Predicting the Jobs of the Future
They’re up, they’re down. I’m talking about economic
cycles. You know the old saying, “what goes up must come down.” Equally
true, especially in economic terms, “what’s down will go up.” When and how
quickly are the answers we usually don’t have. But even with uncertainty
there are some things you can do to ensure success in your job search.
In any downturn, not every company is in trouble. Who is succeeding? Where
are the profits from a change of events? Computer viruses up the ante for
firewall companies. Dot.com retailers who go bust leave the business for the
brick and mortar stores. Everyone needs to eat, no matter what happens to
the economy. There are jobs available for the manufacturers and the grocery
store owners as well as the distributors who service them. Think of where
the action is in your field. If it goes sour, who will take up the slack?
Look there for jobs.
How can you find out about companies who might offer possible jobs? Reading
and interpreting the business news, conducting informational interviews and
library and Internet research on industries and specific companies. What are
the topics of business newspaper and magazine articles: What’s the buzz when
you attend association meetings? Figure out the trends and use that
information to your benefit to both look for jobs and impress people you
meet who might know about job openings. It shows you’re an eager, informed
candidate.
Business trends can also help you craft your resume. If you know that an
industry is moving in a specific direction you can feature portions of your
experience that align with that on your resume. And the trends can also help
focus questions for interviews – informational and job. If you can think of
some solutions for current economic problems, share them on your interviews.
They’ll separate you from the others and improve your chances of being
offered the job.
Jan Cannon, MBA, PhD, has over 10 years of experience helping clients to
find work that they enjoy through career coaching and resume preparation. She
was an online expert with CIO.com and jobfindtoday.com and currently provides
online content to the Career Connection of the Boston Herald (
http://print.jobfind.com ).
Jan speaks to groups and leads workshops on making career choices, networking,
finding jobs, and staying motivated. She teaches courses on entrepreneurship
for those interested in starting their own businesses. Jan has Myers Briggs™
MBTI™ and FirstStepFastTrack™ certifications and offers Inscape™ DiSC
assessments.
Jan's book on senior job search will be published by Capital Press in
April 2005.
Career Tips
Career Books
Career Magazines
If you are a career coach, email
webmaster@chicagojobresource or
webmaster@FirstJobResource for details on how to contribute to the
websites:
Chicago Job Resource and
First Job Resource.
Career Coach Institute - Want to become a
CERTIFIED career coach?
CCI has just unveiled an entirely new format for our career coach training, combining our one-of-a-kind self-paced core training, tele-classes,
and mentor coaching into a blended learning approach designed to fit your
changing needs.
Home | About | Links | Privacy | Search
