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.
