Career Control II

 

Actively taking control of your career means that you must step back from the frenzy of daily business and reflect on what you are doing, why you are doing it, whether it meets your short- and long-term needs, and if it engages your personal strengths on a regular basis. It means taking the long view of your career, rather than only taking your "career temperature" when you think you have a fever. [It’s not about your job or career; it’s about your life.]

There are quite a few strategies that can improve your economic prospects for the future:

1.      Ensure Your Employability

If you lost your main source of income tomorrow, could you find an alternate source to replace it? To survive this scenario you must be able to evaluate the value of your strengths--not just by the standards set by your current employer, but by wider industry and professional standards.

Start by describing one important thing you have learned over the past six months and one that you will be acquiring in the next. Begin to actively pursue learning and development opportunities, including ones that will stretch you. The more you learn, the more options you have.

Don’t be immobilized by fear. Develop your strengths. They are portable from job to job and from field to field. Nothing is more tragic than to hear a person describe himself in terms of his former job. “I was a lathe operator.” And, now that the factory is closed there are no more jobs for lathe operators. The individual who defined him (or her) self in terms of their former job is in trouble. If the lathe operator could think of himself in terms of his ability to measure precisely, to operate high speed precision cutting tools, to perform intricate and delicate work, then he would recognize strengths that are needed elsewhere and not universally held by others.

 2. Create a Fallback Position

Reeducation is not always the key. Going back to school, especially if you are in your 40s or 50s may be a huge waste of time. Becoming proficient in a new field at a level where you can replace your former salary, if it depends on the acquisition of new skills may cost much more than it will pay. It takes ten years to become a top performer in a new field. When you add the cost of the schooling and the ten years at sub-par pay, you may never achieve a break even or go ahead position.

A better position is to look for similar skill or talent sets in different fields and apply your well developed strengths there. Today it is critical to have multiple options, multiple avenues, and multiple roles. If you only see yourself, for example, in the role of an employee, your work options are significantly more limited than if you understand how your skills can be applied in different types of employment relationships in different sectors and industries. Falling back on your strengths means that you can equally see yourself performing with your strengths as a contract worker, a freelance consultant, or a small-business owner, even if these were not your first choice career roles. You must be willing to redefine the way in which you work, and your relationship to potential employers (purchasers of your skills and knowledge), to ensure your future employability. This means developing a resilient, strengths-based, mind-set.

 

Next, let’s look at career resiliency .