Sunday, June 28, 2009

where are the jobs in a recession? how do I hear about them?

Even though we are experiencing serious difficulties in our labour economy, there's still decent jobs out there. It may surprise you but lots of my clients and friends are finding jobs right now.

When an unemployment rate reaches 10% (which we are currently experiencing) or even if it get's bad as 15%, it still means that 90 or 85% of the working population are employed.

You can see it as two buildings: a huge building where 90% of people are working and a small building where the other 10% hang out. And what is key here is that people are always leaving the big building, they retire or lose their jobs or accept voluntary redundancy, or go travelling or emigrate and so on. The job market is a fluid constant. So how do I hear about these situations, when people leave jobs and a vacancy remains open? Who gets these jobs?

The people who went to university and made high level contacts? Maybe, but not if they are waitin in the other building for someone to find them and make them an offer. That never happens.

Those who find work have 4 advantages.

1. They know what they want to do

2. They are realistic (not pessimistic) about what salary they will take and are prepared to move or commute to get this job

3. They have a job search project plan and

4. they keep at this plan. They have bad days too but they keep on going, following their job search project until they find that job.

And that's the difference between people who find work and those who remain long term unemployed. I've seen this theory in action over and over again.

People who find work in a recession are are not always the ones with the higher degrees or linguists or those who've worked for the fancy global brands. They often don't have any particular advantages over the next person. They just take the time to work through these 4 steps and they seek help to make sure the plan is a proven one.
There is a job search system that I will share with you.
I'll be breaking down that plan over the next few blogs.

2 comments:

  1. Ive been looking for a new job for over 6 months and there really aren't any jobs out there!!
    I have sent my CV to more places than i care to remember and most of them don't even email you back. So I find it a bit rich to hear that you know people finding jobs as that is not the experience of me and my friends.

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  2. Jean
    Im sorry to hear that you are so longing looking for work. 6 months is not unusual in the current climate but it must be really stressful for you. I wonder what job search strategy you are using? Are you happy with your CV and does it reflect what kind of job you are going for? Playing the number game by sending CVs to many places is not necessarily the best strategy.Keep reading the blog and hope the forthcoming tips help you. Take care Caroline

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