Your Job or Career in Tough Times [Feb 26 e-Column]

Are the tough economic times making you nervous about your job? It is for many.

But what can you do about it? Ok, so here are 3 things you can do – or at least start thinking about – in order to create more security for you in insecure times. And we’re talking career here, jobs, employment.

1. Market your self better. Let me translate: have clearly in mind and communicate unmistakably what benefits you provide an employer. Make it concise. Give rock solid examples of how you made things better. Focus not on you, but on how an employer is better off by having you around – what problems do you solve?

Just on this … note from employers: “don’t make us think so hard, ok?”

Also … what new avenues of ‘getting the word out’ can you use? Instead of just applying for job online or via newspapers, what else can you do? Can you innovate, be bolder? Look for ways. You’ll find them.

2. Be flexible. Employers are also feeling the pinch. They don’t like the risk of getting you on board and they you turn out to be just another ‘bum’ on a seat wanting your paycheck come hell or high water at the end of the month.

Yet still they need to do business. So they need good people. Can you offer yourself on a more flexible basis – ie not as a permanent employee. Perhaps as a contractor on a part time basis. Can you offer your services to more than one company at the same time? This way you absorb some of the risk and if you do it right – ie not as a desperate measure to try to land the job, but as a well planned strategy – you’ll end up with more work.

3. Be an entrepreneur. Can you start your own business? Can you work toward it? What gaps in the market do you see? What have you got (experience, skills, knowledge, qualifications) that other businesses or people need? Keep that in mind. You’ll start thinking of things as you go. Make a list. Get your mind in gear. That’s where it starts. Start it.

I get a number of e-mails from people wanting to exit their small business and enter the traditional job market again – they’re looking for the stable, big company job again. My heart sinks. They may find a job like that. But it will take considerable time and effort and their search will likely demoralize and frustrate them. It may be the better option to focus on improving their business.

Of course, good sense must prevail – but wanting that “stable, secure, well paying, big company job” sometimes isn’t where ‘good sense’ starts in this kind of market – especially if all ‘eggs’ are placed in that basket. A more entrepreneurial way of thinking is better (although persisting with a bad business idea is not a good idea!)

It’s good advice.

And one more thing – arrived in my inbox too late to include in my weekly e-mail – but it fits really well here – it’s a quote:

“The money I have is in direct proportion to the value I’ve given to others. The more I give of myself, incredibly, the more economic power comes my way.”

Tod Barnhart, Author

So good job hunting lesson here: “What value am I providing?” If we take this approach – focussing on how we can help employers with the real problems they have, if we provide real solutions – then all we need to add is making that real clear in our CV, interviews, etc.

Heard the one about the Irishman? [Feb 5 e-Column]

Hi – Funny story – some friends of ours spent some time living in Ireland, in a small town somewhere. So, we wanted to know – y’know, “are the Irish really as Irishman-like as all the Englishman, Scotsman, Irishman jokes make out”?

Not exactly, they said. But they do look at things in a funny way sometimes. Like – if you’re walking in the street and you stop someone to ask directions to a place, they’ll say something like, “sure, but I wouldn’t start from here.”

Funny, but think about it: frequently when we want to get somewhere (usually fast) we find ourselves in a less than desirable starting point. It’ll be simpler and easier to get there from somewhere else.

Maybe you’re looking for a new, better job. But if you’re hanging on to ‘where you are’ – clinging to old ways of doing things, fear of being a bit bolder, fear of chasing new exciting horizons, beliefs that you “can’t” or “don’t have what it takes” – then it’s true – don’t “start from here”.

Many of us get caught up in the ‘rut’ of life – doing things the same old way. But just last week had an e-mail from a client and Career&Success community member. And she’s done something new. Despite having been ‘safe’ in a largish company as their IT Manager for a long time she feels like fresh challenges. But she can’t afford to just resign, and as long as she’s in a job, it’s like she doesn’t have time to really focus on getting that new job.

So here’s what she’s done: resigned, and negotiated a contract where she does her old job but not as a permanent employee. This way she’ll have the flexibility to explore new horizons and still have an income. It’s similar to what I did when I started my business. I negotiated a 3 day work week. It was good – it pushed me in the right direction.

Interesting huh? But you may ask:

“Isn’t it risky?” What isn’t? Think you’re really so safe in your safe job? You’re not. But taking a risk, deciding to take control, taking definite steps, taking action, learning, facing the challenge, thinking more as an entrepreneur – now those are skills that when you develop them, will help you be as ‘safe’ as is possible in this market.

On my new website – old website, with new content, look and structure – there are 8 main pages (if you’re reading this on my blog – check the left column), each featuring a key element of a successful job search. And #1 is, “Start Here (or Else!)”. We can choose to do things the same old way, with the same old mindset – and suffer the usual, mediocre or downright pathetic results (the “or Else!” bit). Or we can choose to be smarter.

This page contains some valuable principles that really should be the foundation of your job search (will be adding to it regularly). It’ll be good for you to absorb them and think of how you can put them to work. Hope it helps. Check it out now and later.

On a Personal Note:

Mother in law back on her feet after hip replacement op. Not home yet though. Old age sucks. Had my Dad at the doctor on Saturday and again Saturday night to deal with some crisis (which shall remain confidential – believe me you don’t want to know.) But at the other end of the spectrum – there are our kids – 6 and almost 4 – fresh, energetic, indestructible! Seeing them run around makes me want to be alive and to be able to enjoy running around with them. (And am getting inspiration to get back in that kind of shape from the resources posted up at Career&Success.)

That’s it. All the best.
Gerard le Roux
CV Writer and Job Search Coach
www.jobsearching.co.za