[Online Exclusive] Career Development in America: Two Perspectives

Buried by Career Anachronisms?

By Sheryl Spanier, MS/CMF

Have you ever, in the process of doing a mundane task, gotten a sudden blast of insight?

The other day I decided to clean out the drawer in my night table. It had become a catch all for anything I thought I might need in the middle of the night, anything I didn’t know what to do with, and a repository for anything I needed to tidy up in the face of company.

I found six bookmarks.

I read my tablet almost exclusively now. No more heavy, dust-collecting, guilt-producing magazines and books piled high on my night stand and desk. I used to love books. Still do, but in a different form. Don’t need bookmarks though!

Got me thinking: What else am I hanging on to that no longer has a use? What notions, activities or belongings am I hanging on to?

And then I started thinking about how that relates to my practice as a career management consultant. My clients are weighed down by expectations and disappointments based on career “bookmarks.” Some are still holding on to a belief that if they just do more of what used to work, they will succeed as in the past. Not true!

Here are just a few changes:

• Career ladders and five-year plans have been replaced by flexible, opportunistic, synchronistic, risky moves, portfolio careers and detours
• Standard resumes focused on past achievements, produced on heavy stock and sent to recruiters now are trumped by a compelling online identity, crisp branding and a relevant unique narrative
• A multitude of long face-to-face lunch information meetings are converting to quick connections via Twitter and LinkedIn, IMs, emails and Skype calls
• A career path of progressive positions and secure employment is giving way to entrepreneurial thinking
• Waiting for the “right opportunity” to be presented make less sense than creating your next gig based on marketplace needs

If you are burdened by a career challenge and keep looking in that drawer full of outdated, outmoded and useless tools, replace them with some of these up-to-date alternatives.

Sheryl Spanier’s background in career counselling/coaching spans education, public service, executive career services and individual practice. In her over 30 years in the field, she has worked globally, as a practitioner and market leader for four top consulting firms as well as founding her own firm, focusing on leadership and professional level clients. A founding member of ACPI (formerly IACMP), she served on the Board for 10 years and is now an ICCI Board Governor. She publishes broadly, is often quoted in the media and has published a career series, NoTime4Theories.

The “Why” Behind Continued High Unemployment in America

By Dr. David C. Miles

In the United States, for the first time in more than 70 years, there are and will be significantly more people seeking work than there are open positions available. I expect this reality to continue for at least five more years – probably longer. Seven critical factors are driving this trend:

1. Longer life spans. People are living longer. The long-held notion of retiring at 65 has become irrelevant; people will continue working into their late 70s and even their 80s.
2. Expanding technological capability. Technology has eliminated many mundane, repetitive positions. Increasingly, everything is becoming automated, and this extends far past entry-level and low-level jobs.
3. Enhanced robotics and automated manufacturing. Higher-end technological innovation is replacing the need for human intervention. From computers to home appliances to automobiles, we are progressing rapidly to a true plug-and-play economy.
4. Higher birthrate. An exploding birthrate is adding a massive number of applicants to the country’s employment pool, particularly among the Millennials (people born after 1986).
5. Unrestrained immigration. Rising numbers of immigrants – who often accept basic jobs at the lowest pay rate – are adding to the job squeeze. Domestic job seekers who might have obtained their first toehold on the corporate ladder are less likely to do so today.
6. Separation of job categories. We are seeing a greater divide between jobs requiring “knowledge” and those needing “basic skills”. Many people’s outdated skills aren’t relevant anymore, leaving these workers with nowhere to go.
7. Outsourcing. With both manufacturing and knowledge work being outsourced, workers are now competing globally with workers accepting substantially lower wages.

These seven factors represent a “perfect storm” in the United States for workers 30 to 50 years old as well as people who wish to see what opportunities might be available.

Dr. David Miles is the Chairman of The Miles LeHane Companies, and author of The Four Pillars of Employable Talent and Building Block Essentials.