CAREERS AND EMPLOYMENT:
a Starting Point
by Mark Anderson
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An Introduction - My Thoughts
The Reality of the Job Market
You may be looking for a new job, thinking about new career opportunities, or wondering what your options might be. Exploring what's next for an individual can become a full time job in itself. For some it is fraught with fear and anxiety. But the reality is there are a lot of way's to go about finding what is next for you. Something that I'd like to state very clearly before you get started is to remember that whether you're a dancer, a volunteer worker, and a limo driver or CEO, or... if your currently between jobs or thinking about what to do next... is that God loves you just where you are, and understands the challenges and difficulty of life's working pressures and anxieties. All of the Apostles and Saints were working men and women just like you and I. St. Joseph was a carpenter and had to bring home the bacon... sort of speak. The Blessed Mother was ( and still is ) a hard working mother who had all the duties that mother still have today, with a son who was all knowing ( my daughter only thinks she's all knowing...). Jesus lived a human life and knows what we are going through in our daily work. I believe that if we prayerfully ask for guidance in our efforts, and stay encouraged in knowing that our heavenly Father is always taking care of us in way we may not understand, that we can move forward in our efforts with confidence that whatever happens, we will be in a better place than we were before, just by having put our search ( and in this case our job search ) in God's hands. Career decisions usually come at times where you are either moving into a new phase of your life, on contemplating one. From a life management perspective career decisions are strategic moves, ones that set the stage for where you want to be, and what you want to do for both the near future as well as potentially further out in years.
Summer Jobs: Keep focused on school, this is your real job in as a teenager and college student. Best thing here in a job is to try to make friends, and if you think they can help you get a job down the road, ask if you can keep in touch with them and ask their advice at some point. People will go out of their way for young adults who seem to be eager and curious.
It's important as you come into your Jr. and Sr. years in college to try to narrow down what you want to try first when you graduate. Remember this is your first job and it won't be your last, and it may not be the career you'll ultimately end up in. But you need to be aggressive about finding it. A couple of thought:
Changing jobs for some people is an easy experience and for others it's the equivalent of moving to a new country and not being able to speak the language. I will say again that God understands this and will help us as long as we ask. Amazing things happen to people who trust in him, and work within His time table. Keep that in your thoughts when you're in this situation. If you're looking for new work I would sit down, organize your efforts. I've used a notebook, glue stick and a pair of scissors and kept cutting and pasting ads into the notebook, making notes against each ad, making notes about certain articles I've seen, printed out jobs off the Net, all sorts of stuff. But basically the goal is to keep all your information in one place. Again this is a JOB finding a job. You need to plan the work and work the plan as best you can. I could write a book on what to do and when to jump jobs and why, but right now let's just cover the basics:
The destruction and creation of new companies has never come at a faster pace in the history of the world. This relatively new reality requires people to think about the job they are in today and the job they might need to be in tomorrow at the same time. I have been both an employer and an employee, and the reality of today's economy requires even the most upstanding employers to make hard and sometimes painful decisions about people and their employment. Please remember that your job is NOT you. God does not love us any less or more because of what we do in the "marketplace", He loves us because of the decisions we make regarding His domain. Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar... you know the quote, but you really have to believe it, because then winning and loosing of the marketplace is in its proper place. The marketplace is an unstable environment. Keep this in mind. Make sure that you take care of yourself and your family and friends. Do the right thing by colleagues. No lying, cheating and stealing. everything else you do regarding trying to get the best opportunity for yourself is Ok. We live in a free-market economy, and you are a "free-agent". You should always be seeing who might pay more for your skills and services when you need to provide income for your family or yourself. Just make sure that your goal of maximizing your income does not compromise your time, faith, and your family. A resume is a view on what you might be able to do as a new employee, and what you have accomplished prior to today. The goal of a resume is not to get you a job; it's to get your foot in the door and a starting point for conversations. every part of a resume is a potential talking point for you with a potential new employer. Don't write everything down about everything you've done. Write just enough that they understand your skills and accomplishments.
This is usually not easy, but sometimes it's a relief and sometime it's a blessing. Companies are struggling in this economy and many are making painful employee reductions in order to survive or stay competitive ( some are also just being greedy, but that's a whole other discussion ). Remember here again that if you find yourself out of work, that you need to be open minded, organized and aggressive about finding your next job. You may need to think about a career change if the market in your field seems to be drying up. Some people need to think about relocation. Your individual situation will determine the specifics, but one thing I can tell you is you should at least double your estimate of the time and energy it will take to find your next position, because this will at least keep your expectations in line. If you're laid off, try to determine what concessions your employer might be willing to give you in order to create a "bridge" for you to find your way to the next job, either by getting some severance, or covering medical, or providing some outsourcing services. Usually the employer has thought about whether they will provide something for you, but don't be afraid to play hardball if you have something of value to them. If you need to quit a job, try to at least buy yourself a little time by starting your search while you're still being paid by the employer. If there is an ethical problem, then just leave. It's just not worth compromising your values, and your next employer will appreciate that you're an honest, ethical person. If you got fired, think about the "why". If you did something wrong or didn't meet expectations, remember that everyone makes mistakes and not every job is right for every person. Take a hard look at what happened, be honest with yourself, and take away the lesson that will help you in your next job not to repeat the mistakes that happened in this one. We makes mistakes... we sin, God still loves us. It's all good. Even the bad stuff God can make good as long as we work with Him.
Friends and Family:
The
Internet: Newspapers: Search Agencies (HeadHunters): I could right a book on this, but the quick overview is that the employer that wants you as an employee will try to get you at the lowest price possible in most cases. You need to have very clear expectations of what you need when you start to talk about compensation. If you ask for too much and the employer is not in that range, then you're in a bad spot if you need to make excuses for why a lower number is OK for you. Likewise, if you ask for too little, the employer will wonder if you are really good enough to do the job. The best approach I've found is to try to find out the salary range and try to work the upper end of that range when it's time to negotiate. If you accept the lower end of the range then at least the employer knows that you are looking for more in the future, but your expectations now are not unreasonable. You can find every job site imaginable off the following link below. There are currently over 6, 000 job sites broken down in a number of easy to recognize categories, and this is the best place to start: http://www.airsdirectory.com/directories/job_boards/ There are a couple of sites to look up staffing agencies, as well as just looking in the local yellow pages. Often times I've thought to myself that if I could just find the right situation to fit my schedule I would love to do some charity work. Problem is I never really took the time to figure out how much time I could make available, and then never did the work to look for the right situation. So the first part of the equation is to find a little time every week or month to actually do something that is not for yourself or your family, but that is helpful to your larger family. You could find something with the parish, and there are a number of outstanding vehicles to help our faith community. But if you would like to look into other possibilities there are a tremendous amount of organizations that are hoping that someone like yourself would be willing to spend some time helping them help others. At the website for the Volunteer Center of Bergen County you will find over a hundred different initiatives in our area that need your help. They are all super, and I'm sure you'll find something that is up your alley. Your gift of time is a true treasure that you are giving back to God. Remember, like money, your time belongs to God... all of it. It is a gift from him to you, so from a tithing perspective 10% seems very little to give back. And that ten percent will pay off in ways that you can not imagine. That is the trust part of the bargain. give without expecting to receive back, give cheerfully, and watch as God does His thing with you. He won't let you down on this. It's money in the bank.
There are many sayings that speak to this, but they all equate to Jesus' commandment of loving your neighbor as yourself. It is who we are as Catholics, it makes us who we are. Whether you have a job now or are looking for one, you will be presented situations everyday that have attached to them opportunities to help someone, a co-worker that needs a hand, a kind word of encouragement, a reprimand that's done in a way that's not demeaning but correcting, a dig at someone that you don't add to an e-mail or repeat over a coffee or a beer. You may stand up for someone that is not there to defend himself in the company, or just be a kind face and have a word of encouragement to someone who is down about something. In so many ways we can be the face of God in places that sometimes tell us that these types of actions don't "pay-off". You know what... they do, not just because they are the right thing to do, but because they actually do pay off in real and tangible ways. I've seen it over and over, trust me on this one. I pray for your success in you career endeavors. In God's eyes and mine you are already a success if you keep to His Word as best you can, and are open to His guidance.
Yours in
Christ, Mark is a partner in the Executive Search firm AC Lion in NYC. He can be reached at his personal e-mail account at mark@talentbridge.net and will help with anyone who needs a quick review of their resume, or a word of advice on career "next steps", or any other employment related requests. |
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