begun to notice an increasing number of synchronicities that seem to indicate that you are supposed to be doing something different, something more meaningful, than you have been doing. You may have begun thinking of leaving your present occupation and moving into something new. What might that be? What is the purpose of the life you have been given? How can you make the most of your time? Many thousands of people are asking the same questions of themselves and are now awakening to their true path, intuitively knowing that something more is being required of them. They often wish that someone would tell them what to do. Used to taking their cues from external sources, some may seek advice from others, they may study the latest list of hot jobs in the new economy, or try to second guess what the next Big Thing might be so that they can align with it. It’s easy to get lost in that process.
But eventually life demands that you take action and turn inward to begin the journey of soul searching on the road less traveled. You realize that not only can you make a difference in this world, but that is the real reason you were born. You begin to grow into your individuality and power, to see that your role is to engage fully with life, to participate, to have fun, to develop in the artistic and spiritual medium of this world that is intended for your use and for your purpose. Thus, it is no accident that you are reading this book. You have taken a helpful step toward embracing your future destiny – congratulations! Now, let’s go forward together.
Chapter One: The New Global World of Work
“Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.”
President Teddy Roosevelt
on Labor Day, September 7, 1903
It is a basic human need to want to have a job. And it’s always been the case that there are many new jobs coming into the marketplace with opportunities to compete for them. President Teddy Roosevelt’s philosophy is still true today but what’s different is the competition for jobs is now on a global scale. The old foundation is gone and we are in an era of redefined loyalties, expanded options, and a transformed job market.
There are billions of people in the world trying hard to achieve the prize of a good job, one that carries with it the feeling of contributing to something worthwhile. Significant numbers of job seekers have found the job of their dreams with a good salary and a sense of doing work that matters, but there are many more that have not. What’s contributing to this uneven playing field?
There are two primary trends responsible - globalization and innovation in information technology. Both forces are moving the world closer to a single market for labor. Competing for good jobs with other qualified workers used to take place in the city, state or region where you lived, but now you may be competing against workers who live in different countries. The organizational drive to reduce costs by finding cheap labor is no longer happening just in manufacturing, but in white-collar jobs, such as computer programming, copywriting and even basic “back office” legal tasks.
Companies are buying services from a growing contingent of part-time, contract and temporary workers - an inherently more flexible work force. In the U.S. in 2010, the number of part-time workers reached a new high of almost 20% of all employees. According to a recent survey of American businesses by the McKinsey Global Institute, over the next five years 58% of them expect to use more part-time, temporary or contract employees, and 22% expect to outsource more jobs.
These trends affect not only the number of jobs available worldwide, but also the quality of jobs, the sense of job security, and the wages and benefits workers receive. There’s even a term for it: the “hollowing out” of mid-level jobs – jobs that employees thought would last forever.
As a job seeker, do not allow yourself to become discouraged by changes in the job market; there is a new “natural rate” of unemployment evolving in the U.S., and elsewhere, that is going to require structural societal reforms that have the potential to create thousands of new jobs and substantial new wealth. None of these reforms will be easy, and each will take time to produce results, but job seekers will reap the rewards in future opportunities.
Educational reforms are part of the overall global changes underway. For openers, education matters more now, not just in developed nations, but worldwide. Studies show a high correlation between a good education, higher earnings and a reduced risk of becoming unemployed. For example, the U.S. jobless rate among college graduates rose from under 2% in 2007 to close to 5% in 2010, but for non-graduates it jumped from 5% to over 11%.
In response, interesting innovations are now underway in higher education such as the Stanford University program, Coursera, which offers the best instructors teaching the most “in demand” courses for free to students living around the globe. Using technology to advance their reach, the University offered its first free technical course in early 2012 and more than 160,000 students signed up! Many other schools are beginning to emulate Stanford’s pioneering initiative while many others are challenging the model. The implications are broad and questions have been raised about how to manage online learning for such large numbers of students, the quality of the learning experience itself and the examination of what may become best practices. For an overview of this exciting concept go to TED talks to view a video featuring Coursera co-developer Daphne Koller at:
http://www.ted.com/talks/daphne_koller_what_we_re_learning_from_online_education.html
Online learning keeps getting closer to delivering on its promise to give every child a chance at a free, world-class education, and no one is more closely identified with that than Salman Khan, a world-wide tutor for the digital age. Mr. Khan did not set out to change education, he was just trying to help his teenage cousin overcome her fear of algebra. Visit his website, www.khanacademy.org and you will find an amazing library of online lectures on math, science and a variety of other topics. Over 3,000 lessons allow learners to learn at their own pace. Practice exercises send students back to a relevant video when they have trouble mastering a subject. For teachers who use Khan Academy content in classrooms, there is a dashboard created just for them. Mr. Khan is a master teacher, someone with the wonderful gift of taking complex subjects and turning them into understandable lessons. A pioneer in learning, he will continue to impact education as a great innovator and the world will benefit.
What You Can Do to Manage Your Career
There are things you can do right now to manage your own career in spite of these larger societal changes taking effect. Consider this: given the current state of the U.S. economy, it will take you just as long to find a poor job as it will to find a good one. Why not look for a good job, then, one that fits you and makes you feel alive and engaged?
Here are some things you will need to take responsibility for in order to win in the global job market:
•Know yourself, your skills, your interests, and your passions. Your individuality is the greatest talent you can offer an employer and the greatest foundation you can build a career upon.
•Be prepared to work far harder to get an employer's attention in your job search than you may have previously thought necessary.
•You will need to market yourself better and consider a broader range of employers than you might have previously thought of as part of a full job search. This includes “bridge” jobs that help pay the bills until you find the ideal job you seek.
•Be judicious about what you put on the Internet and social media sites and “clean up your act”. Facebook and other sites are
