Prepare Yourself for a changing Job Market

Here's how to become your own "change manager."

Six years ago Vincent Chow jumped into the job market. Since then, he has been a corporate lawyer for a large Hawaiian firm, a business director for ShoppingList.com, and the entrepreneur of an auction Web site. How has Chow managed to grow and prosper in a changing job market?

Chow has diverse skills. He earned double graduate degrees in business and law at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). "The more experience and knowledge a student has, the more marketable he or she will be," says Beth Moeller. She is associate director of career services at the UCLA Law School. "Employers are looking for self-starters. They want workers who are flexible and can view problems from different angles."

What's Your Flexibility Rating?

The dictionary defines flexible as the ability "to adapt to new, different, or changing requirements." To be flexible, you need marketable skills. But you also need certain personality traits and the ability to do well in many situations--not just the workplace. For example, consider how vacationers might react to an airline strike. Rigid people might unpack their bags and stay home. More flexible people might opt for another form of transportation or a different kind of trip. Instead of scuba diving 3,000 miles away in California, they might go backpacking in Vermont.

What's your flexibility rating? How would you react, for example, if your high school faced cutbacks in physical education funding? What if there was no money for team uniforms, cheerleading classes, or coaches? Teens with a high flexibility rating might start problem solving by talking to other students, to teachers, and parents. Instead of getting angry, depressed, or hopeless, they might come up with a more desirable outcome, such as organizing a fundraising project. Perhaps they could find help from the community or the Parent-Teacher Association.

Flexible people find it easier to achieve their goals because they have confidence and a positive attitude. They value creativity and independence. Furthermore, they usually work together with a network of friends and others.

Survival of the Fittest

Flexible people feel secure about themselves. They can make decisions based on available, but incomplete, information. They can handle risk and uncertainty with few problems. In short, they adapt rapidly.

These quick adapters will dominate the future workforce, according to Tom Peters, author of In Search of Excellence and a new series of books called The Reinventing of Work. Peters calls these assertive Internet adventurers "Icon Wo(man)." "Icon wo(man)'s only security is a personal commitment to constant growth and a global rep[utation] for great work," says Peters. He adds that this type of individual is totally comfortable with technology and would not hesitate to use the Web for posting resumes, getting trained, and creating projects with virtual teammates.

Barbara Moses, a career management and newspaper columnist, says flexible workers highly value professional relationships. They inform peers and supervisors of their accomplishments and skills. They network constantly and interact easily with colleagues from different cultural and racial backgrounds. They also see themselves in several roles at a time--for instance, as both a generalist who is able to take on many tasks and a specialist in a specific career area.

Furthermore, flexible people are able to reshuffle their priorities when circumstances change. For example, how might an employee deal with an employer's request to relocate to another part of the country? Flexible employees may re-evaluate their life priorities and reframe the situation positively. They may even conclude that this change represents a challenging opportunity.

If British naturalist Charles Darwin, author of Origin of the Species, were still alive, this great thinker might say that the evolution of your career depends on your ability to survive: Will you be among the fittest (the "most flexible") to survive?

Here are some strategies to help:

* Continue to educate yourself. Even if you recently graduated from college, says Jon Younger, managing director of a leadership consulting firm, take at least one course a semester. Also, try to attend one or two conferences related to your profession or industry. Vicky Hess, who works for Sinai Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, earned her master's degree in human resources while working full time. Her employer paid for the training. "I used what I learned in school every day at work," said Hess to the Baltimore Business Journal. "I brought a new level of expertise to the job."

* Think "self-marketer." Be knowledgeable about your personal portfolio of skills and abilities. Use this information with prospective employers. "Manage your career and take responsibility for your successes and failures," writes Barbara Moses, author of Career Intelligence.

* Consider different work arrangements. For example, you could try part-time work, job sharing, flexible work hours (flextime), or working at home (telecommuting). These can be win--win situations for both employer and employees. Workers benefit because the change makes it easier to balance professional and family demands. Bosses like the arrangement because it means a more versatile, motivated work-force. Most managers feel their flextime workers are more productive than their 9-to-5ers, according to recent surveys by Flexible Resources Inc., a staffing and consulting firm in Los Angeles.

* Reinvent yourself. For example, use your skills and experiences to become a small-business person, a consultant, or an entrepreneur. That's what Rita Loose, of Boxford, Massachusetts, did. A former nurse and health care manager, she used her skills to become a motivational speaker on weight loss. Later she branched out into other areas. "I like the fact that I have responsibility for my own destiny," she said in an interview in Boston Business Journal.

* Become a team player. Teams allow companies to tap into the diversity of people in the workforce. This is why Gene Kranz, former NASA flight director and author of Failure Is Not an Option, believes teams are valuable. And "in an increasingly team-oriented workplace," says James E. Challenger, president of an outplacement consulting firm, "companies rely on coalition builders--people who can resolve conflicts." This takes leadership, compromise, and conciliation skills.

* Think positively and globally. You must progress beyond the negative "What's in it for me?" question. Instead, ask, "How can I make this so-so situation into a super opportunity?"

Technology today makes it possible for people from all over the world to work together on projects. This means it's a good idea to boost your foreign language vocabulary and your knowledge of different cultures. Both can help push your marketability to the max.

* Communicate with colleagues. Keep up-to-date about what's happening in your office and the industry at large by talking with your employers, co-workers, and others in the field.

* Prepare for skill areas, not specific positions. "People who can perform several tasks well become valued employees," says Challenger.

* Use your creativity to suggest and make horizontal job moves. You can do this through work arrangements such as job sharing and job enrichment. For instance, employees at the University of New Mexico are encouraged to learn different skills through job rotation (switching jobs for a short time with a co-worker). Companies such as Chevron and Saturn also offer these opportunities.

* Look at the total picture. Interested in a particular company? It might be worth your while to accept a less-than-ideal position there. You get your foot in the door, and the position may turn out to be a launchpad for other interests.

* Have a Plan B, or fallback strategy. This ensures that if things don't work out in one area, says Barbara Moses, you can always move on to something else. For instance, Plan B for a librarian might be a position teaching companies how to use the Internet more effectively.

* Become a "trouble-seeker" and a "clock-less worker." According to Challenger, employees who seek out difficult assignments and respect the same timetables as management often make themselves indispensable and survive negative job changes.

Bend Over Backwards

Start now to become the kind of person who works well in a dynamic job market.

Here are some tips to help you become more flexible.

1. Get knowledgeable about current business trends. Use libraries and Internet resources to guide you. (See Special Feature, pages 24 to 27.)

2. Develop and practice skills that transfer over to the professional world. Communication and interpersonal skills, problem-solving and creativity skills, for instance, are crucial transferable skills. Managers in the 21st century will need to be super creative, says Seymour Adler, a psychologist at Assessment Solutions in New York. They will have to "create a sense of belonging among people who work in a virtual environment."

Many management and business skills can be learned through participation in groups like the Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA). DECA is an association for junior and senior high school students who are interested in preparing for entrepreneurial, marketing, or management careers. It is not extracurricular, but an integral part of classroom instruction. It uses on-the-job experience, projects, and competitive events to help students develop business skills. (For more information, contact National DECA, 1908 Association Drive, Reston, VA 20191; www.deca.org; E-mail: decainc@aol.com)

3. Get comfortable with technology. Learn to surf the Internet and to send and receive material by E-mail or by fax. Take classes in school, the public library, or at a local community college. Getting computer-wise can be fun and rewarding. At East High School in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, students used their computer skills to enter a World Wide Web surfing contest called Cyber Surfari.

4. Get grounded in the academic basics, such as English, math, and the sciences. Include foreign languages. Join the debate club to sharpen your communication skills. Your expertise will come in handy when you need to convince employers that they can't live without hiring you!

5. Get involved in culturally diverse activities, such as sports, tutoring, and YMCA or YWCA events. Perhaps you can mentor or serve as a big brother or sister to someone new to the United States. Understanding a variety of languages and cultures has become an essential part of doing business internationally, writes career consultant Peggy Simonsen, author of Career Compass.

6. Volunteer for extracurricular or community projects and take a leadership rote. It also will help sharpen your social skills so you can be more tolerant of different, and sometimes difficult, personalities.

When David Christie was a junior at Jordan High School in Durham, North Carolina, he volunteered at the Museum of Life and Science. As an outreach worker, he performed experiments at middle schools. "I learned a lot of scientific stuff and developed my communication skills," said David. "Eventually it led to a paying job."

7. Work at becoming a "productive personality." To thrive in the future job market, you will have to prepare yourself to live in chaos, says Adler. It helps to have a dependable, stable personality. That means no sloppy behaviors such as absenteeism or temperamental outbursts. Employers look for emotional stability and conscientiousness, says Deniz Ones, professor of industrial and organizational psychology at the University of Minnesota.

8. Learn to assess your values and prioritize them. That way you always know your general goals. But you can be flexible about the specifics. For example, if your goal is to hold a leadership position, running for student council might achieve that goal. But what if you don't get the nomination? Then switch strategies. Become an officer of the biology club instead.

9. Organize a support team. This can be friends, family members and other relatives, or mentors, or whoever supports you emotionally.

10. Swim with the sharks. Throw yourself into the entrepreneurial pool now and your flexibility will automatically improve. Take 17-year-old Anand Lal Shimpi from Raleigh, North Carolina. who operates www.anandtech.com. "I go to school, hang out with my friends on weekends, talk on the phone, and run a little Web site on the side," said the high school senior last year in Access Magazine.

Meet the Challenges

Structure and security are no longer the cornerstones of the corporate business world. Today many workers are rising to the challenges of a changing job market.

Barbara Moses calls these enterprising employees "career activists." Their payoff? The ability to steer their career effectively--no matter what happens.

Can You Paddle Your Own Canoe?

Do you have what it takes to be your own "change manager"? The right personality? Skills? Values? Read the following statements and mark "A" if you agree; "D" if you disagree.

1. I work well by myself and with others.

2. I enjoy learning new skills.

3. I get along well with people of different races and ethnic backgrounds.

4. I have goals that I constantly reassess.

5. When I have a problem, I try to come up with as many solutions as possible.

6. I'm familiar with computers and like using new technology.

7. I like to keep current on what's going on in school and in my community.

8. I'm generally positive and confident.

9. I've established a network of peers, teachers, and adults who respect me.

10. When I get overstressed, I know healthy ways to relax.

Add up your score. More Ds than As? You need to stretch yourself to become more flexible. Follow the tips in "Bend Over Backwards" beginning on page 10.

More A's than D's? Bravo! You're developing into a career strategist.

COPYRIGHT 2001 Weekly Reader Corp.
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group