Performance, in the new workplace, is the name of the game. Corporate managers call it productivity, one person doing the work formerly done by two or three. While a person must perform at an exceedingly high level, it is entirely possible, indeed highly probable, that the person is underemployed, because the jobs they are doing may not match with their intrinsic strengths.
Keeping your eye on the next promotion is not the answer. Marketing yourself for the right position, the one that matches your strengths and gives you the greatest probability of job success, career control, and making an impact, is the only true solution for underemployment.
Marketing yourself doesn't mean endlessly parading your list of credentials and accomplishments to the world at large. It doesn’t mean constantly sending your resume out either. It means continually refining your New Résumé, and letting other key people know about your strengths and how they can add value to others.
You need to keep potential clients informed of your significant accomplishments and how they can be applied to meeting their needs. You must cultivate and maintain an active network, inside and outside of your profession.
You need to be continuously networking in a purposeful way. This means you must be continually building knowledge networks. This is very different from handing out business cards or accumulating email addresses at business or association meetings. Good networkers are "wired" into their networks. They are connected to a broad range of individuals and interests outside their professional field boundaries. Networkers cultivate relationships with people who know how to get things done. In doing so they are connected to people they can approach for information, referrals, or work assignments.
Not everyone is comfortable in face-to-face networking situations. They learn to develop alternative networking strategies. In the process they become known as experts in their particular field. They write articles for trade magazines, speak at professional events, set up their own Web pages, or chair professional conferences or meetings.
There is nothing more important to busy potential clients or employers than hard information that they can use and the people who can provide that information are of extreme value to them. You want to be one of those people, don’t you? Networking is about a lot more than just "schmoozing.
Develop long-term relationships with people based upon your ability to share and access knowledge will help you greatly in your career growth. Many people who suffer from underemployment do so because of their inability to access and utilize personal networks.
Since you will be moving back and forth between different employers in numerous job/career changes, you may well find yourself working again for a previous employer. Treat everyone with whom you work--whether a boss, coworker, customer, or supplier--as a potential client and network partner.
In our next article we will explore the apparent paradox, you must do what you are and be what you aren’t.
