Oct 17
2009

Today’s title came from a friend who’s been looking for some time.  Today’s news doesn’t give much comfort. In “Street Talk” on Forbes.com Robert Lenzner sees the stock market progress as hollow and points out that “… 15 million people are competing for 2.5 million job openings.” I’m afraid my friend is going to be looking a while yet. He still believes that his old job will come back or that he’ll find another like it. I wish him well.

The Wall Street Journal’s “Laid Off and Looking” blog has some more positive thoughts and an important point - if you get hired, keep networking, remember last-hired, first-fired.

I hate to keep chanting the same mantra, but I will – work on you, get better, survive and vow to get control of your future. There’s some good books on our Reading List.



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Oct 15
2009

I talked about the fast changes in the business world. Well, not all change is ugly. There’s a good article on CareerBuilder today about new, emerging jobs. NetTemps posted a guide to interviewing.
Today’s paper celebrated the Dow breaking 10,000 and in the same article pointed out that 200,000 new jobs per month are required to hold the unemployment rate at the ~10% level. They had no expectation of the rate dropping anytime soon.
With all that, this article from CareerBuilder brings a little light into the gloom.
Here’s another from that fits into our “Deciding” category for mature workers.



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Oct 13
2009

I just got today’s Investopedia’s “Term of the Day” – Recareering. It’s defined as “A late-in-life career change. Recareering is not just a job change, but a move to a completely different career path.”
[link]

Is your ex-job gone forever?  Is your present job about to be?  Maybe recareering is your best bet.  We are in a fast-changing world.  We are in the worst economic times in two generations.  We have millions of people in the 50+ age-range who, because of losses in the past 18 months, have no prospect of retirement – unless they do something different.



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Oct 12
2009

There’s a ton of different views of what’s coming in the US and world economies and therefore what’s coming in the job search world.

Some of the government talking heads are trying to pretend that all is well.  Some pundits are shouting “The end is near!”. As always , the truth is somewhere in the middle.

One of the more rational is Harry Dent.  In his book The Great Depression Ahead: How to Prosper in the Crash Following the Greatest Boom in History, he explains what has happened and what’s likely in the next decades.  He’s worth listening to because he called the boom, in The Next Great Bubble Boom: How to Profit from the Greatest Boom in History: 2006-2010
, and he’s therefore likely to have good insight into the bust.

From his analysis, it’s clear that many US jobs are gone forever.  But then, that happened to buggy-whip makers too.  It doesn’t mean there are no jobs, just that they will be different jobs or that they will be staffed differently.  If you have been laid off and you concentrate your job search only on the same job you had, you may be narrowing your chances massively.  Those who take a moment to try to understand the environment, get busy with personal development and then tailor their job search have a much better chance.



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Oct 9
2009

I just found a video on yahoo. I suspect we’ve all felt this way one time or another. I don’t know if this work from home opportunity is for you, but it does address the issue of “Keep doing what you’ve been doing and you’ll keep getting what you’ve been getting”.

Here’s another video, this one is pure news and raises the question “Will these jobs ever come back?”

I do know we’ll all feel that way again if we don’t take control of our lives. Personal development is the key. Jim Rohn has said for years “Work harder on yourself than you do on your job”.



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