Good times make poor teachers.
When fortune rises, all else –necessity mothering invention, need creating urgency, instinct supporting subsistence – falls, unless, of course, we’re so well disciplined that we override these conditions. But honestly, how many of us are? So, we naturally become comfortable, confident, and complacent. This is generally not when practical learning takes place, learning that’s core to our survival and advancement. However, when challenges arise, our survival and learning mechanisms engage. Let’s apply this to the job market.\
In my working life (post college), I’ve lived through eight recessions of varying severity, five as an employee and three as an independent coach. The last two (2007-09 and 2020) were, as we all painfully remember, the worst.
In retrospect, everything I ever learned about the job market, I learned during a recession. Such as…
1. A new world. None of us knows what the job market will be like a year from now, let alone beyond. Anyone pretending to know is either making it up or really delusional. We can’t even say he’s lying because to lie you first have to know the truth, which we just agreed we won’t know until it shows up. One thing we know, though, is that the job market of the immediate future will be vastly, perhaps unrecognizably, different from today’s, and will work under a different set of rules. The lesson is not to fight them. Learn the new rules and master them, whatever they turn out to be.
2. Ready for anything. Consequently, readiness will be more valuable than expertise as your most important quality. Anyone who’s planning to be in the workforce more than five years needs to be upgrading and updating credentials with degrees, courses, workshops, or other professional development. There’s no choice.
3. Get really good at something. Now that we agree that readiness supplants expertise, develop an expertise in something anyway. We’re not talking about being good at something; we’re talking about being great at it. Irreplaceably great, actually. Then make sure you still follow the advice in point #2, anyway. “Change is the law of life,” said John Kennedy, “and those who look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future.”
4. Networking. The American job market will never again accommodate the passive job seeker. But understand this: the opposite of passive, in this case, is not active. It’s proactive. I’ve been saying this for two decades now, but it gets more carved in stone every year. Targeting companies you’d like to work for and networking into them will account for more than 90 percent of all job landings. But let’s be clear about one thing: if you get into networking mode only when you’re job hunting, you may as well not bother. Remember: A.B.C. – Always Be Connecting.
5. Your career will last how long, exactly? Whatever you thought would be the end of your career, think again. In my father’s generation, almost everyone retired at 65. In your generation, almost no one will. Unless social security eligibility is purposely lowered (which is being discussed, but I wouldn’t bet on it), it will continue to rise. That, combined with financial setbacks most people have suffered in this and the previous recessions, add up to greater need to work longer. With more jobs becoming white collar (less physically taxing work), that will make it more feasible, provided (of course) we all don’t forget point #1 above. Plan accordingly but don’t go into denial about this.
When I was a kid, we had a cherry tree in our back yard. I’d go up there with an empty bag and come down with a couple pounds of cherries. You know what I learned from that? The sweetest fruit was always on the high branches and out on the limbs. It was a lot of work and risky, but the rewards were there.
Recessions and cherries, it turns out, are good teachers.
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October 01, 2022 at 12:00PM
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Everything I Ever Learned About The Job Market … - Forbes
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