You may have seen the news story. A teen was recently found in New York City with no memory of her name or personal history. Her amnesia was profound. Happily, however, the story ends well, as a CNN viewer recognized the girl’s photo and identified her as a missing person from Oregon. She’s now on her way to being reunited with her family.

But think about what it would be like to be in her situation. Not knowing who you are. Unable to remember anything that’s important about you or to you. It would be a horrible even desperate condition. Without our self-identify, we are … well, that’s the point—without our self-identity, we aren’t.

Which is why I am astonished at how many people willingly subject themselves to “career amnesia.” They invest thirty, forty, fifty years of their life in a career without knowing what their true talent is or what they have the potential to do with their work. According to a recent poll, an astonishing 88% of Americans daydream at work about quitting their jobs to do something else, something more meaningful and rewarding to them. They don’t forget who they are; they never figure it out.

How do we fall into such a trap? Many of us graduate from college and head off into the workforce without having spent a credit hour on the tough subject of ourselves. So, what happens? We fall into a career field, work at it diligently and eventually acquire a degree of expertise in accomplishing the work involved. But here’s the rub: competence isn’t talent. We can do a job well, but if it doesn’t thrill or challenge us, we will never express and experience the best in us.

On the other hand, many of us believe we should work at our passion. We read all the books and listen to the gurus who tell us we should do what we love to do. And then reality sets in. We may want to write the great American novel, but Hemingway has nothing to worry about. So, what happens? We convince ourselves that work is a four letter word. It is a demeaning and depressing passage, and the best we can hope for is enough of a salary to support the enjoyable parts of our lives.

These kinds of experience are common in America today, and they are symptoms of career amnesia. Many of us are standing on a corner in New York City with absolutely no sense of who we are or were meant to be. And that’s a tragedy. Because we all have a gift, an identity—an inherent talent. It is not, however, either competence or passion. Our talent is the intersection of two things we know—or can know—about ourselves: it is both what we love to do and do best.

There’s only one way to avoid the tragedy of career amnesia. We must give ourselves permission to take the time and make the effort to discover our talent. We can’t rely on someone else to find out who we are. No photo on the evening news will reveal our true identify. We have to do it, and we must. We spend one-third of our day at work, and that time should be every bit as good as the rest of our lives.

Thanks for reading,
Peter

Big events change things. The Great Depression reshaped the world view of at least several generations of Americans. And, the same is happening as we emerge from the late, unlamented Great Recession.

Many of us will never again look at the world of work the way we used to. It’s different now—we’re absolutely convinced of that–even if we aren’t exactly sure what the changes are or what they may mean for our careers and future wellbeing.

One change, however, is already apparent. We now know that we can no longer manage our careers the way we have in the past. During those seemingly carefree days, we focused on our careers just once a year—during our annual performance appraisal and salary review. The rest of the time we concentrated on doing our job, believing that such an approach would provide the best measure of job security.

Sadly, the Great Depression proved otherwise. It didn’t matter how loyal we were or how strong our contribution was, if we were in the wrong place at the wrong time, we found ourselves suffering career cardiac arrest or what the pundits call unemployment. We quickly and painfully learned that doing our job wasn’t enough to ensure we would keep it.

So, what is the minimum daily requirement for a healthy career in this new world of work?

To answer that question, you have to know what constitutes a healthy career. I think it’s one that provides you with genuine career security—the ability to stay employed in a job of your choosing regardless of the financial condition of any one employer or the entire economy.

Unlike job security which is controlled by employers, career security is something you create for yourself. And that’s where the minimum daily requirements come in. If you want to keep your career healthy, you have to pay attention to it every day. In other words, you have to work at your career the same way you work at your job.

What tasks should you perform?

There are seven facets to a healthy career, and you should try to work on all seven daily. They are:
• Adding to your expertise in your profession, craft or trade;
• Expanding and nurturing your network of contacts;
• Acquiring ancillary skills to extend where and how you contribute;
• Increasing your ability to adapt to new work situations and environments;
• Identifying and finding ways to work with the winners in your field;
• Giving back by sharing your talent with others in your community; and
• Pacing yourself so you are always able to do your best work.

As the Great Recession has unfortunately made clear to all of us, you can’t rely on an annual checkup to ensure your career is healthy. In today’s turbulent, unpredictable world of work, you have to pay attention to your career each and every day.

Thanks for reading,
Peter

Last week, the blogosphere was all atwitter with the news that there are now six candidates for every job opening in the United States. That’s certainly a big increase from the historic norm—which is around 1.4 candidates per opening—but it’s hardly an earth-shattering event.

Ask anyone in the job market today, and the ratio for many openings is much, much worse. In fact, it’s not all that unusual to see dozens and sometimes even hundreds of applicants for a single job. And it’s that reality—that six represents your best odds—which creates a huge problem for job seekers and employers alike.

Six is Only a Dream for Job Seekers

For job seekers, of course, more than six candidates per opening means it’s tough to stand out. When employers are drowning in resumes, they spend even less time than usual scanning the credentials of each applicant.

What should you do if you’re in transition? Stack the deck in your favor by practicing the “application two-step.”
• Step 1 is easy and important, but it’s almost never sufficient to get you hired. When you see an opening for which you’re qualified, you have to submit your resume.
• Step 2 is hard and even more important. You have to network to find one of two kinds of contacts. The best is someone you know who works for the organization. The other is a professional connection (e.g., someone with the same alma mater or who is a member of the same professional association.) Whichever it is, ask that person to hand carry your resume into the HR Department and put it on top of the stack sitting on the recruiter’s desk. If that happens, you’ll go from being one of the crowd to being standout in the crowd.

Six is Only a Dream for Employers & Recruiters

For employers and recruiters, the problem is different. You want to show applicants the courtesy and respect they deserve, but it’s tough to do that when your systems are clogged with more resumes than they can handle. It’s not surprising, therefore, that the single greatest complaint applicants have about employers is the lack of any feedback when they respond to an ad posted online. To them, the submission process is a great black hole that seems indifferent at best and downright rude at worst.

And that’s unfortunate, because based on surveys we’ve conducted here at WEDDLE’s, the vast majority of employers do actually both acknowledge the resumes they receive and thank the applicants for their submission. So, what’s behind the disconnect? Spam filters. All too often, they derail the messages that employers and recruiters send to applicants.

How can that problem be solved? Stack the deck in your favor by adding a statement to every job posting that has two parts:
• First, it confirms that the organization WILL acknowledge the receipt of all resumes submitted by applicants
and
• Second, it encourages applicants to add the From address of the organization’s message (which it should provide) to their email manager’s white list or roster of approved senders. It’s not a full proof solution, but it will dramatically increase the number of those messages that are received.

Six candidates per job posting may not seem like much of a challenge—you face far longer odds in Las Vegas, for example—but it represents the best you are likely to get. Whether you’re a job seeker or an employer, the odds are usually much longer, so the only way to succeed is to stack the deck in your favor.

Thanks for reading,
Peter

“Why bother?” That was the retort recently from an unemployed person. Out of work for over a year, this individual was so discouraged he had given up. He wasn’t even looking for a job any more.

Such a point of view is certainly understandable, but it makes about as much sense as taking your foot off the pedal in bumper cards. As it will on that carnival ride, bringing yourself to a dead stop in today’s job market is a surefire way to subject yourself to even more battering and body slams in your career.

There’s no doubt that looking for a job these days is a jarring, gut wrenching experience. The lack of opportunities and the constant rejection can leave even the most optimistic of people feeling down on themselves and on the American Dream. Surrendering to that despair, however, doesn’t make it go away or even less painful.

That’s a lesson we all learn soon enough in bumper cars. Everyone gets thumped around a bit on that ride, but those who quickly turn the wheel and set off in a new direction are able to avoid the worst of the bumps and do a little bumping of their own. They adjust their course to adapt to the ever-changing situation, and that flexibility protects them. It makes them the master of the changes in their journey, rather than their victim.

So, if you’ve been unemployed for what seems like forever. If you’re beginning to doubt whether you’ll ever be able to find a job in today’s world of work. If you’ve started to ask yourself “Why bother?”, here’s the answer. Your survival and self-respect depend on it.

You may not be able to follow the course you’ve always followed. You may have to embark on a new heading with all of the risk and uncertainty that involves. But the one thing you can be sure of is that you have both the freedom and the ability to do so. Unlike any other country on the planet, there are many different paths to your version of the American Dream, and your opportunity to select one path or another is guaranteed. It’s a right called “the pursuit of Happiness.”

What’s not guaranteed, however, is a predetermined or set course for you to follow. And thank goodness for that! In the United States of America, there is no one prescribed path to success. You aren’t locked into a single fixed way forward that may not be right for you. You aren’t locked into one employer’s career ladder with one way up and no alternatives. You don’t have to stick with something that no longer feels right or serves you well.

You have choices. And the most important choice you can make is not to give up. You can choose, instead, to draw on the pride, the talent, the determination with which you have been blessed. You can decide to use those extraordinary attributes—your American attributes—to turn the wheel and head off in a new direction. You can elect to set out again on the road, a road that you select, the one you pick for your future.

Make that choice, and all you have to do is put the pedal to the metal and get going to wherever you want to go.

Thanks for reading,
Peter

Many of us are reluctant to critique the efforts of those in transition. They have enough problems, the thinking goes, without someone looking over their shoulder and pointing out their missteps.

That’s certainly a well-meaning point of view, but unfortunately, it has two unintended and very negative consequences:
• First, it prevents job seekers from getting the advice they need (and deserve) if they are to improve their efforts;
and
• Second, it debases job seekers by assuming they are too weak-kneed to hear some corrective input.

So, while some will say it’s hard-hearted, I think critiquing those in transition is not inappropriate. Indeed, done right, offering such a critique is not being critical; it’s offering assistance that’s critically important.

With that conviction in mind, I am compelled to respond to the words and actions of a job seeker who was profiled in the Sunday Styles section of last week’s The New York Times. This fellow was a very successful senior vice president in a private student-loan company until his employer fell on hard times and, at the age of 58, he found himself unemployed. He’s now been looking for a job for 18 months.

What’s he been doing? According to the article, he has applied for over 600 jobs, but landed just three interviews—two of them over the phone. Let’s look at the positive and less than positive steps he’s taken during that campaign.

First, to his credit, he was flexible enough to relocate to an area where he thought there might be a more employment opportunities. As we all know, that’s easier said than done when you can’t sell your house for the money you owe on it or your spouse has a job or your kids are in a school they don’t want to leave.

While this fellow didn’t have those obstacles, he did have hubris. He had moved from Maryland to Florida several years earlier believing he could work successfully from anywhere. When that notion proved to be incorrect, he was too proud to return to Maryland, despite the availability of openings there in his field. So, what did he do? He moved to an area where there were fewer openings and, in the process, diminished his prospects for success.

Second, he’s looking for a job the old fashioned way and not doing it very well. He sends out lots of resumes and then sits back and waits for employers to call. He apparently does little or no networking because, as he put it, “ninety percent of the people I worked with lost jobs”. As a consequence, he’s not reached out to those best positioned to help him—his professional contacts, including those who are in transition themselves—let alone his wider network of contacts among former customers and suppliers and even former college classmates and teachers.

Worse still, he’s wasting time. Here’s how the article described his day: “He can walk to shopping, but often drives his secondhand S.U.V. to a grocery store two towns away to have someplace to go. ‘If I walk to the store, I’m back in 10 minutes, and then what?’ Last Monday, asked what he had planned for the week, he said, ‘As of now, I have zero planned, not a thing.’”

In the old world of work, searching for employment was a full time job, not a part time activity. Today, it’s even more demanding. It’s two full time jobs. You have to work at finding work, and you have to work at strengthening your credentials.

Whether you’re a first time job seeker or a former senior vice president of a student-loan company, you have to re-imagine yourself as a “work-in-progress.” You have to get back into school or take a training program where you can add to your ability to contribute on-the-job. That’s what employers are looking for today. Not a track record alone, but a track record and an attitude—the demonstrated conviction that you can always be better and that you take personal responsibility for making it happen.

Thanks for reading,
Peter

In most cities and towns, it’s against the law to double park. Running in to the local Starbucks to get an extra hot skinny latte isn’t an exception. Yet, that doesn’t seem to bother some of us. Apparently, they think the rules don’t apply to them. They don’t just double park, they cut into lines at airports, they don’t stop at Stop signs on the road, and they leave their garbage behind on park benches.

Why do these people act that way? Unlike Freud, I don’t think their parents messed them up. No, I think the reason is much closer to home. Consciously or unconsciously, they’ve come to the fixed opinion that they aren’t covered by the rules. They believe that they’re simply too smart, too important, too special to worry about the silly little strictures that order life for everybody else.

So, this post is for them. It’s not about the rules of society. It’s about the rules of the workplace. Rules that apply to everyone … even those who are very smart, very important and very special.

Rule #1: No one owes you a job. Employment is not guaranteed in the Constitution or the Bill of Rights. If you want to work, you’re going to have to work to make it happen.

What does that mean? In the 21st Century:
• You have to have state-of-the-art skills. You need a skill set that’s actually in demand in today’s workplace, not something that would keep you employed in 1989. And you need a 2009 level of expertise in that field, not one that was current in 1999 or even in 2005.
• You have to possess more than one skill. It doesn’t matter whether you have a PHD or 25 years of experience. To work in your primary field, you need additional capabilities, like speaking a second language or knowing how to use the latest software system.

Rule #2: No one owes you an enjoyable and fulfilling career. Not your boss, not your employer, not your mentor or your mother and father. If you want a rewarding career, you’re going to have to reward your career with more priority and attention.

What does that mean? In the 21st Century:
• You have to take responsibility for your career. There are plenty of opportunities in today’s workplace, but also more than a few pitfalls. You can take charge of your career and decide what happens or you can turn it over to luck or your employer and become its victim.
• You have to work on your career every day. Not just when you’re out of work or thinking about your next salary review. The world of work is changing at warp speed. You can either keep up or get left behind.

Sorry, but the days of immortal gods went out with the Romans. It doesn’t matter how exceptional you are, in today’s world of work, the rules apply to everyone. Ignore them and you may get your extra hot skinny latte before everyone else; but you will always be at the end of the line when it comes to finding work and a satisfying career.

Thanks for reading,
Peter

It was the lead story in the Life section of Monday’s USA Today. Apparently, a growing number of those in transition are turning to game shows to turn their fortunes around. They’re lining up to compete on the likes of Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, Deal or No Deal and even Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?. What’s driving them? The lure of quick cash and maybe even a little notoriety.

Now, I’m very respectful of anything anyone does to help make ends meet during a tough patch in their career. However, in this regard, I have to ask “What are they thinking?”. The key to weathering a period of unemployment is not to do something, but to do the smart thing, and competing on game shows falls far short of that bar.

Here’s what I mean. To get on a game show, you first have to audition. To audition successfully, you have to do some studying (especially if you want to outthink a 5th grader). Then, if you’re selected, you want to win, so you have to prepare even more. Once your time on the show has arrived, you have to travel to wherever it’s taped, wait around for the filming to begin, and then hopefully do well enough to get invited back. Which means that you have to start your preparation all over again and, if you’re lucky, again and again. In short, you’ve invested a heck of a lot of time and effort in making your game show appearance.

What’s the upside? A little near term cash—the USA Today article was breathless about people winning $25-50,000—which is nothing to sneeze at, to be sure, but also not much of a durable solution to unemployment. Basically, it’s a one time infusion of cash that begins to shrink the minute it arrive with some IRS person in tow to collect their share of your winnings.

What’s a smarter course of action? Invest the same time and effort you spent on your 15 minutes of fame in actions that will pay a much larger dividend over a much longer period of time. I suggest that you do three things:
• First. figure out why you are unemployed. One of the people profiled in the USA Today piece had been laid off four times in the last year. Was that just a run of bad luck or was there something else amiss closer to home? Was he, for example, a below average contributor or unable to get along with his coworkers? Performing such a candid situational assessment can be a real eye opener both in helping you avoid lousy employers in the future and in making sure you aren’t viewed as a lousy employee.
• Second, determine where and how you can strengthen your credentials. The idea is to see yourself as a work-in-progress. Whether you have an MBA, a PhD or twenty-five years of experience in your field, there is always something you can learn in today’s ever evolving world of work. Your talent has no limit except what you set for it, so identify what new skills or insights you can acquire that would enable you to make a more valuable contribution to your employer.
• Finally, act on that self-awareness. In the old days, we used to describe looking for a new job as a full time job. For better or worse, that’s no longer true. Today, being in transition is two full time jobs: You work as both a job seeker and as a self-improver. You must embark on an education program or take a training course to upgrade your skills even as you send out your resume and network with others to find gainful employment.

Unlike competing on a game show, this alternative strategy is an investment with an enduring return. It establishes you as a person with two rare qualities that are highly valued by today’s employers. It says that you are someone who takes personal responsibility for the state of your professional expertise and that you actually act on that commitment. In today’s world of work, that kind of profile is worth far more than 25,000, 50,000 or even a million dollars.

Thanks for reading,
Peter

The New York Times reports that unemployment benefits will shortly run out for many American workers. Congress extended the eligibility period for those benefits to 79 weeks in a number of states (46 weeks or more in others), convinced that a year and a half would be more than enough for most people to find work. Sadly, that has not been the case. The National Employment Law Project, a private research group, estimates that as many as 1.5 million people will have exhausted all 79 weeks of their benefits by the end of the year and still be unemployed.

Why are they having such a hard time finding work? The lack of jobs is clearly one reason. Over 6 million paying positions have disappeared during the downturn.

There’s a second reason, however, and sadly, it’s received very little attention. People are struggling to find work because their careers are in ill health. They’re unemployed, not because they’re slacking off in their job search, but because their skill set is emaciated, their occupational expertise is weak and their ability to make a meaningful contribution on-the-job is limited.

That reality isn’t true of everyone, I suppose, but it is certainly widespread. It affects Baby Boomers, Gen Ys and Millennials alike and touches those in every occupational field and industry and at every level of seniority. It is, in a very real sense, a pandemic of career deficiency.

This situation also makes clear the opportunity Congress missed when it lengthened the eligibility period for unemployment benefits last year. The extension was enacted because Congressional leaders realized that the severity of the recession would limit rapid reemployment for many of those in the job market. It was the right prescription but addressed only half of the problem. It helped people survive, but didn’t enable them to recover. It put salve on the symptoms, but didn’t cure the illness.

If, on the other hand, Congress had also given every unemployed person a voucher for a course of instruction at a local college or university, it would have done both. It would have relieved the pain of America’s workers and strengthened their future prospects. It would not only have provided them with needed financial relief, it would have planted the seeds that could repair the damage done to their careers.

That didn’t happen, however, so what should we do?

First, we need to accept a hard truth: in today’s unforgiving economy, unemployment is not simply the cessation of work. It is also symptomatic of a career deficiency. As with a physical illness, however, having a sick career doesn’t mean that you’ve engaged in unsafe career behavior or done anything wrong. It means that your career is suffering and you need to tend to it, even as you look for a new job.

Second, it’s our job to look after our careers even as we look for work. How do you accomplish that? Any of the following will get you started:
• Take a course that will update your skills or knowledge so that you are at the state-of-the-art in your occupational field
• Learn a second language so that you can apply your capabilities in more places and work situations
• Acquire expertise in a new software application so you can enhance your productivity on-the-job
• Develop your capacity for leadership so that you can take on positions of more responsibility
• Upgrade your interpersonal skills so that you can work effectively in multicultural environments.

In short, re-imagine yourself as a work-in-progress. Begin to cure what ails your career and annotate your resume to reflect that effort. The cure will put you on the road to a meaningful and rewarding career while the annotation on your resume will make you a much more attractive candidate in the job market.

Thanks for reading,
Peter
Please visit me at CareerFitness.com

You would had to have been living in a very deep cave to have missed the ongoing debate about healthcare. Whatever your stand on the various issues, there is no disagreement on two facts:
• No one is guaranteed good health.
and
• Our bodies require constant care.

Health insurance is not the only way to achieve good health—clearly, we must also do our part—but it is a critical component of a life well lived. When an illness or medical emergency strikes, insurance gives us access to the expertise of physicians and the power of medicine. It provides the protocols for recovery and for regaining our well-being.

The very same facts apply to our careers, as well.
• No one is guaranteed a meaningful and rewarding career.
and
• Our careers require constant care in today’s challenging world of work.

Ironically, however, a lot of working Americans don’t seem to feel as if they need career insurance. They seldom worry about protecting their careers until those careers are sick—an occupational illness most of us call unemployment. And they don’t worry about taking preventative measures to strengthen their careers because … well, if you can tough out the hard times, there is (or was) always plenty of work to go around.

So, what happens?

A lot us just flat out ignore our careers. We let our professional expertise get flabby. We don’t exercise our network of contacts so they wither and grow weak. We fail to practice safe occupational behavior, and our reputations end up battered and bruised, as a result.

Just as unhealthy choices can curtail our lives, we place our futures at risk by making unhealthy choices in our careers. What’s the alternative? Practice “career fitness.”

Career Fitness is a commitment to both career self-management—to taking care of the one-third of your life you will spend in the workplace—and a regimen of healthy career exercises—to performing those activities that will increase the strength, endurance and reach of your career. It’s another form of health insurance, but one to which everyone has access.

Thanks for reading,
Peter

P.S. If you’d like to learn more about how to practice Career Fitness, get a hold of my new book, Work Strong: Your Personal Career Fitness System. It’s at Amazon.com and in the bookstore on this site.

Much has been made in the media recently about the lagging pay prospects of America’s working men and women. According to one report, in fact, the total remuneration of American workers is now down to 56% of the country’s gross domestic product. That’s just 7% better than it was in 1929, at the start of the Great Depression!

As bad as this situation is—and it is terrible—there’s another side to this story, one that seldom gets told. This overlooked reality is the positive financial experience now being enjoyed by a large number of non-executive workers. These people are not the privileged few at the top of the heap in corporate America. They’re working men and women down in the ranks of the workforce, and their pay is going up, even as it declines for so many others.

Hard to believe? Take a look at the trends in the chart below. (The data were compiled by SHRM.)
• Number of employers paying hiring bonuses: 2004—61% 2008—70%
• Number of employers making market adjustments in pay: 2004—55% 2008—65%
• Number of employers paying retention bonuses: 2004—27% 2008—38%
• Number of employers selectively paying above market: 2004—25% 2008—31%

What these upward pay trends tell me is that employers in the U.S. are desperate for talent. Yes, there are a lot of people in transition, and yes it’s a very tough time to be looking for a job. But that doesn’t change the facts. And the facts are that employers will pay a lot of money to hire you and a lot of money to retain you … if you are perceived as a “person of talent.”

What does a person of talent look like?

They have one (or both) of two attributes:
• They have a hard-to-find skill. Their expertise is up-to-the-minute and critical to the success of a modern organization.
• They are a superior performer. They make an extraordinary contribution on-the-job and set an example that raises the performance of their coworkers, as well.

Whether a person of talent is in transition or seeking a new challenge at work, they look for a job in a very unconventional way. Because talent is an infinite resource, they position themselves in the job market as an “expert-in-progress.”

While they are looking for a new or better job, they are also taking steps to reinforce and extend their occupational prowess. They are taking courses in their field or adding ancillary skills that will enable them to apply their skill in a wider range of work situations even as they are networking and reviewing employment ads. Said another way, a person of talent is someone who makes the commitment and learns how to do career multitasking.

What does career multitasking mean?

Simply this: the old notion that looking for a new or better employment opportunity is a full time job is wrong. It’s two full time jobs: one to find the right employment situation and the other to reinforce the fitness of your career. Do the first, and you might find work. Do both, and you’ll find work plus the potential for increased pay.

How’s that?

Employers are forever saying that their employees are their most important asset. What they mean is that people of talent are … and they’re putting their money where their mouths are to prove it.

Thanks for reading,
Peter