These trends require job seekers to be flexible in defining their skills and in figuring out how to sell them, which makes thorough self assessment more important than ever in the process of job hunting. Staying informed about business developments is also more important for job seekers during hard times. Your search strategy should include a plan for keeping up to date by regularly reading a variety of newspapers, periodicals, and books to keep abreast of business news and management fads. As I write, for example. Total Quality Management (TQM) tops the list of "in" business concepts, and people seeking work will find many executives in many organizations eagerly pursuing TQM projects. Being prepared to talk about how you could contribute to such efforts and being generally aware of what TQM signifies can give you an advantage over less aware candidates.
Gathering information diligently and using it imaginatively to develop sales pitches aimed at particular organizations will also give you a competitive advantage in slow times. The more you know, the better able you will be to identify areas of opportunity suited to your background and current career goals. One man I know an editor who was handed a pink slip after the publisher for whom he worked was acquired by a large conglomerate reasoned that collection letters would be needed more frequently as the economy worsened. So, he made himself an expert on this form of correspondence. By spending three weeks doing library research, gathering sample collection letters from friends, and interviewing a variety of experts on collection strategies, he was able to sell himself as a "collections consultant" to several small and mid sized businesses. After six months as an independent consultant, he was offered a permanent position in the newly created corporate communications department of one of his clients.
His experience reveals not only the value of information used imaginatively, but also the rewards of flexibility in charting one's career course. More and more people, some by choice and others by necessity, are beginning to differentiate between paid work and permanent, full time jobs. As traditional mid-level management jobs in traditional career paths become more scarce a well established trend that will probably continue for several years at least more people will have to create a mix of consulting, part time work, and temporary assignments to replace the more traditional jobs they have lost.
For better or worse, much of the work now available lacks the security and perks associated in the past with managerial and professional positions. But then again, the security and perks associated with many jobs have proven illusory. "Lifetime employers" like large commercial banks and big universities are laying off managers, administrators, and professionals in droves, and cost cutting has put an end to many an attractive perk. Even time honored benefits like health insurance and pensions are falling victim to cost reduction and mismanagement. Job seekers able to perceive and adjust quickly to the ever changing realities of the labor market will have a great advantage over people locked into the goal of getting traditional jobs and pursuing once typical career paths.
During hard times, job seekers should also be prepared to spend more time looking for suitable work and to receive more no's before finding a suitable employer who says yes. At the start of your search, figure on spending at least six months looking for the right career move for yourself. During this period, you may take on consulting jobs, part time work, or temporary assignments to supplement your income. But plan to allow yourself at least six months to get your career going again at full speed in a direction that suits your current needs and goals. You may find a great job or launch a new business venture or establish a consulting practice in less than six months, but do not count on it, for one thing, during hard times organizations become more circumspect in making any decisions that involve spending money, which lengthens the decision making process.
For another, hard times generally mean more applicants for each opening, which lengthens the period required to separate the strong candidates from the weaker ones.
Feeling pressured financially and emotionally, some mid-career job changers rush into the first work situation that seems potentially bearable.
In career decisions, however, haste can mean waste and worse. If you do not take the time to assess yourself and to research your options, you may jump, for example, into independent consulting only to discover that you hate working out of your home. Or you may end up working for an organization that reorganizes your new job out of existence within a year or two. Think of six months as the period of product development you owe yourself before reentering a competitive market. The American business community is often criticized for sacrificing long term growth to short term gain. Don't make the same mistake when your career is involved.
Rejection is another force that drives many job seekers to settle for less than a winning move vocationally. Studies of people in sales show that the most stressful part of selling is dealing with rejection day in and day out. When you are the product, a rejection feels even worse than when you are selling a product for someone else. Many job seekers, especially those who have based their self esteem primarily on career success, find repeated rejection or non response during vocational transition extremely painful. Some find the prospect of repeated no's so excruciating that they lower their career expectations primarily to hear someone say, "Yes, we believe you could do this job very well so we want to hire you." In their eagerness for affirmation, they lose sight of their goals and accept positions with little potential for longer term satisfaction.
To avoid settling for less, plan to spend at least six months making a transition don't start out with the probably unrealistic expectation that you will be fully re employed in two or three months. Also, plan to hear and possibly to say "No" a great many times before finding a situation to which both you and a potential employer can enthusiastically say, "Yes!" Some salespeople handle rejections by viewing each no as a step closer to a yes. If past experience suggests they will hear 15 no's for each yes, they see generating a no as bringing them one fifteenth of the way to a yes. Each rejection brings them closer to a sale. Cultivate this attitude in your job search.
