Master Career Counselor

Carla Hunter, President of Career Span, Inc. is a Master Career Counselor (MCC) by the National Career Development Association and a Certified Career Coach by the National Board for Certified Counselors. She is an expert in writing resumes, effective job search strategies and interviewing success. Most recently, with over 20 years of navigating the complexity of today's world of work, she published "Finding Your Place in the World of Work", a career interest inventory (2014) and CareerView, an iPad app. As a private practice career counselor and a workforce development consultant, this blog is Carla's trove of ideas, trends, forecasts, and career tips for finding meaningful work.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Obama Calls for Job Summit At White House on December 3rd

Remarks made by President Obama on November 12, 2009:
"Over the past 10 months, we’ve taken a number of bold steps to break the back of this recession. We’ve worked to stabilize the financial system, revive lending to small businesses and families, and prevent responsible homeowners from losing their homes. And through the Recovery Act, we’ve cut taxes for middle class families, extended and increased unemployment insurance, and created and saved more than a million jobs.

As a result, the economy is now growing again for the first time in more than a year -- and faster than at any time in the past two years. But even though we’ve slowed the loss of jobs -- and today’s report on the continued decline in unemployment claims is a hopeful sign -- the economic growth that we’ve seen has not yet led to the job growth that we desperately need. As I’ve said from the start of this crisis, hiring often takes time to catch up to economic growth. And given the magnitude of the economic turmoil that we’ve experienced, employers are reluctant to hire.

Small businesses and large firms are demanding more of their employees, their increasing their hours, and adding temporary workers -- but these companies have not yet been willing to take the steps necessary to hire again. Meanwhile, millions of Americans -- our friends, our neighbors, our family members -- are desperately searching for jobs. This is one of the great challenges that remains in our economy -- a challenge that my administration is absolutely determined to meet.

We all know that there are limits to what government can and should do, even during such difficult times. But we have an obligation to consider every additional, responsible step that we can [take] to encourage and accelerate job creation in this country. And that’s why, in December, we’ll be holding a forum at the White House on jobs and economic growth. We’ll gather CEOs and small business owners, economists and financial experts, as well as representatives from labor unions and nonprofit groups, to talk about how we can work together to create jobs and get this economy moving again."

Since I'm not one of the small business owners invited to attend, here is my advice as a career counselor:

1. We are in such a dramatic technology revolution that has forever changed the way our world does business. This may likely result in a permanent loss of certain jobs (telephone operator,drafting technician,etc)that will not have significant growth again while paving the way for brand new ones (web designers, systems analysts,researchers etc). The steps needed for employers to start rehiring may likely NOT be their sole responsibility. The potential workforce may need a serious retool. All you have to do is ask a newspaper publisher if I'm right.
2. Re-tooling may mean reinventing America's idea of "career". Job security is not only dead but now fossilized. It may not be unheard of for most of the future workforce to be independent contractors that piece meal small jobs from a plethora of different opportunity sources.
3. The green collared workforce is not yet prepared for the potential of indefinite avenues of growth in biotechnology, food sciences (especially with animals) and the environmental push to reduce carbon footprints. We have barely scratched the surface of such a HUGE well of potential that demands a new type of worker that LOVES knowledge but is also completely comfortable working with gadgets and tools.
4. As a nation, we must re-brand, re-invent and reconsider our attitude of "vo-tech" jobs. Being a plumber, electrician, HVAC technician, or a mechanic have seriously been viewed as an educational safety net and option for the "less than smart" student. In reality, those jobs and workers who do them are the bread and butter of our economy. Ask any utility company about the future worker who will replace their older, aging linemen and they will scratch their heads in complete frustration and anxiety. The reason? Maybe we have overmarketed the college four year degree that is needed in only 15% of our economy. I am not discounting a college education. I am saying the associate degree, the vocational certificate and training needs equal footing in importance. Who is going to repair your broken air conditioner? Who will fix the power line downed by a winter storm?

I could go on, but that is all for now. Best wishes to all the experts converging in Washington. I hope that you remember a knowledge worker can use a wrench and hammer to ratchet our economy in a new direction of growth and opportunity.

2 comments:

  1. Very thoughtfull post on "Obama Calls for Job Summit At White House on December 3rd".And I would like to say that I'm living my dream of owning my own business and working from home earning equally or more than the regular jobs by using http://debtfreeliving.ownanewbusiness.com.

    Thanks,
    John- Own a new business

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  2. I see the rocket ship landing and the next flight to the moon will surley include a group such as Moses what had on the Ark. I am a Free Agent doing community career services in Hardin County. I have no plans at this time to crash the President's job Summit next week. I see this as a positive step toward moving the workforce in the direction we need to take. A good gathering of the minds is beneficial we must communicate our advances, needs, and failures. I recall many successful job fairs, conferences,seminars, and expositions that rendered many positive results. I see a bleak period for several months possibly a year or two. What I know for a fact there is work for those who want to work. You may have to take a pay reduction work two jobs for a period of time; however work is available. Job seekers how do you get ahead in today's society it is being honest, doing work from your heart. Lastly America Workforce can recover we need great minds you are our future lead us to a great economy prosper, and I wish you the best.

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