining guidelines set by various state labor, revenue, and employment security departments. 

They are called by a variety of names, such as independent contractors, consultants, freelancers, self-employed, temporary, on-call workers, and even solopreneurs. Whatever you call them, their ranks are growing. 

In September, MBO Partners, a service provider for independent workers and companies that hire them, released their second annual “State of Independence in America” survey. What they found was that the trend toward project or portfolio work was increasing across all demographic cohorts of today’s workforce. Conditions appear to be coalescing that allow for growth in this non-traditional employment sector. 

My own speculation is that the combination of more workers accepting, perhaps begrudgingly, the new normal of an uncertain economic environment both domestically and globally, in combination with affordable technology improvements, is allowing for expansion of independent contracting. 

Time will tell if independent contracting is a sustainable, non-cyclical, and viable career option. However, this survey reveals some interesting points of transition within a population historically used to finding economic security by way of a single employer. Nearly 17 million workers operate as independents currently, up one million from last year. Projections are that 23 million will be their own boss in five years. 

The number of independents who claim satisfaction and reduced anxiety with this career choice is also growing. Many in fact intend to hire employees as resources allow, suggesting that independent contracting may be a gateway to larger entrepreneurial ventures. 

The GenXers, those aged 33 to 49, seem to embrace this concept the most out of the demographic groups measured. Given their relative vitality coupled with some years of actual work experience they are more open to taking control of their career and lifestyle destinies, certainly more so than their employer-loyal parents. 

Perhaps somewhat counter intuitively, the Gen Y (aged 21–32) workers appear to have a more mixed view of independent working, at least for now. The difficulty they have been facing in recent years entering the workforce and gaining valuable work experience may be skewing their attitude. After all, independence may not be a choice for them, but simply their school-of-hard-knocks reality. 

Many Boomers (aged 50–66) on the other hand have their own reasons for resisting migration to this level of work autonomy. In short, they were not brought up this way. Rather, dedication to an employer who in turn provided economic security has been their norm. But increasingly this generation too is seeing the benefits of more self-reliance and determination as evidenced in the survey. Increased flexibility, less workplace politics, more control over scheduling, and greater opportunities to practice their individual skillsets on their terms is being seen as attractive. 

I see significant advantages for our collective careers in encouraging individual economic independence. Although it may never, and perhaps should not ever, entirely replace the traditional employer-employee relationship there is nevertheless value in workers adopting a more flexible and adaptable economic position within the general workforce. 

Maybe we could start preparing our youth by insisting that our schools replace some of their course load, which is of marginal importance for the mainstream, like algebra and medieval history, with financial literacy and entrepreneurism.  

And Boomers, accept it. You are being ejected from the traditional workforce sooner than you expected. Your choice is becoming the pasture or carving a niche that matters to the marketplace. 

Change is only going to become more exponential, not less. Preparing yourself for independent contracting may be the best way to position your career for it. 

A Call for Future-Oriented Education

Encouraging and supporting a high quality system of educating both youth and adults is fundamental to our being a thriving and competitive country in today’s global marketplace. A nation that would short-change its schools and training opportunities gets what it pays for — an unmotivated and unskilled workforce. 

But the role of educational institutions is under pressure to change not just some of its practices, but its core mission. Preparing citizens for the future is not what it used to be. Historically, it was accepted that a relatively limited set of skills were needed to fortify a person for the world that awaited. We had the canon of reading, writing, and arithmetic (still important, of course) and threw in some knowledge to encourage citizenship. However, beyond that, students were largely on their own to determine which of several career paths they would choose. 

Not so in the 21st century. Even a bachelor’s degree may not be enough to suffice for an entire career. The nature of work and professionalism is changing too rapidly. In fact, it is estimated that today what one learns in college will in many ways be outdated before the student loans are paid off. Even the so-called blue-collar jobs are becoming more technical and require skills and certifications that did not exist in the recent past. 

Also, blue collar no longer equates to low skill. To think that achieving a certain level of education will be adequate for almost any career today is shortsighted and rooted in old-fashioned ways of thinking. 

For those dedicated to teaching, training, and helping people learn, this news is good. It means your job never ends. Education is ongoing. Learning is lifelong.  

The ones who most need to reframe their thinking are all the rest of us who need to wrap our arms around the reality that obsolescence will always be nipping at our heels and that learning, relearning, and unlearning are now constants. Complacency is the greatest threat to our careers. Growing accustomed to changing skills and demands is the greatest benefit. 

Workforce growth is linked to sophisticated skill development. However, according to the U.S. Labor Department there is a lack of talent in the STEM careers (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math), healthcare, and business. One thing this recession has made clear is that economic recovery is not about recreating conditions whereby people can return to their old jobs. It is much more about realizing that successful long-term employment is in preparing a workforce capable of performing in relevant jobs of the future. And that future is now. 

Companies that do the hiring are increasingly concerned about the lack of necessary skills available. This problem is now as egregious as other competitive issues such as location, transportation of products, and procurement of materials. 

The problem grows larger when you look out over the legions of unemployed and see that three-fourths of them only have a high school education. If you want to be a player in the workforce of tomorrow, you must accept that a high school diploma is not enough. Be ready to get higher ed, vocational ed, or other skill training however you can do it and know that learning will be continuous. For many of us this will be the only path to living the lifestyle we want. 

Schools should start getting this message to students at a young age. Society needs to shake loose this notion that education is something you do before living. Rather, it is what we do as part of living. A thriving, dynamic, and competitive nation is one that is always learning and adapting. 

Communication Can Enhance Your Career

Every line of work can benefit from a workforce that knows how to communicate clearly and effectively. A free and comprehensible flow of information among colleagues, across departments, and between customers and companies leads to optimal productivity and profitability. Conversely, poor communication diminishes competitiveness and the quality of service. 

Normally we think that mastering a specific skillset is the surest way to advance one’s career. Obviously, the better you can advise clients on financial plans the better a financial planner you can be and the greater your command of building cabinets the more proficient a cabinet maker you will be. But a competence that is of equal importance in boosting your career across all industries is the mastering of communication. 

Speaking, listening, writing, reading, and viewing are the typical communication methods that come to mind when defining what communication is. However, if we investigate these activities more carefully to see how they can affect workplace functioning we can be more mindful of how to enhance our careers by increasing the quality of work done for our employers. 

I was introduced to a blog recently posted on onlinecollege.org in which the writer does an excellent job of identifying twenty-one communication mistakes to be avoided at work. Whereas all these weaknesses should be noted as important, there are some themes that stand out to me warranting further elaboration. 

Taking the time to self-examine the role our individual egos play in how we communicate is well worth the effort. Look at how often we get consumed by trying to save face at work. No one wants to be seen as incompetent, which is natural, but this can lead to poor communication habits. For example, think of all the times we did not ask for clarification or help on a project or task, because we did not want to look stupid or weak. 

“I’ll figure it out on my own”, we may tell ourselves only to find out that we went too far off on a tangent instead of getting to the heart of the problem to be solved. Rather, requesting clarity or assistance can be approached from a position of competence and as part of commanding style. 

In writing resumes for clients, I sometimes come across performance reviews that they share with me. Here is a communication error I see managers complain about a lot — overuse of email. It may seem that we can increase the quantity of communication with email, but that does not always translate into quality. Getting on the phone or meeting face to face may take more time, but in many situations, it means better listening is occurring, leading to more cogent points being made by both parties. 

Determining who is in the loop and keeping them abreast of developments in a timely manner is a sound practice. Participants on a project work best with open collaboration. It is fine for there to be a moderator but using the “Reply to All” feature in all forms of communication is often the best policy. 

Good communication promotes strong teams. Given the workforce evolution toward greater teamwork, applying co-production communication techniques is a win/win for employees and employers alike. 

Perhaps the most harmful communication mistake is going negative. So many workplaces are drama factories in which grown adults communicate with the level of sensitivity and self-awareness found in a junior high school cafeteria. Put a bunch of insecure and immature egos together in the same building and watch out. Management can have a big task ahead trying to herd the cats. 

Martin Luther King, Jr. probably addressed this issue best when he advised that before we say something about someone else, we should test the comment by applying three conditions: Is it true? Is it fair? Is it kind? If the answer to any of these questions is no, then it is best to keep it to yourself. 

Getting ahead with your career can often be little more than becoming a strong communicator. Do that and you will be noticed. 

Tips for Women in Compensation Negotiations

Negotiating terms and conditions of contracts following a hiring offer can be a daunting experience for everyone. It has been noted by many observers, including women, that women have not been as savvy as men in negotiating compensation packages. This has resulted in depressed wages for comparable work being performed by men. Breaking that mold has been hard. In many ways “business” has been set up to be a man’s world with male behaviors dominating the way business is conducted. 

One of the biggest impediments for women has been the inclination to not cause what they perceive as conflict. By asking for optimal compensation, they too often feel they are rocking the boat and making waves. Throughout much of their lives they are making peace and taking care of others, which does not necessarily prepare them for the give and take and struggle of compensation negotiations. 

Here are some tips that I think will help to balance the situation and benefit women in their career development. 

  1. Negotiating is a combination of art and science. Doing your research prior to negotiating is very important (which I will get into more below), but the art is equally important and has to do with body language, eye contact, authoritative voice, and the general vibes you give. I believe one’s interview and negotiating stance is enhanced by accepting that both domains deserve attention.
  2. When being given a job it is expected that you will be thrilled about being offered the position. I would caution against letting exhilaration dictate too much of your negotiating posture. Try for a little detachment internally and in negotiations with the new employer, such that you do not lose sight of a degree of objectivity which can strengthen your hand.
  3. Be clear on what you want as components of your overall compensation package. In addition to salary try placing an emotional and financial value on things like vacation, personal leave, and sick time; a telecommuting option; a degree of work autonomy; bonuses; a desire for a results-only-work-environment; appraisal methods; etc. You may be willing to dial salary down to ratchet some of these other benefits up.
  4. You are in a better negotiating position the clearer you are about “internal equity”, i.e., what the employment market supports regarding your position. Many mention going to Glassdoor.com and Salary.com, which is fine. But I would expand the search to include Vault. com; The Occupational Outlook Handbook on bls.gov; onetcenter.com; and most importantly Pay Scale. Pay Scale does a great job of providing detailed salary reports for a variety of positions. They offer a free customized one for people who are starting to check them out. I recommend ordering one of these. You will feel better armed with data.
  5. Yes, ask for relatively high compensation but without eliminating you from consideration or causing them to rescind the offer. Support the request with as many examples of transferable and related accomplishments from current and past experiences as possible in addition to tactfully communicating that you want to be lured away from your current compensation package where you now work. This is your “value add” pitch.
  6. You may want to consider asking for performance benchmarks, perhaps in six months, communicating to them you would like the entertain the notion of a “raise” in the near term, if it is looking like their final offer may come in a bit low for you.
  7. Keep in mind the long-term career benefit when negotiating the short-term details. This job may mark a turn that can lead to career development benefits in your chosen field far into the future. This development potential may outweigh some “lost” benefits you may experience over the next year or two.

Women are already making significant gains in education and employment in this fast-growing and knowledge-based economy. It only makes sense that compensation should follow. 

Expertise Drives the Future of Employment

Everybody wants a job. You want to go out, get hired by somebody, perform some pre-determined tasks, get paid, and go home. Simple, right? It’s the way it has always been. 

But hold on a moment. The news is that working at a job will not be the same for much longer. The nature of the job is undergoing a radical shift as we become more of a knowledge-based economy. We are being told those who do not keep up with how employment is changing will be at a disadvantage in the employment marketplace going forward. 

Because American workers are having to engage much more directly with global competitors, companies are required to shift the way they structure operations and employees are being forced to face a new definition of what being successful means. 

The knowledge-based organization and its talent force must be more agile to meet growing business demands. They need to learn fast, communicate clearly, and adapt to change. The old method of presenting a long list of past experiences on your resume as evidence that you have current value is giving way to demonstrating that you have just-in-time needed expertise that can be applied from day one. 

It is expertise more than experience that separates the future oriented worker from the old-fashioned one. If you can link your past experiences to applicable expertise that is desired now, then great. You are ready to move forward. But if you think that just having a long history of meeting the same type of responsibilities in a similar manner over time is going to separate you from the pack, then think again. 

Legacy skills are taking a back seat to modernized specialized skills. Preparing for a world that honors creative and deep specializations expressed within cross-functional teams, which are not limited by borders and silos, is the future for the successful worker. 

Becoming specialized is not anything new, but it is becoming increasingly important. Traditionally we have looked at our interests and early skills, matched them up with a pre-existing list of career options, and made a choice about what we would do for work.  

But increasingly it is too hard to fix a list of stable careers. Technology is generating new specialties both directly and indirectly all the time. From mobile branding experts to global collaboration facilitators, the brave new world is characterized by more speed, more innovation, and greater challenges requiring novel solutions. This can also mean blending your skills into new and valuable hybrids that reflect both your interests and what sells. 

Refining a set of skills, collecting quantifiable and qualitative data as evidence of proficiency, and continuously scanning the employment horizon for companies coveting your expertise is the strategy to best position yourself for opportunity. 

This strategy is helped enormously by logging your accomplishments. Each professional should have a portfolio or running record of their achievements, summarized in a resume, telling the story of how expertise has and is developing. There is a big difference between telling what your expertise is and presenting confirmation of what it is. 

Much is said about the importance of well-functioning teams in the workplace and with good reason. Shared and collaborative expertise enhances the strength and competitiveness of organizations. Merging common and related spheres of expertise not only benefits companies, but each of the internal players as well. Organizations that encourage continuous learning, demonstrate a culture of agility, and hire innate potential over raw experience increase their chances of attracting and retaining a high level of expertise in their workforce. 

So, instead of everybody wanting a job we may soon see everybody wanting a project requiring their specialty. Adjusting your perspective now on what a job means will help your upcoming employment prospects. 

Is There Really a Talent Shortage?

There are some common claims being tossed around in the national self-diagnosis now occurring of why hiring is not significantly picking up. Declarations such as employers are learning to do more with fewer employees and that there is too much economic uncertainty to risk hiring employees, especially after how bad businesses were hurt at the start of the recession, are two assertions often heard. 

There is another claim that does not get quite as much play but is starting to be heard often enough. It is that employers cannot hire as much as they would like because there is a talent shortage. 

Apparently, the workplace is changing so rapidly that schools and the individuals attending them cannot keep up with newly designed job descriptions, many of which contain specialty requirements. This seems particularly true in industries such as IT and engineering.  

However, the alleged shortage is occurring throughout the workforce — or so many employers tell us. We can easily be left with the impression that growth in innovation is now so exponential that it is the fault of our lagging workforce not preparing themselves briskly enough for the new world order. 

So, is there really a talent shortage? Upon closer examination it may be that employers are unwittingly perpetuating a shortage and dampening hiring as a result. 

Yes, employers do feel there is something wrong with the candidate pool. And that something is that candidates are not qualified enough. If there were more qualified candidates, there would be more hiring. This seems to be their charge. It must be the candidates’ problem, right? 

But let us look at how the employer landscape has changed for potential employees. Employers are extremely cost conscious because of the recession. This has caused them to reduce and consolidate their workforces. Specialty hybrid positions have been created to produce more multiple-skilled positions than existed pre-recession. Therefore, when an opening occurs, a candidate is supposed to be specialized in not just one skill set but in more than one. Obviously, the pool of likely candidates just shrunk a lot. 

Let us dig a little deeper. Among the costs being saved is in reducing or eliminating training and development. Why spend on onboarding when you can hire plug and play defacto independent contractors for specific projects? With no onboarding activities the expectation is that candidates must be ready to produce with little to no ramp-up time. This may discourage candidates from applying or is the cause of early departures once hired.  

Another issue employers must contend with is the huge number of applicants sending in applications. A screening process must be used that selects out all but the “best”. This increasingly means use of applicant tracking system software. Two issues with this type of software. One is that it is not always very nuanced enough or sophisticated. Second, use of even the most effective software requires skillful and dedicated HR use, another area seeing cost cutting. 

Potential talent is being screened out. A related issue for employers is maybe they could at least let applicants know that their application was received and processed, then they wouldn’t be left wondering if their application ever made to you, reducing the number of times they apply for the same position. 

Sure, the workplace is changing, and it is important for candidates to keep skills current and to apply to only those positions for which they are qualified to succeed. But employers also have a responsibility to examine their hiring practices to see if they are contributing to not only their own “talent shortage”, but also to the stubbornly low levels of hiring nationwide. 

Reflections On My Business

With this, my 100th blog posting since opening my career development business Ryan Career Services LLC in January 2009, I am compelled to stray from my usual pattern of offering career advice to instead summarizing how the business experience has been for me and to reflect on what I have learned from this venture.

Following a 31-year career in public education, which I left in 2008, I was primed to try something completely different — an entrepreneurial enterprise that capitalized on strengths I had developed as a teacher. Primarily, to assist each individual to become the best they could be.

I had been working on the concept, including the writing of a business plan, for three years prior to formally offering career counseling, coaching, and resume/cover letter writing services. Although I felt qualified to deliver a superior experience for clients I found myself faced with two big uncertainties:

1. Was there really a viable market for these services just waiting to be tapped into?

2. What impact would the start of the most serious economic recession since the Great Depression have on the success of my business?

I cannot tell you how many times I have heard from people that “so many must need what you are offering during these times!” But what I found instead was that I was competing against the need for people to make sure they had food and shelter as the unemployment rate continued to rise.

The first year had an expected financial loss. I was not naïve enough to think a profit was to be realized at the outset. Despite the anxiety associated with launching a business, however, what I most feel now about that first year is profound gratefulness for the clients I did have who placed their trust and dollars with me.

I had two goals for year two. One was to increase my knowledge and skill and to refine my expertise. This did happen and continues to this day. I wanted to strike a balance between what service I could credibly provide with what service clients most wanted. I did get closer, but realized that this would be an ongoing process. What I learned from teaching came to mind — there is no pinnacle of perfection. You always keep learning.

The second goal had to do with trying to build a positive cash flow. Quite simply I wanted revenues to at least match expenditures. I achieved that point by the end of the third quarter and have never looked back.

Two significant lessons from year two included:

1. Half of my time was being spent on marketing, which I found interesting, but had no experience with at all. I can say, however, that I became impressed with the power and cost effectiveness of pay-per-click campaigns on Google AdWords. That along with continued optimization of my website has strongly increased my exposure.

2. The realization that career development was becoming more technological, in that how a client appeared online correlated more and more with the success of their career and employment prospects. It was during this time that I added a third leg to my stool, that of Online Profile Management. I became committed to being a go-to professional in this early stage industry.

By year three I reached an important milestone by earning one of the nation’s most prestigious resume writing credentials, the ACRW or Academy Certified Resume Writer. This has boosted not only my writing capacity, but my client base. Consequently I also found my writing going into two additional areas along with resumes and cover letters: LinkedIn Profiles and Professional Biographies.

Financially, I set a specific revenue-to-expense ratio goal to reach by year’s end that I again hit by the end of Q3. I began paying myself for the first time and found that my first big uncertainty from the start was no longer one. I became convinced that there is a market for these services.

But there was another significant risk to take. I knew I would get to this at some point and the beginning of year four, my current year, was the time to take it. I had always envisioned the business becoming one that drew in clients from around the country and that I would not be too reliant on just one geographical region, like New Hampshire. I knew that my lifestyle was starting to shift to one that involved more travel and living for extended periods in other places beyond NH. I have always felt that technology gave me the tools to merge a mobile style of living with the ability to continuously bring in work no matter where I was — as long as I had an Internet connection.

The past three months gave me an opportunity to test this concept out. I just finished living in Los Angeles for the winter, which is about as far away as one can get from NH while still being in the U.S. What have I learned?

1. The writing services are much more mobile than counseling. I provide resumes, cover letters, online profile, and professional biography writing services to clients from around the country who I never meet face to face. Many times we may never even speak on the phone. Email is an incredibly efficient means of conducting this end of the business.

2. How to offer career counseling and coaching from afar remains elusive. Despite Skype, webcams, and video conferencing technology the adoption rate for utilizing these tools into a counseling context is slow. For the issues that are raised in these types of sessions, the preferred means of contact is still face to face. I am still working on figuring this one out.

3. Marketing on a national level can be a lot more expensive than on a state or regional level. Google AdWords is based on selecting geographies to showcase your ads. That is no longer as relevant to me as before, even if I pick multiple locations to post ads. Pay-per-click with sites that are more national and targeted to professionals, such as LinkedIn, may be more appropriate. I shall see.

Financially, I have lost ground as I try to shift to building a more national client base. But I am confident that I can make this work eventually.

The other challenge that I have faced is to develop a resume writing tutorial service that is usable from my website for those clients who want to try their own hand at writing a resume, but who need a teacher to guide them. I have begun working with a web developer who has experience in course management software. I hope to have this up and running by the end of year four.

In closing, I have to say that my basic premise, which has always been that the quality of one’s life is tightly linked to the character of their work, has been reinforced by working with hundreds of clients to date. As the saying goes, do what you love and you will never work a day in your life, still holds. I feel very fortunate to be playing a small role in helping people reach that goal.

 

 

 

Success and Happiness

We have all been taught that if we toil, apply ourselves, and put our noses to the grindstone that we can attain success which leads to happiness. Contentment, we are told, must be preceded by success, which in turn must be preceded by hard work that is often associated with not being happy. This cause-and-effect paradigm is an American truism harkening back to our earliest past. And it continues to find widespread expression, particularly with a bullying management style that implores workers to row harder. 

But could it be possible that the success/happiness formula should be viewed in reverse? Rather, happiness begets success. There is a researcher and writer named Shawn Achor who postulates in his book The Happiness Advantage that conventional thinking has this cause-and-effect sequence wrong. He is instead promoting the notion that happiness forms the groundwork for success to occur. Achieving a grand objective like finding deep satisfaction from one’s work can best be reached by approaching your job from a positive place to begin with. Having a more enlightened outlook and energized perspective is preparatory to meeting your goals. 

The brain may be better suited toward intelligence and innovation when the emotional state is uplifted. Possible routes to greater success become apparent with a more resilient and stress-free mind. If we consider for a moment that Achor has this right, then it begs the question of how we are all so off track. We as a culture seem to have accepted the belief that negativity, in the form of unpleasant exertion, sets the stage for a better life to come. 

I think of the mythic entrepreneur who works day and night to launch and grow a business and then retires many years down the road, living with the gratification of a job well done. Working “day and night” sounds unpleasant, doesn’t it? But for the truly successful it may not be. The difference between finding success and just getting a job done may come from the level of positive thinking present in the individual. 

The problem with thinking of success in a traditional sense is that it is so elusive. When we successfully reach a work quota, then management sets a higher goal. If we increased revenues by 18% this month, then we need to hit 22% next month. The goal post is always being placed just a little further away, the bar is raised just a little higher to meet success. Attainment becomes fleeting, a temporary waystation on the road to something bigger and better. This set of circumstances has really become the norm in these post-recession days of workplaces always trying to do more with less. 

Perhaps our competitive nature has us on edge in ways that detract from the preconditions necessary to approach our objectives. When work becomes a slog, our positivity slips away and the “success” we achieve may be of a lower quality than is otherwise possible. Maybe it is time to think that having a more positive attitude makes us more productive. 

If an elevated level of positivity leads to a more productive and higher quality success, then how do we get to this starting place? Reframing your perspective may be the place to begin. Note the good stuff around you, appreciate what is right, favorable, and agreeable in your daily life and in the work you do. Being kind to others whenever will raise your mood and influence your behavior. Take the time to be healthy and make lifestyle choices that are potent for your mind and body. As counterintuitive as it may sound, you may have to work at being positive. If we over-focus on the negative aspects of our work or feel happiness is to be delayed until success is found, then we may never really get there. 

Happiness need not be a dreamy far away goal. Instead, it may be a state of mind that we continually build upon no matter where we are in the success cycle. 

Preparing For the Changing Workplace

I recently read an article in a statewide business news publication written by a respected and intelligent business pro who was also an obvious Baby Boomer. In it he directed a subtle jab at LinkedIn, the social media website dedicated to professionals, and with it a not-so-subtle poke at social media in general. 

Although I agree with his point that time is too valuable to waste on frivolous or trivial matters, I do not think this necessarily applies to social media. But what struck me more was the tone of the piece, which I place as another example of a problem older generation workers have in succeeding in today’s job market. 

As I have indicated in the past, we are living through a period of age bias when it comes to hiring mature workers, many of whom were laid off aggressively during the recession. To date, much of this age cohort is struggling to get re-employed. A key reason for the reluctance to bring mature workers back on board, despite their vast experience and accumulated wisdom, is because they are not keeping up with, and in many cases resisting, technological changes that are largely being driven by the generation of their children. And with each passing day it is this emerging younger section of the workforce that is setting hiring policies. 

Rapid innovations of a technological nature seem to fall into two main interrelated areas: Information Search/Management and Interpersonal Connectivity. Efficiently reaching out to grab the data you want when you need it and connecting to people you need to when you want them is driving much of the hardware, software, and web-based applications currently available and under development. 

The necessity of achieving this efficiency is reflected in many workplaces today and that is expected to grow in time. As a result, the current and future workforce is expected to be adept with the tools and apps of information management and connectivity. Just as many employees now are expected to use email and word processors, a similar familiarity is becoming expected with various types of social media and Internet navigation. 

There is no question that keeping up with these new demands can be daunting and intimidating for some, particularly for the older folks among us. When we look at the younger generation and see that their daily use of Facebook and smart phones is as common to them as telephone and television are to us, it can leave us feeling out of touch. 

One option often taken by older workers is to develop an attitude that the way young people act is superficial, misguided, or even wrong. We think that we got by just fine without these gadgets and that these changes are not necessary. Now does it sound familiar from our distant Boomer past that an older generation just didn’t get the younger one? 

The larger issue is accepting change. Adaptability is one of the most important and employable traits a person can have, especially during the time of exponential change we live in now. Unfortunately, older workers are too often feeding the perception that we are not adaptable and even potential impediments to innovation. When we observe a now common practice and describe it as a bandwagon or fad, we place ourselves out of the new mainstream. If you are trying to present yourself as relevant in today’s workplace this is not a message you should be broadcasting. 

The challenge for mature workers is to merge their attributes of solid work ethic, tenacity, and big picture viewpoint with the obvious and fluid developments of conducting business in the modern era. We do not have to necessarily embrace and personally adopt every new practice, but it is in our interests to at least try to understand the trends that underlie them. 

When you think about it, Baby Boomers were the ones who once prided themselves on agitating traditional thinking and setting out to create a new world. If any generation should be able to show flexibility and have an appreciation for new ways of doing things it should be them. 

Networking For Introverts

One of the most disheartening things for an introverted job seeker to hear is that networking is by far the most effective means of finding new employment. 

Networking conjures images of energetic engagement in small talk or worse yet, meaningful conversation with total strangers! It might not be so bad if the introvert could just position themselves in a designated spot and gregarious people could walk over one at a time and begin the dialogue. But, of course, insult must be added to injury, because it is often necessary for the introvert to commence an outreach to others. 

One of the great paradoxes of our time is that despite all our technologically remote connectivity, a valuable face to face relationship is more important than ever in career development. Looking for work by just visiting online job boards and social media sites is not good enough. You still must know how to mix it up with real people to get ahead. 

Introverts are, well, reserved. They can be much better at avoiding networking events than they are at attending them with the greater challenge being to turn them into productive job seeking sessions. I should know. I am by nature an introvert and have been spending a lifetime learning how to not let this potentially negative side inhibit me professionally. The good news is that introverts can learn to turn their inwardly focused attributes into networking strengths. 

Let’s begin by looking at some common traits introverts typically display that can come in handy with networking. Here is one. Introverts really value close relationships, and a few deep ones are better than lots of superficial ones. They do this by caring for the welfare and happiness of others. Time is spent being good listeners and asking probing questions to make sure they clearly understand the perspectives of others. 

Another one is that people with introverted tendencies usually prefer structured and goal-driven contact with others, particularly in a work-related context, which job hunting is. So, planning the outreach such that it is designed to cover specific topics, answer targeted questions, and contact a pre-determined number of people are measurable ways of satisfying that a purpose is being achieved with the networking effort. 

Getting back to introverts having a few close connections. Take a trusted companion along with you to a networking event. Have them be your moral support, your sounding board, and your feedback loop, so that you can get through this and maybe even grow as a result. 

Finally, put your research skills to use. Introverts are good at digging for data online and in print. Study up on the people you want to know better and share tidbits of knowledge with them, leaving the impression that you care about your new contacts and what they do. 

Whether one is extroverted or introverted it is good to push yourself out of your comfort zone on occasion. By doing so we learn and grow. Being adaptable is an important survival skill for the 21st century. And this skill cannot be strengthened by hiding in a shell. Introverts can and do adapt to challenging situations just like everyone else. Finding that zone, which allows you to build purposeful relationships can be some of the most rewarding, albeit not the easiest, time spent during your job search. 

Meeting the Needs of Employers

When searching for any new employment opportunity many of us tend to view the process as one focused solely on what is best for us as individuals. It certainly makes sense that we would want what is best for us, especially when it comes to such a time and energy expender as a job is. Too many of us are stuck in draining and unfulfilling jobs as it is. But by concentrating too much on what employment can do for us we may drift away from considering enough of the other side of the equation — what potential employers need from us. 

Satisfying employment is a win-win fit between employee and employer. Workers get to ply their trade in what for them is the most conducive environment for generating production and the front office gets to optimally benefit from this productivity. The sooner new job seekers understand about what paycheck providers want from their workforce the greater will be the chance of finding a fit. 

In general, employers are interested in three things: 

  1. Making money 
  1. Saving money 
  1. Becoming more efficient and competitive with achieving #1 and #2 

If you cannot address these needs concretely your chances of getting hired are slim. 

A huge contributor to the poor hiring situation these days centers around costs. Companies have become aggressive about trying to do more with less. We have all heard about how those not laid off are being squeezed by taking on the workload of those who were. And you are not only competing with other applicants for jobs, but also with cost saving procedures, equipment, and technologies. Being good is not good enough anymore. You need to convince hiring personnel that you are great. 

Think of employers as consumers out shopping for the best deal. Their logic is not different from any of the rest of us. We all want the most value for the lowest price. As demeaning as it may sound, to employers we are commodities. They won’t “buy” us unless we are seen as a valued acquisition. Being able to promote yourself as a potentially valuable possession has become Job Search 101. Fitting your value proposition firmly with their value longings is more important than ever. Once job aspirants accept this Darwinian reality the more likely they can get hired. 

Sure, when assessing an employment opportunity go ahead and think to yourself, “Here’s what’s in it for me,” but communicate to them, “Here’s what’s in it for you.” Be an answer to their questions while building emotional, social, and intellectual capital for yourself. Their goal is to succeed in business. Your goal is to succeed in your career. The two objectives need not be mutually exclusive. 

For job seekers to practice a little solution selling is not a bad idea. By focusing on solutions rather than features you can appear more appealing. Knowing clearly the threats and weaknesses faced by an employer best positions you for an outreach to them. Adequately researching a potential employer and tactically disclosing that you have done your homework in your cover letter and interview while emphasizing how you will address the three points above is smart to do. Do not just be assertive, be relevant. 

Preparing for a work search has always been strategic for the ones who got the best jobs. They have applied best practices. We can all learn useful lessons from watching how they operate. Savvy career advancers know how to promote not just their best qualities, but how they bring resolutions to the fundamental challenges of running a business. The basic strategy begins with this — believe in and champion yourself as someone they cannot do without. 

Ten Economic Trends That Can Drive Career Choice

A prominent type of article or blog in the career development field, and indeed in popular culture, is of the “hottest careers of the year” variety. You know the kind, “Hottest Careers of 2012”, “Coolest Jobs for Today’s College Grads”, and “Present Day Must-Have Careers”.  

These make for interesting reading, but they do not represent a best practice approach for choosing careers to begin or to transition into. By the time someone gathers the training and education to move into a “hot career”, chances are that it could have gotten lukewarm in the meantime. 

I think a better approach in determining careers that may have some significant employment longevity comes from identifying longer-term economic trends. Although the pace of change is accelerating in the world of work, as it is around the globe in general, there are some directional swings that appear to be long lasting, if not fundamental, for the foreseeable future.  

Separating flavor-of-the month crazes from structural underlying movements can result in higher quality career decision making. If you are going to invest lots of time and money in preparing for a career, it is reasonable to expect some return for your efforts. 

Marrying individual talents with macro changes in the economy can lead to a higher degree of employment sustainability in an otherwise fluid and fickle world. But reader beware. I do not tell you how to convert these trends into careers for each of you individually. Without inventive and visionary thinking on your part, dovetailing your skill set and education into these sweeping changes will not magically happen on its own. 

Just as there are many jobs today that did not exist ten years ago, there will be many niches ten years from now that are not present today. Although not intended to be an exhaustive listing, what follows are ten economic and social trends I see as having great potential for driving career creation. 

  1. Aging population and care giving: The ubiquitous Baby Boomers are now retiring, or will be soon, at a rapid rate. Healthcare is obviously to be impacted, but so are industries that can take advantage of relatively high disposable income coinciding with their material downsizing.
  2. Growing Latinization: The language and cultural influences of Southern Europe are catching up with those of Northern and Central Europe in America. The melting pot is developing a distinctly Latin flavor that will affect industries across the board.
  3. Workplace cost controls and data driven decision making: Getting smarter with information was beginning before the recession and has now become a field in and of itself. Opportunities abound for those who can elevate efficiencies through sophisticated means of analyzing and drawing cost saving conclusions from data.
  4. Globalization: Economic interconnectedness already affects our daily lives and will become only further intertwined as sovereign economies morph into new and different multi-national configurations. Goods and services competing on a more global scale will require nimble, flexible, and intelligent business practices.
  5. Wireless, Mobile and Cloud Computing: There are no signs of technology reaching a plateau. On the contrary, the speed of innovation and the integration of new functional utilities appears limitless.
  6. War on Terrorism: Unfortunately, war in the 21st century may be endless. Terrorism will ebb and flow and violent conflict is now more at a citizen vs. citizen level rather than at a nation-state level. Security and international relations will continue to be in a heightened state.
  7. Organic Food Industry: Healthy eating at an affordable price from foods grown locally is likely to continue expanding. Sustainable and high-quality agriculture is becoming increasingly valuable to more and more consumers.
  8. Audiology: We are bombarded with sound continuously. And we have very effective means of shooting it into our ears. Tell me this is not going to affect the hearing of an aging noise-saturated population.
  9. Simulation Engineering and Robotics: Training, education, and gaming are just three activities that will benefit from more refined means of simulation. Resource, time, and cost savings will arise from greater use of fabricated experiences that leave end-users with an enhanced empiricism.
  10. Genetics in Healthcare: A revolution is in its infancy with molecule-specific treatment of disease and super-informed healthful advice. Ancillary industries resulting from knowledge of the human condition at a cellular or deeper level are boundless.

Long-term job seekers, start your engines! 

Student Loans: Expense or Investment

The burden of student loan debt on individuals, particularly young unemployed ones, is certainly starting to get a lot more attention in the media. College costs have experienced higher rates of inflation than for most consumer areas. The American Institute of CPAs for example reports that for the 2010-2011 academic year alone, 4-year state colleges for in-state students rose 7.9%, while for out-of-state students the rise was 6%. The inflation rate for 4-year private colleges was 4.5%. This compares to a general consumer rate of 3.9% for the past twelve months, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistic’s Consumer Price Index, a measure of U. S. inflation. 

Among the economic complaints raised by recent protests of the Occupy Wall Street movement is that student loan payments are creating too high of a debt position for young people trying to enter the workforce. In fact, it could be said that this issue is one of the significant catalysts of the movement. Starting out adult life faced with ten or twenty years to pay off tens of thousands of dollars of debt in this economy with no job is enough to make anyone scream. 

In my own personal life, I sense the anxiety. My daughter recently graduated with a 4-year degree and between my Parent PLUS loans and her Stafford loans we are looking at substantial debt. For my portion alone the Federal government is giving me up to thirty years to pay this off and from where I sit right now, I’ll need that much time. If it takes me thirty years to pay off this loan, I’ll be 88 years old! I have real doubts that I will live that long. 

My situation is indicative of a situation facing the generations right now. I am a Baby Boomer who has always believed that education is an investment. I have bought into the notion that there is a direct correlation between the level and quality of one’s education and the number of career options and earning potential one has throughout life. 

Even recent statistics have supported this view, such as the fact that of the 9.1% unemployed in September 2011, 78% have only a high school diploma. My daughter on the other hand is looking at her amount of student loan debt more as an expense right now and is truly questioning whether the B. A. was worth it. Time will tell. I still think the college education gives her a higher launching pad for her career and hope the debt will not diminish that advantage. 

I was chatting with a businessman from Belgium a few years ago over lunch. We were in Boston being trained to administer and interpret the Myers Briggs Type Indicator. I asked him about the income tax level he lives with in his country, and he did say it was quite high, if I remember correctly close to 50%. 

But he did not seem that upset after seeing my jaw drop. When I asked him why he was not outraged he cited two reasons. One, he does not pay any medical expenses and felt that he and his family received good medical care. The other reason was that one of his children, who was at the time enrolled in a university, could attend at no additional expense. He seemed content with the concept of receiving quality service for the high taxes he was paying. 

I do not know which system is best, the European or the American. But I do know this. The system that promotes the greatest amount of education for the most people will be in a better position to compete in the 21st century global economy. If higher education is not pursued by more and more Americans because it is seen as too much of a crushing expense, then it will diminish our talent pool and our competitiveness. This is a situation to be avoided. 

Regulating Your Digital Footprint

It is not news that people go to the Internet first for information on just about anything these days. But it may be news to some that this includes recruiters, hiring managers, and just about anyone else who is trying to locate talent for their businesses and organizations. 

About 90% of all recruiters and 50% of all employers perform web searches before making a hiring decision. If you are trying to find a new job, transition to a new career, or seek new business opportunities you need to have a presence online. Can you imagine anyone in 2011 making a claim of professional greatness and not being found online? It is unimaginable. 

Your digital footprint refers to all the web information there is about you out there. It can come from many places, including social networking media, profile and biography pages you may have established on your own or that exist on employer and association web sites, blogs, forum and message board postings, chats, and even political or religious contributions that you have made. Even if you are committed to not being online, it is hard not to find yourself there somehow. 

If you are serious about regulating your digital footprint — and you should be — there are five things to strive for: 

  1. Your presence should exude self-confidence and be in multiple locations.
  2. A positive professional image should be displayed.
  3. A consistent and keyword rich value proposition should be present across all platforms.
  4. A clear and memorable career brand should exist.
  5. There should be no digital dirt or negative unprofessional content about you found in searches.

Above all, never assume that anything you write or post online is anonymous. 

Begin regulating your online presence by seeing what it looks like now. Google yourself in quotation marks and find every reference to you on the first three search ranking pages. Assess what is being shown about you. Is it positive or not? 

It is highly probable that you are sharing your name with others. Note how often this happens. You may even find that old information once confined to paper has now been converted to digital format and is available online. 

Now that you have a baseline, get started managing. There are three fundamental steps to establishing a digital footprint that you control: 

  1. Have a well written resume with a distinct value proposition that serves as your image anchor.
  2. Build a basic online by completing profiles on Google Profiles and ZoomInfo.
  3. Set up a business networking presence by having active accounts with LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.

All the above-mentioned websites are SEO (Search Engine Optimization) rich meaning that they will rank high during web searches. 

There are additional sites and features to consider opening accounts with such as MyWebCareer, Google Alerts, Reputation.com, Vizibility, Ecademy, and BrazenCareerist. Taken together these will give you a lot of power to control your cyber appearance. 

Some management techniques to know when using these sites include: 

  • Fill your profile with tangible competencies. 
  • Be aware of the privacy settings, set them accordingly, and check them frequently for usage changes. 
  • If sharing a name with someone, differentiate yourself, such as “John A. Smith, Senior Marketing Executive”. 
  • Use headshots taken by a professional photographer. 
  • If you cannot remove digital dirt, then bury it by creating enough multiple positive presence points that the bad stuff gets lower search rankings. 
  • Untag yourself from friends’ Facebook tags. 

Follow these suggestions and you will be well on your way to managing what the online world will learn about you. And you don’t have to be a control freak to want or need that level of self-authority. 

Education and the Unemployment Rate

I read a couple of interesting statistics the other day in a National Journal article about the widening talent shortage among many American companies. The first was a citing about a study done by ManpowerGroup, a Milwaukee-based workforce consultant, showing that 52% of employers cannot recruit skilled workers for their open positions. The other stat, this time by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, showed that of the 9.2% of Americans currently unemployed, 78% of them have only a high school education or less. 

These numbers are surprising, and they tell me a couple of things worth noting regarding our stubbornly high unemployment rate. One is that the rate might not be so high if Americans would get educated and trained in areas of shortage and need. The other is that thinking you are going to get ahead in the 21st century with just a high school education is not preparation for the future. 

The public and their proxy the media love to play the blame game for the high unemployment rate. It is the Democrat’s fault or the Republican’s fault. It is greedy Wall Street or lazy Europeans and so on and so on. Instead of finding fault, perhaps we need to hold up a mirror and look into it. We could lower the unemployment rate and all the misery associated with it significantly if we would further our education in strategic ways. Education is one of the best ways out of this mess. 

I rarely hear or read the mainstream media report about this lurking education gap as being a contributor to the unemployment rate and I pay attention to a lot of news. Why do you think that is? Why is the national anchorperson hesitant to say that too many of the unemployed are lacking in the right kinds of education? Perhaps there is a concern that to say so might be perceived as elitist or that someone’s feelings may be hurt. There is an elephant in the unemployment room that is being ignored and not fully discussed. And we as a country do ourselves no favors to avoid it. 

We should address this issue head on. If we could be delivered news we could really use such as where the human resource shortages are and what is involved in preparing to fill them, we could be much better informed. Let us hear more reports about the skills deficit for a change instead of this constant obsession about budget deficits. Let us agree that without a vigorous push for high quality education at all levels, then our chances of competing in the world marketplace are greatly diminished. 

School districts and universities need to be more engaged in this conversation as well. Of course, their mission is to provide a broad range of learning opportunities to the greatest number of people. But by not identifying and shifting resources to address critical shortage areas of the economy they are denying our workforce significant solutions needed now. Academic advisors and counselors need to work more aggressively to align emerging talent with areas of employment need. 

Let us try harder to see education as the benefit that it is. There is too much of an attitude that views education more as a cost than as an investment. Education can provide individuals with practical skills, a critical thinking ability, and confidence to succeed. It is among the best self-help techniques society can do for itself. 

We can do more to reduce unemployment than to just wait for banks, corporations, or government to release more money. We can be smarter about creating a congruence between hiring gaps and workforce development. 

Recognize Your Career Successes

We are largely driven to enhance our careers by the need to feel successful. The urge to link our efforts with purposeful outcomes is a primal motivator for the professional person. The desire to make a difference for others and ourselves gets us up in the morning. Capturing success may be frequently elusive, but it is a goal most think is worth pursuing. 

In today’s world, being successful implies there is continual growth and improvement. Some professionals are fortunate to find they have chosen a job that allows for and even rewards career development. New, novel, and stimulating challenges are always being presented, which provide opportunities for repeat successes. These people are happy with their jobs. They do not want to or need to enter a job search. They feel successful where they are. 

However, for many others, the chime of achievement is not sounding at their jobs, or at least not enough. This group feels stuck. For them, work does not offer enough pay-off. Boredom and too much routine have set in. These people are just as professional and talented as the above group. So, what is going on? It is called reaching a plateau. 

Here is a very typical scenario. We finish our formal education and get a job, or series of jobs, which may or may not be related to what we studied in school. Eventually we settle into a “decent enough” job. The salary is okay, co-workers become friends, and we start experiencing our first professional successes. We feel grown-up — we have arrived.  

But give it five or ten years and the dull weight of a been-there-done-that attitude takes hold. Work weeks start to feel too long and weekends too short. Frequent funks and a sense of stagnation start to become the norm. Inertia now seems to guide us more than the exciting quest for work gain. 

This becomes the time to strongly consider a career defibrillator. You need to get back to feeling worthy. Now you could look for a job change, or redefine your role with your current employer, or you could go entrepreneurial. Whichever route you take to rekindle career happiness will involve enlisting one fundamental practice to place you in the most advantageous position to reach this goal. That is to determine clearly and to be able to communicate effectively what success means to you and how in the past you have gone about attaining it. 

When you can identify your unique success metrics, you are then able to claim your professional value. You can cite contributions that have benefited others. With this self-realization you know what ball to keep your eye on. It becomes easier to envision yourself in situations, in which you can practice your craft and again be successful. 

So how do you measure success for yourself? Here is an exercise for distilling career success and happiness into practical and powerful statements, which can be used as guides for future work. This is a way to promote yourself to those who may be able to provide opportunities for future successes. 

Begin compiling a record of your greatest hits. List the achievements of which you are most proud. Have these statements contain actual, and if possible, quantifiable results. Look for the ways you found remedies to problems, resolved issues, mediated conflicts, assisted in growth, created novel solutions, improved efficiencies, and so on. For example, 

  • “Created systematic process for client interactions, deal flow, and follow-up.” 
  • “Grew occupancy from 67% to 88%. Steadily increased average guest satisfaction to 99%.” 
  • “Ten+ years of administrative, volunteer, and team experience in the coordination and implementation of educational, nonprofit, and community service projects.” 

With this valuable insight organized in your mind and on paper you are then prepared to chart a course for continuing career fulfillment. And when your work is successful, your life is greatly enhanced. 

Looking At Work Experience Gaps on Your Resume

Among the abundance of things worrying the job seeker today is the work history gap on your resume that occurs when there is a break in the employment chronology brought on by any number of reasons— most often by having been laid off. 

Conventional wisdom has been and continues to be that having a period during which you were not employed is a detriment to finding future employment. The well-founded fear is that a hiring manager will check to see if there exists an employment gap when reading your resume, and if finding one, will instantly draw the conclusion that this indicates you are a flawed candidate. 

Being seen as out of work is still very much considered a stigma, which is unfortunate given how much unemployment was foisted upon so many. But this is the reality facing job searchers. Gaps in your resume’s employment experience section make finding a new job even more difficult. 

Obviously, avoiding gaps is recommended when rewriting or updating your resume. However, lying on your resume by stating false employment that did not really exist to fill in time is not recommended. So, what can be done? 

Job and career counselors typically advise that employment downtimes be accounted for with some type of professionally meaningful pursuits, such as schooling, training, interning, or volunteering. Furthering your education can be advantageous but has that annoying consequence of costing money at a time when it is in short supply. On the other hand, offering an organization or company free work in exchange for useful experience is cheaper and potentially a powerful way to approach explaining in the future how you spent your time between jobs. Let us examine the options of interning and volunteering more carefully. 

First, to clear up some semantics: By interning I mean engaging in a non-monetary exchange, whereby the intern provides a novice-level professional service and in turn receives a documented benefit from the organization, such as professional oversight or instruction. I see volunteers as providing a service which is either an organizational need or enhancement, while expecting little to nothing in return except for an emotionally satisfying feeling and/or for the opportunity to list the experience on one’s resume. 

If considering interning, check to see that the organization has an established policy, and if so, that you agree with its terms and conditions. If it does not, either look elsewhere or get involved with the development of a new intern policy, thereby giving you a say in the arrangement. Note, volunteering can raise complications for both the volunteers and the enterprises taking them on. 

In general, the considerations from both parties should be focused on whether the tasks being performed by the volunteer are compensatory or not. The rules are defined by state labor law, employment discrimination legislation, and by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The latter essentially puts the kibosh on volunteering with for-profit private sector companies along with federal, state, and local governments. It is just not allowed. 

Most people’s professions linked to the private sector or government would appear to present a challenge to the volunteer looking for a place to offer services. Fortunately, the FLSA does not deter you from volunteering in public, charitable, or religious facilities. So, perform whatever service feels right in those cases. 

When approaching any kind of organization about interning or volunteering, especially one that also hires employees ask the following questions: 

  • Would your service in any way violate the FLSA or state labor laws? 
  • Would you be displacing or replacing an existing paid employee? 
  • Would you be performing work that is normally paid employment? 
  • Will the intern or volunteer duties require a contract or to be documented in some way? 
  • Do you have control of your hours and level of work intensity free of coercion? 
  • To yourself ask, “Is this worth it to me?” 

Filling in that troublesome work history time gap on your resume is worth some effort. If the reason for the absence is elder, child, or personal care, or possibly even bereavement, then insert it in the professional experience section as a “job”. But if the gap occurs because you were let go from your previous job and it is taking you six months or more to find another, then consider interning or volunteering. Just go into whatever you do with your eyes wide open. 

The Job Interview

Job interviews are about as eagerly anticipated as root canals. Even if you have been out of work for a long time and are desperately wanting to reenter the workplace, the necessary step of performing well during a job interview can be daunting. Interviewees tend to think the practice is akin to an interrogation or grilling, the result of which can be a harsh judgement, like getting voted off the island. They can be stressful enough to make even the most seasoned professional anxious.  

The job interview can be a faulty procedure and not always reliable. We have all heard of how someone can shine during the interview only to lead the employer to feel buyer’s remorse once the candidate is on the job. Notice how subjective interviews are. One wonders if there should be a more objective way of identifying talent before the job offer is made. 

For most hiring situations, however, there needs to be a subjective screening component. The interview provides just that and is not going away anytime soon. Think of it this way. The interview provides a much-needed opportunity for dialogue, in other words, a two-way conversation. Here is a chance for each of you to check each other out. It will help the pre-interview jitters if you can go into it feeling that you have some control over the situation. Even if they offer you the spot you do not have to accept it unless the potential employer passes muster with you. Go with some questions prepared that show you are inquiring about them.   

But, of course, the harsh truth is that you must convince a hiring manager or team of interviewers that you are a fit for the position and the organization. If you have not had an interview in a while and are wondering what to expect from an upcoming one, you might be helped by considering some likely scenarios. I have had many clients brief me on how their interview experiences have gone and here is what I can confidently generalize about them: 

  • Go into an interview prepared. To think you can wing it, no matter how professional and experienced you are, is taking an unnecessary risk. 
  • Be ready to talk about yourself as a relatively short introduction. Here is where you present your value proposition. This intro should also describe how your skills and qualifications are a fit for the position. 
  • Know and be prepared to describe how much onboarding and induction training you will need. You are a cost to the employer. They may want to know how much expense you may be at the start of employment. 
  • Have a response to the dreaded, “What are your weaknesses?” question. I recommend having two weaknesses to which you are ready to admit. But frame them as challenges you are actively managing. Have at least one example for each, describing how you have recently and positively addressed the challenges resulting in good outcomes. 
  • Show that you are developing your career by having specific short and long-term goals to share. 
  • Get ready to talk about how well you work both independently and as part of a team. 
  • Be able to furnish information about the employer. Let them know that you have researched them and have a couple of questions designed to learn more about them. 
  • A large and likely category of interview questioning is known as behavioral questioning. This is where you talk about how you handled or would handle realistic situations and challenges on the job, whether fabricated or actual from your past. Always think of presenting your answers such that it is clear how you added value to the circumstances. 

There will likely be more questions than these, but by preparing and having responses ready for typical questions you are fortified for what may come. 

Cover Letters Examined

Since we are moving toward becoming a paperless society the question often comes up in the context of job searching, whether cover letters are still necessary. The short answer is yes. 

Typically, when attempting to get the nod by an employer indicating you are to be hired, there are three initial doors through which you must sequentially pass — cover letter, resume, and interview. In each case you have an opportunity to make an impression. Also, in each case you have a chance to progressively present yourself in greater depth. The starting point is with the cover letter. So, let us examine this tool in more detail. 

The cover letter is your self-introduction. Its purpose is to get the hiring manager interested enough in you so that they will want to review your resume, which in turn will hopefully prompt an interview. There are some useful assumptions to make about such an introduction. One is that the hiring manager has a lot more work to do than time in which to do it. They are pressured and probably stressed. Also, they have a staggering number of applicants for very few jobs. 

This encourages the hiring manager to find reasons for eliminating applicants, since they must reduce a huge number to a very small one for eventual interviews. Finally, they have seen boring and generic cover letters time and time again. One with just enough distinction and relevance to catch their eye is what they are hoping to find. 

So, with these assumptions in mind, be prepared to write your cover letter in as targeted, economic, and powerful a way as possible. Pack as much punch into the fewest number of words as you can. 

There are three basic parts to a cover letter — the introduction, the body, and the closing. Here are things to keep in mind when writing each of the three parts: 

There are four different ways to write the introduction or opening: 

  • Traditional, in which you simply give your reason for writing, as in, “I am writing to express my interest in…” 
  • Creating curiosity, in which you begin with a stunning achievement, such as, “After a five-year commitment dedicated to the welfare of Somali refugees, I am now ready to add value to your…” 
  • Leveraging referrals, in which you mention the name of a trusted resource, as in, “Following the recommendation of your colleague Jim Hudson, I am eager to speak with you about…” 
  • Emphasize your headline, in which you point out your value proposition, as in, “As a Network Systems Analyst with extensive business development experience I…”  

The body is the most important part of the cover letter. It is here where you make the sale. Whether you do so in brief paragraphs, bullets, or some combination of the two, describe pointedly why you are qualified for the specific position to which you are applying. Nothing speaks to qualifications better than actual accomplishments and results you have realized from your career thus far. Just like we are more inclined to purchase a mutual fund with an impressive performance history, the same goes for a job candidate who can claim rich achievements. 

Since your resume should have a store of these attainments, harvest it for summary items to put into the cover letter body. Just be sure to paraphrase and rewrite so that your cover letter does not look like a copy and paste job from your resume. Also, the more you understand the employer and their needs the more direct your selection of relevant accomplishments can be. 

The closing should be, you guessed it, brief. It should also execute two things. One, confidently express why you deserve a closer look by the hiring manager, and two indicate your expectation for a follow-up with the company. For example, “Acme’s services, market prominence, and expansion potential are very appealing. I am convinced my skills will advance me as a key player within your company. I will contact your office in one week to inquire about when it might be convenient to meet. Thank you for your consideration.” 

As the saying goes, you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression. So, make your cover letters count. 

Four Strategies to Keep Your Career Relevant

Traditionally, we have thought of a professional as someone who is very dedicated and practiced within a relatively narrow, yet focused type of work. They choose to not be distracted by trying to be too many things to too many people. Instead, they get really good at delivering a limited category of a service or a product. 

Specializing has served the workplace well since ancient Mesopotamia and for the most part it still does. But there is growing evidence that changes in the 21st century work model is ushering in a new definition of what it means to be a professional. 

The talent and skills required by a global marketplace, which is characterized by intense competitiveness and rapidly evolving commoditization, are in an increasing state of flux. For a professional going forward, expecting that only one skill will keep them marketable and employed for the long-term is becoming unrealistic.  

The workplace of the future will be demanding talent that is continuously involved in learning and development, such that it is nimble enough to transfer aptitudes to alternative and hybrid jobs. Allowing yourself to be too limited in scope, or worse yet, to give into complacency and inertia, are the career killers of the hereafter.  

What every pro wants to do is to be as prepared as possible for an uncertain and unpredictable workplace in the coming years. Since no one can be expected to be knowledgeable and skilled in everything, it becomes necessary to have a preparedness plan that builds from your current skill base. To help, I suggest four strategies to keep your career development options open moving forward: 

  1. Showcase in a compelling format the breadth and depth of your skills and accomplishments. To do so, begin with a basic assumption, which is that every employer will have only one thing on their minds when considering you for employment, “What can you do for me?”

The wider your range of capabilities, the greater your chances of being able to answer their question. By being equipped with a portfolio and resume that highlights your adaptive talent, you are ready for the changeable needs of employers. Show that you are as dynamic as the businesses you hope to work for. 

  1. Learn and practice skills that are transferable to multiple situations. Being skilled at something is, of course, good. Having skills that are transferable and can be applied to a variety of circumstances is even better.

So, what are these skills? Remember that as a professional you never give up keeping up with your field of expertise. By staying current, you can be on top of the turns and twists your profession is undergoing. This heads-up knowledge allows you to adjust and reapply your competence as necessary. Be ready to not only say, “I can do this,” but “I can do this and that and if needed blend the two with…”. 

  1. Accept being a lifelong learner. No news here. Learning does not stop with graduation. Growth is constant. Embrace it. Catch and enjoy the excitement of learning more and studying things that are new.

Move out of your comfort zone sometimes, as well. The more secure your attitude of continuous improvement, the better you can leverage your expanding capabilities towards career enhancing opportunities. Again, your never-ending research and networking will inform you about what content to master.  

  1. Seek out employers who care about your career along with you. Smart employers know about the correlation between engaged employees and productivity. And one of the best ways to keep your talent engaged is to let them know they are valued and to show it by offering job descriptions that encourage growth and development.

Choosing places to work, in which management actively seeks to plan for success in tandem with their workers that result in productivity for both parties, is the goal of progressive professionals. 

Given an uncertain work future producing jobs that did not even exist a few short years ago, it is best to be proactive rather than reactive. The early bird still gets that worm. However today that bird is multi-talented and searching for new ways to meet new challenges. She keeps an ear to the ground and an eye on the horizon. 

Finding and Keeping Needed Talent

One of the greatest challenges for employers the world over is locating, hiring, and retaining employees who bring highly productive value to their companies and organizations. Such employees are, of course, the lifeblood of any successful workforce. The employer who establishes the means of recruiting and properly managing the right talent represents quality leadership within a winning enterprise. 

For the most part, there is a broad and deep talent pool to fill many job positions. If anything, the Recession has added available workforce capacity eager to be found and employed. The industry areas that seem most deficient in expertise are engineering and intermediate to advanced levels of IT. Even in recent years, these have been under resourced areas. This lack of strength probably will not improve until we do a better job of attracting and educating more young people to STEM careers or Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. However, outside of STEM careers vast talent shortages do not appear to be the case. Nevertheless, matching skills with where they are needed continues to be a perennial and daunting challenge. 

The best recruiters know where to go to find the most competent. They are well-connected, expertly networked, and a constant presence at tried-and-true feeder sources, such as schools and certain businesses. Getting and paying for high caliber recruiting and staffing services is certainly an option for companies seeking candidates for open positions. But the question emerges, can employers do more for themselves internally and procedurally to keep the flow of talent inbound and the loss of talent minimized? 

Yes, employers can do more. Now, rather than present the readers with a bulleted list of techniques, I would like to focus an answer to the above question toward a more fundamental management and human virtue…kindness. Anecdotally, I hear it all the time from smart, experienced, hard-working, people — the single biggest reason why people do not like their jobs is because of poor management. I am not talking about managerial weaknesses that can be simply remedied with some training. This issue is much larger. It involves management’s use of intimidation, fear, inflexibility, weak ability to communication, and overall poor soft or people skills. 

Nothing will drive talent away more effectively than by having in place leadership that either practices, encourages, or allows for an abusive work environment. In fact, there is a Healthy Workplace Bill, which has been introduced into twenty state legislatures since 2003. In New Hampshire, this bill known as HB 1403 was introduced and let die in committee in 2010. 

In this day of interactive social media does anyone really think that word is not getting out loud and clear about where employees should not work if they want respect from their boss? Talent will be drawn to companies and organizations where smart and self-motivated employees can develop as professionals. Places with vision that encourage exploration and innovation, where decision-making results from a collaborative process. But at their core, those companies that establish as a cultural foundation respect and kindness will find talent wanting to stay. Consequently, by noticing the strengths and benefits each person can bring to the job and actively cultivating them yields positive results for any business.  

Effective leadership can bring about the kind of work climate which attracts and retains talent. Unfortunately, talented leaders are hard to find. Peter Drucker, the godfather of modern management theory, said that the two most important attributes of leadership are self-awareness and honesty. Practicing those virtues in combination with a basic decency for fellow colleagues would seem to be a good place to start.  

The best and brightest employees are not interested in heavy-handed rules, imposed methodologies, and stay-in-line-or-else tactics. Developing a talented workforce begins with collegial trust and a humane attitude. 

Four Ways To Improve Your Resume

So, let’s assume that you have not yet started on that New Year’s resolution of rewriting your resume, which of course assumes that you made a New Year’s resolution to rewrite your resume. (You did, didn’t you?). Having a current and well written resume is the single best thing you can do for yourself, if you are thinking about transitioning to another job or career, or if you are trying to get back into the workforce after a too-long layoff. 

As is the case with many such tasks that can be easily dropped down one’s priority list, the hardest part is simply getting started. Once you do pull out that old resume you may find that the rewrite job looks to be about as much fun as doing taxes. Then there is the question of what needs to be done to make your resume a winning one. Is it just updating the contact information and work history, or is there more to it than that? This is a writing exercise that can be daunting and frustrating. You may find yourself thinking of postponing this resolution until next year. 

To help make your resume rewriting a little easier I am going to focus on what needs to be done to make it very readable to hiring managers and recruiters, who are the types of people most likely to look over your resume someday. Think of them as your audience. Know their world. It consists of lots of scheduling, running reference and background checks, conducting interviews, debriefing clients or managers, communicating with their network, and all under constant time pressure.  

They do not have the time or interest to read your autobiography, nor will they be attracted to a boring chronology of your past jobs with nothing substantial to set you apart from the vast crowd. You have got about fifteen seconds to make a good first impression. Consider the following questions when rewriting your resume: 

  • What is your functional and industry expertise? Do not make the reader have to infer your skills by looking at work history. Have a lead section or summary that quickly informs and emphasizes what value and talent you would bring to the employer. Categorizing core competencies and special technical skills prior to any list of previous jobs will allow you to be in or out of the hiring ballpark in a hurry. 
  • Where are you on the work-level hierarchy? It should be established very quickly if you are a laborer, assistant, manager, executive, or contracting consultant. This can be highlighted in the lead summary and by bolding or capitalizing current and previous job titles. You need to make it easy for the reader to position you where you want to be positioned. 
  • What have you been up to for the past ten or twelve years? A clearly written chronology of your most recent and relevant past employment should be displayed. And yes, gaps in your work history are a problem. Not what laid-off workers want to hear, I know. So, what can be done about employment gaps? Hopefully, you will be able to show that you tried to remain current and viable with your profession while you were out of work or caring for an ill or elderly family member. Perhaps, you received further education and training, or volunteered and maybe interned, to continue maintaining and developing expertise. Also, in most cases, what you did before, say 1998, is not going to be that important to someone hiring in 2011. 
  • What have been your significant accomplishments? In this chronicle of your employment there should be points about what you have done that has made a real contribution. Refer to tangible measures like revenue and profit increases, lead generations and conversions, savings in costs or resources, or anything else that shows you have improved processes. Think of it as compiling your greatest hits. 

You may not be successful with all your New Year’s resolutions, but if you can get this one right, it just may be enough to make 2011 the year of positive change you hoped it would be. 

Challenges Facing the Mature Worker

Most of us didn’t see it coming. And now that it is here, many are struggling with how to cope. I am not talking about The Great Recession as a whole, but about one egregious consequence of it — the dislocation of the 50+ workers. 

Anecdotal reports started accumulating during the Recession’s early days and have yet to abate. Baby Boomer employees in large numbers have been facing layoffs, many for the first time in their lives. However, in trying to get hired elsewhere these experienced workers have been finding that a new cruel reality has set in. Their skills, history, long-term perspective, and deep knowledge are no longer wanted. They are being prematurely put out to pasture. 

To me, an admitted Boomer, this phenomenon at first seemed counter-intuitive. Extensive practice of one’s craft should be seen as desirable. The mistakes of the past will not be repeated if you have employees who know history and have lived it. Or so I naively thought. Yet contemporary hiring managers, who naturally are becoming younger all the time, apparently do not see it that way. They see, or think they see, liabilities among this older cohort. Among the accepted downsides: 

  • Inflexible thinking 
  • Lack of tolerance for the values of younger workers 
  • Legacy practices that are counter-innovative 
  • Higher costs associated with salary expectations and health care benefits 

The resulting generational mismatch has led to age bias and defacto discrimination, which makes it very hard for Boomers to land new jobs. 

In working as a career counselor with many 50+ workers, I have noticed another conclusion of this age group. Of those fortunate enough to have remained employed in recent years there are many who are now sick of their jobs, but not tired of working. And why have they grown so dissatisfied with their jobs? In almost every case it comes down to two words — poor management. 

When someone has been working thirty or more years there can be plenty of been-there-done-that moments and among the worst of them is putting up yet again with substandard or even dysfunctional leadership. Altogether, there is a lot of anxiety about remaining productively employed during the final years of many careers. 

Unfortunately, switching jobs for the currently employed 50+ worker is not much easier than for their unemployed brethren. The same discriminatory hiring practices can likely face anyone born before 1960. I wish I had easy answers for remedying the employment problems of mature employees, but I do not. I do, however, have a few mitigating suggestions for those wondering what to do next: 

  • Consult with a financial advisor. Have a clear picture of how solvent you are going forward. The chances of pulling down high salaries for the foreseeable future are greatly diminished for the time being. 
  • Consider an entrepreneurial venture. Although far from a quick fix, now may be the time to leverage your skills and knowledge into a micro or small business that can positively engage your energies and eventually lead to some income. 
  • Craft a marketable value proposition. Contrary to popular belief, the mature worker does have some assets. If your qualities can be powerfully presented as a direct match for the needs of an employer, then you just might be able to minimize or overcome the alleged weaknesses your age suggests.   
  • Embrace the small-is-beautiful ethic. Pulling back on expenses and fifty-hour work weeks does have some advantages. Maintaining a high-consumption lifestyle can be like feeding a beast. Rediscovering simple and less demanding living may benefit your spirit in addition to your monetary situation. 

The biggest challenge of all for the older worker who feels diminished and devalued may be in reframing their predicament into something opportunistic. Although you did not intend or predict that the ground beneath your feet would shift so dramatically, nevertheless look hard for the silver lining. As the saying goes, never let a crisis go to waste. 

How We Choose Our Careers

John Lennon perhaps said it best: “Life is what happens to you when you’re busy making other plans.” And for many, that about sums up how career directions come to be. Life requires making plans, both large and small, and among the big ones is how one is to make a livelihood. 

It is surprising, given the enormity of such a life decision and given the fact nearly everyone needs to make it, that a clear and customary process to career decision making is not commonly accepted. Most often it seems that people just fall into careers, which sometimes work out splendidly, but can often lead to years of wasted potential. 

So, how do we end up doing the work that we do? Since as a society we cannot seem to agree on a single career-choice process, how are we to impart useful information to others, both young and old, who need assistance? 

I have been tracking for some months now threaded discussions on the topic of career choice that have run on some of my career counselor groups in LinkedIn. I have identified some recurring themes that may be of interest to those of you who are also intrigued by the forces that are at play in career determination. Here is what I see at present: 

Childhood – Clues for future career direction are often detectable in childhood. There can be obvious signs like the little girl mixing and matching her mother’s clothes while playing dress-up, who goes on to become a fashion designer, or the little boy consistently organizing his playmates into undertakings of one sort or another, who in later years works for the YMCA as an activity director. Although the innate interests in children may not be readily predictable as career catalysts, chances are quite good that future competencies are beginning to be played out in the activity choices occurring in kids’ lives. 

Influencers – Career guidance often originates with individuals who hold significant value in one’s life. Family members and good friends, among other high-quality role models, provide direction and powerful suggestions about career goals. Sometimes this is intentional, but often it is not. The feedback and observations given to us in the natural course of having relationships from people we honor and respect can carry a huge amount of weight. 

School – the subjects you liked in school, the encouragement you were given by teachers, and the observations you made about what defined success among your peers in an education and social setting can all play a part in how you structure your world view. As you assess the functional parts of the world, you begin to see how you might fit within it. In my judgment, schools, in general, do not emphasize career development strongly enough. The good news, however, is that by their very nature, schools provide an environment where careers can be made despite their other priorities. 

Practicality – It has been said that when young, we use our heads to choose work, but that when we are older, we are driven more by our emotions in choosing jobs. Using your head means that you are looking at a career pragmatically, i.e., as a means toward an end. And that end typically involves considerations such as rate of pay, working conditions, commuting distance, benefits, childcare availability, and whether you can take the dog to work. These concerns are important, but they begin to pale somewhat as we mature and start realizing that concepts like career/life fit, advancement, professionalism, and retirement planning are as or more important. 

Happenstance / Opportunity / Luck – One of the most powerful drivers of how our careers develop, if not our entire lives, has nothing to do with planning. It can be just dumb luck. Being in the right place at the right time, being born when you were, or living where you do can position you to take advantage of a confluence of events that makes great things possible. Knowing that luck can always be just around the corner makes successful people ever mindful and open to positive circumstances. 

Even though there is an entire profession dedicated to career decision making, not many people take advantage of it. Doing so would certainly help greater numbers of people land more meaningful and fulfilling careers sooner. Nevertheless, it is worth knowing how career selection occurs for many of us, because these ways can also hold value. 

Building and Projecting Your Professional Brand

The term “professional brand” is thrown around frequently these days when it comes to job searching, career advancement, and business opportunities. As is the case whenever a term begins to become trite, we want to be careful that the original impact of its meaning does not become lost or mushy with overuse or misuse. Ever since 1999, when Tom Peters launched the use of brand to encapsulate the worker migration from corporate cog to independent provider of value, one’s professional brand has built substantial importance and cache.  

Part of the workplace adjustment brought on by the Great Recession has been the intense need for workers to distinguish themselves in the face of heavy competition for fewer jobs. It is a buyer’s market for employers and to get noticed in the sea of applicants requires job searchers to communicate their worth and focus more than ever. The good news is that managing one’s online presence with social media and other means allows professionals to disseminate their brands very efficiently. The challenge for many, of course, is knowing what kind of brand message to project. 

It all starts with identifying your value proposition. Being able to summarize your skills, competencies, and in general, what makes you an asset. Your unique value proposition serves as the basis for your brand and for how you express yourself using all the communication means at your disposal. Try containing this message in a short paragraph of no more than five sentences. This will discipline you to articulate your worth economically and pointedly. 

Another concept that helps you to button down your brand is to consider your personal mix of talents, experiences, aptitudes, values, and proficiencies that make you who you are. Separate yourself from the herd by letting stakeholders know the one-of-a-kind package of qualities that you are made of and can offer.    

Once you have determined your professional brand you are then ready to market it. Be specific in presenting what you are good at. How are you better than your competition? What kind of mid-level manager, or salesperson, or engineer are you? Can you point to achievements that speak to your effectiveness? Getting the word out to your industry about your expertise through various web-based and face-to-face networking methods increases your chances of coming out on top. 

Be ready to direct and manage your carefully crafted message, especially online. Make sure that there is not conflicting information about you that could confuse or, worse yet, turn off those searching for you. You have worked hard to make something of yourself and there is still more growing to do. You take pride in all that you have accomplished to date, so do not hesitate to shout it out loud. Your future ambitions will benefit from the effort. 

Managing Your Online Profile

It is quickly becoming conventional wisdom for professionals to realize the importance of establishing and maintaining a robust and communicative online profile. As has become the case with searching for knowledge of all manners and types, most individuals go first to the Internet — and of those who do, approximately 85% go to Google to get the information they need. 

It is no different for recruiters, hiring managers, potential employers or contractors, and other stakeholders who need to carefully examine the history, qualifications, and relevant attributes of alleged talent with whom there is potential to forge a professional relationship. 

Whether we want it to or not, our cyber presence is being developed. Even those who deliberately shy away from social media networking may still have a bio posted on their company’s web site or one could be listed on an association’s site as having given a talk at a conference. Maybe you or your company have been reviewed on one of many consumer review sites, or someone’s cell phone camera snapped you at a social event which is now on YouTube. To think your name and reputation can or should remain hidden from the web today is naïve and potentially harmful to your career. 

Getting out in front of how your character is to be perceived by the world will give you the advantage of crafting and determining the message and image that accurately and powerfully presents you to those who may offer opportunities, which could result in career enhancement. Although you may not be able to control all the content about you that gets caught in the web, there are some steps that can be taken that will anchor your message of core professionalism that can optimize ahead of any weak or worse material that may be out there about you. The target outcome is simple — to have an online profile that displays your value and talent. 

The place to start, however, is with a document that may never make it to the Internet and that is your resume. If this is well written, it will be economically and succinctly capturing your value proposition with supporting competencies, achievements, skills both hard and soft, education and training, and any other information highlighting your qualifications. With this foundation in place the professional is ready to communicate a self-appraisal with a variety of online means. Here are four recommended ways to accomplish this: 

  1. LinkedIn – With 85+ million users and growing this is the strongest place to establish your presence. The profile components are designed to give you a well-rounded professional look and it is easily updateable. You control the message entirely and it should mirror the value as described in your resume. There is the added advantage of linking to a wide network of colleagues, associates, and groups that increase your exposure and intellectual capital.
  2. Twitter – This microblogging service is a great way to build your reputation through sharing relatively frequent commentary on industry insights and promotion of web-based content. It is simple to use and once you learn about the # and @ communities you can target your messages to people who care about what you have to offer.
  3. Your Own Web Site – Controlling your image in a positive and creative way can be done by having your own site designed by yourself or by one of the gazillion boutique webmasters that are around. Here you can write a profile; add pictures; link to other relevant sites or blogs; post a video of yourself talking about what you do, which can be recorded using your webcam or by a friend with a digital camera; include an audio podcast and post your own blog.
  4. Blogging – A wonderful self-promotion technique is to share your professional expertise. Doing so projects knowledge, experience, confidence, and legitimacy. Including your blog as part of your web site by using a sophisticated blogging tool such as WordPress eases the process. Blogging takes commitment, though. Keep posts often and current to get the most impact.

Taking these four steps will position you well for managing your online profile. Remember that your value proposition is the theme that ties all these tactics together. Be consistent in communicating what great things you offer and be prepared for the career benefits this effort will yield. 

Career Development New Year Resolutions

Recognizing the new year is a great tradition. Having that one time each year to reflect, take stock, and plan for the future is a valuable practice for progressing our growth and development. Well, it is that time of year again to look back over what has transpired, but more importantly to gaze ahead at the year to come with anticipation and a plan. 

When it comes to making our lives meaningful and satisfying over the next twelve months, our thoughts should turn to making some impactful decisions regarding the direction of our careers. 

If you are considering, as I recommend you do, determining some new year resolutions for your career, then here is my list of the six most helpful practices for refining your livelihood. A word about the current economic context before I begin — the cruel grip of the Great Recession is starting to ease. The fear that has slowed employment mobility for the past two years is lessening. Although the latest 2011 consensus of economists in a recent New York Times article was bullish regarding business growth for the upcoming year, there will remain a stubbornly high national unemployment rate. 

However, in New Hampshire, where we now show an unemployment rate that is little more than half of the national rate, there is cause for more optimism. Hiring will likely be more robust here than in many parts of the country. Not great but improving. And given the reported amount of pent-up desire among currently employed workers to shift to new employers as soon as possible, this will be a year when we should see a pick-up in hiring. Given this scenario, here is how you can prepare: 

Know What’s Going On: Be knowledgeable about your industry or chosen line of work. Research, read, and listen. Be on top of trends, practices, and opportunities that matter for industry growth and for your own bottom line. 

Step Up Networking: Make sure to invigorate professional connections by maintaining genuine communication with those you respect. Offer to help and share. Show more interest in them than you expect to receive. 

Assess Your Career Track: Ask yourself, are you really doing what you want to for work? Is it time to consider a course shift? There is no better time than now to make these critical decisions and to plan for change. 

Got Social Media?: One way to advance all three of the above is to engage with social media, in particular LinkedIn. Gathering information, networking, and processing the quality of your career can all be helped along with social media. 

Building Your Online Profile: A huge advantage of participating in social media at a professional level is that it positions you for establishing and maintaining a strong online profile. Controlling your presentation, to the extent you can, is becoming increasingly important. 

Resume Rewrite: It is a rare person that does not need to revisit their resume at least once per year. It is equally as rare to find a resume that does not need at least a little improvement. Whether you need to tweak, upgrade, or completely revamp this important document, the present is a time to get started. 

Sure, there is more that could be done to improve and advance your career. Careers are like properties — there is always something else that can be worked on. But, if you are looking to break inertia and get the most from your career in 2011, then taking on one or more of these suggestions may be just the thing to help make the new year one of significant and sustained growth. 

Workplace Winners and Losers

There are basically two types of workers, right? Either you are an upward climber, or you choose to cruise on easy street. But wait a minute. Does everyone need to approach their career as a time-driven, multi-tasking, power-expressing endeavor, or is it alright to have a job that is relatively low stress, perhaps largely rote, and not one you take home with you both physically and mentally? 

Well, sure it is. Or it should be. Shouldn’t it? But a funny thing happens when you try to put a non-judgmental tag on this type of job style. Look how easy it is for us to describe an ambitious, upwardly mobile, goal-oriented, tough-minded, high achiever. So, what do you call someone who does not approach work with a winner-take-all attitude… slow-mover, grunt-worker, low-end loser with limited goal-orientation? 

None of these are very flattering. In fact, they and others like them are downright demeaning. Does that mean that career choices are divided into the worthy and the not worthy, valued or marginal, good and bad? 

Unfortunately, the way we typically view the stratification of employment is a holdover from a traditional linear view of ladder climbing. Those on the higher rungs are generally viewed as more accomplished while those on the lower rungs are seen as novices at best and incapable at worst. 

Looking at work diversity through this narrow lens discounts the various non-status-oriented reasons why people choose the work that they do. In fact, it is fair to say the ladder metaphor has outgrown its relevance. Career choice today is much more multi-dimensional and much less about points on a continuum, as was true even a couple of decades ago. 

Career progress zigs and zags and flies in directions that are more spontaneous and less pre-determined. For example, randomly ask several forty-somethings if they are working at jobs they would have imagined doing when in high school or even college. Chances are that they have ended up in workplaces that they never would have imagined at the time. 

To be sure, some of the metrics that defined career success in the past are still important, i.e., amounts of income, levels of responsibility, and significant decision-making authority. But quickly joining this list are some new highly valued success measures such as amounts of family and personal leave, results-only work management, and lack of job stress. Might someone these days choose a career that promises independence and uninterrupted nights of deep sleep over money and power? The answer increasingly is, yes! 

When we as a culture accept more readily the different ways career-life fit are expressed, then we have a greater chance of truly creating conditions by which individuals choose careers that dovetail chosen lifestyles in profoundly satisfying ways. Think of how often some compliant young people choose a career direction because it fits more with convention, usually determined by the previous generation’s values, than it fits with their innate personalities and lifestyle wishes. 

Separating workers into winners and losers based on criteria that does not speak to life contentment really does not make sense. People who choose to work as coffee shop baristas, supermarket bakers, golf course greens keepers, or licensed practical nurses can be as successful as any executive, business owner, or attorney if we agree that how healthy and happy they are, is how their work choice is to be judged. 

So, what are acceptable and non-demeaning ways to describe the opposite of a high achiever? Maybe self-directed, balanced, purposeful, a skilled

__. Let us give ourselves a break and stop labeling each other. To do so seems uncomfortably close to making class distinctions, which we now know is not very helpful. Reframing how we view the general workforce however is.   

Avoid the Arbitrary — Move with Purpose

Nothing that you do should ever be arbitrary. That is what I was told in professional resume writer training. When writing a resume, every word, every bit of positioning, every design element must have an intentional reason — a purpose behind its use. Think about the value in completing a process, in which everything you do, every step you take is premeditated and not wayward. 

Do you think this methodology is reserved just for highly programmed code writers or artists? Perhaps, but there is a lesson in approaching pursuits both small and large with deliberation and with mindfulness. When searching for a new job or planning and following through with a career development decision, being random or inconsistent decreases your chances of achieving your goal. Getting what you really want and need from your work requires focus and sound decision making. 

Easily said and understood, right? Yet, the reality seems to be that most of us feel like we are chronically afflicted with attention deficit disorder when it comes to putting into action one of life’s most important undertakings — achieving a career of meaning. 

It becomes easier to approach career development systematically when you have a framework of best practices within which to operate. Professional people have all they can do to stay current and productive with their fields of expertise, plus all the activity life in general throws at them. Expecting that career management will come naturally or be fully understood with just conventional wisdom is not reasonable. 

Acquiring the necessary resources to comprehend the career process is desirable if you want control over the direction of your life. The good news is that the study of career development is not particle physics. You can prepare yourself or get a professional consultant to help. But either way, devising a customized plan that yields a career which optimizes life should be deliberate, purposeful, and not arbitrary. 

The issue arises, however, that just because we have the needed information to plan a career development direction, moving forward effectively is something else. Decision making, the base skill required, is a complex concept. How we orient ourselves to the world and its inhabitants and how we take in information both factor greatly in how we make decisions. 

It is helpful to reflect and to observe the way in which we make important choices. Just as there is no one optimal personality, there is no one best way to choose. But refining our skill in decision making is paramount if we are going to act strategically and not randomly. 

When helping clients think strategically about career related options, I like to get a sense of their desired outcomes. It is useful to know what kind of ball one is keeping their eye on. Achieving outcomes that lead to fulfillment, satisfaction, stimulation, and contentment can form the basis for individual strategic planning. 

Giving personal shape and meaning to these objectives is the first step in acting purposefully. Whether the goal is to simply extract pay and benefits from an employer or whether it is to satisfy intrinsic motivators, having a clear idea of what you want from your work is key. 

Sure, there is plenty to be said for the role serendipity and good luck play in how our lives go. But acting deliberately and shunning poorly thought out and arbitrary decisions can go a long way in helping us to live lives of full measure. 

Prepare Your Resume for Applicant Tracking Systems

Among the things in need of consideration when preparing your resume, especially if it is to be sent or posted electronically to recruiters or hiring managers, is having it ready to pass unscathed through Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS). 

ATS are software applications for managing large volumes of recruitment, resume, and job application data. They may be a subset of a Human Resource Information System or a stand-alone app. Either way, an ATS is a database of recruitment data configured to the specific needs of the hiring end-user. Although in rural areas many resumes still make it to human eyeballs, you still must be prepared that it will be screened with an ATS. 

For the job applicant, ATS presents a particular challenge. Either ATS will accept or reject your resume. It should be expected that ATS will be designed to only accept resumes that contain keywords and phrases specific to the open job position. When using a single resume to try landing interviews for multiple job descriptions the applicant runs the risk of getting rejected too often by ATS, because their resume may not contain enough keywords and phrases pertinent to what the employer wants. 

Getting around this problem may require more work, but it is not unmanageable. The goal is to obviously have your resume address as closely as possible the job description to be filled, while staying true to your value proposition. Therefore, being mindful of keywords that make up the job description you are interested in should be included in your resume. If you notice a lack of keywords in your resume, then decide if the job is really a good fit for you or if your resume is inadequate. 

Following are some techniques to consider when getting ready to send your resume electronically to firms or agencies that require digitally formatted resumes:   

  • Follow up your contact information at the top of page one with a well-written and terse professional profile or executive summary. It should contain keywords and phrases for the kind of position you are best qualified to perform, and which aligns with what the employer is seeking. 
  • Include an achievement or significant accomplishments section, which is again sensitive to keywords pertaining to desired functions. 
  • ATS are becoming more sophisticated and may include a contextualizing ability. When using keywords, include them in the context of skills and functions that demonstrate your knowledge and command of the job. Do not just insert a list of words. 
  • Be wary of fancy text or graphics. They will not impress a machine and may confuse it. 
  • In many cases, do not send your resume as an attachment to an email, but rather paste it right into the body of the email. The website you are responding to may specify file type. If you are given a choice between pasting and uploading, however, go with the upload. It will retain your resume structure more reliably. Do not be surprised that you may be asked to paste a Plain Text (.txt) file format into the message body. I recommend having your resume in three formats: Word (still the industry standard), PDF, and Plain Text. 
  • Be careful of misspellings and abbreviations. They should be avoided. Assume the ATS will be programmed to pick up fully and correctly spelled keywords. And do not get cute with all capitals or all lower-case letters. Standard capitalization still rules. 
  • When completing an online application, you may be asked to repeat information that you know is included in your resume. That’s okay. Fill in all fields, even if you are repeating yourself. 

With some care and attention to keywords and phrases you will increase your chances of having your resume and its accompanying job application make it to the all-important hiring manager inbox and avoid the screening filters of ATS. 

The Elusive Jobs Which Do Exist

It has been reported that 32% of U.S. manufacturers are reporting skill shortages during the current Recession. Projections are that this number could increase to 62% soon. 

Corporations are also reporting that there is a lack of leadership talent from which to choose. Among the workforce areas claiming that jobs are available are in the skilled trades, sales representatives, technicians, engineers, accounting & finance, administrative & production assistants, and laborers. And this list is not complete. 

Despite an unemployment rate stuck at 10% one of the great ironies of the Great Recession is that there is a shortage of high quality and desirable job applicants. There certainly is no shortage of sad, demoralized, and desperate Americans begging to be hired. But when it comes to potential hires who meet the valued qualifications of many employers there is a dearth of possibilities. How can this be? 

Logic and supply & demand theory dictate that a necessary workforce adjustment should be occurring whereby industry needs are accommodated by a willing and resilient population of workers. Given these atrocious employment times you would think the migration of the unemployed to fill vacancies would be rapid. But it is not, and it is not expected to be anytime soon!   

So, what’s going on? At this point in time, I’m seeing two issues: 

Matching: Along with just about everything else in the 21st century the nature of work and the needs of industry are quickly changing. For potential employees keeping up with and being prepared for the new, innovative, and hybrid positions now in demand is not being efficiently handled. The skills needed are not possessed by enough workers. 

A requirement for any professional is to continuously build knowledge capital. If you snooze you lose. The better you know your industry the less chance you have of being caught unprepared. 

But industry too has a responsibility here. Identifying, recruiting, and developing talent creates win-win situations. Succession planning, quality onboarding, and timely training can enhance employees’ careers and company productivity. 

Both parties need to do a better job of discovering one another. 

Searching: Following from the above point is the issue of how these parties go about finding one another.  For many, the value and necessity of networking has just become apparent over the past couple of years. For those who have cultivated a rich set of contacts there is a relative ease in learning about new work opportunities, including the hard-to-fill positions. 

Yet, if you are not a great networker, and many people are not, you may be reduced to looking at job boards and other web site postings. I do not have to tell you how frustrating and ineffective that can be. 

So, a big part of the problem is that the means of searching for elusive positions are ineffective. Even networking can be hard to apply systematically. Good real-time ready and solution-oriented databases, which are dedicated to critical shortage job positions, are not yet there. If industry marketed more effectively what their hiring needs are in the short and long-term, then I am confident more of the workforce would prepare themselves to fill those gaps. 

Adapting to this Recession is difficult in many ways. One of the most egregious is in trying to accept that a) corporations are not allocating huge amounts of cash reserves to hire new workers, and b) that available positions are not being filled because talent is not being found. As a country we are suffering, in part, because we cannot seem to fit square pegs into square holes! Responsibility for remedying this mess should be shared. 

Workers, whether employed or not, need to do a better job of tracking industry current trends, projected needs, and best practices. Excelling in a rapidly evolving work environment requires nothing less. 

And industry needs to do a much better job of communicating in an accessible way talent and skill inadequacies, which will alert the American worker to this urgency and to where good jobs can be found. 

The pace of reconciling America’s unemployment dilemma needs to quicken. It is simply not acceptable for critical shortages and high unemployment to exist simultaneously. Solving this mismatch is everyone’s responsibility. 

Motivation and Your Career

A spot-on career choice can be judged as so because it results in certain outcomes. Among these is that a happy worker feels stimulated and continually interested in what they are doing, enjoys the compensation and recognition they receive, is content with a well calibrated work/life balance, and thrives on being productive. Satisfied workers do not have to be told to get busy. They are internally motivated to do so. 

It is no secret that employers want motivated employees. Companies get high productivity without the intrusive burden of having to implement excessive oversight and punitive incentives. Having inspired employees can make it easier for management to retain talent and maximize performance. Given these potential advantages and benefits it would be expected that recruiting and keeping these intrinsically motivated workers would be a high priority for company management. 

So, why does it seem that front offices miss the mark so often as evidenced by too many workers being largely unhappy with their jobs and who are just going through the motions to get a paycheck? The conventional attitude has been and continues to be among the general workforce that work stinks and is done only because it needs to be and is not because people love their jobs. 

It is in the interests of employers and employees alike to reverse this situation. To do so, it may be worth examining characteristics of the motivated employee at the workplace. 

To be fair, it is not simply a matter of employers alone creating a magical set of conditions which result in a motivated and positive workforce. Motivation, and its close cousin engagement, are the co-responsibility of employer and employee alike and should be delivered in equal parts from both. 

Regarding the individual worker, successful ones bring to the workforce an innate and compelling belief to be independently conscientious, dependable, and efficient. They want to do fascinating and highly interesting things and are energized by a sense of accomplishment. Driven by values and vision, the motivated working person strives to produce quality products and services that are desired by managers and customers alike — both to satisfy stakeholders and themselves. 

Fulfillment with career choice and direction comes largely from within and is not principally from what others can consequentially provide for them. These are the kinds of employees or contracted independents who add value beyond implementation of an organization’s stated business. They are keepers for sure. 

The obvious objective for companies is to figure out how to populate their workforces with as many motivated and engaged employees as possible. It should begin with management recognizing that motivation is at the core of performance and that they share in the responsibility of fostering it among their employees. 

In practice, this means partly devising the right mix of meaningful rewards and extrinsic motivators. Competitive monetary compensation, attractive fringe benefits, generous vacation time, family care and leave flexibility, job security to the extent that is possible these days, and internal and public recognition all significantly contribute to workforce motivation. 

However, employer facilitation does not end there anymore. There is an intangible consideration that more workers are expecting from their employers, and it involves sharing an emotional and purposeful connection that what is collectively being done at work matters. It is easier for everyone to feel as if they are being treated right when there exists a shared belief that the organizational mission and vision holds great value for others, the community, even the planet. 

For employers to actively express appreciation in as many ways as possible to their workers for participating in a common ambition will enhance employee involvement. Reducing or eliminating any discrepant gaps between an employer’s business and their individual employee’s career goals, including intrinsic motivators, will necessarily result in a high engagement and more productive work environment. 

When employers can begin moving away from thinking that the traditional carrot and stick, if-then, extrinsic-only approach to incentivizing is their only responsibility in creating motivated workforces and alternatively accept and embrace the internal drive, values, and career intent of their workers, then companies and organizations will yield more gain from colleagues who are only too glad to contribute. 

Entrepreneurs and Joblessness

It does not look like joblessness is going to be easing anytime soon. Even though business orders are up, cash reserves are high, and overtime is wearing out employees. Unfortunately, economic conditions still do not seem to be stimulative enough to increase hiring. 

For the unemployed this is especially aggravating. Most are hopeful, perhaps desperate is the more accurate word, that “companies” will someday begin hiring again, that employers of businesses both large and small will again provide all the jobs we need like they did before. 

And what help can be expected from the government? Although the Democrats stimulus plan helped to avert another Great Depression and created or saved 2-4 million jobs it has not sufficiently convinced businesses or their lenders that there is enough stability and predictability to start hiring. The Republicans, on the other hand, are still convinced that no government plan is best and that if we can just keep taxes to the rich low and markets free of regulation all will recover nicely (President Bush’s tax cut to the rich is now nine years old and that worked out well, didn’t it?!).  

This joblessness problem is bigger than politicians can remedy with trite ideological positions and reheated campaign phrases. Here in New Hampshire, listening to the current crop of political ads can hardly give hope to the jobless. They sound like parodies of… well political campaign ads. 

We hear candidates telling us that their honesty and business acumen will “fix the economy”. Really? This is one heck of a big mess that will not be solved by way of polarization, finger-pointing, and outrageous claims of superhuman economic abilities. It begins with everyone seeing themselves as Americans first and Democrats, Republicans, Independents, Tea Partyers, or whatever, second. Nobody and no political persuasion have all the answers. When the nation’s most renowned economists cannot agree on what is the right course of action, then that tells me that this is really complicated and requires the collaboration of our greatest efforts, not simplistic political phrases. 

If I had a quick and easy answer or method to suggest that would lessen the pain of unemployment, believe me, I’d give it to you. But just like our candidates, be they lobbyists, lawyers, or magazine editors, I don’t have a magic bullet for fixing this unemployment mess and I have yet to run into anyone else who has one. 

So, while we wait for our leaders to work together, jobless Americans need to be as proactive as they can. Assume for starters that we are not going back to Pleasantville. For the short-term, anyway, there is going to be a new normal. I think it will help to get yourself in the mindset of treating yourself as if you were self-employed… an entrepreneur. Avoid wallowing in despair and depression and instead face your situation as if you are trying to generate business for your own owner-operated company, the business of you. 

Be clear on what you can offer and then constantly look for opportunities to practice your skills. Volunteer, work temporarily, accept positions for now that pay less than before, keep studying, keep networking, do whatever it takes to stay in the game. Recessions historically generate entrepreneurial activity and given how deep this one is, the entrepreneurial reaction of citizens should be strong. 

Losing your identity is as bad, if not worse, than losing your money. Can you still say what you “are”, be it bookkeeper, truck driver, or seamstress? You are out of work, not out of life. Find a way to stay engaged in what you do and in who you are. Losing your job is not the same thing as losing your profession. 

The evidence that we are headed more and more into a freelance nation is continuously being reinforced. Waiting for the old normal of “getting a job” may never again be the same for millions of Americans. Begin making the mental shift now to being independent. It may be the only thing related to your work that you can control. 

Career Communication Management

It is certainly not news that competition for quality career-building jobs in New Hampshire is relatively tight. Although the state’s employment statistics are brighter than the national ones, it is still a tough time for employees wanting to move forward in their careers given that companies are being very cautious about adding personnel back to their payrolls. 

For many of today’s job seekers knowing the basics of networking, contemporary job search techniques, and the importance of refining one’s job interview performance may not be enough. To be an optimized job seeker in these competitive times means that you either need to acquire a career communications manager, who can help position you for targeted employment openings, or learn the tactics of becoming your own. Let me explain. 

Presenting yourself professionally to advance career transitions or even to practice and maintain career fitness involves constructing a comprehensive and cohesive communications campaign. Crafting and disseminating a strongly branded self-promotional message about yourself places you in a situation that is more open to career enhancing opportunities and gives you added competitive cache when compared to the legions of overworked or discouraged pros who do not take the time to make and manage such information. 

Recruiters, hiring managers, background checkers, former and current colleagues, competitors, prospective customers or clients, industry pros, and executives are all among the eyeballs who at some time may or will be checking you out. What will they find? A shallow outline loosely held up by an old-fashioned white bread resume or a dynamic and rich presentation that communicates experience, significance, and value across multiple platforms. 

I know full well that the last thing you want to hear about is that there is more to do to keep up, when you like most professionals, are already struggling with achieving career development and work/life balance simultaneously. But to those for whom it is important to be in the leader pack, here is what I suggest for you to be an effective career communications manager: 

Develop your resume as a value proposition and branding anchor. In general, try to include the following elements. 

  • A compact positioning statement or self-marketing tagline. 
  • From there, include a supporting career profile summary ending with an objective. 
  • Be sure that enough descriptors are included, so that a reader can mentally merge your personality, work style characteristics, and expertise. 
  • A list of significant accomplishments (your greatest hits) written in the CAR style, i.e., the Challenge with which you were faced, followed by the Action you took, and ending with the positive Results that were realized. Quantifying these accomplishments will strengthen them. 
  • A work history that is more focused on tasks and responsibilities which you performed and your past titles, dates, employers, and locations. 
  • Education, certifications, professional association memberships, and quotes from satisfied supervisors and customers can round out a great resume. 

Having undergone this resume exercise, you are ready to now promote yourself online.  Begin with LinkedIn. Build a LinkedIn profile to reflect your resume. Amplify your brand by joining industry discussion groups and establishing networking connections. Consider taking this a step further by using Twitter to join in conversations pertaining to industry matters with the pros you want to follow and to be heard from. 

Continue by building a career communications portfolio in paper and online formats, the parts of which can be retrieved as you need them. The parts of a complete career portfolio include such items as brand or Unique Selling Proposition statements, CAR stories, testimonials, one paragraph and two-page biographies, and even thirty-second to two-minute video elevator pitches that you can post on your website or YouTube. These are all useful tools for the pro who takes professional projection and reputation seriously. 

Strategically communicating your value for potential employers and building your career development ROI is an effort worth the time. Do not think of this as just a Recessionary quick fix, but rather as a way of shaping long-term professional growth. 

The Need to Maintain an Online Presence

I’m 57 years old and can remember a time when one could live in relative obscurity. People were based in community and workplaces physically and in real time. There were nearby family and friends of course, but one’s social network didn’t expand nearly as far as it does now. 

If you are thinking in 2010 that your presence and position in the world is only as wide as you have traditionally wanted it to be, i.e., just keeping an inner circle of family and friends, then you are limiting not just the scope of your social life, but also of career development opportunities. 

We can find and check out more people now than ever before. Conversely, we can be found and checked out by more people than ever before. Sound creepy? Perhaps, but it is the way it now is thanks to technology. 

We do have a choice, though. Bemoan the new reality and wish for the old days or we can learn to engage, maybe even embrace this interconnectedness, because as many now know, despite all the risks and flaws, social media and ubiquitous computing also has benefits and value. Among the advantages is being able to manage your reputation, brand, and persona. 

Now, if you do not want to be found by anyone, then hopefully you are secure in what you do for work and can count on it sustaining you for a long while. Because if you find yourself suddenly thrust into a job transition it will be not only harder to get noticed, but more importantly difficult to be able to impress hiring authorities who will be looking to investigate you online. 

Here are two things that you do not want potential employers finding out about you when they look for you online: 

  1. Little if any presence
  2. A presence that looks empty, not maintained, ambiguous, blahhhh…

So, what can you do? I would start with the following: 

  1. LinkedIn. If you want to be taken seriously as a professional contributor, then you need a LinkedIn profile. If you already have a decent resume, then let it anchor and be your guide for building the profile. If you have not worked on your resume recently, meaning in the past two years or more, then you should probably get that house in order first. Extend from profile building to joining relevant groups, growing your connection list, and learning how to conduct people and company searches.
  2. Get engaged with Twitter. I hope that you are aware by now that Twitter is not just for kids and people with too much time on their hands. You can follow and participate in some great industry streams of thought. It is a way to get noticed, find people you should know about, and learn a lot at the same time.
  3. Do you have a web site or bio on someone else’s site? How do you look? Is your value and contribution, potential or actual, being communicated accurately, strongly, clearly?
  4. What comes up when your name is googled? Our closets have gotten smaller and easier for job killing skeletons to lurk. You want to have a positive image of yourself to be better optimized than a negative one.
  5. I must admit that I am not really into the Facebook culture, but I know that the rest of the world is. So, I maintain a professional look on FB and do not mention what I watched on television last night or who I saw at what party. If you are into posting a lot of personal stuff on Facebook (and that is the point, right?) then I would be clear on how your security settings are configured. A clash between personal and professional imagery might work against you.
  6. Consider joining some other sites that are designed to profile you or that allow you to post blogs. Sharing expertise builds your brand and strengthens your reputation.

The name of this game is constructing and cultivating a professional reputation that is available for the world to see and to learn from. Is this all too much to consider when you already have so many other things to do? Well, that’s why there are people like me around to help. 

 

Building the Right Kinds of Capital

To progress in your career no longer means simply getting better and better at some skill or becoming more knowledgeable about a particular topic so that your employer benefits. Rather, you expand your expertise so that you can become more professional to position yourself to offer your intrinsic talents to employers who need them at just the right time. 

In today’s employment world you improve what you do and know, because ultimately what you must rely on is your own ability to offer needed professionalism to those willing to pay for it. Among the lessons learned in this Great Recession is that employment security with a company or organization is less and less certain. Therefore, the only boss we really must answer to is ourselves. 

To that end, I would like to suggest a professional self-improvement model first developed by Mansour Javidan, a researcher and professor at the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Arizona. 

He proposes understanding three types of capital: intellectual, emotional, and social, which have been developed by managers who work in global markets and with international direct reports. Without going too deeply into his theory, I am proposing that these three types of capital apply in career development. 

To enhance your marketable expertise requires this three-pronged approach, which will result in you becoming more knowledgeable, energized, and better able to take advantage of opportunities in today’s employment arena. 

Intellectual capital refers to the body of knowledge needed to be good at what you do. As a lifelong learner you should always be comprehending more fully the scope and range of all there is to know to keep you ahead of the curve and certain of your field’s best practices and important issues. 

You keep this knowledge acquisition continuous through a variety of means like: 

  • Day to day engagement and practice 
  • Keep up with relevant topics presented in the media and your professional organizations 
  • Track and participate in related discussions in your slice of the blogosphere and networking groups, both face-to-face and online. 

Being aware of the evolving nature of your industry is fundamental in enhancing your strength and managing any weaknesses as you seek opportunities. 

Emotional capital is what you build the more you work at what you most want to do and are best at doing. To be truly fulfilling, work should be intrinsically motivating and not just done for external rewards like a paycheck. Your work should be to express your vocation. 

It is necessary, therefore, for us to constantly be striving to create conditions by which we shed doing those tasks that drain us and take on those tasks that energize us. Profound work satisfaction is possible when we closely align our passions, interests, talents, and aptitudes with the jobs we have taken on to do. Our spirits can be lifted as we expertly provide a service to employers or clients in need. At this point, we no longer need to compartmentalize our work life from who we really are as individuals. 

Often referred to as networking, building and maintaining social capital, it is the third leg of the professional growth stool. 

To discover new career opportunities is largely the result of quality connections we make with others who are acquainted with our value. Growing and sustaining this pool of contacts should be purposeful and strategic. Managing your professional brand and reputation will allow others who a) need your services or b) can be a source of referrals, to find out about you. 

Favorable circumstances just do not occur by chance alone. They are made by extending ourselves to the industry community of insiders and customers. Being well connected gives you options and the liberty to chart the direction of your career.  

Take the time to assess how effectively you are building these three kinds of capital. It is not just something you do during a job search. Shaping your career is a perpetual process that only you can control. 

Ten Basic Steps to Career Development

When you decide that employment inertia is no longer working for you or you find that economic conditions beyond your control have thrust you into a job or possibly a career change, then you need a plan. The better you accept and strategically deal with change, the more likely a positive outcome can be realized. 

As a career transition specialist, I have determined ten important steps that must be followed to form a complete plan. As you read the steps below, assess for yourself if you have a grasp on some of these or if you need to develop and refine certain ones. You will know that you have mastered most if not all ten steps when you feel deep contentment with your career. 

My pick for the ten practical basic steps to career development are: 

  1. Choose your “industry“. It may be as clear-cut as pharmaceuticals or physics, or it may be a hybrid like combining social work with animal rescue. But whatever you decide, be clear that you are in a field that you care about and would like to grow in.
  2. Determine and promote your value proposition or unique selling proposition, including a branding process. Everyone needs to market themselves if they are to find career options and opportunities.
  3. Having a strong resume.  Prepare a resume that highlights your significance and employment value. It is more relevant today than ever before. Make this a document that has you truly shining.
  4. Distribute cover letters that open doors.  In general, the more targeted a cover letter is written, the greater are your chances for an interview. But also consider the cold cover letter that can make a hiring manager sit up and take notice.
  5. Maximize the power of LinkedIn. It is a small jump from a solid resume to a powerful LinkedIn profile. Someone who may consider you for an interview or to hire you will most likely look for your LI presence. Be there and look good.
  6. Know job search best practices.  Still looking in the newspaper for who is hiring? Job search techniques have been identified that will increase your chances of getting the work you want. Become familiar with what works and do not waste time and energy with what does not.
  7. Networking, networking, and networking. No longer just a job search tactic, networking is a systematic cultivation of people who can be a valuable resource for career opportunities. Build and maintain a rich network of such contacts. Smart professionals are always networking, even and especially, when they are employed.
  8. Develop your intellectual capital through research. Know as much as possible about trends, practices, threats, and strengths in your chosen industry and/or with key companies. This will increase your credibility and professional instincts. Adding to your expertise should never stop.
  9. Practice informational interviews. As a subset of the last two mentioned steps, informational interviews assist you in building a knowledge base and learning from people in the know. Set up short fact-gathering sessions with insiders to expand both your intellectual and your social capital. 
  10. Strengthen your job interview performance. Be well prepared for all types of job interviews. This is not just about memorizing answers to common questions. It is about leveraging confidence, knowledge, and skills to craft a presentation that leads to a satisfying career move.

Implementing a plan consisting of these ten steps will better position you for the work life you desire. Make no mistake, doing all of this is a lot of work and it is not easy. But as the world of work moves increasingly toward one in which the professional is the primary caregiver of themselves, it is a necessary one. 

The Importance of Informational Interviews

Any career transition strategy must include evidence that the job seeker or job changer is involved in continuous learning. With competition for jobs tighter than ever, it creates a buyer market for hiring managers and recruiters. They can select from among the best in the talent pool and part of being the best is for the professional to be engaged in their field through a never-ending process of learning and refinement. 

I would recommend to any client going into a job interview that they make sure the interviewer knows that they are enthused and energized by their line of work or chosen profession and that they are constantly seeking ways to grow and learn more deeply and broadly about it. 

Now this does not have to mean just taking formal classes or matriculating into degree programs, although doing so can certainly count as concrete evidence. Additional continuous learning techniques can be accomplished through on-the-job-training, networking with those possessing expertise, joining and following relevant LinkedIn groups, getting involved with professional association activities and resources, and the one I would like to focus on today, the informational interview. 

This method is great for targeted learning about types of jobs. It is all about information gathering and when done well can leave you much more knowledgeable about where you want and do not want to go with your career. As an added benefit, informational interviewing can expand your network and serve as a self-promotion or marketing tactic that may pay off with learning about interesting and new opportunities down the road.  

The first thing to know about informational interviews is that they are not job interviews. The purpose is to ask proven professionals for advice and insight. They can help the job seeker learn more about specific careers, industries, and companies, resulting in you knowing much more about each than you did before. 

To do this well, however, you need to be someone who can reach out to these people in the know and make a request for an informational interview. In many cases this may mean making a cold contact — everybody’s favorite thing to do! But with practice, even the most introverted among us can get into the outreach zone. 

Keep this in mind, most people like to be asked about what they know and are good at. Who does not like to talk about themselves? Many current pros probably did some informational interviewing when they were considering transitions and feel it is appropriate to give back.   

Finding people to interview will require some homework. LinkedIn and Twitter along with other face-to-face networking through professional associations, Chambers of Commerce, alumni associations, professional journals or other publications, workshops, conferences, and social events can all turn up interesting people with whom to speak. 

Once you identify some potential contacts, approach them first in writing by explaining who you are and provide some professional background along with a specific purpose of your contact and your contact information. Request a twenty-minute time slot. (If lucky, it will go longer). Determine with them if face-to-face, phone, or Skype is the best way to talk. 

Never go into one of these ill prepared. Get as much background information together by visiting the organization’s or industry’s web sites beforehand along with pre-determined questions ready to use. 

You are asking them about things like: 

a typical day 

workplace environment and conditions 

necessary training and education requirements 

anticipated job prospects 

company and industry culture 

earnings potential 

typical company and industry career paths 

what their recommendations and warnings are 

best practices 

how they stack up with the competition 

I am sure that you can think of others. Hopefully, the conversation will begin to flow and take on a life of its own. 

As you conclude, ask if there is anyone else they can recommend for you to interview. After all, this is part of your continuous learning plan. There is always more to read and someone else to meet. 

Performance Review Lite

The recent mass firing of an entire high school staff in Central Falls, RI is remarkable on several levels. And one of these is that there were many teachers fired who had not only a history of loyalty to the school and community but had years’ worth of positive evaluations or performance reviews. 

No one can argue that an organization, whether a school or business, should have a fair and effective means of determining whether employees are working to capacity and serving as a valued resource. A solid employee appraisal process gives management an opportunity to present positive feedback and to point out ways in which employee performance may need strengthening. 

It is a time when organizational and worker goals can be reviewed and aligned, and if relevant, obstacles to optimal performance can be identified and remediated. Through continuous refinement, the performance review process can add potency to organizational operations. 

But what happens when performance reviews are just an empty meaningless management tactic that really holds no operational value or legitimacy? That appears to have been the case in Central Falls.  

I had an opportunity lately to speak with some of the current and soon to be former staff of Central Falls High School and as would be expected they were disgruntled with what occurred. But the one single complaint that was heard most often was the one concerning the apparent lack of weight given to performance reviews. How can it be, they rightly ask, that teachers who had proven their merit through a negotiated performance review process did not have that process factor into their dismissal decision? All the effort placed by administrators into evaluating staff was wasted, since their assessment work had no bearing when it came to a mass firing. 

So why did the school district bother with performance reviews? One of the reasons why they occur is to identify employee training needs. Given that this school had a history of low-functioning students from low-income homes, it seems reasonable to assume that staff training needed to be better concentrated on improving student achievement with a challenging population such as this one. 

One wonders to what extent this training happened. Is it reasonable to assume that all the teachers were so incompetent that they were incapable of addressing the serious educational needs of an admittedly difficult student body? I think it was easier to just fire everybody, rather than to try building an effective training program. 

Another important function of performance reviews is to diagnose weaknesses to better address organizational inefficiencies. When an organization deteriorates to the point that its shortcomings are overwhelming, the question arises as to whether the blame lies more with the workforce or the leadership. 

It is difficult to see how this school was well administered. Education is difficult, but it is not particle physics. A more strategic attempt to use performance reviews as part of a plan to better target and mitigate organizational imperfections could have been a more humane and intelligent approach to strengthen the school. 

Perhaps the most important reason for having performance reviews is that they provide opportunities for employees and management to have frank and solution-oriented discussions of workplace issues. People do not go into teaching for money and prestige, but to try making a difference in their communities and to the lives of youth. It is one of those jobs that combines art, science, and passion to produce competence and effectiveness… not unlike many jobs out there. 

Members of an organization need to be able to collaborate forcefully on making quality decisions and solving problems. Institutionalizing improvement measures internally is paramount for an organization in crisis. 

Can you imagine the lack of cooperation and trust between management and rank and file that results in the firing of every employee? This is a case study of organizational failure. 

Steps to Starting a Career Plan

When working with young people in career development, by which I mean teenager to approximately age twenty-five, I find that there are most often two distinct types of clients: Those with their heads in the clouds and those who can’t get up off the ground. 

It is tough figuring out a career path. Most of us find that there comes a time when we are forced into having to earn money and we try to do it as painlessly as possible. At the same time, we know that we must knock our “growing-up” a notch or two and start planning to do more than work minimum wage jobs. 

But how to make career related decisions that move you forward when most of what you have known is being told by teachers and parents what to do next? 

Getting started on a career is largely determined by how you make decisions and what those decisions are. The first step in career development is always to undergo a self-assessment and the first question to ask yourself is, “What is my decision-making style?” 

Understanding what problems need to be solved, systematically determining fixed conditions from variables within situations, and being able to reasonably project the likely consequences of various options taken is an approach that should position you for opportunities.  

Easier said than done? Let us look at some steps that I feel young people entering the workforce with the hope of beginning some sort of career should consider. 

  • Have a career advisor. This could be a professional, family member, or trusted friend, but someone who is willing to engage you through an intelligent process of making career-oriented decisions. This could take some time, so the advisor should be someone who does not tire of the process too soon.  
  • Assess thyself. First mentioned above, the value of a self-analysis cannot be overstated. You need to know clearly what your entry levels of skills, aptitudes, talents, values and most of all interests, are. Interest precedes capacity. You will develop most that which you care about. 
  • Begin establishing your network. Building, growing, and maintaining a professional network is an important part of any serious career. Making contacts with those who share your career interests and with whom you begin networking by helping and being helped, will set you up for valuable learning and employment experiences. 
  • Build interpersonal and teamwork skills. Employers are almost always looking for people who can work together well with others. Place yourself in situations in which you learn how to get a job done with others. Join clubs, volunteer, be available to help and work with others whenever the opportunity arises. 
  • Write the first draft of your resume. Expect that your resume will undergo many iterations over the years, so the sooner you get started the better. Writing this document forces you to paint a professional self-portrait that details your significant characteristics. 
  • Complete a Myers Briggs Type Indicator. Become familiar with the construct of personality type theory and see how your personality measures up. You will learn some valuable information about yourself that will assist you in knowing how you take in and process information, make decisions, and express yourself to others. 
  • Over time, relate your skills, values, personality traits, and interests to a small set of career choices. Remember, you are not choosing the one job in your life. This is the 21st century. You will hop onto the first of many stepping-stones that will lead you on a non-linear career path with one job leading to another. 
  • Use informational interviews and job shadowing to learn more. Gather the data you need to both learn about viable career options and to begin making professional relationships that will translate into options and possibilities.   

Careers do not just happen for most of us. They are built. If you seem lost and without direction, then you need a plan. Can’t plan on your own? There is help available. Find it. 

Can They Ask That in an Application?

There are some questions that just should not be asked in an interview. In fact, Human Resource professionals know that legal complications can occur if questions that are too probing crop up during that check-out-the-potential-employee event. 

Of course, an employer wants to know who they are getting. Why should they hand the keys to the castle to someone who is incompetent, a self-aggrandizer, or worse? The drive to mine as deeply as possible into every aspect of the job candidate is intense when what is at stake is spending cherished company resources onboarding and training in hopes a value-added asset has been acquired. 

However, there are rules as to how far an interviewer can go. Specifically, interviewers should stay away from the following: 

  • Are you a U.S. citizen? (Of course, the employer can ask for proof of eligibility after the candidate has been hired.) 
  • What is your native language? 
  • Are you married? 
  • Do you have kids? 
  • How long have you lived here? 
  • What religion do you practice? 
  • Do you plan on becoming pregnant? 
  • How old are you? 
  • What clubs do you belong to? 
  • When do you plan to retire? 
  • Do you have a disability or chronic illness? 

And this is not the complete list of no-no questions. Clearly, privacy rights are being weighted in favor of the job candidate. Or are they? 

Have you filled out a job application lately…especially for a professional position? There is a major healthcare provider in New Hampshire that has a job application that looks downright 1984-Big Brother-ish in its line of questioning. Although I haven’t conducted an exhaustive study of statewide applications, my hunch is that these guys are not alone. 

Questions asking the applicant’s age, ethnicity, race, Social Security number, driver’s license number, whether they have a disability or are a veteran, are just some of the intrusive inquiries made on this application. This begs the question, why can employers examine so closely a job seeker’s past in an application, but not in an interview? 

Here is part of the answer. Job applications become legal documents in that the applicant must sign that all information given is true. Notice that interviewees do not have to swear on such a Bible. This is useful for screening out applicants with past criminal convictions or other unwanted behaviors. Companies can use the application to check for truthfulness and integrity, which protects their organization and the people who work there, from disreputable people. 

Another issue is that employers are required to file U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) reports with the federal government. Applications standardize the hiring process and can be used as documentation that shows employment discrimination is not occurring. Discrimination is much harder to prove in an interview.    

Two additional points about the discrepancy between questioning on applications vs. during interviews: Human Resource professionals should be the ones viewing completed applications, chuck full as they are with private information. When a receptionist, for example, is the one handling the app, then that is evidence of a shoddy operation. 

Also, let us not assume that all applications are in perfect synch with EEOC guidelines. One Boston professor informs me that, “I have found many job applications with prohibited questions on them. If someone doesn’t complain to the EEOC, then the practice will continue until someone does.”  

Job applications and interviews are governed by the same EEOC rules. Unfortunately, it cannot be safely assumed that all employers will follow those rules. Like it or not, diligence and knowledge about what is appropriate and what is not is yet another task falling to the already overburdened job seeker. 

Strategic Human Capital Management

Given the poor hiring climate, many workers who are lucky enough to still be employed are simply grateful that they are. Because of this, now may hardly seem like a time to analyze and rate your employer to see if this is a good place to work or not. Among the consequences of the Great Recession is that the workforce is less concerned about personal career goals and more accommodating to our bosses since they have been benevolent enough to keep us on payroll. This is the attitude we should have during down economic times, right? 

I sure hope not! If we have reached a point where furthering our career aspirations is considered an ill-timed luxury we can no longer afford, then we are in a Depression. Acquiring and retaining top talent should never go out of style for any organization and finding those workplaces that honor this operational approach should be paramount for the individual professional looking to advance in their avocation. 

Now of course, during these recessionary times employers are having to revisit strategic assumptions to see if they are still appropriate given cash flow and revenue constraints, changeable government interventions, and workforce transformations. But then conducting a SWOT analysis periodically is a good thing anyway. 

As companies look out over this unpredictable landscape, it is in their short and long-term interest to attract and keep the most qualified workforce possible. To not do so leaves businesses vulnerable to leaner and sharper competition, some of which will emerge from this Recession as relative winners. 

For the professional wanting to be positioned with a strategic and forward-looking organization there are a couple of key corporate initiatives to look for and lookout for.  When I hear from some clients how they are treated by supervisors or about the lack of operational discipline displayed by their employers I am amazed these places are still in business. 

Mismanagement, paranoia, intimidation, poor communication, and in some cases downright rudeness are all in full swing. I recently heard of a dedicated professional who put in over twenty-nine years with the same insurance firm and did not receive even a thank-you upon retirement. Bad corporate behavior aside, if an employer still relies on the traditional motivational model of rewarding employees with greater amounts of responsibility and pay as they march lockstep from associate to senior management, they may find that today’s workforce will not be impressed. 

Enlightened and enterprising expertise will be looking for companies that get it. Among the most important strategic components are employers’ talent management and continuous learning programs. Management systems that are serious about quality recruitment, onboarding, retention, succession planning, and employee development are the businesses most likely to not only attract and keep high caliber talent but are in a better position to succeed. 

Among the specifics employees want to see institutionalized are: 

  • Complex and challenging assignments 
  • Utilization of coaches and mentors 
  • Frequent assignment or client changes 
  • Engaging and relevant training activities 
  • Opportunities for employees to build portfolios by continuous refinement of marketable skills 
  • Team effectiveness development 

…and much more. 

Watching also for leadership that intelligently attempts to determine necessary metrics for driving decision making is a sign of an attractive employer. You cannot manage it if you cannot measure it. Therefore, managing talent requires innovative and effective means of judging the efficiencies of interventions such as those mentioned above. 

Do not let the Recession be an excuse for putting your career development on hold. Find those employers who want to build continuous improvement learning organizations through comprehensive employee advancement. If you are fortunate to work for such a company, give them all you have. For they too should be rewarded for being such a wonderful place to work. 

Managing Age Discrimination

It is not at all unusual to see written or to hear oral descriptions from job seekers giving their pitch for why they should be hired with phrases like, “…with over thirty years of experience in…”, “…over two decades of dedicated service in…”, or “I am a Systems and Network Administrator with over 25+ years of …”  

Naturally, these references to long-term experience which have been devoted to a particular career are meant to convey expertise, commitment, and reliability. There is also a strong dose of pride in being able to make the claim that one’s chosen career has been focused on building significant levels of knowledge and mastery. The mature diligent career-oriented worker deserves to feel esteemed for such an undertaking. 

Unfortunately, these claims of longevity can be job search killers for the older workforce cohort. There is plenty of anecdotal evidence that age discrimination does exist. And announcing that you are relatively old does place you at a disadvantage when it comes to career or job shifting later in life. 

The obstacle of age discrimination comes at a particularly inconvenient time. Part of the recessionary fall-out is that older workers are being forced into retirement. Even without the down economy this generation of workers have come to believe that leveraging honed skills over many years would better position them for encore careers of their choice. 

Yet for many, the choice is staying with what work you are lucky to have or accepting early retirement. Not surprisingly, many older workers have been laid-off or have had their workloads increased to make up for those who were recently laid-off. The decision-making and negotiating power they thought they would have at this time of life is not there.  

Yes, there does exist the federal Age Discrimination Employment Act (ADEA) designed to protect workers aged 40+ from discrimination in hiring and other employment related situations in workplaces with at least twenty employees. Many states have laws covering discrimination in workplaces with fewer than twenty employees. Specifically, the ADEA: 

  • Prohibits job advertising from mentioning age. 
  • Prevents age limits from being set for training & development programs. 
  • Restricts retaliation against workers filing violation claims. 
  • Prohibits employers from forcing early retirements. 

But it is not too difficult for the company who wants to shun older workers from doing so. Job descriptions can be written in ways that are within the letter of the law, but which include items that make it difficult for the older worker to comply. 

So, why does age discrimination exist? In a way it seems counterintuitive to discriminate against the older worker. It is not hard to identify advantages to having more mature employees. They tend to have a proven work ethic, are not as concerned about work/life balance as younger workers are and have deeper levels of wisdom and proficiency. From the point of view of younger recruiters and hiring managers however, older workers conjure some unflattering images like: 

  • old school thinking and lacking innovation 
  • working at a slower pace 
  • more costly in salaries and benefits 
  • not having future long-term viability 
  • not as tech savvy 

The list goes on. It is enough to make the plus 50 workers’ blood boil. I can hear them saying, “We’ve earned the right to be hired! We’ve paid our dues!” 

Nevertheless, if you are older and looking for work you need to update your resume, write new cover letters, and refine the way in which you describe your value to hiring personnel. So, face facts. You may have earned respect, but you have not earned that new position any more than any else has. You still must make the case for why you are the best candidate. 

If you are truly at the top of your game, then show it in your value proposition. Know what that company is looking for and convince them that you are their guy or gal. They are going to be looking for the greatest value at the lower cost. Present yourself with that in mind. Resting on past laurels will not get you that new job. Attaining it will. 

Turn Weaknesses into Strengths

There is always something that others find annoying in each one of us. Maybe it is that we want the freedom to concentrate on a task of our own choosing, which leaves others feeling that we are too distant and not connected enough. Or perhaps, it is that we always need people around us for conversation and for bouncing ideas off of, which can annoy others who may think, “Can’t [he or she] just be out of my hair for a while?!” 

It could be that we seem too nonconventional, or too commonplace, or too quick to decide, or not decisiveness enough, or, or, or… Give it time and frequency and we can start to think we have major faults. Our self-concept takes a hit, and we find ourselves vowing to others that we will try harder to be better. 

Yet these alleged deficiencies may be indicators of personal strengths and workplace potential. A big problem with determining one’s own worth through the critical eyes of others is that it can cause us to veer away from an unfettered self-examination. It is hard to confidently express your own value when you feel overwhelmed or at least tainted by what you are told are weaknesses that keep recurring repeatedly. 

It may be time to reframe the deficits as benefits. Do you find yourself in a job that calls for multi-tasking when you just want time to develop a concept in a distraction free environment? Are you tired of working in isolation when you strongly wish you could be part of a cross-disciplinary team? In general, are you being required to function in a manner that is not congruent with your true, innate interests, aptitudes, and passions? 

Fortunately, the human collective is not split into two pre-ordained groups, those with natural talent and good luck to always succeed and those who are losers and who are never going to amount to anything. Everyone has the potential to prevail and contribute, if only the right set of circumstances align allowing everyone to perform at their best. There is a lid for every pot. 

It becomes necessary for each of us to know what we can do well and to seek those opportunities and situations by which we work in energizing ways rather than just managing our weaknesses. Take the time to consider the behaviors you have that seem to put others off. Ask yourself, is the behavior really your problem to fix or is it that you are somehow misplaced? 

In many cases, problems at work are the result of being constrained by doing things that we would rather not do. Perhaps, we are being directed to perform tasks we somewhat enjoy, but in ways divergent from our preferred way of doing them. It is likely that we will each execute at our best when our work is an expression of our interest and skill combined with the freedom to choose the course of progress. 

I like to give clients an exercise of drafting their ideal job description. It is not an easy thing to do for many. But I recommend trying it, so that you can design a template of what to strive for. Give yourself time to imagine that perfect employment scenario. When doing so, think of what your chronic “weaknesses” are telling you. These “deficits” could be gateways to workplace conditions that are unfulfilled. 

Of course, we cannot always get what we want, but we can sure try. The method of achieving a productive workforce should involve optimal placement of each employee.  However, it is up to everyone to get to the place where both you and your employer each receive maximum value for the work you do. The best way to manage a weakness is to turn it into a strength. 

Your Value Proposition

Every professional should be able to state their value proposition. No longer just a business school term, value proposition has relevant meaning to all successful individuals and organizations alike. 

Career development in the modern era rests on the premise that each professional has a uniquely blended set of talents, interests, aptitudes, and experiences that is worth something to someone else. Finding a timely fit between the value provider and the value consumer is the challenge of the career climber and job searcher.  

With rare exception, most of us do not sit around spending our time crafting our value proposition. It is generally easier to find something else to do which is more fun. It is fair to say that most of us view the task of defining our one-of-a-kind value proposition as a daunting job. Where do you start? Are we talking about a clever, pithy phrase or a doctoral dissertation? 

I do not think that there is a hard and fast rule. So, what I will try is to demonstrate what I think is a reasonable attempt at writing a value proposition statement. I will use myself in the context of what I think I do well, which is to provide career coaching and resume/cover letter writing services. Note the length and depth of my statement. It is not as brief as a seven-word self-description, but it is not a thesis either. 

Bill Ryan’s Value Proposition 

Leveraging my extensive experience as an educator, I offer clients customized guidance in career coaching and proficient preparation of resumes and targeted cover letters. My service approach consists of the following features: 

  • Listen actively whereby the client feels heard and understood. 
  • Quickly perceive presenting issues.  
  • View the client’s issues and goals developmentally based on age and work experience. 
  • Assist the client to plan strategically with an unclouded vision of desired outcomes. 
  • Apply task analysis to the creation of an action plan. 
  • Help clients determine their own career momentum but be directive when necessary. 
  • Always encourage, boost, applaud, and if needed, challenge. 

There it is. Fairly concise. No heavy lifting to write this.  

And the use of bullets is deliberate. Dismayed as many literary traditionalists may be, these days we absorb information in chunks or snippets, rather than in long essays. Bulleted points can be more economic to write, and they force you to think of your attributes and traits, the elements that make up your value proposition. 

What are the characteristics that make up your value? What is your specific contribution to business, the community, the world? Defining your worth is the first step to finding the best opportunities for expressing your value through what you do every day. 

I encourage you to try this exercise. Allow yourself to think of the value proposition piece you write as a dynamic document. It is fine for it to be something susceptible to many drafts and continual revision. You will want to revisit it frequently, always refining and attempting to make your value proposition statement as true as possible to what you have to offer the workplace. 

Employee or Independent Contactor?

An issue is starting to heat up that I believe will have significant impact in fields such as career development, workforce management, and the evolving nature of the employee and employer relationship. It involves the proliferation of private, entrepreneurial, and independent contractors and the hiring or contracting of them by companies. 

Projections are that a growing part of the future workforce will be made up of independent contractors providing relatively short-term project-oriented solutions for business. Where conflict may arise is in the legal enforcement of how employers classify and treat those among their workforce as to whether they are categorized as employees or independent contractors. 

Both federal and state laws have a history of protecting worker rights from employers who would seek to deny workers’ compensation coverage and other benefits to their employees by classifying these workers as independent contractors. In New Hampshire, for example, legislation became effective January 1, 2008, revising and broadly applying a consistent definition of “employee”, thereby increasing worker protections enforced by the New Hampshire Department of Labor. 

In the Federal government, Senator John Kerry introduced legislation in December 2009 matching a House bill that would increase the burden of employers to classify workers as independent contractors. The point being to secure workforce protections like workers’ compensation, Social Security, Medicare, overtime, unemployment compensation, and minimum wage for the greatest number of workers. 

It is good to know that the government is out there looking out for the little guy, and it undoubtedly keeps many employers honest. However, I am afraid that an unintended consequence of these protections may be to discourage employers from contracting with independent providers at a time when many of these workers want to work self-reliantly and to be free from the long-term obligations of an employee status with an organization. 

Employers may want to reduce legal compliance pressures by just hiring full or part-time employees and not take advantage of the strategic talent options available from independent contractors. This creates a challenge for highly motivated and skilled individuals who want more control over how they work. And it is to them that the burden lies in convincing business that contracting with them will not come with onerous worker protection strings attached. Otherwise, their dream of working creatively from one environment to the next will be in jeopardy. 

Independent contractors need to be noticeably clear with themselves that being independent means just that, on your own. Income and benefits both must be generated by the private worker. A networking trend that may help independents is in establishing exchanges or guilds that can negotiate for benefits such as health insurance. By using the economies of scale, independents may be able to provide for themselves the benefits they need but should not expect from traditional employers. 

Another area independents need to be clear about is in the language, terms, and conditions of their contracts. Contracts will have to be written in such a way that the independence of both the contractor and the hiring company is maintained. To write such a contract, both parties should be clear on the definition of “employee” for the state in which the working relationship is to take place. 

For example, in New Hampshire the recent redefinition of the term “employee” contains eleven conditions that must be met to exclude the independent contractor from employee status. And all eleven conditions must apply! Going into these contractual arrangements armed with this kind of knowledge places the independent contractor in a stronger position, because then they are then able to mitigate the concerns and reduce the hassles for the hiring company. 

There are many benefits for both parties in having temporary project-based contracted work. Despite the predictions of its imminent expansion as a practice, planning and foresight will be more necessary than ever. Here is yet another case in which adaptability and an orientation toward change will be called upon for success to be achieved. 

 

The Right Keywords for Your Resume

By now most professionals know how to strengthen a resume in a time of increasing recruitment efficiency and robust job competition. Attention needs to be paid to the use of effective keywords. 

Keywords are those industry buzzwords that let recruiters and hiring managers know which job niche you may be best at filling. Better yet, keywords alert Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) that you may be worth interviewing, if the system has been programmed to highlight resumes with the keywords you have included in your resume. 

ATS is currently in use by many large corporations. It becomes an attractive tactic when the number of resumes submitted far exceeds the human eyeball-capacity of an organization. 

The technology is just a variation on standard search methodology made famous by Google. Instead of yielding web pages based on a set of search terms, resumes are selected based on a set of keywords specific to the position being filled. If you as a job seeker are being asked to upload your resume in plain text or rich text formats or to paste it into a web/database field, then chances are it could be screened by ATS. For your resume to not be rejected in a millisecond, it is necessary to have the right keywords which will prompt a selection. 

The challenge for job seekers and resume writers is to identify relevant keywords and embed them into resumes in a way that looks natural. Submitting a list of words and calling it a resume will not do. Resumes must be prepared in such a way that they can be read by an ATS and a human. 

How does one find out if they are utilizing the best keywords in their resume? There are several ways of doing this. For those seeking a new position in what for them is the same industry they have built their experience, then many keywords should be already known. It may just be a matter of systematically generating a list of terms directly related to your background knowledge and inserting them strategically into the resume. 

For those job seekers transitioning to a new or related industry some keyword research may become necessary. Here are some ideas on conducting that research: 

  1. Study online job boards for postings like or similar tothe kinds of positions you would consider pursuing. Note the industry vocabulary that is frequently used in both the headings and body of these postings.
  2. Identify the terms used in descriptions of your chosen profession in industry publications, professional associations, and the Labor Department’s Occupation Outlook Handbook web sites.
  3. Look at the profiles of professionals with similar positions on LinkedIn to see the terminology they are using to describe themselves.
  4. Poll your professional network to get their keyword suggestions.
  5. Staffing agency professionals, particularly those dedicated to niche recruiting, can be a source of appropriate nomenclature.

So exactly what kind of words should you use in compiling this all-important keyword main list? 

  • Words that are industry and job specific 
  • Words that highlight the job candidate’s experiences and qualifications 
  • Words that refer to hard professional skills 
  • And words that indicate useful “soft” personal attributes for the position. 

As an exercise, try writing your own ideal or fantasy job description. Which words are you using to describe the occupation? 

It is not enough to craft a resume with a killer profile, quantifiable accomplishments, richly worded qualities, and which is aesthetically pleasing. It is also imperative to populate the resume with the right keywords to land you that interview which could change your career and your life. 

Defining Yourself

If it is not too late, I have a New Year’s resolution suggestion to make to all professionals, whether unemployed, underemployed, or gainfully employed. The suggestion is to simply define yourself. 

Do so succinctly and economically. Define your value. What do you offer? How does your work community benefit from your input? Being able to professionally and exclusively define yourself is an advantage. To become known and recognized as a quality and reliable asset is a core utility of career development. The career gain that can be realized spreads across all employment scenarios. In fact, venturing forth without a way to define yourself leaves you at a disadvantage during a time when competition for great jobs is increasing. 

Large corporate institutions, as we have traditionally known them, are undergoing a transformation. It probably began way back with the growth of middle management but is now characterized as an increasing reliance on more horizontal teams that can cross-pollinate ideas and result in synergistic production.  

Many executives are becoming more coach-like in their function. Employees are desired for their ability to get along with others, have a strong work ethic, and to be creative problem solvers. Hopefully, your self-definition incorporates all these virtues. 

We know that small business is a major force in driving the economy. When small businesses start hiring, we can expect an easing of the high unemployment rate. What drives small business? People with ambition and smarts do. In the same way that an entrepreneur figures out and communicates their value proposition, each of us should be able to do the same. Being able to provide solutions, improvements, and advantages to the marketplace is the grist for small business employees’ definitions. You would not want your business to be a white bread commodity, so why tolerate it for yourself. 

The Internet has created a new entrepreneurial landscape that didn’t exist twenty years ago. In the decade just completed, expansion of information access by way of increasingly sophisticated gadgets coupled with the growth of social interconnectedness is spawning innovative and constructive self-employment opportunities. In the upcoming decade we can expect more information filtering and selection technology demanded, and perhaps created by, end users. Staying with this evolution curve can be the brand basis for many neo-entrepreneurs. 

Whatever your career direction or place in the workforce, knowing your niche, your unique importance, and your significance will advance your position with existing and developing prospects. And just as important as knowing your positive traits is to become skilled at presenting and displaying them. Be in the mindset that others, be they upper management, colleagues, customers, or clients need you and that your talents are worth acquiring. Find the self-marketing techniques that are right for you. Promote yourself with the confidence that comes from knowing who you are. 

So, with the start of this new year discipline yourself to go through some simple exercises. What I recommend involves selecting descriptive words about you. Begin with a single attribute that makes you employable such as “trustworthy”, “competency”, or “adaptability”. From there try seven word phrases like, “a valued professional expert solution management specialist”, “take impossible projects and make them happen”, “Communicate. Steer the ship as needed. Deliver!” Eventually, craft a complete sentence about yourself. Some examples include: 

“I offer focused and deliberate care to the patients of this facility”. 

“My extensive knowledge of CAD software and ability to work hard results in high quality production.” 

“Accomplished professional with a track record of improving educational and operational performance through vision, leadership, and team building.” 

Try it. Go forward into 2010 and beyond with your own definition of your worth. The benefit of doing so is within reach. 

Developing a Devotional Career

The priesthood is not a career. It is a devotion to service that does not differentiate into work time vs. home time or time-on and time-off. Being there 27/7 only begins to describe the commitment that a religious practitioner, whether it be priest, rabbi, swami, imam, or monk gives to others and to the deep pursuit of their beliefs. 

Assuming most of the clerical have not chosen religious structure and order merely as an insecure refuge from independent decision making or worse yet, as a place from which nefarious acts like child sexual abuse can be perpetrated, then much wisdom may exist among those spiritual advocates. From them we all can learn something about the ever-elusive contentment to a career. 

Let us visualize an idealized image of a pleasant, complacent, and content religious person. There is peacefulness and gentleness about them. Their faces read warmth, acceptance, non-judgment, and understanding. They have taken the time to contemplate life’s big picture and as a result are comparatively self-actualized, free of the many distractions that keep most of us from such a state of equanimity. 

How is this condition achieved? Has God chosen to touch only a selected few, while the rest of us are relegated to scraping by the best we can? I do not think that is the way it works. The serenity that can come from living and working a life of unambiguous purpose is available to all. As in most things in life, it boils down to choice and luck. 

We can strive for deep dedication to what we choose to do for our work. In fact, to do anything less is most unfortunate. Seizing each day for growth, service, and creative expression is always an available option no matter your level of experience or attained income. 

Martin Luther King once talked about a little shrub growing on the side of a hill amongst redwoods. That shrub being dwarfed by the larger trees nevertheless was innately compelled to reach for the sun, to find whatever narrow shaft of light as could be found, and to optimize its situation. 

The poise and demeanor of the religious adherent is accessible to those who choose it. Such a devotional approach is available to the rest of us as well. A life of full measure can result from amply developing one’s career. 

Divine intervention, if you will, does of course play into this religious example. The best of intentions and attitude can be severely challenged by unfortunate circumstances. There is an American mythology stating that financial reward and career satisfaction comes only to those showing the pluck and courage to independently achieve greatness despite all the odds. 

Yes, the right combination of brain and brawn can find bounty in our free market society. The one prerequisite that seems to not receive mention in this equation, however, is that of luck. Be incredibly grateful that disease, a debilitating accident, tragedy beyond your control, did not rob you of the life you know with all its grand accomplishments.  

Or, as Malcolm Gladwell writes, whether the circumstances of the timing and location of your birth give you an unearned advantage. True success with work and life at the devotional level considers both efforts exerted, and blessings bestowed. 

I know there are many who think they are happy to simply go to work, do your job, and come home to live your “real” lives. But for most, what you do for work and the way you do it is inextricably tied to the vibrancy of your lives. 

I recommend getting to that place where you feel your work belongs to you and that you intentionally and lovingly make your contribution. Having allegiance to work that is passionate is a pursuit worth following. 

The Resume Nerd

I am a career consultant who likes to write resumes. It seems that many of my ilk either like delivering the coaching/consultancy/guidance part or the resume part, but not both. I do not totally get that. I see the two as inseparable, two sides of the same career services coin. 

What I like about beautifully written resumes is their economy. By that I mean maximum impact with minimal resource. Powerfully describing a person’s professional value and work highlights in one to two pages can be a beautiful thing. 

Now, I know the point of a resume is to land you the job interview and that is particularly important. But let us take a step back for a moment and view the well-crafted resume as a finely polished piece. Some are truly impressive. There can be an aesthetic to balancing text and lines and bullets with fonts and headings and slickly arranged information. Sometimes, the eye can flow across the page effortlessly while the data and intended images materialize into a package that leaves the reader thinking, “This is good!”. 

Okay. By now I have firmly established myself as a resume nerd. Now, don’t you want a resume nerd writing your resume or advising you on how you can improve yours? 

For those of you still reading this blog, let us look at some of the features that make a great resume. One of the most useful exercises any job seeker can do for themselves is to write a concise, economic, yet powerful and informative professional summary or profile. Being able to describe yourself and to display your value in three to five sentences indicates that you are self-aware, confident, and forward leaning. 

Furthermore, this does not and should not have to be a static piece of writing. Every three months or so I pull out my resume out and rewrite the lead. I cannot help but to continue tinkering with it, always trying to gain some improvement. Here is my current version, which is positioned on my resume just below my contact info: 

Career Expert, Educator, Program Developer 

A motivated and independent professional currently demonstrating effectiveness in customized career development and educational program enhancement. Expertise working with individuals in need of career and education related guidance through vision and a drive for continuous client improvement. Adept at educational program expansion and development on behalf of organizations. An educator involved in the implementation of curriculum development, advocacy initiatives, and learner management. Excellent interpersonal, group presentation, and written communication skills. 

Just in reading this again for this blog I am seeing that changes can be made. A month ago, it looked fine. As soon as I am done with this blog, I think I will mess around with it some more. 

Does this mean that I am indecisive? Perhaps, but I think all of us frequently undergo some micro self-perception changes. Also, it is good to try continual perfecting. How many times do you reach total purity? For me, not so often. 

Another thing I like a lot about a well-done resume is to see a collection of professionally written and unique personal achievement statements in the Qualifications section. When I see a resume with those statements, I know I am reading about someone who is in touch with their accomplishments. Being able to show clearly and with specifics how you added quality to past positions can seriously give your history cachet. 

It is, oh, so easy to put off writing or revising your resume. I know that for most people it is rated as being more obnoxious than paying bills or filing taxes. But if you can put yourself into a proud autobiographical zone where documenting your working past can be artful rather than miserable, then you might just get a lift out of the result.  

Not nerdy enough to find that zone? Call me. I can help. 

The Changing Face of the Workplace

It has been interesting to notice that one of the consequences of the Recession is the growing discrepancy between traditional management practices during belt-tightening times and the changing nature of talent acquisition. Recessions naturally cause a thinning out of businesses. Typically, we think of it as a Darwinian consequence of the weak giving way to the strong. However, it is worth noting that some of the survivors may have made it through this round of business closures but could be setting themselves for a loss of competitiveness in the longer term. 

Businesses throughout all sectors are looking for ways to do more with less. Layoffs, furloughs, and redundancies are resulting in a leaner workforce. Added responsibilities being given to the employees who remain, coupled with their fear and uncertainty about job security are beginning to compromise employee performance. 

Of course, there are ways to streamline processes, but in general reducing staff usually means diminishing productivity. How can management cope? One tactic being used is to double up positions. That is, taking two job positions, laying off one of the employees and giving the remaining employee much of the workload of the laid off employee. 

Money may be saved, but from a performance improvement perspective it is a disaster. At best, it is a short-term fix, but not a long-term productivity solution. And since there do not appear to be plans for mass hiring anytime soon, even with an improving economy, employers will be trying to do more with less for some time to come. 

Meanwhile, workers are receiving a harsh lesson in employment economics simultaneous with the ongoing information revolution. The Recession is accelerating the career development phenomena of workers relying less on organizations for full time employment and security. The Internet is providing increased opportunities for online training, research, and the means to enhance exposure and networking. 

Technology is making it easier for the ambitious to become entrepreneurial. This combination of a sour economy with a growing robust web is pushing the American workforce closer toward becoming a free-lance nation. 

Is management prepared to take advantage of this shift in workforce dynamics? This is what may separate the best performing companies of the future from the too-slow-to-change failures. 

I think it could very well be likely that the following scenario becomes commonplace: Optimizing employee performance and productivity will increasingly be focused on outsourcing by businesses to match the highest quality talent for the right job. Full time employees, who have been squeezed in with too many on-the-job responsibilities, will be replaced by targeted, on-demand, just-in-time contracted resources who will provide better performance in accomplishing specific tasks. 

As needs change, so does the specialized talent. Entrepreneurism grows and becomes increasingly focused in niche areas. Together, businesses and the new entrepreneurial class find each other through ever more sophisticated job boards and social network media tools. Innovative management and concentrated expertise forge a workplace that becomes more nimble, adaptable, and clever. 

Change is occurring. Which companies will be leveraging it for success, and which will not start becoming clear soon. 

The Xers Start To Make Their Mark

Among the interesting disciplines to track, which can have some bearing on the field of career development, is urban studies and its cousin, demographics. Just as a demographic change in basic assumptions occurred fifty or so years ago, resulting in greater population mobility driven by employment opportunities, we are now possibly on the cusp of another such megatrend. 

This time, population mobility may be slowing down. Is this a back-to-the-future swing? Perhaps a bit so, but it is not entirely being driven by a regressive return to the good old days. Two significant factors may be at play according to Joel Kotkin of Chapman University, http://www.joelkotkin.com/ among others. 

One is that Generation X, the workforce cohort roughly between the ages of 30 and 45, appears to be placing traditional family values at high priority in that they elevate the importance of family to that of career. This is expressed to a degree very differently from the Greatest Generation and the Boomers who felt that work came first. 

If a better job offer came from Bakersfield, then kids help pack up the station wagon, because we are leaving Binghamton. Apparently, these Xers are finding that establishing community roots and multi-generational family ties has tangible benefits like reduced stress, anxiety, and social/familial isolation. 

The up-rootedness, high divorce rates, and latch-key acceptance of their parents have helped to push Xers toward stability, pragmatism, and the concept that makes Boomer managers everywhere cringe, work-life balance. 

And can you blame the Xers? An unintended consequence of trashing the traditional values of the Greatest Generation (and don’t get me wrong, many of them needed challenging) was that we pushed our kids to become socially more conservative in some deep ways. Some serious good has come out of the way Xers were raised. They were instilled with the desire to be good parents and it is not a big leap from that value to the one of wanting to be a solid member of a local community. 

I remember as young Boomer, we thought we were so gloriously liberated. We were the generation of change, quick to challenge old assumptions and antiquated behaviors. Well, as it turns out, living life free of the shackles of anyone over thirty inspired us counterintuitively to become workaholics. We worked more hours per day and more days per year than most industrialized societies. 

We have gained much wealth and ego fulfillment, but we do not seem to have induced our children to emulate us. Now, as we near retirement, the truth that we have not been as liberated as we thought we were has become evident. Yes, Boomers have redefined the workplace, but not as we envisioned thirty to forty years ago. 

Secondly, technology is allowing for reverse mobility. With advances in cloud computing, telecommuting, social media, and teleconferencing there is less need to physically travel when the contacts needed for work can increasingly be had at home or the local office. This in combination with the corporate trend toward decentralized workplaces allows productive, high-quality work to be done locally, if not at home. 

At some point soon, home-based employees or subcontractors will surpass the number of those taking mass transit to work, resulting in more availability to family, friends, and local businesses. Ubiquitous computing means that contacts can be ever-present. Face to face can still happen. It will just be remote. 

As Xers make their mark on the world it will continue to be interesting, if not entertaining, to see what kind of hybrid lifestyles they will make out of traditional and novel values. Perhaps, the result of their efforts to achieve individual work-life balance will be a more widespread and beneficial social balance between individualism and strong communities. Now, that would be an accomplishment. 

Background Check Your Own Resume

Your resume is a relatively short, but powerful document. I know that not all of you believe that, but really, it is. Face it, the number of ways to get a hiring manager to consider you for an interview is limited. So, you want a strong, captivating, informative, and achievement-oriented page or two that will open doors and give you a chance to present your case.

It is your concise and economic autobiography of your work history, accomplishments, brand, and most of all your potential and value. Taking significant time and effort to craft this all-important testimony cannot be over-emphasized. You may spend your entire career never marketing anything, but when it comes to resume writing, everyone is marketing themselves.

Now for those of you who believe me (and a million other career consultants) that the resume should be as I just described it, be aware of just how much enthusiasm you apply to the effort. Here is what I mean.

A key and consistent tactic encouraged by resume writers everywhere is to quantify your achievements. Data can help a benign description of a task carry more impact and make more of an impression. Take, for example, the following work history task:

“Managed a call center.”

OK. Now compare this terse sentence to:

“Efficiently managed a 24/7 call center employing twenty-five, having expertly handled a 31% increase in volume over a twelve month period.” Big difference, right?

Therefore, it is important to try turning the tasks that everyone writes on their resume into quantifiable accomplishments. It improves the impression you present of your work history immensely and may just show more clearly the value you can add to a potential employer.

But be careful. It is not that easy to do if you are trying this for the first time. If you have not been keeping track of your accomplishments in a quantifiable way, then it will be difficult to look back at your past and start revising your history so that it reflects how much good stuff you increased and/or how much bad stuff you decreased.

In fact, you may find it so hard to do this task you may be tempted to embellish just a little bit. Avoid that. It can lead to you becoming disingenuous or worse. It is like the PTO treasurer at your kid’s school who takes a $20 bill out of the till they are managing, because they are a little tight that week and after all, who will know? Before long, they may become a part-time and long-term thief.

It could work like this with the resume, too. You might start with a little white-lie about the amount of profits you helped a former company make and before you know it you’ve got an engineering degree from Dartmouth.

Assume that a background check will be conducted on your resume. The more responsible the position is that you are applying for, the greater the chance that a background check will be conducted on your resume, if the firm is serious about considering you. They may initiate a check using their own in-house resources or they will contract the investigation out to an employee screening firm. Does it mean they catch everything? Perhaps not. But why take the chance?

Most importantly, don’t fabricate who you are. Take pride in your achievements. Sure, there will be resumes that will sound more power-packed than yours, but you are who you are. Highlight what you have attained in a clear, dynamic, and honest manner. If it sounds sparse, then you may have just set some goals for the future of your career.

Juice your resume, don’t fluff it. You’ll sleep better knowing you have a compelling and forthright chronicle that puts you in the best light.

A Few Interesting Survey Results

I recently read about some interesting career related results from a survey done in September to 1000 small business Intuit Payroll customers. Among them:

*44% reported planning to hire in the next 12 months.
*60% expect business to grow over the next year.
*Affording benefits to attract new talent will be daunting.
*90% believe offering a health insurance benefit will retain quality employees.
*New businesses are more bullish than old businesses.
*50% expect to be looking for multi-talent with soft skills, i.e., “people person” who is “Jack-of-All-Trades”.
*79% have hired a friend or family member.
*22% of them said it was a mistake.

You Really Must Be Busy!

I attended a “Speed Networking” event in Concord recently and I heard it again, “You’re a career coach and resume writer? You must be really busy during these times!”

How I wish. I hear this line, or some variation of it, frequently as I try to promote myself and my business Ryan Career Services LLC. After all, it makes sense to most people. There is a severe Recession going on with a lot of people either unemployed or underemployed. There must be a lot of folks looking to get assistance in such a constricted and competitive job market. But it is not the case.

My stock line in response to the “You must be really busy” exclamation is to say, “No, I wish I were busier. I am finding that it is really hard competing with people’s need for food and shelter.”

I guess that is what is going on. I can only fantasize about how many potential clients have my services on the back burner, just waiting for more secure times, so that they can make an employment move. I have seen several surveys recently indicating that large numbers of the currently employed are waiting for better economic times before venturing into the job search market again. And as for the unemployed… for them it is easier to understand. Their funds are very limited and it is hard for them to decide to allocate money to career development.

However, I would argue that for both groups, the unemployed and the underemployed, dedicating time and yes, some money, to reviewing their career status, and strategizing and preparing for the future are resources well spent. I am amazed that there are smart people out there who still think in this day and age that looking in the newspaper classifieds is a job search and that networking simply involves taking one or two former colleagues out for lunch.

The good news is that formulating a career enhancement strategy is not full time work for a client and it is not particle physics. It simply takes some focus with someone who is aware of the best practices in career development and who can tailor these conventions to the individual client. I love this work and cannot wait to help more of you!

So, here is my unabashed pitch. If you think you know of anyone (…and come on! You do!) who could use help figuring out how to navigate the rough seas of establishing their career or simply even rewriting their resume or a cover letter during these stormy times, then please pass on my name. I really should be busy and I really, really want to be!

The New Education and Today’s Workforce

When thinking about the future of America’s workforce I can’t help but think of any changes that may or may not be happening in the way this workforce is now being educated.

I have implied in past blogs, perhaps actually I have been more direct, of my angst regarding the nation’s public school systems and their general lack of progressivism. School systems, along with their government partners, seem to be more concerned with transforming themselves into test-prep academies rather than institutions committed to fostering the kind of wide-ranging, boundary free pioneers needed for this century’s workers. Having worked for two public school districts over a thirty-one year period I feel I’ve earned the right to talk.

America’s greatest strength moving forward in the world marketplace is our capacity for innovation, creativity, and willingness to work hard to pursue new and better ways to solve problems and to achieve a better world. Our public school systems are not set up to prepare today’s students for this kind of mission. Anchored in traditional practices that were more suited for preparing a hierarchical management-rank and file workforce arrangement means that we as a nation are missing a really big opportunity.

To be fair, many public school teachers are saints. They put up with a stressful job to perform a valuable public service when, let’s face it, many of you would not dare touch it with a ten-foot pole. Also, even though no one mentions it, because of the inadequate teacher student ratio the main task of the public school teacher is to manage large numbers of kids first, educate them second. A school administrator cannot keep the most astute pedagogical expert hired if they cannot keep a lid on a class of twenty-eight seventh graders.

So what’s the alternative? Believe me, I am not even close to having all of the answers, but every now and again I run into someone who is much further down the trail of progressive thinking on preparing the future workforce. James Paul Gee is just such a person. He teaches education at Arizona State and he gets it. Below is a link to an eleven minute interview with him that is fantastic if you care at all about the future of education, which is the same thing as caring about the future of the American worker and our place in the world.

He uses the context of video games to make some very interesting points. I don’t play video games (unless you count a few months of Space Invaders in the mid-eighties as being a player) and I am enthralled with the point he makes.

Check it out. I’d love comments on this one!

http://www.edutopia.org/digital-generation-james-gee-video

Career Development in the Learning Organization

I have been sharing with you a series of pieces designed to get you to critically examine your current place of employment to see if it is meeting your individual career development needs. When you think about your job, is it consistent with the life role you want to be playing? Are you deriving professional satisfaction from your work?

I have seen more than one survey lately that indicates that as soon as the economy improves and there are more job opportunities again many workers are going to bolt from their current job for greener pastures. It is yet another indicator that too many of you are misplaced in the job you have now.

As a result, I have been suggesting specific organizational characteristics that you should be looking for to see if you can pinpoint the source of angst or conversely what makes your job a keeper because it provides you with a means for developing your career.

Two practices that I have written about recently are onboarding and performance reviews. For this piece let us look at the commitment your employer makes to have the workplace be a learning organization.

As an employee, you should have a clear sense of how important it is for leadership to attract and retain knowledge capital, i.e., smart and talented people. It should come as no surprise that a great number of talented employees often leads to a greater chance of organizational success.

Management that sets the acquisition and retention of knowledge workers as a priority is something to look for and to value. They understand the concept that smart people always want to keep on learning. Therefore, having embedded learning initiatives at work that advance both the company’s and your professional interests indicates a positive climate for career development.

Of course, learning initiatives at work should be an expression of organizational strategy, but ask yourself if they also contribute to your career improvement strategy.  A fit in this area is desired.

So, what do I mean by learning initiatives? To start with, they form the framework of making your workplace a learning organization. These initiatives can be typically judged by determining the quality of the training and development programs and the organization’s way of implementing knowledge management.

To be successful, there should be a high transfer of knowledge and competencies from those who know to those who do not. This can be accomplished explicitly through well designed manuals and structured practices or tacitly through the caliber of individual employees sharing and support. Superior training and development and knowledge management occurs when talented people are encouraged and rewarded for not only being the best, but by spreading their intelligence around. This must be evident at a cultural level. Organizations that encourage isolation and keeping effectiveness under lock and key, accessible only to a privileged few, will not do.

It is good if you are learning on the job while helping to address organizational strategy. For a true knowledge worker, gaining talent and competency while at work is an incentive to stay and grow. You feel more accomplished and experience greater satisfaction in your career.

However, none of this can be realized if you as an employee are not in sync with your employer’s business strategy. There should not be a big gap between this strategy and your career development. It is possible for the two to grow together.

Also, by having the attitude that capturing and sharing expertise is good for all involved, you contribute to making not just a learning organization, but a nice place to work.

What about your workplace? Are its learning and knowledge features enhancing your professional growth or not? If thinking becomes rigid and innovation discouraged career development will not occur. Know how your employer approaches this important topic.

Organizational Onboarding

In my last blog I began to examine methods that employees can use to determine if their current place of employment was meeting their own career development needs. To review, career development can be defined in two ways depending on one’s point of view. From an organizational viewpoint, career development is seen as the procedures necessary to advance employee value to meet organizational strategic demands. From the view of a worker, career development involves the integration of cognitive, behavioral, emotional, and contextual factors that determine employment decisions, work values, and life role, such that a profound satisfaction with what one does is achieved.

Of course, the employer knows that you work for them, but how well is the employer working for you? Last time, I wrote about whether a fit existed between the organization’s goals and yours, and whether individual advancement within the organization was based on true merit. 

This time, let us look at another evaluation point an employee can make about their employer. This involves evaluating their onboarding process. Onboarding refers to the way the organization brings new employees on board, i.e., assimilation or orientation. How this is done reveals some interesting information about a company’s treatment of employees. Think about it, at your work were you thrown into the fray or eased in gently with a measured flow of training and information? 

If done well, an organization’s onboarding process should encourage employee productivity and loyalty. It would inform the new hire about work processes and standards, benefits and other legal necessities, culture, logistics, performance expectations, mission, vision, and values. If this is crammed into one day and then you are on your own, the message to you becomes individual survival is valued more than group acculturation.

However, if onboarding is dispersed over time and in reasonable increments, hopefully including a one-on-one mentor, then you are left feeling that your long-term engagement and commitment to the organization is important to your new employer. It is simple really. If they care about you, then you are more inclined to care about them.

I like to see an onboarding process take up to a year or more. Naturally, the data dump would be more front-loaded, but over time there should be targeted check-ins with newbies to see that questions and other issues have been adequately addressed. Over this time, I would like to see that a trusted mentor has been assigned to shepherd you through the induction phase of your employment. This increases efficiency, while providing an emotional bond to the organization.

But this process also gives you a chance to see how other departments within the organization handle the treatment of new employees. Human Resources, Training and Development, and Management should all have a role to play in onboarding. Also, besides a mentor I would want to know what co-workers and immediate supervisors are like in their introduction to new hires.

Onboarding is just one of several areas that I will be highlighting in the coming weeks as I suggest ways for you to examine employers to see if they are providing you with career development opportunities. In most cases, there are not bad employers and there are not bad employees, but there can be bad fits. Avoiding a mismatch is one of the first steps to advancing your own career development while working for someone else.

The Most Important Decision of Your Life

An unfortunate piece of legacy wisdom regarding career development suggests that it is very important that a young adult make their just-out-of-school career choice extremely carefully or else they may inflict irreparable harm to their future. Imagine feeling that such a weighty life/work decision, like what to do for the rest of your life, needs to be made by someone who has no significant employment experience. Talk about pressure!

Aside from quick thinking action-adventure movie heroes with lightening quick reflexes, most of us, particularly those just beginning adulthood, do not make the most high quality decisions under extreme stress. For big life decisions, like determining a career direction, there needs to be time and guidance to assess options, weigh benefits and risks, and in short, apply a rational process that results in a decision, which hopefully leads to success. The reality is we are transitioning from a world in which career choice was a onetime monumental decision to a world in which career is now comprised of iterations that are unified by a multi-faceted and dynamic theme. 

I am from the much-ballyhooed Baby Boomer generation. Among the unique traits that we possess is that we are probably the last generation in which large numbers of us will have worked our entire careers in one job or industry, perhaps even with just one single employer. Boomers have gone from hip to dinosaurs in thirty quick years. 

Well, so it goes. But among the rapidly outdated notions we still possess and which we should be increasingly hesitant to pass along to young people is the one professing this up-and-coming cohort should approach career decision making the way we did. Not only is the pressure non-productive and unhelpful, but unnecessary. 

Initial career steps are more like speed boats in a relay race, not slow-moving ocean liners. Careers, like life itself, are fluid, changeable, and developmental. We progress and we grow. Choosing a career at the onset of your working years is essentially choosing an uncharted journey, one in which the routes are yet to be planned and the ultimate destination is unclear. 

Now, that is not to say that there are not some major decisions in life that have some relative permanency. Marriage, parenting, vocations of high dedication, like for example becoming a priest, are commitments which also see growth and change, but within well-defined parameters. A career is not this. Its structure over time is much more set by you, as opposed to for you by tradition or antiquated rules. You are completely in charge of this piece of your destiny. 

This is the message Boomer parents and grandparents should be getting out to young people. It starts with asking children and adolescents if what they are thinking, feeling, and how they are behaving is working for them. And as they approach their robust individuation years, helping them to see how the person they are becoming can best interact with the big wide world. 

We are all better off knowing viscerally that we will always be building on what was built by ourselves at an earlier time. Also, a helpful message and attitude is that there really is no sharp distinction between life and career. We don’t dive into one to escape from the other. What we do is who we are. 

So, let us adjust the way we prepare youth for career decision making. Let us make the point that what is most important is adaptability, experimenting, and continuous learning, not how expert one is at predicting what will make them happy for the rest of their lives. Helping to prepare our young people for the world to come, rather than the world being left behind, is a valuable gift to leave the next generation.

 

Decision Making Examined

How well you cope with and react to improving your career is driven primarily by the quality of your ability to make decisions. Whether a job change is forced on to you by a layoff or the nagging dissatisfaction of being stuck in a bad line of work finally crystallizes into the realization that change is needed, how well you can make an important decision will determine how satisfying an eventual outcome of change will be.

It seems that some people have the gift of decisiveness whereas other people flounder, allowing themselves to be bounced around by circumstances. Even though you might be closer to the latter, it is still possible to examine the nature of decision making and how you approach this mental exercise. For all of us, decision making is made up of five sequential steps: 

1. Identifying the problem

2. Knowing the cause of the problem

3. Developing possible alternatives

4. Prioritizing those alternatives

5. Appraising likely outcomes

When it comes to making decisions regarding your career this is often done with much uncertainty, which can make following these steps, particularly #5, harder. Nevertheless, it can still be helpful to be systematic when confronting a big career change challenge. Are you finding that one or more points in this sequence are hanging you up? Why do you think this is so?

Carrying on with making lists of five, career development researchers have identified five decision-making styles:

a. The Rational style, which is structured and logical

b. The Intuitive style, which relies on gut feelings and impressions

c. The Dependent style, which needs the support of others

d. The Avoidant style, which puts off decision making for as long as possible

e. The Spontaneous style, which is quick and impulsive

Now, if you listen to your inner parent / teacher speaking you’re probably hearing the message that having a Rational style is best. It is hard to argue with a viewpoint that says careful examination of facts and likely consequences should be applied in making a decision like career direction. The Intuitive style, on the other hand, sounds like your inner artist talking, encouraging you to go with the natural flow. But the other three appear to be more like styles of indecision. If you see yourself as reflecting one of these styles, then I would recommend a re-examination of how you make or do not make decisions.

When I look at the Intuitive style in juxtaposition to the Rational style I’m reminded of the right brain / left brain construct, which implies a balanced cognitive approach. A combination of Rational and Intuitive styles suggests a greater individual awareness of self and environment, which can lead to better career choices.

Knowing and feeling through a situation and self-encouraging an interplay of thought and emotion may allow you to identify and evaluate plausible alternatives and outcomes as you process choice. Since we now know that significant personal career decisions will occur developmentally across the lifespan, then working to refine, and when necessary, practice a workable decision-making style will result in outcomes that make life more satisfying. And isn’t that the point of a career? 

Beware of Too Much Education

I am a big fan of education… particularly college education. I used to think when I was in my twenties that I could easily have become a professional student. And if it hadn’t been for getting married and becoming a parent, I would have. Even now, many years later, I can still feel the nerdy thrill of taking classes and planning degree work.

I was also a teacher for thirty-one years and would encourage students any chance that I got for them to pursue post-secondary education, if they wanted to increase their chances of finding satisfying work at a decent salary. I would cite statistics showing that a college education could on average double their lifetime earnings compared to someone with only a high school education. My faith in the power of higher education remains unshaken. I think nearly everyone should continue formal education for as long as possible.

However, I have seen a troubling downside to acquiring too much college education. In a word, it is debt. It is not unusual to run across thirty-somethings and others who have multiple degrees and/or certifications and no satisfying employment. What they do have, though, are thousands of dollars owed for the education received to get those degrees and certs. I’ve heard staggering figures. There are relatively young people who are looking at decades of school loan payback ahead of them. This restricts their lifestyles, as all debt does, and makes further education appear impossible to achieve.

Now, it would be one thing if the folks I’m talking about had exciting, stimulating careers paying them robust salaries. But too often this is not the case. Instead, they are settling for second rate job choices and realizing as they approach middle age that they are not happy career-wise, leaving them feeling stuck.

How did this happen? It is what can occur if you do not enter higher education with at least the beginning of a career plan. Everyone has heard the story that a college education opens doors and leads to career success. And as I indicated earlier, there is much evidence that it can. But it is far from a guarantee. A college degree should not be thought of as a magic bullet. If years spent at a university are not a well thought through means to an end, then it can be a costly waste of time.

A typical sequence is this — you are a student who majors in some undergraduate program for weak reasons, generally because you were without enough quality guidance. Afterwards, you find yourself in a ho-hum job and think that the way out is to go back to school to get another degree. You hope that this time it will “work”.

But your decision making again has not been monitored by someone who can properly assist you. So, you find yourself again in a less than stellar job and think that if you had only followed your heart the first time you would not be in this mess. So, you go back to school to study your passion, incur more debt, and realize a gazillion dollars later that you are still not happy. 

Career planning should begin very early in a student’s education, whether it is done by a parent, a guidance counselor, a teacher, or a privately hired career development specialist. Basically, someone who actually has time, interest, and perspective to focus on you. College costs way too much to have the experience squandered. However, properly directed higher education can help lead to meaningful and sustained careers.

I recommend taking the time to think through what you hope to achieve from education and process these thoughts, along with crucial elements of your personality, in the presence of a career professional.  It is worth the effort and money to do this one right.