Odds are you-or someone you know-has already been through a downsizing, "rightsizing" or whatever else the shake ups are being called these days. And even if you know you're in good company, being a layoff victim is a pretty traumatic experience, especially since the rules of job hunting have changed.
Gone are the days when you could expect to fill out an application one week and be on the job the next. In this increasingly competitive market, you have to work hard just to get someone to read your resume (miracle of miracles if they actually ask to meet with you). Interviews may include five man agers instead of one, and it might take a year to land a new position where it used to take a month.
If you've been lucky so far, don't count on avoiding the axe forever. The days of cradle to grave employment are over. Never again will anyone guarantee you a paycheck for life. The only way to enjoy true career security today is to build yourself a network, some financial reserves and a set of marketable skills. And you shouldn't wait until the last minute to do so, since none of these tools can be thrown together overnight.
However, if you recently lost your job and weren't prepared for it, don't lose hope. It's too easy to start conjuring up worst case scenarios when you're unemployed:
I'll have to sell the house and move into a smaller place. The kids won't have enough money to pay for college. They'll have to take out huge loans or stay home. My spouse will have to go back to work or take a second job. I'll end up doing manual labor for entry level wages.
Then, my family will leave me and I'll end up on welfare. I'll have to start living out of my car, or move into a homeless shelter. Soon, I'll become a skid row derelict drinking my dinner from a bottle. I'll end up just like that desperate guy in the suit who was standing at the expressway entrance the other day- the one with the sandwich board that read: "I'll take any job for $20,000 a year." Such disaster fantasies won't make you feel better, and won't help you out of a bad employment situation. What you need is a whole new mind set and an action plan to sustain your career. Here's what I suggest.
Do Good Work
A first rate engineer with an impressive education and strong professional credentials always met-or exceeded-his employer's standards for excellence. His company, a health care manufacturer in Niles, Illinois, consistently rewarded his achievements with raises, promotions and challenging new assignments.
So, when a two year plan was announced to dismantle the manufacturing plant he called home, the engineer didn't worry. He assumed they'd need him to help close the place down and then move him into another division.
He was wrong. Within six weeks of the announcement, his name showed up on the very first list of job cuts. It wasn't personal, and he knew it. It was a straight business decision. His forte was improving the quality of the plant's manufacturing process. That talent was completely unnecessary once the company decided to shut the plant. Hence, he got his walking papers.
In the engineer's case, that's exactly what happened. Even though he was among the first to be "redeployed," he landed another position within the same company before his 60 day notice expired.
Develop Marketable Skills
Benjamin Barber, a political science professor at Rutgers University, once commented that the world could be divided into two categories: learners and non learners.
As a quality control expert with state of the art knowledge, he's developed competencies that his employer knows would be tough to duplicate. Your job may not have that kind of challenge built into its daily routine. Rather than lament your fate, try seeking out formal training or volunteering for company projects that will allow you to enhance your skill set.
For a 45 year old plant manager with a suburban Chicago food manufacturer, this meant taking the time and initiative to enroll in an evening MBA program. It wasn't always fun. He hadn't set foot in a classroom for 25 years, and there were plenty of nights when he didn't feel like studying or sitting in class after a hard day at work. Other days, he truly enjoyed the learning environment. It got his creative juices flowing again, which hadn't happened at the plant for a long, long time. The manager had begun his master's work because he knew he couldn't afford to let his skills become obsolete. As it turns out, his advance planning paid off. Three years into the program, his company went through (yet another) reorganization. Offered an early retirement package, the plant manager took the money and ran.
He used part of his severance package for tuition and completed his degree within a year. Then he decided to embark on a new career in marketing. Some people think he should've stayed with his old job, since it was never directly threatened. But he has no regrets. "The package was a sure thing," he says. "My future there wasn't, considering the way the company is headed. I feel better for taking the initiative instead of waiting for the next round of cuts. It's the best thing I ever did. Now I can get on with my life."
Management guru Tom Peters would undoubtedly applaud this man's strategy. Peters argues that we now live in a brain based economy where "education is economics and economics is education." The key to winning, he says, is to get and stay one step smarter than the next person-to make a commitment to "school for life." He echoes the sentiments of H.G. Wells, who once said, "The story of human survival is a race between education and catastrophe."
