However, because you're looking for a better job there's some additional homework to be done, and this involves understanding a little more about how the work works today.
It is rather ironic that the Japanese now use American workers as "cheap labor." Other ironies abound. We are said to have become a "service economy," yet our quality of service is at an all-time low. We live in an age of often mind-boggling technology, yet few of us an able to understand it to the point of using it. A good example is the incredible sophistication of weaponry used in military that requires exceptionally well educated and talented individuals to make it work. Such people are lot likely to volunteer for military service in great numbers.
Our ability to communicate clearly and quickly these days is facilitated by technology that was only science-fiction speculation forty years ago. Yet so many of our young adults in the work force, including those who seem to aspire to much better jobs, are woefully undereducated in such things as international and domestic geography, economics, history, writing-even reading.
We've become an age of specialists, which, despite its advantages in many situations, breeds whole groups of people whose focus is only upon their specialty, without any understanding of how what they do fits into the much larger and complex puzzle of business and of life.
Consider this: it's estimated by the U.S. Department of Education that 25 million American adults-one in seven-are functional illiterates, who can't read, write, calculate, or solve problems even at a level that would allow them to accomplish simple tasks. A further estimate by the DOE indicates that there are 45 million adults working today who are either functionally or marginally illiterate. Functionally illiterate adults account for about 30 percent of unskilled workers, 29 percent of semiskilled workers, and 11 percent of all managers, professionals, and technicians. That's scary. Estimates vary, but a median figure would be that adult illiteracy costs this country an estimated $225 billion annually in lost productivity, lost tax revenues, welfare costs, prison costs, crime, and other related social ills.
What this means to you, the literate man or woman seeking a better job in this illiterate climate, is that you have a strong edge. It is hoped that you're well read and able to understand the complexities of this world-but you should also be thinking about ways to cope with this horrendous problem. Enlightened corporations are well aware of the dilemma caused by the illiteracy of some of their workers, and would welcome suggestions about how to improve the ability of their workers to understand instructions, directives, and other written information. At least, when ending up in a managerial job, take into consideration the fact that the reason one of your directives might not have been carried out is that the person reading it is marginally or even functionally illiterate, despite outward appearances.
The level of writing skills even at high management levels has deteriorated over the years I've been in the business world. Executives now dictate everything, and often depend upon a secretary to clean up their grammar and punctuation. Then many sign it, without recognizing that all dictation needs pencil editing. The tape recorder is a marvelous thing-I use it all the time to dictate notes and memos-but I would never think of having something dictated sent out without having gone over it.
If you happen to be a highly literate person, particularly in verbal and written communication, don't be smug. You might have a way with words but, at the same time, be an innumerate.
Innumerate is a person who is illiterate in mathematics. The Educational Testing Service conducted an extensive survey of how math-smart our high-school students are. The results were appalling-and they were dealing with basic math.
We seem to be no better at teaching geography. The majority of students in another survey could not point to the United States on a world map.
Obviously, the problems of illiteracy, innumeracy, and geographical ignorance are pervasive in our work world. Imagine the edge you have by being able to communicate verbally and by the written word, and by having a basic understanding of practical mathematics and simple economics..
Recently, a large company introduced a counseling program for employees suffering personal problems. There's nothing new about companies offering such series, except in this case the therapist the employee talks to is a computer named "Dr. Bob." It asks questions on the screen, and the employee types in the answers. Then the software program evaluates the answers and goes on another series of questions. Dr. Bob represents "Freud in a floppy disk"; whether this will catch on in psychotherapy remains to be seen.
In the employment industry, a number of software programs have been introduced that presumably help a job seeker make career choices, write resumes, and handle other aspects of job seeking. I don't think much of these, because, like professional resume services, they burn out a legion of cookie-cutter job candidates. By the way, some personnel offices are now using computers to initially screen job applicants. These operate on the same principle as Dr. Bob: the candidate answers questions published on the screen, and when the session is over the computer analyzes that person's qualifications for employment.
Whether communicating with a computer or a real human being, the basic fact remains the same: one of the major stumbling blocks for career advancement is an inability to communicate, verbally as well as in writing. Those who will achieve success in the years ahead will be able to communicate their ideas clearly. Others, with equally good ideas, will not be listened to because they have not expressed their ideas with clarity and in a way that prompts attention from superiors.
People seeking better jobs will have to commit themselves to being more productive. Our productivity leveled down, and economists agree that inflation results in from lowered productivity. An excellent example of which has happened to us can be found in England, where each worker employed in a Nissan plant twenty-four a year are turned out. Down the road, a Ford plant turned out only six cars a year for each worker employed.
The Japanese auto makers with plants in the U.S have only four or five job classifications. At Ford, Gene Motors, and Chrysler, there are as many as sixty sub classifications. Japanese auto plants here get as much 50 percent more productivity from their workers.
The answer is not to say that the Japanese are better than we are, nor is unionism totally to blame, although lower productivity can frequently be traced to union restrictions on productivity in certain industries. A recent study compared two work crews, each assigned the same project. One worked under its union rules; the other worked nonunion. The nonunion crew worked about fifty minutes out of each hour, while the union crew worked thirty-five minutes. The union crew used eight people to get the work done, the nonunion crew five people.
Recently a Roper survey asked American, Japanese and European workers to rank the most important aspects of their lives. For the Americans, work came at the eighth place; for the Europeans, work was fourth; for the Japanese, it was second.
None of this should be construed as my pointing over at labor unions and blaming them for our lack of productivity. They have contributed to it, of course. There was a time when American workers desperately needed eviction from widespread long hours, low pay, and cruel working conditions. That need doesn't seem to be as urgent any more.
What is important is that if the American competitive position is to be improved, employees who will find and hold better jobs will have to be more productive. The hours ahead will call for and reward employees who are willing to give a little extra, to stay late and arrive earlier than necessary, pitch in when a colleague is absent, take new chances, and not make excuses when they fail. Successful employees are ones who commit themselves to doing things right, recognize that everyone has a boss in the company's owner, who must answer to the customer, or top executives who must answer to share-holders and that business is not in business to satisfy their personal needs. These people who succeed will not ask for raises because a new baby is on the way. They'll take their case for raises and promotions based upon what they've contributed to the company.
At the same time, those who manage American companies will have to recognize that the world has changed even if they prefer not to term it "crazy", and that in order to attract and keep good people they'll have to make their own adjustments, including providing day offs, ensuring that the work environment is free of sexual harassment, instituting policies that reward those who perform (as opposed to across-the-board merit raises), viewing business as a long-term endeavor rather than ways seeking fatter quarterly bottom lines at the expense of customers or clients, and, in general, recognizing the people who work for them are the key to their success or failure.
Combine the two-workers who care and who give little extra and management that recognizes and rewards these people-and you have a less crazy world.
Want to get a better job?
Do whatever you must to become a skilled communicator, no matter what your focus of expertise. Understand that this world-the one in which you seek better jobs-creates its own demands, and until and unless you understand these demands and are willing shift your own gears in order to accommodate them, your chances of finding true success are diminished.
Be able to put today's society into perspective with yesterday's times. In order to truly understand the society into which we were born, we must have some understanding of the events that went before us and that have shaped our present lives. By doing that, the way our own individual little worlds function becomes easier to understand.
A distinct error on the part of many people in today’s job market is to focus in narrowly on a specific job and not take the time to keep abreast of the profession or industry as a whole. I've been an editorial adviser to the Journal of Accountancy for a number of years. I wentthrough one issue and tabulated the different abbreviations and acronyms in it. There were many, and my guess is that half the professionals reading the magazine could not identify all of them.
We see it every day-bright, talented, and well-educated men and women who are virtually ignorant of what is going on in their chosen field of work. An interview mentions a recent bit of legislation that directly affects the direction an industry will take. It has been in all the papers, and covered in-depth in that industry's tabulations. The job applicant stares back, a blank look on his or her face. Or major appointments have been made to new positions in industry associations, but the applicant isn't aware of this, and makes it painfully aware during the interview.
Adopt the attitude that the life you live is not a dress rehearsal. You have one life in which to achieve your personal and professional goals. Luck won't do it. Waiting for things to happen won't do it. Carrying negative attitudes to your job won't do it.
Celebrate this crazy world, and view it as filled with opportunity. Shelve the clichés, and ignore the fads. Learn how to pursue a better job. Approach job hunting and job advancement as a job in itself.
