This article made several scary statements:
http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/23/pf/job_impact/index.htm?post..."Everybody is at risk," according to John Challenger, chief executive of global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
With all due respect, Mr. Challenger, I am not at risk. Why? Foresight. I have a job that is very stable is immune to the economy. So while my peers sought out exotic jobs with perks, I sought jobs with potential for advancement and stability. I can say that I have zero chance for job loss barring misconduct.
Why would you, Mr. Challenger, assume that I am in the same basket as everyone else? Do you not acknowledge that some people have taken the effort to hedge their career against market risks? Do you then assume that everyone is stupid, or that everyone is affected by the economy?
My question is this: why would a prominent news outlet post this quote? What is their rationale? Would it be fair to say that they want all of us to be scared for our jobs?
The article goes on to say this:
Alicia Zajaceskowski, 40, was laid off from her job as a loan officer at a San Diego, Calif. bank in July, and says her search is getting tougher.
Zajaceskowski, who has also worked at JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500), spends each day looking for jobs, and says she's running into more competition than ever.
"It's hard to get an interview," she said. And if she does, it's even harder to stand out. "I have been to interviews were there were 37 people."
Misspelling aside, I started working as a hiring manager in the mid '00s. It was common for me to see 1,000 resumes for the same job. It was also standard practise to interview as many qualified candidates as possible within the alloted time before offering the position to the top candidates.
In my experience, I interviewed 50-100 candidates for a single position.
With all due respect to Ms. Zajaceskowski, I was interviewing highly technical candidates with engineering degrees, and most of the candidates held advanced degrees, e.g. MBA, JD, Master's, PhD, etc.
The presumption is that these candidates were the top 99th percentile as compared to the general population in terms of education.
The logical assumption would then be that these people in the 99th percentile should have an easier time in finding a job than the general population.
So, a well-educated person faced 50-100 competitors in a good economy. How then can a loan officer say that facing 37 competitors in a "down" economy be harder, implying that the economy is the cause of poor job prospects?
My thesis is this. What kind of picture does this article paint for you? Should you re-examine your current job/career path? Should you decide for yourself if your job is stable? If you feel that your job is unstable, what do you think could be done?
I do not like being painted as a victim of the economy. Instead, I believe in the ability of each and every person to improve their own situation regardless of the economy.
If you at the top of your professional game, then what are you afraid of?
November 2nd, 2008 at 05:19 am 1225603157
What exactly do you do?
November 2nd, 2008 at 02:10 pm 1225635031
For example, my younger sister is a public school teacher. I believe she is in one of the most secure professions out there. She knows that while her income does not come close to matching that of her classmates from college, she does have the benefit of job security, and believe me, right now she is grateful for that.
However ... As with any job, there are "worst case scenarios" such as:
- Housing values plummet ... people walk away from their homes and stop paying their property taxes ... school districts lose a substantial portion of their income, and announce that there will be no COLAs the next year. The teachers union holds a vote and decides to go on strike. How long can one live on strike pay alone?
- Business are failing right and left. A city's tax revenues dry up. The city ends up in bankruptcy, and instead of paychecks starts issuing IOUs to their employees. Know any banks that will cash an IOU so you can pay the rent and buy groceries?
While it is very rare, sometimes strikes go on for a very long time and sometimes cities go bankrupt. Sometimes everyone suffers. Everyone is at risk, it is just a question of degrees.
November 2nd, 2008 at 02:23 pm 1225635801
November 2nd, 2008 at 04:04 pm 1225641893
Anyway, I get what you are saying - I am in a similar position.
While most of my friends look at layoffs as a way of life, I simply don't. IT's not much of an issue in my particular niche. Not that it will never be, but it hasn't for the last few decades and certainly isn't now. The last economy falterings in 2001 or so only made my job stronger, interestingly enough.
There is a reason I chose this career route. I don't like being at the whim of the economy. There was a lot of thought and planning to get to this level of security.
November 2nd, 2008 at 07:00 pm 1225652414