No, I’m not talking about my house or my backside. I’m talking about the word I’ve heard and have been using with my clients that I never imagined I would use—it’s okay to “settle” for less! In the old days, the days where jobs were easier to come by and people could hold out for their “dream” job, I would rarely encourage people to “settle” or take a job just to take a job. With the economic downturn, employers becoming lean and mean, the job search process becoming longer and tougher, I don’t encourage my clients to turn down a job offer when it isn’t in their area of interest or the “dream” match. If it means they keep their house or car and have to work a job that may not be the best match, I vote with keeping the house and paying the bills. I don’t like it but I like even less the idea of my clients going deeper in debt while they wait.

So what can we do to keep the dream alive when the client may have to take a survival job?

• Help clients discover positive support groups to join.
• Encourage them to engage in some type of healthy activity that allows them to give back or help others.
• Do things to stay healthy—it’s tough to job search and maintain employment when you’re sick.
• Hold them accountable for their job search and don’t let them slide just to be nice.
• Discover ways to help them think outside of their box or industry.
• Tap into other agencies that can help them retrain or go back to school. There’s pockets of money out there for people to return to school. Find them.
• Teach them how to use LinkedIn or other networking sites that can link them with industries or people that can help them discover job leads.
• Help them identify their network. They may think they don’t have one, but they do.
• Teach them how to use their network.

One last thought, maybe “settling’ can actually turn into a dream job. If clients take a “settle” job, help them see the positives in the job and how they are gaining new skills that will make them more employable when their industry recovers and things turn around—as they will.

What are you doing to help clients get through these tough times?

Photo by Bernard Pollack

]]> http://www.worknet-international.com/WorkNET/settling/feed/ 0 http://www.worknet-international.com/WorkNET/career-business-changes/ http://www.worknet-international.com/WorkNET/career-business-changes/#comments Wed, 24 Jun 2009 12:38:03 +0000 Debra Angel http://www.worknet-international.com/WorkNET/?p=974 Although our goal remains the same, our business changes in a recession. We are inundated with new customers who have recently been made redundant. Many are the long-term employed who have not looked for work in years. They are unsure where to look or how to use their transferable skills to prove they are an asset in a new field. They are often angry, frightened and overwhelmed by their situation. Yet to be hired, they must project a positive confident attitude.

Although our goal remains the same, our business changes in a recession. We are inundated with new customers who have recently been made redundant. Many are the long-term employed who have not looked for work in years. They are unsure where to look or how to use their transferable skills to prove they are an asset in a new field. They are often angry, frightened and overwhelmed by their situation. Yet to be hired, they must project a positive confident attitude.

In a recession employers hire differently. With a high unemployment rate, employers can afford to screen people out for minor issues, so it’s no wonder that even those who would normally get jobs quickly are struggling. The generic pitches that have worked in the past don’t work now – to be hired job seekers must use new techniques which allow them to stand out from the crowd. Also, in tough times, employers hesitate to advertise in the open market for fear of being inundated with resumes that are costly to sort through. The good news is that even in this tough economy there are still thousands of jobs available, but they remain unseen in the hidden market. In this hidden market, traditional tools like resumes and applications are largely ineffective. In fact, even in the open market over 90% of resumes and applications are screened-out before the interview. Job seekers must be taught to use “side doors” in order to get direct access to the people with the power to hire.

Providing our new customers with these insights early in their job search, plus giving them new tools and practical techniques will help them find employment faster. It will also give them hope, and return their confidence so that they can project themselves as a positive resource the employer needs. From the employer’s perspective, it will allow them easier-accesses to perspective employees who can articulate how they can help make their company successful.

Photo by Ed Yourdon

In a recession employers hire differently. With a high unemployment rate, employers can afford to screen people out for minor issues, so it’s no wonder that even those who would normally get jobs quickly are struggling. The generic pitches that have worked in the past don’t work now – to be hired job seekers must use new techniques which allow them to stand out from the crowd. Also, in tough times, employers hesitate to advertise in the open market for fear of being inundated with resumes that are costly to sort through. The good news is that even in this tough economy there are still thousands of jobs available, but they remain unseen in the hidden market. In this hidden market, traditional tools like resumes and applications are largely ineffective. In fact, even in the open market over 90% of resumes and applications are screened-out before the interview. Job seekers must be taught to use “side doors” in order to get direct access to the people with the power to hire.

While WorkNet International provides seminars that provide practical and proven methods of assisting job seekers in this current job market, over the next 2 posts I will outline 4 keys that unlock side doors so your candidates can stand out from the crowd.

Photo by Metro Centric

But it made me wonder, as way to many things do, if when we are in difficult times we grab hold of what we know works, draw from the same good old power supplies, and keep pushing and recycling those rather than look for new solutions? So, in this time are we locking down are we maybe not thinking as creatively as we could. Just a thought.

These sites however, were the things that caught my particular attention most fully this week:

Effective networking – Although aimed at women this has some great networking tips for anyone

When you feel like a job search failure -  Nothing new here but a nice summary

Recession Update – A group of journalists started this site as a form of moral support for those jobsearching in this recession. Some info, more laughs, but these stats were new to me.

Employment Myths – Good response to some myths of job searching in recession floating around

Photo by Heather Kennedy

FedEx Office have announced that on March 10, 2009 FedEx Office locations will print up to 25 copies of an individual’s resume for free.

Is it just a promotional tool as most people either have access to employment center resources or can already afford this themselves? Perhaps, but it does offer a free service that you might as well take advantage of and even if it’s motivation is simply promotional, it reinforces that a theme in marketing and service provision at the moment is job searching in a recession.

Full Details at: http://news.van.fedex.com/freeresumeprinting

Photo by Gudmundur D. Haraldsson

by Karl Parkinson

Despite the daily reports of a country in crisis, the recession seems to be having less of an impact on certain aspects of UK PLC, particularly the IT industry. Whereas many markets were overstretched before the recession kicked in, the IT industry was desperately short of suitable applicants, with over 150,000 jobs being advertised per quarter – a sign of a massive skills shortage in this buoyant industry. Although the marketplace has contracted slightly, that shrinkage has been relative and IT is still a robust industry with growth forecasts of 2-2.5% per year. For people with the right IT qualifications and skills-sets, this means that the recession could almost pass them by unnoticed.

Programmers in particular are still in demand, especially those with qualifications and experience in .net, C# and PHP, whilst demand for temporary workers with CNC programming skills is high. C# and .net skills are used for building Windows applications, while PHP is a website programming language. As businesses realise that a high Internet profile is vital to reach an international marketplace, many companies are revamping websites to introduce search engine optimisation (SEO) techniques into their profiles and gain a greater number of online ‘hits’ by increasing their presence on the major search engines. The vast majority of businesses use Windows based technology, so programmers that can work on these systems are guaranteed to be gainfully employed most of the time.

When the http://dot.com bubble burst in 2001, IT was considered to be the ‘bad guy’ of the marketplace, and was seen more of an expense to a business rather than a strategic advantage. Now with a much more stable Internet marketplace that acts more as a shop window for real (rather than virtual) companies, business-based IT strategies are once again being heralded as not just a strategic advantage but an absolute necessity.

The short-term contract market is particularly strong during a time of economic downturn as companies downsize their full-time workforce to survive the worst of the recession but still need IT consultants and maintenance contractors on a regular basis. Although the number of jobs being advertised has declined the demand hasn’t, and industry professionals see this lack of advertising as an indication that IT specialists with established reputations are being headhunted by companies rather than finding work through applying for advertised positions. The growth of Internet business networking sites also means that businessmen and women can ‘cherry-pick’ the best consultants via electronic means rather than through traditional advertising techniques. Online sites that carry CVs and biographies are also becoming a dominant factor, allowing those looking for IT specialists to select the best candidates based on a far more specific set of criteria.

The most important thing for anyone working in the IT field is to ensure that their skills-sets are as up to date and as comprehensive as possible. Continuous personal development has become much more important in the last few years, and those who constantly update their skills and knowledge are far more likely to be attractive employment propositions to a market that can be exceptionally demanding. The IT sector is a fluid and constantly evolving marketplace that seems to bounce back from recession and back into growth far more quickly than other industries. It also transcends international boundaries and good IT specialists can certainly have the pick of the best positions, not just in the UK but all over the world.

Karl has over 40 years of experience in the IT Careers Industry and is Chairman of Computeach, which provides innovative and blended learning solutions to a wide range of customers.

Republished with Permission

Photo by Dean Johnson

We all know that the amount of information available is far greater than we can currently process, especially if we plan to also use that information, and so my hope is that by providing a small stream of articles from the torrent of possibilities that this blog will be a go to to keep you in touch without the burden of undiluted information overload.

So without further ado…This week, this year for that matter, has had two definite themes emerge. The first is the effects of recession on jobs and there has been an increase in news articles discussing job fairs, organisations offering assistance, etc. For those who have actually offered advice the key word has undoubtedly been “Networking”, with many blogs and twitters offering advice in this area. We all know networking is important for our job seekers and by no means a new concept for the experienced and successful career developer so the most obvious reasons why this is occuring would be:

1. In a recession, open market jobs are significantly reduced and as such hidden market options such as networking come to the fore.

2. Due to the downturn in the global workforce more experienced, educated and employment savvy job seekers are now in the market and while many could still benefit from interview advice, career path revitalization, etc. networking is a proven way of getting quick results while still keeping the candidate active, motivated and on the move.

Here’s my list of the best articles/blogs that caught my eye as interesting or useful this week:

Career Advancement in times of Recession – (Australian Source – Australia hasn’t seen the impact hit as hard as in other countries)

How Social Networking Sites can derail Your Job search – I’ll most probably write an article myself on this as well as the benefits that traditionally are missed through social networking opportunities in the near future.

College Job Fairs cater to Various Audiences – Discusses how due to recent events the audience of job fairs has become more diverse.

8 Free Office Applications for Job Seekers Who Can’t Afford New Software – Money can be tight when job searching but there are many open source free business options. This wouldn’t be my favourite list of tools, but it may get you started as options to offer your job seekers.

10 Career in Demand in 2009 – There are a number of these lists currently circulating. The fields missing in this list that occur in most others is education, teaching and training.

Jobless Turning to Coaches, Resume Writers in Big Numbers – The paradox of our line of work is when everyone else is finding it difficult we have more work to do.

Photo by Ed Yourdon

Technorati Tags:
blogs, information, job fairs, networking, news, recession, themes
Add to: | Technorati | Digg | del.icio.us | Yahoo |