Goal of the Site

Welcome-The Career Makeover Workshop is an evolving passion and topic for me. This blog will assist people that are looking to gain stability in their current jobs, help them to earn promotions, and transform their careers into one where others are envious.

This blog is for people wanting to learn what a career makeover is, why it is needed, and how to complete one using a contingency plan. Recent graduates, people with stalled careers, Gen X and Baby Boomers are part of the audience I hope to capture over time.

Dedication, happiness, and stability don't have to be a thing of the past. Lets achieve these things together! I hope you enjoy this blog.

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Life’s Hard Professional Lessons

http://www.freep.com/article/20120825/BUSINESS06/308250030/Laid-off-people-get-jobs-paying-less


The following link to the Detroit Free Press article, in the Saturday, August 25th, 2012 edition, is a great supportive piece stressing the importance of a career makeover. Career makeovers should be done using a contingency plan which is a fancy way of saying plan your future and develop alternative career plans in case current ones don’t work out.  The necessity that we take a stand and map our future can be communicated by looking up Michigan’s July unemployment rate. The Bureau of Labor Statistics tells us that it is 9.0% (http://www.bls.gov/web/laus/lauhsthl.htm, August 17, 2012). Employees are far from secure in this market, and organizations are continuously changing their plans with new processes, new ways of incorporating technology into our lives, mergers and acquisitions, and larger companies purchasing smaller ones. None of this is wrong because organizations need to extend their career lives and so do we.
Career makeovers do not necessarily mean we are changing jobs or organizations. It can, however, please note that it also means that we are trying to make ourselves more marketable and stable in our current company. One way to help avoid what the Free Press article is telling readers is to ask for training in other departments, in other skills within our own department, or on another shift. Receiving this kind of continuing education adds depth to our skills we can offer and makes it hard for employers to shut us out. It also is a message that you’re willing to never tell them NO! I recently had a student mention that she has never been laid off, and when I asked her how this was possible she said I never told my employers no. I received the training asked of me, pursued some education offered by them, and did any job asked of me. Hard to turn away an employee like this even if drastic changes are made by the organization.
Another way to help avoid being laid off and then receiving a job that pays less is start branching yourself out. Pursue other interests while working at your current organization. Be careful, I’m not suggesting creating a conflict of interest so keep all lines of communication open with your employer, let them know what you’re doing and why. What I mean by pursuing other interests while keeping your current job is volunteer your time, be creative in spare time, or work part time in another field. The thing that I do, for example, is work as an analyst for a wonderful company, I’m perfectly happy in this position but I also teach  part time, and have created this blog both of which help me to add new skills which can help my organization and me. Adding new skills keeps you fresh as tenure is gained. It also helps you add a new job quicker, perhaps, at a pay rate equal to what you earn now if you find yourself unemployed.
As I read this Free Press article I realized that I lived it once about 10 years ago. I can write about career makeovers, because I had to develop one, because at one time I became stale to my organization. Our philosophies of how things should get done became different, technology changed and with it my job responsibilities did too. I couldn’t keep up with their demands but others could and they were fitting in better. I wasn’t going to school and wasn’t requesting training. I became a stale component to them, and their solution was to pay me 30 days to leave the company to look for another job. Talk about reality setting in, I had to scramble for a new job quickly because I had no other marketable skills, an undergraduate degree that became useless for my career path, and no other additional interests that I could fall back on. I became obsolete which was an awful feeling and it was my fault. I did receive a job within that 30 days, something I’m proud of, but I was being paid significantly less than at my previous job. I had to start over and rebuild, a process that took me nearly 10 years to accomplish. That served as a wakeup call that I could never be caught flat-footed again.
It’s our responsibility to remain marketable, offer new skills, and add depth to our skill base for our employers so please think of ways to accomplish this so you can help avoid the being a laid off person that gets hired for less money.



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