In this presentation my intent is to give a brief description of an individual who has handled a lay off in a very proactive and productive fashion. I realize there are several fortunate and uncommon factors in this situation. Moreover I realize being laid off in these troubled times is often a very frightening, demeaning and sometimes immobilizing experience. In the current HR and corporate view of employee’s as human capital, or even wall street’s view of layoffs as being lagging indicators or cost controls that positively impact stock performance, there is a very dehumanizing, unsympathetic view, of the layoff victim. This is particularly devastating experience for IT individuals over 40 or 50 where there chance of finding a position comparable to the one they lost is dubious at best.
However, there are several qualities that can lessen the impact of a job loss in these troubled times. They include: devising a pragmatic lay off contingency plan; having, or developing, a proactive and positive approach; trying not to take the layoff as a personal statement of your incompetency or inadequacy; and finally trying to be patient and not panic no matter what other people or the media may say about your job possibilities. Also too much pride and inflexibility can also impair chances of being re-employed. In this presentation I will give an example of a situation that epitomizes many of these qualities and discusses how they worked to assist a friend in his successful effort to be re-employed.
“I went to see my old friend Raymond last weekend. Raymond was an exceptionally accomplished data base architect with over 25 years in the IT field, all at a large financial service company. As is often the case in the dismal days of the job market he was, Raymond was caught in a layoff. This was probably due to his relatively high salary, his age and comprehensive benefits, including fully paid medical benefits, a vested pension (a real rarity these days for an IT person), and a generous 401k match. However, Raymond has absolutely no debt, his wife has a very good job, and he has never lived beyond his means. More impressively, Raymond had mentally and financially prepared for his job loss. He did not display any anger, shame, remorse, denial or depression related to his former employer that could have impacted his re-employment efforts.
Raymond had been checking out other career possibilities for a person in his 50’s that could utilize his strong IT background. Within 2 weeks of being let go by his former employers he began a certificate program in medical computer coding. He did not sign up for unemployment because he is a full time student and because of his savings, his wife’s employment and his frugal life style he didn’t need it. Now, after three months of training he has several good job prospects as a medical coder. He may only make slightly more than half that he did at his former employer; but because of his somewhat frugal spending habits, his pension and his family’s ability to live on one income at least temporarily, his life style will only be effected by his life style.”
By closely scrutinizing Raymond’s situation, it is obvious that he made a realistic assessment of the possibility of being laid off, and developed a solid contingency plan. A key element of his plan included exploring optional career avenues where he may transfer the analytic, procedural, mathematical and other IT related skills that served him well in his previous career. His research, led to two new career possibilities: accounting and medical coding. On further research when he felt his lay off was imminent, he made a pragmatic decision to go towards the medical coding because the training was much quicker and opportunities were more plentiful. Also, due to his sense of self reliance and fortuitous financial situation, he did not, like most people who got laid off in this period, have to quickly apply for unemployment due to lack of savings and other pressing financial factors. Consequently, he was not subject to the scrutiny of the government and his receiving benefits might perhaps have been unethical or disruptive given his schooling. In other words, he did not allow his job loss effect his sense of self worth, which unemployment sometimes subtly does, or compromise his ethics or career change plans.
So why was Raymond able to be so strategic and cool under the pressure and stress of losing his long held position? Unlike many people who were intoxicated by the leveraged wealth and supposed unlimited growth of the previous ten tears, Raymond didn’t live on credit and saved a reasonable portion of his salary. So when the Wall Street and Bush, and to a lesser extent Clinton, Administration induced real estate and equity bubble’s burst, Raymond had already converted his 401k investments out of the stock market and into cash. Moreover, he and his wife, who had a great rental living arrangement, never jumped in to the then seemingly endless skyrocketing real estate market. Simply said, Raymond lived well within his means and thus was not seriously affected financially by the mortgage and financial service meltdown. Consequently, when he lost his job, which was a result of this meltdown, he was prepared psychologically and financially. Moreover, he never felt shocked and victimized like so many Americans who faced the prospect of a very uncertain diminished future. Furthermore, with strategic and realistic financial and career planning many people may still live comfortably, and perhaps more meaningful lives. However unlike the proactive and patient Raymond, and many prudent people like him, it may be a long and rocky ride to renewed financial and career stability for many American who have faced job loss in these turbulent times
In conclusion, and for future consideration, Raymond’s case of successively handling his lay off displays how to not experience many qualities and actions that can diminish the adverse effect of this often traumatizing situation. It was definitely not my intention to criticize or add “insult to injury” for the high percentage of laid off people who had not evolved a comprehensive plan to deal with sometimes inevitable negative consequences of being laid off. As I initially stated, planning, proactivity, a positive attitude, patience, and not living beyond his means all contributed to Raymond’s ability to successfully cushion and steer clear of most of the very painful effects of job loss. This doesn’t mean that Raymond didn’t experience some of the anxiety and uncertainty of being laid off, particularly that of people over 40 in the progressively outsourced field of information technology. However, understandable blame or a sense of victimization does not help these people in their efforts to withstand unemployment or the challenging effort to become re-employed. Nevertheless, our culture, and particularly the cultures of much of corporate America and Wall Street, often have a very short term perspective in their strategic planning and utilization of “human capital.” This is often dictated by the quarter to quarter demands of their investors and their sometimes greedy expectations of quick and large return on their investments. Finally, if this quick return and “trickle down” mindset is not changed to resemble the more long term perspective of most of the mature and emerging economies, particularly that of China, then the repeat of this nearly cataclysmic financial meltdown, and related job loss, is almost predestined to reoccur.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Monday, August 24, 2009
Games of Greed and Loss of Jobs
It’s still real tough out there in the job market for many IT, and other processionals. My forecast of minor pickup in jobs in early 2010 and a return to normalcy by the fall of 2010 still stands,albeit on a much shakier ground. But there are looming dangers that portend that this debacle will last a few quarters, or even years longer. Issues that concern me here are the continued growth in outsourcing and that employers are making do with a smaller workforce. The productivity of the remaining employees has been pushed up to all time record 6% increase. It’s not that people are willingly working 50 plus hour weeks on a regular basis. Rather they are often in a state of fear and panic that they will be the next one to go if they don’t work these incredibly long hours. In this short exposition I will discuss a few of the economic underpinnings that may extend the still increasing level of unemployment. Also, unlike my previous postings on IT, here the primary focus will be on the abuses of the financial service industry, and the dire affect they have had on hiring and the economy as a whole.
Based on a lot of first hand observation I am very suspicious of the rapid 50 plus per cent increase in the S& P 500 , the most significant broad index of stock market health, in the last 5 months. On the surface this could be interpreted as a positive sign, indicating we are moving in the direction of economic health and new job creation. Typically a sharply rising market looks 6 to 9 months ahead to predict a return to economic stability. “If” this is this case, like in the past, employers may soon start experiencing real growth in the fourth, or maybe even third quarter of 2009, but they will be initially fearful to start hiring for many months because they are rightfully concerned we will slip back into another recession. But not to digress too much, let’s look at this stock market recovery. Moreover, many well informed people, including the noted economists like ex Clinton Secretary of labor Robert Reich and the market analyst Mario Roubini (aka Dr. Doom, because he was one of few analysts to precisely predict our most current crash)feels that the rise in the market is like pumping air into a tire with a small, imperceptible, leak that ultimately leads to larger holes and quicker deflation. Translated into an economic realm, this may lead to the dreaded W shaped recovery where the market is currently at least halfway up the first V of the recovery. To return to our tire analogy, as it initially appears that the tire is reflated, and after a couple of quarters of an anemic “jobless recovery,” this small hole will start forcing air out of the tire after it appears to be functional once again leading to a second decline, which may comprise the second, and possible more severe, V of the recovery
I, and people considerably more knowledgeable than myself in these issues, are quite fearful that the current upturn is built on a faulty foundation. Why is this foundation faulty like the pumped up tire with a small deflating hole in it? Well this apparent market recovery, and resulting economic rebound, may be based on three potentially ineffective hypothesis and actions: (1), the less bad, or green shoots, economic growth hypothesis, and (2) the temporary injection of unprecedented level of government money into the economy, and, (3), the ill timed and distracting essential social initiatives, like health care reform, by a well meaning, but mostly unseasoned, new presidential administration.
The less bad, green shoots, phenomena, referring to the initial budding of plants and other greenery in early Spring, seems to be both real and unreal at the same time. On a year over year basis real earnings for companies are down about 20%, but these same earnings are exceeding their quarter to quarter estimates at more than 75% of companies based on lowered earnings expectations. Thus confidence is boosted and stock prices start going up. However, for the most part, the only people benefitting from this are the same people who’s greed and other shenanigans got us in this muck in the first place, Financial Service traders and executives from Wall Street and elsewhere. These people have been largely insulated from the pain and suffering of the rest of population, particularly those ills of the middle class and the unemployed. These “masters in the art of deception,”to borrow a line from a Bob Dylan song, are adept at market manipulation, and benefit immensely from the panic on Main Street. These people are incredibly resilient and never back down from their “survival of the fittest” and trickle down, “let them eat cake,” mindset.
Recently, Main Street has started to tiptoe back into the market through Mutual Funds and some individual equity investing. This makes me quite suspicious because most of the gains up to now have been made by Wall Street insiders. In similar cases in the past, as the Smart Money of Wall Street begin to exit the market, due to unrealistically high market valuations and a desire to realize huge profits as the upper V of the first part of the market’s W starts to top out. This, in turn, often leads to what is called the “greater fool theory,” where the not so Smart Money pushes the market a little, to a lot, higher only to have it come tumbling down due to the lack of support of the Smart Money and even their hedging and short selling strategies: making huge bets that the market will start to tumble in the second downward slope of the W. Soon after, panic selling starts to ensue at lower price levels, as occurred in the market crashes of 1987 and 2000. One generally reliable indicator that this is starting to happen is that the mass media start touting the markets miraculous recovery which starts to bring even more not so Smart Money into the market. This process can often take several months or even years, like in the 1920’s, to fully unfold The worse part of this whole fiasco is that we may be in the process of creating the next economic bubble that could horrifically explode in a few years, creating even more pain and job loss. If anyone wants to see an in depth explication of this process I recommend Naomi Klein’s excellent book, “Shock Doctrine.”
This whole bailout and stimulus effort has mostly benefited the rich and their allies on Wall Street by allowing them to rebuild their net worth with a few, increasingly frayed, strings attached. Moreover, by this massive mortgaging of the future, which these efforts epitomize, the chances of any return to wide scale prosperity experienced by the middle class is a very dubious indeed. I don’t want to belabor the whole bailout stimulus initiative; it has been incessantly discussed in the media and has been a prime mover in stock market gains. Yet it is curious that the conventional wisdom that the bailout helped us supposedly avert a second great depression was most vociferously sponsored by Bush’s secretary of the treasury, Henry,"Hank”Paulsen.Paulsen had formerly been the chairman of Goldman Sachs, which now is the preeminent investment bank on Wall Street.Go figure?
Finally, the well meaning but somewhat naïve Obama administration, has allowed the Goldman Sach’s and the Citibank’s to become the tail that wags the dog, not that they weren’t that in the first place. Sure congress and the administration may try to put restrictions on Wall Street’s hedge, “hog,” funds and other species of unregulated greed. Yet at the colloquially fashionable “end of the day,” the Wall Street masters of the universe will use their skills in deception and fear mongering to return to business as usual. For their part, Obama’s people have become virtually powerless due to their own idealism and their “gang that couldn’t shoot straight” congress. Just watch the spooked and enraged masses, who have largely dropped their ire towards Wall Street; see them engage in ridiculous, often right wing inspired, town hall, “food fight-like,” protests to maintain their second rate health insurance and further enrich the uncaring health care and health insurance industries. However if you listen closely to the gripes of the non-coerced citizenry of these civic brouhahas, you can hear shouts or fear and anguish that often refers to insolvency and unemployment precipitated by the miscalculations of the money managers . These meetings provide a double win for Wall Street. They are escaping the rage of the voting citizens, having it redirected toward people that sincerely want to help them, and they may able to pull off several billion dollars of windfall trading profits in health care related securities without the pale of “socialized medicine” hanging over them.
In my statements here, I have not directly addressed employment issues, but rather have looked at the macro factors that will, or will not, lead to hiring in the future. I conclude that whatever new hiring that does occur will most likely consist of less secure and/or lower paying jobs (except, perhaps, in financial service). Moreover, I find it tragic and reprehensible that only 20% of the debt-ridden college graduate class of 2009 have job offers 3 months after graduation. The disconnect between Wall Street and Main Street is not new. But the level of manipulation, disinformation, and lack of any regard for the greater good is a newer, more self serving, phase in the extreme predatory fringe of our financial service oligarchs. Nevertheless there are still many fine and ethical financial service firms like the people at Edward Jones or TD Ameritrade, although most of them operate out of the heartlands and not on Wall Street . Yet for the most part this maniacal, mindless pursuit of self enrichment has reached a level not seen since the monopolies and robber baron’s of the late 1800’s, but at least these earlier moguls had a philanthropic streak that created such institutions as the Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Chicago, and New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. Hopefully I am wrong about the Obama administration's inability to enact their vast legislative agenda that will address the needs of the many rather than fail by the machinations of the elite few. Only the future will tell. But it is vital that people stop seeing themselves as victims and start to once again believe that they have the power to shape their own destinies, which often takes a herculean effort but is definitely worth the effort
Based on a lot of first hand observation I am very suspicious of the rapid 50 plus per cent increase in the S& P 500 , the most significant broad index of stock market health, in the last 5 months. On the surface this could be interpreted as a positive sign, indicating we are moving in the direction of economic health and new job creation. Typically a sharply rising market looks 6 to 9 months ahead to predict a return to economic stability. “If” this is this case, like in the past, employers may soon start experiencing real growth in the fourth, or maybe even third quarter of 2009, but they will be initially fearful to start hiring for many months because they are rightfully concerned we will slip back into another recession. But not to digress too much, let’s look at this stock market recovery. Moreover, many well informed people, including the noted economists like ex Clinton Secretary of labor Robert Reich and the market analyst Mario Roubini (aka Dr. Doom, because he was one of few analysts to precisely predict our most current crash)feels that the rise in the market is like pumping air into a tire with a small, imperceptible, leak that ultimately leads to larger holes and quicker deflation. Translated into an economic realm, this may lead to the dreaded W shaped recovery where the market is currently at least halfway up the first V of the recovery. To return to our tire analogy, as it initially appears that the tire is reflated, and after a couple of quarters of an anemic “jobless recovery,” this small hole will start forcing air out of the tire after it appears to be functional once again leading to a second decline, which may comprise the second, and possible more severe, V of the recovery
I, and people considerably more knowledgeable than myself in these issues, are quite fearful that the current upturn is built on a faulty foundation. Why is this foundation faulty like the pumped up tire with a small deflating hole in it? Well this apparent market recovery, and resulting economic rebound, may be based on three potentially ineffective hypothesis and actions: (1), the less bad, or green shoots, economic growth hypothesis, and (2) the temporary injection of unprecedented level of government money into the economy, and, (3), the ill timed and distracting essential social initiatives, like health care reform, by a well meaning, but mostly unseasoned, new presidential administration.
The less bad, green shoots, phenomena, referring to the initial budding of plants and other greenery in early Spring, seems to be both real and unreal at the same time. On a year over year basis real earnings for companies are down about 20%, but these same earnings are exceeding their quarter to quarter estimates at more than 75% of companies based on lowered earnings expectations. Thus confidence is boosted and stock prices start going up. However, for the most part, the only people benefitting from this are the same people who’s greed and other shenanigans got us in this muck in the first place, Financial Service traders and executives from Wall Street and elsewhere. These people have been largely insulated from the pain and suffering of the rest of population, particularly those ills of the middle class and the unemployed. These “masters in the art of deception,”to borrow a line from a Bob Dylan song, are adept at market manipulation, and benefit immensely from the panic on Main Street. These people are incredibly resilient and never back down from their “survival of the fittest” and trickle down, “let them eat cake,” mindset.
Recently, Main Street has started to tiptoe back into the market through Mutual Funds and some individual equity investing. This makes me quite suspicious because most of the gains up to now have been made by Wall Street insiders. In similar cases in the past, as the Smart Money of Wall Street begin to exit the market, due to unrealistically high market valuations and a desire to realize huge profits as the upper V of the first part of the market’s W starts to top out. This, in turn, often leads to what is called the “greater fool theory,” where the not so Smart Money pushes the market a little, to a lot, higher only to have it come tumbling down due to the lack of support of the Smart Money and even their hedging and short selling strategies: making huge bets that the market will start to tumble in the second downward slope of the W. Soon after, panic selling starts to ensue at lower price levels, as occurred in the market crashes of 1987 and 2000. One generally reliable indicator that this is starting to happen is that the mass media start touting the markets miraculous recovery which starts to bring even more not so Smart Money into the market. This process can often take several months or even years, like in the 1920’s, to fully unfold The worse part of this whole fiasco is that we may be in the process of creating the next economic bubble that could horrifically explode in a few years, creating even more pain and job loss. If anyone wants to see an in depth explication of this process I recommend Naomi Klein’s excellent book, “Shock Doctrine.”
This whole bailout and stimulus effort has mostly benefited the rich and their allies on Wall Street by allowing them to rebuild their net worth with a few, increasingly frayed, strings attached. Moreover, by this massive mortgaging of the future, which these efforts epitomize, the chances of any return to wide scale prosperity experienced by the middle class is a very dubious indeed. I don’t want to belabor the whole bailout stimulus initiative; it has been incessantly discussed in the media and has been a prime mover in stock market gains. Yet it is curious that the conventional wisdom that the bailout helped us supposedly avert a second great depression was most vociferously sponsored by Bush’s secretary of the treasury, Henry,"Hank”Paulsen.Paulsen had formerly been the chairman of Goldman Sachs, which now is the preeminent investment bank on Wall Street.Go figure?
Finally, the well meaning but somewhat naïve Obama administration, has allowed the Goldman Sach’s and the Citibank’s to become the tail that wags the dog, not that they weren’t that in the first place. Sure congress and the administration may try to put restrictions on Wall Street’s hedge, “hog,” funds and other species of unregulated greed. Yet at the colloquially fashionable “end of the day,” the Wall Street masters of the universe will use their skills in deception and fear mongering to return to business as usual. For their part, Obama’s people have become virtually powerless due to their own idealism and their “gang that couldn’t shoot straight” congress. Just watch the spooked and enraged masses, who have largely dropped their ire towards Wall Street; see them engage in ridiculous, often right wing inspired, town hall, “food fight-like,” protests to maintain their second rate health insurance and further enrich the uncaring health care and health insurance industries. However if you listen closely to the gripes of the non-coerced citizenry of these civic brouhahas, you can hear shouts or fear and anguish that often refers to insolvency and unemployment precipitated by the miscalculations of the money managers . These meetings provide a double win for Wall Street. They are escaping the rage of the voting citizens, having it redirected toward people that sincerely want to help them, and they may able to pull off several billion dollars of windfall trading profits in health care related securities without the pale of “socialized medicine” hanging over them.
In my statements here, I have not directly addressed employment issues, but rather have looked at the macro factors that will, or will not, lead to hiring in the future. I conclude that whatever new hiring that does occur will most likely consist of less secure and/or lower paying jobs (except, perhaps, in financial service). Moreover, I find it tragic and reprehensible that only 20% of the debt-ridden college graduate class of 2009 have job offers 3 months after graduation. The disconnect between Wall Street and Main Street is not new. But the level of manipulation, disinformation, and lack of any regard for the greater good is a newer, more self serving, phase in the extreme predatory fringe of our financial service oligarchs. Nevertheless there are still many fine and ethical financial service firms like the people at Edward Jones or TD Ameritrade, although most of them operate out of the heartlands and not on Wall Street . Yet for the most part this maniacal, mindless pursuit of self enrichment has reached a level not seen since the monopolies and robber baron’s of the late 1800’s, but at least these earlier moguls had a philanthropic streak that created such institutions as the Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Chicago, and New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. Hopefully I am wrong about the Obama administration's inability to enact their vast legislative agenda that will address the needs of the many rather than fail by the machinations of the elite few. Only the future will tell. But it is vital that people stop seeing themselves as victims and start to once again believe that they have the power to shape their own destinies, which often takes a herculean effort but is definitely worth the effort
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Job Search Strategies in Difficult Times
(Sorry about the gap in my postings. I've been writing copy for my website Advancement Alternatives)
For those of you who are conducting frustrating and fruitless job searches, you must use every method possible to get re-employed. In IT and Software, as well as in most fields, “there are jobs out there.” OK. We might be in a deep recession with no chance of it ending in the near future. But that notion is a self fulfilling prophecy. Proactive people are getting new jobs everyday. Again, you need to do whatever it takes to get your career back on track today!
You must make yourself as an attractive candidate as possible to get that new job. If you lack strong interviewing skills, then get them now. If your resume doesn’t convey a compelling case why you should be hired, then find someone to assist you. If you don’t project a positive and proactive image and attitude, then change it. We have all the tools available that we need. You just have to use them.
I see too many people whose job search is seriously impaired. They don’t know what they want; or they do know what they want, but they aren’t qualified, unless they get more training and are willing to possibly consider a position at a lower level. Remember the longer you are out of work, the more difficult it will be to find a position comparable to your last one. Still, for some of you, a career change may be your only hope for employment. If so, get good unbiased advice, get training, and then start looking.
Sure you can contact all the headhunters you want, or you can post your resume on every job board that interests you. But if you have been walking these passive paths towards a new job for three to six months with no success, then it’s time to start running! It’s time to envision yourself working and regaining your self- respect and self worth. If your vision is strong enough, it will become a reality.
Learn and utilize social media and other forms of networking. Contact companies directly -- even if it means knocking on companies’ doors and asking to speak with the appropriate hiring person. I know this may sound extreme, but these are extreme times that call for bold and innovative action. Contact alumni from your alma mater; contact everyone you have worked with in the past that has a remote chance of helping you. And most importantly, do it now!
If you aren’t being ultra-assertive, then get a career coach to help you discover, and develop that vital competency. Bottom line: you have to take yourself off auto pilot and break through the barriers that are between you and the job you want. You might be angry, depressed, scared, panicky, or feeling sorry for yourself, but honestly, companies could care less. They need people with the right mindset to give them 150% effort from the get-go, and those are the people who are “acing” the interviews and landing the jobs.
Why are ninety per cent of the calls I get for job openings coming from foreign born immigrants? Why don’t native born Americans call? What happened to our optimism, ingenuity, and work ethic? Why do we passively allow emerging powerhouses, like China or India to thrive on what were “our” industries and innovations? It’s simple. They often work twice as hard, with smarts and as long as necessary to get what they want. Do we want to be a fallen superpower like England, Russia, or even ancient Rome? Frankly, it’s happening right now.
I hope my call to arms motivates you to develop a winning strategy and a winning attitude, and gives the employer no other choice but to offer “you” the job. Stop listening to the naysayers, the cynics, and the losers who sap your energy and poison your pride. Forget about the media and its endless barrage of negativity. I know you can do it, and, deep down, you know you can do it too. So, just get out there and do it. Soon you, and our nation, will be moving up in success rather than sinking down in failure.
For those of you who are conducting frustrating and fruitless job searches, you must use every method possible to get re-employed. In IT and Software, as well as in most fields, “there are jobs out there.” OK. We might be in a deep recession with no chance of it ending in the near future. But that notion is a self fulfilling prophecy. Proactive people are getting new jobs everyday. Again, you need to do whatever it takes to get your career back on track today!
You must make yourself as an attractive candidate as possible to get that new job. If you lack strong interviewing skills, then get them now. If your resume doesn’t convey a compelling case why you should be hired, then find someone to assist you. If you don’t project a positive and proactive image and attitude, then change it. We have all the tools available that we need. You just have to use them.
I see too many people whose job search is seriously impaired. They don’t know what they want; or they do know what they want, but they aren’t qualified, unless they get more training and are willing to possibly consider a position at a lower level. Remember the longer you are out of work, the more difficult it will be to find a position comparable to your last one. Still, for some of you, a career change may be your only hope for employment. If so, get good unbiased advice, get training, and then start looking.
Sure you can contact all the headhunters you want, or you can post your resume on every job board that interests you. But if you have been walking these passive paths towards a new job for three to six months with no success, then it’s time to start running! It’s time to envision yourself working and regaining your self- respect and self worth. If your vision is strong enough, it will become a reality.
Learn and utilize social media and other forms of networking. Contact companies directly -- even if it means knocking on companies’ doors and asking to speak with the appropriate hiring person. I know this may sound extreme, but these are extreme times that call for bold and innovative action. Contact alumni from your alma mater; contact everyone you have worked with in the past that has a remote chance of helping you. And most importantly, do it now!
If you aren’t being ultra-assertive, then get a career coach to help you discover, and develop that vital competency. Bottom line: you have to take yourself off auto pilot and break through the barriers that are between you and the job you want. You might be angry, depressed, scared, panicky, or feeling sorry for yourself, but honestly, companies could care less. They need people with the right mindset to give them 150% effort from the get-go, and those are the people who are “acing” the interviews and landing the jobs.
Why are ninety per cent of the calls I get for job openings coming from foreign born immigrants? Why don’t native born Americans call? What happened to our optimism, ingenuity, and work ethic? Why do we passively allow emerging powerhouses, like China or India to thrive on what were “our” industries and innovations? It’s simple. They often work twice as hard, with smarts and as long as necessary to get what they want. Do we want to be a fallen superpower like England, Russia, or even ancient Rome? Frankly, it’s happening right now.
I hope my call to arms motivates you to develop a winning strategy and a winning attitude, and gives the employer no other choice but to offer “you” the job. Stop listening to the naysayers, the cynics, and the losers who sap your energy and poison your pride. Forget about the media and its endless barrage of negativity. I know you can do it, and, deep down, you know you can do it too. So, just get out there and do it. Soon you, and our nation, will be moving up in success rather than sinking down in failure.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Finding The Right Recruiter For Your Job Search
Choosing a recruiter can have a major impact on your career: the right recruiter can play a major role in achieving job success and security; the wrong recruiter get you stuck in a bad or even career damaging situation. In over twenty five years in the recruiting field, I have observed recruiters on both these poles, and mostly somewhere in between; observing both the career benefits and unhappiness a recruiter can cause in your life. Of course, you need not make an uniformed, or ill informed choice, on who you pick as your recruiter. In this post I will offer some key points for finding the right recruiter for your job search.
1. Trust: As in most areas of human interaction, trust, or a lack thereof, can be a determining factor in successful personal and professional relationships. Without, at least, some initial intuition of trustworthiness, based upon your first impression of a recruiter, I would suggest you find someone else ASAP. When I started recruiting in its earlier, what I like to call pre-professional "wild west days," trust was almost always a concern, using a recruiter could often devolve into a "buyer beware" scenario. Today I think reputation, knowledge, recruiter consistency, ethics and career recommendations, are among key indicators in trusting, and working, with a recruiter. If you have a major negative assessment on any of these issues, then don't select, or fire, a recruiter immediately. To borrow a phrase from one of our favorite cultural icons, some recruiters are "masters in the art of deception." These recruiters should be avoided no matter what "rosy scenario" they paint of the job positions they offer to you. Finally, always be aware that a recruiter, no matter how effective, is paid by the hiring company, which can seriously impact the recruiter's objectivity and, occasionally, honesty.
2. Knowledge: If a recruiter doesn't understand what you do and what, and why, you want to do next, then forget about working with him because he is not qualified to assist you. Beyond this basic qualifier, it is important that the recruiter you choose has knowledge, and contacts, in your area of specialization: either on their own or through a reputable firm who trains junior and intermediate recruiters. Length of experience shouldn't necessarily be the determining factor in your recruiter selection, although businesses, and business people, have a tendency to use length of experience as a main selling point in working with them. For the most part this may be true because unethical business people, and often their firms, quickly develop a bad reputation and do not stay in business very long. Moreover, an energetic and ethical junior recruiter may work very, very hard on your behalf to establish themselves and a good reputation, while a few highly experienced recruiters can sometimes become jaded and/or burned out (recruiting can be an extremely high stress occupation) and only give minimal effort to your job search
3. Track Record: How successful is your potential recruiter in placing people in situations close to what you are looking for? There are many successful recruiters out there. In itself, that is an important bit of information, but these placements may not be in your area of expertise. However, these recruiters may often have friends, who are very familiar with what you do, and for a finder's fee from the other recruiters, or purely professional courtesy. When I first stated recruiting these recommendations or referrals were relatively rare except if the recruiters operated in different geographic regions. However, today many recruiters make a good part of their income through referrals, usually referred to as splits, to and from other recruiters with another placement firm. This is often beneficial, but make sure that your recruiter gets your prior authorization before forwarding your resume to a "split partner." The increasing specialization and globalization of career opportunities, particularly is the service economy like IT, has contributed to this trend. Finally, finding a recruiter who has exclusive access to a hiring manager or company can be major plus in finding a career enhancing position.
4. Chemistry: As in most areas of human interactions, the chemistry between a recruiter and his client is essential for a satisfying relationship. If you are a "laid back" or deliberative type of person, then a high powered, very aggressive recruiter may not be for you or visa-versa. You might be on such different "wavelengths" that you may come to dread interacting with this person. Remember. there are a lot of recruiters who want your business. Take the time to find someone you feel comfortable working with. If you make a wise decision, your recruiter may evolve into an invaluable long term career asset, finding you future jobs, and even filling your job requisitions if you move into management
5. Source: Today, where an increasing large percentage of personal and social introductions occur over the web 2.0, a major source for finding a recruiter can be found there as well, particularly on Linkedin. Also, job boards like Monster and, my favorite, Dice are a good source for recruiters. However, job boards are quickly losing their drawing power as the job boards lost their drawing power to print advertising before them. However. on a more personal level, for many years it was thought that getting a referral from a friend or trusted associate was the best way to find a recruiter. This may still be the preferred method in some cases. However, unless you have a background similar to the person who referred the recruiter to you, the value of the referral may be negligible. Furthermore, negative chemistry towards the recruiter, and an unrealistic sense of loyalty or obligation to the referring source, may, occasionally, lead to a very negative outcome.
6. Shop Around: Your career is a very critical aspect of your life. If you allow someone to represent you, you should be fairly certain that this person values you as something more than a quick placement commission. To avoid being treated like a commodity, I would recommend that you speak with at least 3 recruiters to feel comfortable that you have found someone to represent your best interests. Next, after careful consideration, I would choose no more than 2 recruiters. If a recruiter senses you will work with anyone, then that could prove to be a disincentive for the recruiter to exert maximum effort on your part. However, if your recruiter(s) don't either get you some interviews or stay in close contact with you within a few weeks, then It may be time to consider other, or additional recruiters.
As stated earlier, finding the recruiter who can most adequately satisfy your short and long term career needs is essential. This recruiter "must have your best interests" as a top priority. Although there has been a major improvement in the quality and legitimacy of recruiting professionals in the last 20 years, there are still shysters out there that should be detected and avoided to avert a potentially disastrous career move. Luckily, the increasingly competitive job market and very cautious employers have made unscrupulous headhunters an endangered species.
So now your concern in working with a recruiter should generally focus slightly less on the recruiter's ethical legitimacy and more on issues related to competency, chemistry, and clientele. Interviews and job offers can often be confusing and inconclusive experiences. A good recruiter, should have the expertise to clarify ad coordinate this crucial situation, leading to a win, win, win, outcome for you, your future employer and you.
1. Trust: As in most areas of human interaction, trust, or a lack thereof, can be a determining factor in successful personal and professional relationships. Without, at least, some initial intuition of trustworthiness, based upon your first impression of a recruiter, I would suggest you find someone else ASAP. When I started recruiting in its earlier, what I like to call pre-professional "wild west days," trust was almost always a concern, using a recruiter could often devolve into a "buyer beware" scenario. Today I think reputation, knowledge, recruiter consistency, ethics and career recommendations, are among key indicators in trusting, and working, with a recruiter. If you have a major negative assessment on any of these issues, then don't select, or fire, a recruiter immediately. To borrow a phrase from one of our favorite cultural icons, some recruiters are "masters in the art of deception." These recruiters should be avoided no matter what "rosy scenario" they paint of the job positions they offer to you. Finally, always be aware that a recruiter, no matter how effective, is paid by the hiring company, which can seriously impact the recruiter's objectivity and, occasionally, honesty.
2. Knowledge: If a recruiter doesn't understand what you do and what, and why, you want to do next, then forget about working with him because he is not qualified to assist you. Beyond this basic qualifier, it is important that the recruiter you choose has knowledge, and contacts, in your area of specialization: either on their own or through a reputable firm who trains junior and intermediate recruiters. Length of experience shouldn't necessarily be the determining factor in your recruiter selection, although businesses, and business people, have a tendency to use length of experience as a main selling point in working with them. For the most part this may be true because unethical business people, and often their firms, quickly develop a bad reputation and do not stay in business very long. Moreover, an energetic and ethical junior recruiter may work very, very hard on your behalf to establish themselves and a good reputation, while a few highly experienced recruiters can sometimes become jaded and/or burned out (recruiting can be an extremely high stress occupation) and only give minimal effort to your job search
3. Track Record: How successful is your potential recruiter in placing people in situations close to what you are looking for? There are many successful recruiters out there. In itself, that is an important bit of information, but these placements may not be in your area of expertise. However, these recruiters may often have friends, who are very familiar with what you do, and for a finder's fee from the other recruiters, or purely professional courtesy. When I first stated recruiting these recommendations or referrals were relatively rare except if the recruiters operated in different geographic regions. However, today many recruiters make a good part of their income through referrals, usually referred to as splits, to and from other recruiters with another placement firm. This is often beneficial, but make sure that your recruiter gets your prior authorization before forwarding your resume to a "split partner." The increasing specialization and globalization of career opportunities, particularly is the service economy like IT, has contributed to this trend. Finally, finding a recruiter who has exclusive access to a hiring manager or company can be major plus in finding a career enhancing position.
4. Chemistry: As in most areas of human interactions, the chemistry between a recruiter and his client is essential for a satisfying relationship. If you are a "laid back" or deliberative type of person, then a high powered, very aggressive recruiter may not be for you or visa-versa. You might be on such different "wavelengths" that you may come to dread interacting with this person. Remember. there are a lot of recruiters who want your business. Take the time to find someone you feel comfortable working with. If you make a wise decision, your recruiter may evolve into an invaluable long term career asset, finding you future jobs, and even filling your job requisitions if you move into management
5. Source: Today, where an increasing large percentage of personal and social introductions occur over the web 2.0, a major source for finding a recruiter can be found there as well, particularly on Linkedin. Also, job boards like Monster and, my favorite, Dice are a good source for recruiters. However, job boards are quickly losing their drawing power as the job boards lost their drawing power to print advertising before them. However. on a more personal level, for many years it was thought that getting a referral from a friend or trusted associate was the best way to find a recruiter. This may still be the preferred method in some cases. However, unless you have a background similar to the person who referred the recruiter to you, the value of the referral may be negligible. Furthermore, negative chemistry towards the recruiter, and an unrealistic sense of loyalty or obligation to the referring source, may, occasionally, lead to a very negative outcome.
6. Shop Around: Your career is a very critical aspect of your life. If you allow someone to represent you, you should be fairly certain that this person values you as something more than a quick placement commission. To avoid being treated like a commodity, I would recommend that you speak with at least 3 recruiters to feel comfortable that you have found someone to represent your best interests. Next, after careful consideration, I would choose no more than 2 recruiters. If a recruiter senses you will work with anyone, then that could prove to be a disincentive for the recruiter to exert maximum effort on your part. However, if your recruiter(s) don't either get you some interviews or stay in close contact with you within a few weeks, then It may be time to consider other, or additional recruiters.
As stated earlier, finding the recruiter who can most adequately satisfy your short and long term career needs is essential. This recruiter "must have your best interests" as a top priority. Although there has been a major improvement in the quality and legitimacy of recruiting professionals in the last 20 years, there are still shysters out there that should be detected and avoided to avert a potentially disastrous career move. Luckily, the increasingly competitive job market and very cautious employers have made unscrupulous headhunters an endangered species.
So now your concern in working with a recruiter should generally focus slightly less on the recruiter's ethical legitimacy and more on issues related to competency, chemistry, and clientele. Interviews and job offers can often be confusing and inconclusive experiences. A good recruiter, should have the expertise to clarify ad coordinate this crucial situation, leading to a win, win, win, outcome for you, your future employer and you.
Monday, May 25, 2009
The Coming IT Jobs Recovery: Who, When,Why?
The current state of the IT job market is, by historical standards, very weak. However, recently there have been a few signs that the situation is improving, with a few healthy companies upgrading the quality of their staffs because of the high quality skills possessed by some of the unemployed. But as is the case in the rest of the economy, the enthusiasm is based mostly on the fact that we went through an almost unprecedented panic phase from October 2008 until March 2009, which appears to have somewhat abated. However,the general unemployment rate has not yet hit bottom, and the estimates of cyclical low point are from 9.5 to 12%. This is well above the current 8.9% with the highest point of unemployment not expected till,at least, the fourth quarter of this year. Our concern here is to further analyze the current employment situation, focusing primarily on the IT related jobs, making some predictions regarding the return of a healthy job market.
Another significant government statistic is the rate of unemployment for college graduates that are currently between 4 to 5%, while high school graduates, or drop- outs, are experiencing rates north of 12%. Of course, these statistics do not reflect the quiet desperation of chronic underemployment, significantly overworked employees, or those individuals who have given up looking for work altogether. Add all these factors together and we can bring the employment misery index to over 20%, which is approaching the 25 to 30% unemployment rate of the great depression. Moreover, this doesn’t even include the majority of the population anxious about their job stability. The panic in the job market is by no means over yet.
IT and related technology sectors, things may not be quite as bad. However, older employees and individuals without degrees are getting decimated by both layoffs and by future prospects. The layoff trend among non degreed IT workers is mirroring the national trend mentioned above, and the situation of older IT employees is being exacerbated by cost cutting and productivity concerns. Underlying this is the continued trend, and possible escalation, of the outsourcing of jobs. However, a mildly positive contrarian indicator, which is at least better than a panic phase, involves the insourcing segment of the job market that is starting to show an initial return to hiring health.
Nevertheless, the technology, and particularly the software/IT related, sector is expected to show a quicker rebound. The arguments here consist of the following: (1), staffing levels in the IT and computer related fields were so reduced during the post “dot.com bomb” period from 2001 to 2005 that they never fully recovered; (2), during this period there was a consolidation of previous products and installations, which only recently led to the potential adoption of new, or at least replacement, IT related products and services, and (3), in a deep recession individual and company productivity improvement is critical, and that IT solutions can accelerate productivity.
So when will the jobs start coming back? Actually in a few areas we are seeing a small pickup in hiring. For example, the Boston and New York financial services sector are seeing some rehiring because of a small increase in their trading and mergers and acquisition business. Also defense IT, which never stopped growing, has seen a mild pick up due to the huge defense budget. However, most companies still have hiring freezes, and there will be more lay-offs, particularly in mid to large sized companies that view “cost cutting,” (a code word often meaning significant lay-offs) as a way to return to profitability. Perhaps the most troubling continued trend influencing the IT, and other, labor markets is the lack of new business formation, which is seen as the “engine” of new job creation. Nevertheless, many companies remain open to hiring what they perceive to be as the ideal job candidate, which for most companies rarely, if ever, occurs.
To speculate on the timing of a broad based pick up in hiring activities, we must consider some employment forecasting indicators. The first is the stock market. Generally, a sustained upturn in the equities market foreshadows an economic pickup by 6 to 9 months. Although it appears this upturn may have begun in April 09, it is not certain that it is sustainable. But given this indicator, it means that the economy may start to experience a small to medium pick-up in the October to January time span. However, based on the severe, systemic, and global nature of this downturn I don’t see a pickup of the US economy till the first quarter of 2010.
If one accepts the hypothesis that a broad based economic pickup will ensue roughly sometime between January to April 2010, then it is typically thought that any meaningful hiring will occur at least six months later. This is due to the company’s general reluctance to begin volume hiring until an economic recovery is firmly in place. This is due primarily to fiscal concerns (e.g., how a new hire impacts the bottom line, the cost of hiring and potentially laying off a new hire…). Prior to this the only serious full time hiring initiatives will generally only involve replacement hiring of key employees due to attrition.
This brings us to the time period encompassing the fourth quarter of 2010 till the first quarter of 2011 for the potential for any significant hiring of full time employees. In my experience as an IT recruiter through five previous recessions (i. e.; 1979-1980, 1982-1983, 1986, 1989-1991, and 2001-2003) the hiring of full time employees has always returned in the September-October time frame or the January to March time frame. This usually is similar to peak hiring periods in a good economy, and involves concerns related to staff planning, budgeting, and periods following end of the year holiday’s and summer vacations. The latter are periods when workers, and people in general, are more likely to consider life a change, including starting a new job, after a period of personal reflection and reassessment that time off allows. Of course for the unemployed, there is no calendar related to starting another job accept as soon as possible
In conclusion, I don’t see a meaningful increase in full time IT hiring until September 2010 at the earliest, and this hiring turnaround may not occur till early 2011 or later. Significant hiring of lower cost, insourced contract employees may commence as early as the beginning of 2010. Next companies that don’t want to increase their payrolls directly will, based on previous recoveries, hire domestic contract employees. This could occur in early to mid 2010. Now the fact that technology and IT related services could be a strong sector might move up the onset of full time hiring to early in 2010. However, the escalation of both insourcing and outsourcing could mean that available jobs to green card holders and, in particular, US citizens could be reduced due to their higher total cost including benefits. Moreover, the constitution of the future IT staffs will probably be younger, degreed, with a higher percentage of individuals with green cards, EAD’s, and H1-B’s. Unfortunately, some of the older and/or non-degreed IT employees may, depending on their skills, find themselves forced out of the IT sector, which many of them helped to create.
There are many factors that could, but hopefully won’t, derail these predictions. These factors include: the huge amount of government spending that could somehow forestall a job recovery due to unmanageable debt; a “W” or “L” shaped recovery that doesn’t offer enough time to start the rehiring process; a decision to make a significant increase in outsourcing; and, finally, an economic recovery that leads to little or no hiring (i.e. the so called “jobless recovery” scenario). Finally, if this has been the most severe economic downturn since, or rivaling, the great depression of the 1930’s, then is it at all reasonable to expect a jobs recovery, when it took over 10 years, and a world war, to lead to an economic and jobs recovery in the 1930’s and 40’s? My view here is that specific economic sector growth capacity potential may play a pivotal role. In Sectors such as IT/technology, health, education and energy may rebound the quickest given their high near to midterm growth potential and government support and incentives. However, the glutted housing and consumer discretionary, plus the struggling automotive, sectors may not regain many jobs for quite some time till demand catches up with supply.
Another significant government statistic is the rate of unemployment for college graduates that are currently between 4 to 5%, while high school graduates, or drop- outs, are experiencing rates north of 12%. Of course, these statistics do not reflect the quiet desperation of chronic underemployment, significantly overworked employees, or those individuals who have given up looking for work altogether. Add all these factors together and we can bring the employment misery index to over 20%, which is approaching the 25 to 30% unemployment rate of the great depression. Moreover, this doesn’t even include the majority of the population anxious about their job stability. The panic in the job market is by no means over yet.
IT and related technology sectors, things may not be quite as bad. However, older employees and individuals without degrees are getting decimated by both layoffs and by future prospects. The layoff trend among non degreed IT workers is mirroring the national trend mentioned above, and the situation of older IT employees is being exacerbated by cost cutting and productivity concerns. Underlying this is the continued trend, and possible escalation, of the outsourcing of jobs. However, a mildly positive contrarian indicator, which is at least better than a panic phase, involves the insourcing segment of the job market that is starting to show an initial return to hiring health.
Nevertheless, the technology, and particularly the software/IT related, sector is expected to show a quicker rebound. The arguments here consist of the following: (1), staffing levels in the IT and computer related fields were so reduced during the post “dot.com bomb” period from 2001 to 2005 that they never fully recovered; (2), during this period there was a consolidation of previous products and installations, which only recently led to the potential adoption of new, or at least replacement, IT related products and services, and (3), in a deep recession individual and company productivity improvement is critical, and that IT solutions can accelerate productivity.
So when will the jobs start coming back? Actually in a few areas we are seeing a small pickup in hiring. For example, the Boston and New York financial services sector are seeing some rehiring because of a small increase in their trading and mergers and acquisition business. Also defense IT, which never stopped growing, has seen a mild pick up due to the huge defense budget. However, most companies still have hiring freezes, and there will be more lay-offs, particularly in mid to large sized companies that view “cost cutting,” (a code word often meaning significant lay-offs) as a way to return to profitability. Perhaps the most troubling continued trend influencing the IT, and other, labor markets is the lack of new business formation, which is seen as the “engine” of new job creation. Nevertheless, many companies remain open to hiring what they perceive to be as the ideal job candidate, which for most companies rarely, if ever, occurs.
To speculate on the timing of a broad based pick up in hiring activities, we must consider some employment forecasting indicators. The first is the stock market. Generally, a sustained upturn in the equities market foreshadows an economic pickup by 6 to 9 months. Although it appears this upturn may have begun in April 09, it is not certain that it is sustainable. But given this indicator, it means that the economy may start to experience a small to medium pick-up in the October to January time span. However, based on the severe, systemic, and global nature of this downturn I don’t see a pickup of the US economy till the first quarter of 2010.
If one accepts the hypothesis that a broad based economic pickup will ensue roughly sometime between January to April 2010, then it is typically thought that any meaningful hiring will occur at least six months later. This is due to the company’s general reluctance to begin volume hiring until an economic recovery is firmly in place. This is due primarily to fiscal concerns (e.g., how a new hire impacts the bottom line, the cost of hiring and potentially laying off a new hire…). Prior to this the only serious full time hiring initiatives will generally only involve replacement hiring of key employees due to attrition.
This brings us to the time period encompassing the fourth quarter of 2010 till the first quarter of 2011 for the potential for any significant hiring of full time employees. In my experience as an IT recruiter through five previous recessions (i. e.; 1979-1980, 1982-1983, 1986, 1989-1991, and 2001-2003) the hiring of full time employees has always returned in the September-October time frame or the January to March time frame. This usually is similar to peak hiring periods in a good economy, and involves concerns related to staff planning, budgeting, and periods following end of the year holiday’s and summer vacations. The latter are periods when workers, and people in general, are more likely to consider life a change, including starting a new job, after a period of personal reflection and reassessment that time off allows. Of course for the unemployed, there is no calendar related to starting another job accept as soon as possible
In conclusion, I don’t see a meaningful increase in full time IT hiring until September 2010 at the earliest, and this hiring turnaround may not occur till early 2011 or later. Significant hiring of lower cost, insourced contract employees may commence as early as the beginning of 2010. Next companies that don’t want to increase their payrolls directly will, based on previous recoveries, hire domestic contract employees. This could occur in early to mid 2010. Now the fact that technology and IT related services could be a strong sector might move up the onset of full time hiring to early in 2010. However, the escalation of both insourcing and outsourcing could mean that available jobs to green card holders and, in particular, US citizens could be reduced due to their higher total cost including benefits. Moreover, the constitution of the future IT staffs will probably be younger, degreed, with a higher percentage of individuals with green cards, EAD’s, and H1-B’s. Unfortunately, some of the older and/or non-degreed IT employees may, depending on their skills, find themselves forced out of the IT sector, which many of them helped to create.
There are many factors that could, but hopefully won’t, derail these predictions. These factors include: the huge amount of government spending that could somehow forestall a job recovery due to unmanageable debt; a “W” or “L” shaped recovery that doesn’t offer enough time to start the rehiring process; a decision to make a significant increase in outsourcing; and, finally, an economic recovery that leads to little or no hiring (i.e. the so called “jobless recovery” scenario). Finally, if this has been the most severe economic downturn since, or rivaling, the great depression of the 1930’s, then is it at all reasonable to expect a jobs recovery, when it took over 10 years, and a world war, to lead to an economic and jobs recovery in the 1930’s and 40’s? My view here is that specific economic sector growth capacity potential may play a pivotal role. In Sectors such as IT/technology, health, education and energy may rebound the quickest given their high near to midterm growth potential and government support and incentives. However, the glutted housing and consumer discretionary, plus the struggling automotive, sectors may not regain many jobs for quite some time till demand catches up with supply.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
The A,B,C,D's of Career Satisfaction
What makes a job meaningful? What keeps an employee from changing jobs or careers? Or even what prevents job burnout? Is it money or status? Money and status are important extrinsic factors indeed. However as the sole career pursuit, money often leads to greed and short term thinking as we have recently seen in the financial services meltdown. Well if extrinsic issues don’t lead to job meaning and satisfaction, then intrinsic factors probably do, like relations with the boss and other employees, training, internal recognition, and creative projects. Here I briefly present what I see as the A, B, C, D’s for a meaningful job; Achievement, Belongingness, Creativity, and Development.
The first element of job satisfaction involves achievement. Here we are referring to the satisfaction gained by doing one’s job well, making contributions to their organizations success, and receiving recognition for above average to superior performance. Achievement can be at the individual, group, or company level. Achievement may occur in a single event or may be ongoing. Both are important. However, a company culture of achievement often leads to ongoing employee satisfaction and company success. This does not mean individual achievement should not be recognized. In fact, it is highly recommended that a high achiever be rewarded if one wishes to maintain his or her services.
The second factor of job satisfaction involves a sense of belongingness with one’s employer. Often this stems from camaraderie with one’s fellow workers, which can result in outside work activities and friendships. Employee sensitive management, particularly with one’s immediate supervisor, is also critical to belongingness. Benefits like spousal maternity leave, sabbaticals, and in house fitness programs enhance belongingness, and display company concern for the wellness of their employers. Union membership, which was once a major source of belongingness, has declined precipitously due to globalization. The once touted employee team concept has not provided the same sense of belonging.
The third factor of job satisfaction is creativity. Creativity in the workplace does not necessarily refer to aesthetic creativity, but more to innovation and originality in any field of endeavor. Placing a high value on creativity, through innovation and originality companies, like Apple Computer, have become extremely successful and very prized places to work. As with achievement, creating a corporate culture of individual and group creativity is the key element in spawning innovative and original products and services. This occurs by providing the management, facilities, incentives, and vision that allow for creativity to unfold. However, it is important to recognize by all concerned that creativity, at its core, is a mindset and a passion that must be nurtured to fully evolve.
The fourth factor of job satisfaction is development. This involves the development of an employee’s new skills and competencies within a specific company, which benefits both career mobility and company growth. MIT dean Lester Thorow stated in his “The Future of Capitalism” that in our increasingly digital economy a primary reason for costly attrition is the lack of training of new skills. Moreover, opportunities for advancement based on achievement and competency must both be available and encouraged to insure company growth and career satisfaction. Management that holds promotions or training back, due to non progressive policies or the short sighted needs of a supervisor, often loose that employee to a competitor; Unfortunately, this attitude could lead to a company’s demise.
In this age of the breakdown of the compact between employee and employer, the notion of lifetime, or even long term employment, is rapidly becoming obsolete. However, if we look at successful companies outside the US, job change and dissatisfaction appears much smaller. However, this does negate the value of American entrepreneurialism, which often leads one to form new companies that provide significant innovation and new jobs. Moreover, if an employer doesn’t offer opportunities for achievement, belonging, creativity, and development, their predictable loss of talent will cause irreparable damage to their reputation. Yet, for the most part we are becoming a free agent nation, where work has become a commodity that goes to the highest, or lowest, bidder. On the surface we tend to see this as an aspect of freedom and progress. However rapid job changes lead to career discontinuity and personal insecurity. Finally, even today many of the most successful and well adjusted individuals have spent long periods, or their entire career, at their current employer.
The first element of job satisfaction involves achievement. Here we are referring to the satisfaction gained by doing one’s job well, making contributions to their organizations success, and receiving recognition for above average to superior performance. Achievement can be at the individual, group, or company level. Achievement may occur in a single event or may be ongoing. Both are important. However, a company culture of achievement often leads to ongoing employee satisfaction and company success. This does not mean individual achievement should not be recognized. In fact, it is highly recommended that a high achiever be rewarded if one wishes to maintain his or her services.
The second factor of job satisfaction involves a sense of belongingness with one’s employer. Often this stems from camaraderie with one’s fellow workers, which can result in outside work activities and friendships. Employee sensitive management, particularly with one’s immediate supervisor, is also critical to belongingness. Benefits like spousal maternity leave, sabbaticals, and in house fitness programs enhance belongingness, and display company concern for the wellness of their employers. Union membership, which was once a major source of belongingness, has declined precipitously due to globalization. The once touted employee team concept has not provided the same sense of belonging.
The third factor of job satisfaction is creativity. Creativity in the workplace does not necessarily refer to aesthetic creativity, but more to innovation and originality in any field of endeavor. Placing a high value on creativity, through innovation and originality companies, like Apple Computer, have become extremely successful and very prized places to work. As with achievement, creating a corporate culture of individual and group creativity is the key element in spawning innovative and original products and services. This occurs by providing the management, facilities, incentives, and vision that allow for creativity to unfold. However, it is important to recognize by all concerned that creativity, at its core, is a mindset and a passion that must be nurtured to fully evolve.
The fourth factor of job satisfaction is development. This involves the development of an employee’s new skills and competencies within a specific company, which benefits both career mobility and company growth. MIT dean Lester Thorow stated in his “The Future of Capitalism” that in our increasingly digital economy a primary reason for costly attrition is the lack of training of new skills. Moreover, opportunities for advancement based on achievement and competency must both be available and encouraged to insure company growth and career satisfaction. Management that holds promotions or training back, due to non progressive policies or the short sighted needs of a supervisor, often loose that employee to a competitor; Unfortunately, this attitude could lead to a company’s demise.
In this age of the breakdown of the compact between employee and employer, the notion of lifetime, or even long term employment, is rapidly becoming obsolete. However, if we look at successful companies outside the US, job change and dissatisfaction appears much smaller. However, this does negate the value of American entrepreneurialism, which often leads one to form new companies that provide significant innovation and new jobs. Moreover, if an employer doesn’t offer opportunities for achievement, belonging, creativity, and development, their predictable loss of talent will cause irreparable damage to their reputation. Yet, for the most part we are becoming a free agent nation, where work has become a commodity that goes to the highest, or lowest, bidder. On the surface we tend to see this as an aspect of freedom and progress. However rapid job changes lead to career discontinuity and personal insecurity. Finally, even today many of the most successful and well adjusted individuals have spent long periods, or their entire career, at their current employer.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Irrational Expectations Vs. Resources for Renewal
If the current downturn in the employment market is part of a usual cyclical downturn of the economy, then we could just wait it out and everything will eventually resolve itself like a happy ending of a classic Hollywood movie. This would exclude the possibility of civil unrest brought on by structural unemployment and underemployment engendered by globalization and related ageism and other forms of employment related discrimination. Moreover, far from the futuristic office parks and glittering commercial skyscapes, many of formerly optimistic citizens are settling for a life of quiet desperation and sharply reduced expectations. Unfortunately, this time it really may be different.
Nevertheless, most Americans, even the unemployed and underemployed, still believe in the “happily ever after myth.” Why not? The citizenry can’t, or won’t, let go, of the notion of American Exceptionalism (i. e.; we are the best in the world in everything we see as important), which may have been the case for a good part of the post WW II period. However, cultural pluralism, market meltdowns and fundamentalism, techno-mania, terrorism and the resulting individual and socio economic fragmentation is making it harder to maintain our delusions of global grandeur and omnipotence
What can we do to stop this slide? Do we have to hit a total socio economic bottom before we start an authentic process of renewal? Catatrophising and all-or-nothing thinking will get us nowhere. And there is too much politically and culturally manufactured fear, particularly in the mass media, to envision quick fixes in the current milieu.
Translated to the area of employment we have to realize that the age of the free lunch has passed us by. Sustained recovery only begins by radically altering the way we view ourselves and our realistic possibilities for our careers and our lives. Strategic, rational, and even critical thinking need to once again begin to guide our actions. In the job arena this might require significant sacrifice to acquire marketable skills and core competencies.
This is particularly the case for unskilled high school graduates and dropouts who experience the highest rates of chronic unemployment and underemployment, which currently approaches fifteen percent plus. It’s not that those resources of renewal aren’t out there for them or all of us; rather we need to develop the motivation and “chutzpah” to go out and get them.
If we are job hunting in IT, or in almost any other field, then we need to focus on the mechanics of what will lead to a successful outcome: Do we have an appropriate skill set for the job we are seeking? Can we write a powerful resume? Do we possess strong interviewing skills? Do we know where and how to find, and research, realistic opportunities? The keys here are flexibility, tenacity, and creativity.
In this unforgiving market we often have to offer value that far exceeds a written job posting, because the competition is so formidable. The employers know that, and in this buyers market for their offerings, they can, and do, often wait for the perfect match. But this perfectionism is often a matter of semi-arbitrary perception. Bottom line; they won’t hire you unless they think you can do the job very well, and you are someone that they would very much like to work with. Given strong skills, attitude, for all intents and purposes, is almost everything if you want a successful job search.
Every day I talk to people, whose skills and/or experience are not compatible with what they want to do. One recent example involves an environmental engineer, with a private sector experience, who has been out of work for nearly a year. He wants a local government job, which he perceives as offering less stress and more job security for himself and his family He has been tenacious in his job search, coming in second in the interviewing process on a few occasions, and having had several interviews in a very tight market. At times he has been quite creative in finding potential positions. His problem is flexibility. Right now local government jobs are relatively scarce and highly political; the few mid to senior level jobs available are going to individuals with substantial experience in that specific sector.
I spent four hours speaking with him about options, but I gave up coaching and advising him because all he wanted was to be a town engineer. His lack of flexibility was crippling his job search. For now he can continue to dream of his ideal job, and there is a miniscule chance he may be successful. His chances would be much greater in a private sector job, but after a few half hearted efforts he exited from that avenue altogether. With his wife’s salary and his extended unemployment benefits he doesn’t see any necessity to change his strategy. I do wish him well, but his unemployment benefits and his wife’s patience, at least for his ideal job search, may soon expire. Still he clings to his own version of the self defined happy ending.
I could offer you several more examples of generally intelligent and rational people, who are conducting ill advised and irrational job searches. Other questionable actions like quitting a secure job in the middle of a near depression with zero prospects, or paying “big bucks” to career advisers and then doing the opposite of what they recommend, just reinforce this troubling trend.
The new world order of easy job searches and unlimited job creation has been moving away from us for nearly a decade in IT, and for more than a quarter century in manufacturing…. Our safety nets are being stretched to the shredding point. The fear that has characterized this tumultuous decade has now set its sights squarely on the diminishing job prospects of the unemployed, underemployed, and the many others who may lose their livelihoods in the months and years to come
However, if we wish to regain our optimism and cherished possibility of upward mobility, then tenacity, flexibility, and creativity, balanced by competency and rationality, is essential. Maybe our days of dream jobs and storybook endings to low stress job searches have passed. Concurrently, the vision of America of what Ronald Regan called “the shining city on the hill’ that the rest of the world sought to emulate has been tarnished as well. But, if we try very hard, we still can have rich and rewarding careers, and will find that our hopes and dreams sometimes can come true. As the cultural Icon Mick Jager once sang: “We can’t always get what we want, but if we try sometimes, we just might find, we get what we need.”
Nevertheless, most Americans, even the unemployed and underemployed, still believe in the “happily ever after myth.” Why not? The citizenry can’t, or won’t, let go, of the notion of American Exceptionalism (i. e.; we are the best in the world in everything we see as important), which may have been the case for a good part of the post WW II period. However, cultural pluralism, market meltdowns and fundamentalism, techno-mania, terrorism and the resulting individual and socio economic fragmentation is making it harder to maintain our delusions of global grandeur and omnipotence
What can we do to stop this slide? Do we have to hit a total socio economic bottom before we start an authentic process of renewal? Catatrophising and all-or-nothing thinking will get us nowhere. And there is too much politically and culturally manufactured fear, particularly in the mass media, to envision quick fixes in the current milieu.
Translated to the area of employment we have to realize that the age of the free lunch has passed us by. Sustained recovery only begins by radically altering the way we view ourselves and our realistic possibilities for our careers and our lives. Strategic, rational, and even critical thinking need to once again begin to guide our actions. In the job arena this might require significant sacrifice to acquire marketable skills and core competencies.
This is particularly the case for unskilled high school graduates and dropouts who experience the highest rates of chronic unemployment and underemployment, which currently approaches fifteen percent plus. It’s not that those resources of renewal aren’t out there for them or all of us; rather we need to develop the motivation and “chutzpah” to go out and get them.
If we are job hunting in IT, or in almost any other field, then we need to focus on the mechanics of what will lead to a successful outcome: Do we have an appropriate skill set for the job we are seeking? Can we write a powerful resume? Do we possess strong interviewing skills? Do we know where and how to find, and research, realistic opportunities? The keys here are flexibility, tenacity, and creativity.
In this unforgiving market we often have to offer value that far exceeds a written job posting, because the competition is so formidable. The employers know that, and in this buyers market for their offerings, they can, and do, often wait for the perfect match. But this perfectionism is often a matter of semi-arbitrary perception. Bottom line; they won’t hire you unless they think you can do the job very well, and you are someone that they would very much like to work with. Given strong skills, attitude, for all intents and purposes, is almost everything if you want a successful job search.
Every day I talk to people, whose skills and/or experience are not compatible with what they want to do. One recent example involves an environmental engineer, with a private sector experience, who has been out of work for nearly a year. He wants a local government job, which he perceives as offering less stress and more job security for himself and his family He has been tenacious in his job search, coming in second in the interviewing process on a few occasions, and having had several interviews in a very tight market. At times he has been quite creative in finding potential positions. His problem is flexibility. Right now local government jobs are relatively scarce and highly political; the few mid to senior level jobs available are going to individuals with substantial experience in that specific sector.
I spent four hours speaking with him about options, but I gave up coaching and advising him because all he wanted was to be a town engineer. His lack of flexibility was crippling his job search. For now he can continue to dream of his ideal job, and there is a miniscule chance he may be successful. His chances would be much greater in a private sector job, but after a few half hearted efforts he exited from that avenue altogether. With his wife’s salary and his extended unemployment benefits he doesn’t see any necessity to change his strategy. I do wish him well, but his unemployment benefits and his wife’s patience, at least for his ideal job search, may soon expire. Still he clings to his own version of the self defined happy ending.
I could offer you several more examples of generally intelligent and rational people, who are conducting ill advised and irrational job searches. Other questionable actions like quitting a secure job in the middle of a near depression with zero prospects, or paying “big bucks” to career advisers and then doing the opposite of what they recommend, just reinforce this troubling trend.
The new world order of easy job searches and unlimited job creation has been moving away from us for nearly a decade in IT, and for more than a quarter century in manufacturing…. Our safety nets are being stretched to the shredding point. The fear that has characterized this tumultuous decade has now set its sights squarely on the diminishing job prospects of the unemployed, underemployed, and the many others who may lose their livelihoods in the months and years to come
However, if we wish to regain our optimism and cherished possibility of upward mobility, then tenacity, flexibility, and creativity, balanced by competency and rationality, is essential. Maybe our days of dream jobs and storybook endings to low stress job searches have passed. Concurrently, the vision of America of what Ronald Regan called “the shining city on the hill’ that the rest of the world sought to emulate has been tarnished as well. But, if we try very hard, we still can have rich and rewarding careers, and will find that our hopes and dreams sometimes can come true. As the cultural Icon Mick Jager once sang: “We can’t always get what we want, but if we try sometimes, we just might find, we get what we need.”
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