Master Career Counselor

Economists and politicians have myriad diagnoses regarding the job market’s chronic anemia. The forecast appears dismal with no apparent cure. This is the great American quackery.

Sure, the unemployment statistics hover around 9% reflecting a significant contraction in jobs becoming obsolete. But what about the stable careers planted deep in American soil not being shipped to India? Such jobs are under the national radar because of a covert operation to hide them from our younger workforce. There is a dark side to the cause of unemployment better known as “parental aversion”.

It is a stealthy systemic infection plaguing our job market. Symptoms include college graduates washing dishes at the local diner. Harvard’s recent report, Pathways to Prosperity addresses the 21st century demand for every worker needing a high school diploma but not all jobs require a four year bachelor degree. This is an understatement.

Most parents, educators and guidance counselors have tainted the career selection pool. Typically, the smart, affluent and successful have a navigational GPS destined for careers requiring a bachelor’s degree while job titles needing a vocational certificate are for the dumb, lazy and unmotivated student or worse, the drop-out.

Vocational education has become the “wayward child” alternative that a typical parent would thumb their nose at. This unspoken vow not to let children consider it as optional is a root cause of our perceived debilitated job market. Think about it. Where are the current openings? They’re in occupations parents refuse to allow their children to consider.  Yes, parents may not consider manual labor as a job that pays the bills, but ask your local utility company how desperate they are to find workers. Call up a plumber and ask how business is. You’ll quickly discover the critical lack of skilled employees especially for the future. In addition, the Harvard article also admits startling facts about how much money can be made without a college degree.

Universities have over-marketed the bachelor degree. Parents have bought a bill of goods that saddle their children with debt promising to be the next financial crisis. As a result, the job market languishes while a skeletal crew keeps the lights on as smart, affluent and successfully unemployed college graduates move back home.

We parents must confess that a bachelor degree has become a safety net for our children. The reality is students who get the degree are likely to land a menial job than a dream career because of woeful job preparation. After all, competition is ferocious. The new graduate with a four year degree vies for a job representing no more than 20% of the market. The rest of work opportunities belong to the plumber, electrician, HVAC repairer and the mechanic.

To complicate matters is the overall inept national high school guidance model that exacerbates the crisis. The title “guidance counselor” is a total misnomer. Monitoring student progress and completing necessary forms is not career development. Our children need direction and decision-making skills for a lifetime of hard choices. Guidance counselors who do spend time with students may be inclined to assist the ones likely to receive the bachelor badge. This coupled with parental snubbing has caused an oversupply of college educated job seekers who can’t find work. Meanwhile, the significant chasm between older workers in vocationally certified jobs and younger workers to replace them continues to widen.

So what’s the cure?

Let’s start with a wake up call not to educators or politicians, but to parents. Vocational education must be considered a viable option for our children’s career choice. Stop branding it as the alternative school for the dumb kids. A vocational education provides the foundation for a sustainable wage that can outpace the worker with a four year degree.

Next, America must demand for high schools to equip guidance counselors with the critical career development competencies necessary to facilitate a life long pursuit of making sound occupational choices. To not equip our children with fundamental career counsel is a travesty.

Finally, if your children sense the gravitational pull to work with their hands and get dirty, what’s the risk of letting them sweat? We need a serious injection of reality to stimulate our energy for adapting to the needs of the workforce.

After all, ask the Wall Street broker when his electricity goes out who he calls or the politician who she will dial when discovering the air conditioner doesn’t work. It may just be your child.

We parents must embrace the career path our children choose to marry. Let’s no longer allow universities to be the match-maker and end the quackery of our misguided career perception.

The most anxiety provoking stimulus on the planet is preparing for a job interview.  The trepidation causes physical symptoms ranging from cold hands and heart palpitations to severe migraine headaches.  The reason?  Our human nature fears rejection. We don't want to make a fool of ourselves and fail to ace an interview that leads to a job we really want.

So much seems to be at stake for such a short window of sitting at the table with strangers.

Thus, many jobseekers feel powerless when preparing for an interview and that lack of confidence can sabotage their chances. 

What can you do to increase the probability of success?

Know the rule of controlled variables.

Remember the day you completed your science fair exhibit for school?  The entire experiment was based on your ability to hypothesize, conduct procedures and draw conclusions from the results.  The key to success was in comparing the trials with variables you controlled with the one variable you couldn't.  
Interviewing is exactly the same process.

It is the adult version of a science fair project and the employer is your judge.

1. The variables you cannot control

Here is a list of the variables you can't sway or change that may affect your interview:

1. The interviewer had a bad morning before coming to work and sits at the table in a closed posture and horrible mood.  You think he just doesn't like you.
2. The employer interviewing you is in a conflict with his boss and displaces aggression in terse questions that take you off guard.  You had no idea this was going on.
3. There is an internal candidate privy to being hired and you know nothing about it.
4. The interviewing panel has poorly prepared for discovering your talent and if you're a match for the position. The interview ends abruptly and you don't know why.
5. The interviewers ask questions you haven't prepared for including illegal ones and it leaves you with a bad taste in your mouth.

I could go on and on, but catch my drift: there are some things you can't change that may impact your interview success.

BUT!  There are variables that you can control, so take the reins and make sure you minimize a potentially negative perception.

2. The constant variables you control

Here is a list of the most important variables that you have the power to regulate:

1. Your attire- Make certain you dress professionally to the interview with no exception.  Employers are now seeing young adults coming to an interview in pajama bottoms.  Seriously!
2. Your smell- Make certain you don't wear strong perfume or cologne.  Allergies, scent of a former spouse can adversely affect your interview.  Smell clean and fresh with plenty of deodorant.
3. Your body- Have a strong handshake, confident eye contact and warmth in your smile.  Don't wear excessive jewelry (especially on the face) and show your prized tattoos.  It is a variable that could be negative.  Do you want to risk it?  Maybe you do.  If you choose to show body art and piercing it will certainly weed out an employer if they decline to offer you a job because of your body art. 
4. Your mannerism and language- Be friendly, open and honest in your answers.  This calls for serious preparation and mock interviews with friends to get comfortable hearing yourself discuss the finer points of your talent.
5. Your answers- Study the company, the job description, interview professionals in that position at other companies and practice your responses. 
6. Your cell phone, friend or parent- Leave it or them at home. End of explanation.

It all comes down to convincing the interviewing team that you possess the skill-set, attitude, work ethic and temperament that fits the company culture.  The judges will decide if you're the right fit.  Yet, in the end, your preparation, skills and attitude make you the true winner.

The workforce opportunity project is an empirically based research project that randomly selected 100 Eastern Kentucky employers. We asked a rigorous set of questions that included skills, training and character traits needed for future workers.

Visit the official website for a full report and the project highlights:

http://www.workforceopportunityproject.com/

Here is also a recent article about the project published in the Floyd County Times.

http://http//floydcountytimes.com/bookmark/12129419

This is my "elephant" in the room blog moment.  It is an obvious but woefully neglected topic for any person desiring to increase career success: display common courtesy because it impacts you and others in only two ways, positive or negative. 

There is no gray area in between the two extremes.


1. The rule of life and career: Treat others as you want to be treated. 

I don't know if its the time, age or cultural shift of our society but we neglect the art of displaying common courtesy.  This can sting you in a career, maybe not immediately but eventually.  The consequence can be a fatal blow in a job offer, personal connection or advancement opportunity.

Examples of lacking courtesy:

1. Not taking a few moments to call if I'm running late to a meeting assuring others I will be there.
2. Not showing up at all with no call, no warning and simply ignoring the meeting altogether.
3. Not returning phone calls within 24 business hours.
4. Not returning email messages within 48 business hours.
5. Not saying thank you to a colleague for something they have done, no matter how big or small.

This all seems so elementary, but it's not.  We seem to be a people in a hurry, rush or in an environment that diverts attention, simply forgetting the basic course called "Be Nice 101".


2.  In the end, whatever you sow you'll reap.

This wisdom rings true more than we realize.  Whatever kindness, generosity or manners we display will be given back in some degree over time.  Its the law of the universe.  Its as imperative and true as the law of gravity.  And, lots of things fall on your head rather than in your lap when you don't use it.

So what can you do to improve your courteous spirit and business etiquette?

Five simple strategies will get you moving in the courteous direction.

A. Remember people are more important than time, money and even sleep.  They drive your business or job.  Without them, you have no work.  Be nice even when you don't feel like it.
B.  Return their phone calls in 24 hours.  No wiggle room on this one.
C.  Email them promptly.  The deadline is 48 hours. Sooner is better.
D. Never leave another person, business or organization stranded when they expect to meet you. Pure rudeness will bite you in the a*#.
E. Say thank you more.  In words, in action, in a moment, just say thank you more.

The result will be a happier you and everyone else around you.  Common courtesy is the lifeblood of career and life success.   You probably have heard that common mantra "Don't burn bridges in your career" a thousand times.

Today a new one emerges that sounds like this, "Take time to build a bridge with common decency and kindness."  Can't burn a bridge that was never built.

Courtesy will go a long way.

Economists are not career counselors. It seems to me they're being sought after to explain the job market's woes while using potentially outdated methods to surmise our current condition.


Economists can explain the parameters about the job market but are not actively working inside it to give us an accurate bird's eye view. To say they live in an ivory castle is the extreme but I'm not far off when it comes to providing us with substantial relevance to our present condition. They appear sometimes as detached from the real world.
It is equivalent to me stopping by a funeral visitation of a friend. I enter the room, walk over to him and pay my respect. Gently, I begin to speak.
"So sorry for the loss of your mother. I know just how you feel."
I then proceed to the exit, grab my cell phone and call my mother.

What I offered was hollow sympathy without a speck of authentic understanding for the crisis my friend is experiencing.

Economists have sympathy for our job market woes. But do they really know the impact of the power of their words and how that affects the trenches? They seem to focus on the hole when we need them to look at the doughnut.

The hole they see: Loss of obsolete jobs. Low consumer confidence. Bleak outlook. The sky is falling.

The doughnut they need to talk about: New job creation not on the radar as independent contractors emerge and vocationally certified occupations need new workers to provide infrastructure for the new economy from electricians to hydrologists.

The bully who made it all happen

The reality is some types of jobs are lost everyday and this will never end. The likes of media giants in particular are beginning to fossilize in print media form such as newspapers. Some business chains are suffering HUGE consequences for not adapting their stone age models to an ever fluid audience.
Technology has outdated yesterday's golden digital child. It is a tornado of epic proportions that is hard to predict and few can stay ahead of its volatile forces.

Many businesses during the economic recession (not my word for it) did not peek ahead to an ever changing paradigm of customer need and fickleness that will hurt them as the economy rebounds. Businesses who stick to hard and fast rules are losing breath or are already dead. Still have a pager? Once you did, but now you don't. Why? Because something else made it obsolete. This is the nature of our economy that is beautiful in one way and ugly in another (especially when you lose a job).

We have created a beast. I call it the bully of constant recalibration.

The world of work is in the midst of unprecedented evolution. A recalibration that may not shake out for several more years. One major reason is because so many jobseekers right this moment are searching for jobs that don't exist. They are never coming back. So what do you do in this job market climate?


RECALIBRATE YOURSELF

The economy is recalibrating for a new era of workers who stop looking for big companies to hire them. Rather, they gear up to do business as unusual. In other words, they develop a type or brand that offers a specialization that makes life easier for customers who don't have that particular expertise or product. This could include occupations such as graphic artists, writers, editors, project managers, consultants and trainers just to name a few. Our emerging economy will be quick and nimble unless it has federal government letterhead. There will be many who contract their services and answer to the feds on a 1099.

In just a few years, we will have a generation of tornadic new spenders in the market numbering over 75 million. When they get ready to spend, their primary business targets will be who they know, trust and believe will make life simpler, cheaper and quicker to navigate. How will you position yourself to be on their radar?

Every worker has to develop a business acumen independently and as a part of a community of experts within an industry. Keep reading blogs on emerging technologies and business practices. Keep having coffee and lunches with your colleagues. Stop focusing on the decline(symptom) as the economist seem to be doing and start paying attention to the recalibration (cause) that took effect when computers first began to hum. I think we need to face up to being the new business owners we were always afraid to be.


This is not an easy transitional decade. Yet, we as a nation can't continue to spend money in reviving what can't be brought back to life. We don't want to go back to pagers, do we?

After all, the global market is calling. The ones who pick up the phone to answer will see recalibration not as the bully who forced job elimination and wreaked havoc on family and friends. But the new kid on the block who wants to be a friend. What do you think economists will say about that?

Since the word career derives from the french meaning "racetrack", we should make one sure bet on the top three characteristics of career success.

Here is my personal trifecta:

1st Place: PERSEVERANCE
2nd Place: FOCUS
3rd Place: HUMOR

Without perseverance in the lead we're all in serious trouble.  How many times have you had a great idea until a bump or roadblock sidelined your creativity?  Just like that, your perseverance vanished.  Without Thomas Edison's first place finish we'd still be reading by candle light.  Develop this characteristic by increasing your capacity for disappointment. Sulk only for a moment.  Then, be tenacious and try again.

In second place by a nose is focus.  This is the long shot who darts out in the front of the pack.  Focus is the key to getting work accomplished and goals achieved.  Focus gives impetus to finish strong when so many things are vying for our attention in the midst of multiple distractions.  Focus is harnessing your energy for a certain task until it is complete.

Rounding out the winning wager is humor.  This spry attitude of looking at life through a positive lens is critical to our mental and physical wellbeing.  When is the last time you laughed out loud from the gut?
In spite of an often grueling pace, laughter is the essential component that eases tension and stress.

No matter how we place our talents at the starting gate, the human quest for a meaningful career is a hard race to run. It asks for both speed and endurance simultaneously.  The question is, how much are we willing to wager in finding a career worthwhile?

Of course, we missed out on the announcer declaring the last place finisher.  It crossed the line but no one in the crowd saw it complete the race.

Apathy.  It came in all alone.

I've interviewed employers and asked them face-to-face, what skills do you want in your future workforce?

They're indicating a need for a plethora of critical skills to meet their business demands.  Just a few of the most important include:

1.  The ability to self-manage and work independently without excessive feedback.
2. The ability to utilize critical thinking skills when confronted with a complex problem.
3.  Exerting professionalism at all times.
4. A basic willingness to learn new skills as technology constantly shifts the business model.
5. Display a strong work ethic at work.

What exactly are these skills and how does one learn them? 

My previous post was about the skill of self-management.  This post centers on a strong work ethic.

A strong work ethic in metamorphosis

First, let's define it and then explain the phenomena of its apparent shift.

The definition of a "strong work ethic" is subjective at best due to personal influences such as age, life experience and one's family of origin.  What is determined to be a strong work ethic by one individual or family may be considered as "lazy" to another because everyone's ideology is different.   It is therefore safe to generalize the sustainability skill of "strong work ethic" by pointing to indicators that likely represent it.

The positive behaviors reflecting a strong work ethic include:

1. Coming to work everyday.
2. Being punctual everyday.
3. Not letting personal life interfere with professional responsibilities.
4. Doing the work with excellent quality.

Based on these four behaviors we can now define a strong work ethic as a worker's intent to take work seriously when actively engaged in it.
Why are employers asking for employees that possess a strong work ethic and what is the reason for its necessity today as compared to previous years?  Is there a generational difference in how a person's work ethic is defined?  Or is it simply an issue of pervasive indifference, laziness and lack of motivation in workers?

Could it be that an employee's strong work ethic is no longer linked to time spent clocking in, blind loyalty and total dedication to an employer?  Are employers asking for what is no longer available in the workforce especially given the reductions, lay-offs and down-sizing experienced over the last decade?  Are workers more savvy in determining not to let work become an all consuming bent? Is it possible many younger workers have seen tangible results of family break-down and unhealthy lifestyles of parents who were let go in spite of a "strong work ethic"?

Is the price tag for a "strong work ethic" too high for the up and coming generation of workers to pay?  Many not only want but demand flexibility as life outside the walls of work is critical to a sense of meaning while accomplishment at work is not completely entwined with a sense of self and identity.

Thus, a new work ethic is emerging from the dead skin of out-dated modes of employment: 

My employer can have my sweat but not blood.

The worker's blood belongs to family, community and life outside work.  This includes going to a child's soccer game or school musical rather than brainstorming in a boardroom. Today's work ethic must be founded on productivity and the deliverables of a person's skill-set. 

I'm not advocating for the lazy, apathetic and withdrawn individuals that are currently disengaged from the world of work drawing a check not because of a verified disability or illness. I'm advocating for the worker who wants to work but not at the cost of one's health, life, relationships and basic wellness.

I'm asking today's employer a simple question worthy of consideration:

How are you going to meet your employees in the middle? 

For many employees, a strong work ethic is about productive results.  Not about the ticking of a clock.
And the best reward? The smiles of their children when they come home for dinner.