There is a lot to be said for stability and security in a career. After all, there is a certain degree of comfort and relaxation in knowing that you are in a job that you can keep for as long as you want it and that you will have a steady paycheck coming in until you retire. Maybe it's not your dream job, but the familiarity with it and your expertise in doing it offers a low or no stress environment. Maybe it doesn't give you the rewards that you thought you would receive when you started on this career path years ago, but it could be a lot worse.
Here's some news...it very well could get a lot worse. If you are in a position with any institution in the private sector in today's environment, you are not in nearly as stable an environment as you may think. Capitalism is a brutally efficient system for rewarding the innovators and casting aside those who think things will always be as they are now.
It has been a common cliché for a long time now, but we really are in a world economy, and because of the tremendous advances in communications technology and the ability to move things...almost anything...to somewhere else in the world quickly and inexpensively, no industry and no company is assured of staying in business or maintaining their position within their industry.
It used to be that graduates from the local schools competed with other graduates from the same or surrounding schools for jobs in the area. There is still some degree of that, but it is rapidly disappearing. Why? Because more and more jobs that used to require being on-site at an office or manufacturing facility can now be done remotely from just about anywhere in the world. It is just as easy for an architect in Mumbai, India to design your house and send the plans to your local contractor as it is for another architect down the street from you to do the same thing.
It is not only a possibility, but a promise that someone, somewhere is working on a way that your job can be eliminated. It's nothing personal, it's just the efficient market system at work, and the most efficient companies that can operate at the lowest cost will always win in the long run. Do you want examples? Here are two: Wal Mart and Southwest Airlines. Both companies are their industry leaders in low-cost operations.
So what is the take-away from this realization? It is simply this...there is absolutely no assurance that your job will still be there tomorrow. Just as it is always a good idea to have some money saved for a rainy day, it is also advisable to have a Plan B in place if your Plan A disappears.
There are many experts out there who say that we live in a world today where those who are starting their careers will have eight to eleven jobs in their working life. A few others predict even more than that.
A good place to start getting ready is to do an objective assessment of your skills that would be valuable and transferable to another organization if your job disappeared tomorrow. We specialize in helping people identify just what those skills are and putting them in a document that can help you market yourself most effectively if the need or desire to do so occurs.
Ken Murdock
New Wave Resumes
http://www.newwaveresumes.com
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