Why panic? An analysis of the current job market and how to survive it

The employer’s opportunity

Many employers will see the current economic downturn as a golden opportunity to upgrade their workforce. For many the need for creative and flexible staffing regarding the skills and experience of candidates has been swept away in a few months. In the recent past if an employer had six “required” qualifications they might hire somebody with four or five and train for what was missing. Today they will hold out for all six because so many great candidates are available. It is no longer a problem finding the perfect candidate. In other words the competition for every position is fiercer then anytime in the last few decades. This is one of the primary reasons why in years past you may have received five responses for twenty resumes sent and today you are getting one, two or possibly none. If your resume does not meet the requirements as advertised it is ignored. When your resume is evaluated (scanned) your ability to do the job is no longer relevant. You have the qualifications or you don’t. Employer’s number one complaint about the major job boards is the volume of responses from candidates who do not meet all the requirements. If you follow the rules given in the posting about how to reply do not waste your time if you are not a match to what the employer puts in the posting.

If you are currently employed it has never been more important to be an ideal employee. Your employer is receiving resumes every day from candidates with backgrounds equal to or superior to yours and they are hungry and less expensive. You will not be retained as an employee just because you are a nice person who has been there for a long time. They will keep you only because you are so valuable that they cannot afford to lose you. You must approach every day as if your job depends on the work you do that day. Be the first in and the last out. Volunteer for extra work. Take on new projects with enthusiasm and gratitude. Work on self improvement every day. Read and take courses to improve your skills. Do more than the job requires. Today just doing the job as it is written is viewed as simply average. Do not do all this quietly. Publicize your work. When you finish a project early or under budget do not just slip your work in your boss’s inbox. Hand it to him in public, ask his opinion and ask for more work. Do not ever complain to anybody about anything even those you think are friends. If you can’t say something positive keep your mouth shut. There are plenty of books available on how to be a great employee. Read them; follow the advice and leave them out on your desk. If you are not willing to follow all this advice remember that your replacement is knocking on your boss’s door.

Job market recovery

You are probably starting to hear people talking about recovery. They say we have probably hit bottom. We may still hit 10% unemployment but then as markets and business improves the jobs will start coming back. Unfortunately “they” could not be more wrong. It is true that the number of jobs lost will go down however an improvement in the new jobs created number is still quite a ways off.

I hate to be a negative naysayer and rain on the parade of everybody who is predicting that as the rest of the economy recovers so will the jobs however a large portion of both blue and white collar jobs lost over the last two years will not come back anytime soon. It is economics 101.

When companies are forced to accomplish the same or more with diminished resources they become more efficient and do not return to the old way of getting things done. Let’s say that last year I had a task to produce X revenue with three people but then the people at the top told me that I had to reduce expenses by reducing staff by thirty percent. We all know that when a staff reduction of 30% is ordered the people giving the order do not also tell me that it is ok if revenue goes down by an equal amount. They would tell me to maintain production and possibly improve it. If I have to do the same with fewer people I find ways to make/help the reduced workforce work smarter, better, harder. I may do it through longer hours, training, better tools, incentive compensation etc... Once the improvements are in place and working. Management knows that the work that used to take three people was now being done with two. I will not be able to bring back the third. This has happened throughout history. A portion of the jobs lost during a down economy are not replaced during a recovery. Even if eventually the numbers come back the jobs will be different.

If you are unemployed this means that if ten people were let go there will only be jobs for seven (Hypothetical numbers) and fewer are available now. If you want one of the available jobs you should be in panic mode. By that I mean that you must be conducting an intense, fast paced, perfect job search. Your job search should be a 40 hour job. You can’t miss a single posting and when you respond you must do it in ways that separate you from the hundreds of other responses. Your correspondence, letters and resume must be perfect. You can’t afford a single typo. You need to plan time everyday for networking and talk to 10 – 15 decision makers every week. Maintain a target company list of 20+ and talk to current and former employees of these companies every day looking for leads, advice and finding problems that you can solve.  Since I am a job search coach I am biased but I believe that unless you are 100% confident in your abilities to conduct a perfect job search you should be working with a professional; especially if you have been looking for 3+ months.

I did not write this to discourage people but everybody needs to clearly understand what they are up against. I run into far too many people who are sitting at home sending out a few resumes a day and waiting for something to happen or who are looking for a job the same way they did the last time they changed. These people face a long and frustrating period of unemployment. If you apply yourself 100% and make use of all the resources readily available to those who take the time to look you should be working in two months. If not….

Get out there and go get it.

 

Comments

[William K. Day]

I stumbled across this posting just yesterday.

I don't totally agree with every point here especially by degree. Taking a slightly (i.e. one level) lower job will not kill your career, especially in this market. People take 1 step back to take 2 forward at a new company all the time.

The recommendation to work as a temp or contractor or consultant is a good one though. It is the route I am using while still looking for a full-time gig. It does cut into the available job search time so that might extend the time it takes to find a job.

Overall good article though and an even better blog site. Kudos.

[D. Stacy Fleming]

Some very good points.... When you see them in black and white it brings things to the surface....Thanks!

[LD]

One of my favorite quotations: "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines." Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

Granted, I am being a tad pedantic. But, an expert exhorting the virtues of perfect re'sume's with no typos, may want to make sure his blog's maudlin epitaph contains no (morre) typos.

By the way, I managed to get by the typo and read the entire article. I agree with most of it. Good thing your blog is not your re'sume'; or is it?

Cruel but fair? Good luck. LD

[SE Childs]

Sadly you are right. And what's really different this time around is that even the "who you know" thing (networking with friends and old colleagues) is a dying method. More than half of them are in the same boat you are or, if employed, have their heads down and elbows up. So, passing your resume out is the last thing on their agenda-- can you blame them? Staying "out of the line of fire" and under the radar is the course of the day. So, while I'm not saying networking is useless, I am saying that you will need to be highly strategic about who you call (e.g. you see a posting at company X and you know someone at company X) and have your eyes wide open to the fear-factor aspect of that the individual you know may face...

[Peter Procopio]

Great blog. I agree completely with this article.