Career Advice Overview and Options

You may have noticed that the last few posts were all related and together gave people some other options to look into on their search.

In my post entitled: "Career Advice - Where Do You Get It?" I discussed the problem many people have in figuring out exactly what they want to do for their next job, regardless of what they are currently doing - you might want a change. The blog included a package offer from the legendary author Brian Tracy that would help anyone decide just what they want to really do.

Predicting the future job trends is difficult but my post: "What Are Tomorrows Jobs?" discusses key areas to look into and how to get some training to move into those new areas.

The post "More Jobs, Interviews and Cover Letters" has some more information related to putting together your cover letter and looking for different jobs that you may not have seen before.

And if you are wondering if you should or if you shouldn't try something different then maybe this little post will help: "The Road Less Traveled".

My most recent post prior to this one discussed your responsibility and that of corporations in these times: Corporate and Personal-Responsibility.

There will be more posts to follow on this theme of trying something different and also the basic but often overlooked problem of creating a great resume.

And finally, those people interested in learning how to use the internet to supplement or even replace their income will learn from "Internet Business"

Happy Easter

Owen

Corporate and Personal Responsibility

A short post today on the subject of Corporate Responsibility. There are lots of comments in the media at the moment criticising companies for putting so many good people out of work. Now in some cases that criticism is justified as in some cases companies have jumped in far too quickly and starting laying people off too soon before they had really analysed the full costs of doing that. Usually, companies factor the cost of an employee as several times that persons salary package! So losing just one good person is expensive, but actually laying people off that you may later need is extremely expensive! But most companies are acting responsibly, they have to! They have to answer to their shareholders and boards of directors ultimately, and they are often caught in a very difficult position.

On one hand if they lay people off too soon they are hampering the chance for the business to grow again when the times improve and are spending a lot of money in redundancy payouts to boot! But on the other hand if they keep on employing too many staff at a loss for too long then they are putting the whole financial foundations of their business in peril. They are caught between the proverbial "rock and a hard place" or maybe that is just a saying where I come from.

Some companies are getting it wrong and have had to rehire people later that they retrenched, but most often this is not the case. Companies in general try to do the right thing by their people and their community, they are aware they have a social responsibility as well as one to their shareholders, in fact the two are closely linked.

So instead of criticising upper management for the tough decisions they have to make (and yes some will get it wrong, don't we all) I suggest employees in companies that are on the "edge" try to help out. They can knuckle down and really try to help their company out, work a bit harder, be more focused, ask your manager how you can help out more (that will be an unusual concept for some but try it), pull together as one team to get through the tough times. Because those companies and teams that don't will not survive, they will fail.

There are two sides to the responsibility equation then: Corporate responsibility to their share holders, community, partners, customers and employees; and individual employee responsibility to their employer, their team mates, their families and their communities. Both Companies and individual employees are jointly responsible, and both have to learn to adapt and work together to get through these times.

Businesses, Companies and individual employees who can't adapt will have to watch as their business or job or both becomes extinct - just ask the dinosaurs what happens if you don't learn to adapt!


Owen

What are tomorrow's jobs?

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics the top occupations projected to grow the fastest in the period 2006-2016 are in order:

1. Network systems and data communications analysts
2. Personal and home care aides
3. Home health aides
4. Computer Software Engineers, applications
5. Veterinary technologists and technicians
6. Personal Financial advisors
7. Makeup Artists, theatrical and performance
8. Medical Assistants
9. Veterinarians
10. Substance abuse and behavioral disorder counselors
11. Skin care specialists
12. Financial Analysts

The US B.L.S. states: "Among all occupations in the (US) economy, health care occupations are expected to make up 7 of the 20 fastest growing occupations, the largest proportion of any occupational group. "


The same article shows the jobs predicted to have the greatest increase in numbers and those with the greatest predicted decline - the ones to get out of. It goes on to discuss training.

Read the full article with graphs here: US BLS Article on Tomorrow's Jobs

If you are one of our many US readers and you are considering more training then "Education for Careers" has a lot more information at their web site.




From the UK a short article in the BBC reports on a UN prediction for a growth in jobs in the Green industries: "UN Forecasts Boom in Green Jobs". The same sort of growth in Green jobs can be seen already happening around the world.

For our Australian readers the following page has a great list of reference links and other information.

http://www.reinventyourcareer.com.au

and for the latest "Age" employment forecast for the immediate future click here

Owen

More Jobs, Cover letters and Interviews

On this blog I will sometimes list products and services that might help you in your search and that perhaps you haven't already come across. I am not here to try and sell them to you, just list some of them in case they help you. If there is any selling to do I will leave that to the advertiser themselves on their website for their products or services.

Today I thought I would just list two items of interest. I plan to list a few more later in the week as I will keep on searching and carrying out a basic review before I mention them on this blog.

So read on, and check these two out in case it does help you or someone you know. And can I ask that you let me know how you went, if something isn't as advertised let me know and I will pull it from this blog. Just put in a comment after this post and I will get it.

The first is a product and guide that helps you with your cover letter that you send with your job application. I admit I hadn't paid much attention to my cover letters in the past but the next product offering suggests that your Cover Letter is extremely important and offers techniques based on good advertising copywriting practice to generate Cover letters that get you to the interview. (Now they tell me!)

The product offer page has a small video and lots of information if you scroll down the page that explains it all: Click here for the Cover letter product offer.

The second is a very large and diverse recruitment organization that has 35 targeted job boards in cities throughout the US that you may not have come across. They offer a range of services for a very wide range of industries: Click here to check out Creative Jobs Central

Career Advice - where do you get it?

Career advice is certainly something that most people need at various times but getting really good advice is hard. I remember the career guidance counsellors when I was at school, they tried of course, but how does one person give really good advice to hundreds of students? Particularly when they personally have no experience of each of the different professions themselves. It is very very hard, so I remember visiting them once, and never going back. I suppose I was lucky in that I knew what I wanted to do anyway at that time.

Regardless of what people decide they want to do, often careers simply cease to exist in particular locations, companies close down, jobs are outsourced overseas and so people find themselves having to move on. People can move on in many ways of course. They can physically pack up and move towns to where they can get a job in their chosen career and industry, and many many people I know do that. Or, people can move on in a different way.

They can stay where they are physically, but move on mentally. That is they can choose to change career, to try something different, even to go and get some more training. There are a multitude of ways they can do that but I urge those of you considering your options to at least entertain what else you could do without having to uproot your families and move to another town? Just think about it, maybe you will come up with something.

As for getting good advice, recently I came across a great package on offer from the well known Brian Tracy. He has reduced the price on some of his books and put together a package of real value that saves us all some money. I won't say much more here, just suggest you have a look at his site now yourself. Click on the icon below and read on. I hope that helps.




Some more advice for those people worried about their jobs and careers at the moment; stop watching or listening to the news or reading the newspapers for a week. Just try it and see how you feel. Listen to music instead, read a book, watch a movie, take up a new hobby, browse the net (but not the news sites). Go on, try it. I bet you cheer up.

See you

Owen

The Road Less Traveled

As many people including myself embark bravely on new careers and many others are just considering trying something different a famous poem came to mind (and it could just be the red wine :-). Almost everyone has heard the famous saying about the road less traveled. So I just did a quick search and found it. It is a famous poem by Robert Frost, an American poet and the one of the most famous of all.

Robert Frost's 1916 poem: "The Road Not Taken”

Poem

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_Not_Taken_(poem)

http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/51.html

http://www.adamsmithacademy.org/etext/TheRoadNotTaken.html

Just something different for today

Owen

Career Change

In the current financial doom and gloom many people are concerned about their future career and their job security.

It could be now is the time to take the opportunity to make that career change you have always wanted, or to realise that your old career isn't working for you anymore and you want to do something different. Perhaps you love your current job but realise there will be fewer and fewer jobs in that area anymore so you know deep down that you need to change into something else. But what? How? What options are there? Which options are right for you?

That is a tough question we all have to answer but it is important to ask the question isn't it? The answers will be different for each of us.




Owen