Changing Landscape Of Today’s Job Market
Today’s job market has changed significantly since the Internet gained in popularity and now the field of applicants includes not just local competition there is also global competition for the same employment positions. This makes landing a job much more difficult for the applicant and much more involved for the employer seeking someone to fill his or her position.
Job types have changed forever.
Even today you continue to see listings for jobs in service and sales; however, you also will note that these are the types of positions that barely pay living wage as far as compensation is concerned. Moreover, you will see an abundance of jobs advertised that appear to be the equivalent of multi-level marketing pyramid scheme. Still, the qualified individual capable of closing a transaction will always find him or herself in demand in the job market. That individual will simply be competing with a larger field of other applicants making his or her resume all that much more important.
What you will not find in the modern job market is the stereotypical manufacturing jobs as these have all but vanished in today’s job world thanks due to new automation and outsourcing. Machines milk cows, harvest grain, grind compost, and till the ground among many other things. Mom and Pop stores on neighbourhood corners have folded to giant retailers such as Wal Mart, and because there is no population boom underway the demand for skilled tradesmen has declined. On the upside, new jobs proliferate in health care, information technology, engineering and many other employment positions that formerly only required a high school diploma now require a minimum four year college degree. What remains consistent now as before is the need for plumbers and electricians. However, electrical jobs likely require a much higher degree of expertise than simple wiring and connections.
Possibilities at the top and bottom of the tree.
The United States, the United Kingdom, and other industrialized nations have desperate need of experienced professionals-physicians, dentists, registered nurses, engineers, and educators. Hospitals and large health maintenance organizations offer alluring salary-and-benefits packages, handsome sign-on bonuses, and reimbursement of relocation costs for experienced professionals. Naturally, oncologists and professionals with specialties in geriatrics can negotiate for just about anything they want or need, because everyone desperately seeks primary care physicians and Certified Nurse Practitioners.
Of course, Haiti and Pakistan need these professionals even more desperately, but the work environments are not so nicely appointed and the compensation packages are not so compelling. The rewards, however, defy quantification. A spokesperson for the International Red Cross recently said of working in Haiti, “I have been here almost from the start. Right now, if someone offered me a ‘dream’ job and more wealth than I could imagine, I would turn him down in a heartbeat. Would not give the most seductive offer even a second thought,” she says. “Constantly tired, usually mired in mud or debris, I nevertheless cannot imagine a job more desirable than this one.”
A person beginning college, therefore, does not need a crystal ball to find career direction; each need only look inside his or her heart. For a person in mid-career, however, the path may not seem so clear. Some skills and talents adapt or transfer, but most twenty-first century career opportunities challenge mid-life workers to retrain and retool.
Recruiting in the internet age
Right now and for the foreseeable future, employers enjoy the luxury of choosing among fields-full of well-qualified job applicants. In the United States, employers receive six “perfect” applications for each job they post, and they receive hundreds of resumes and letters that satisfy the minimum criteria for each vacant position. Not surprisingly, therefore, employers have shown preference for younger candidates, because they have the benefit of recent training and they cost less. In your father’s job market, “experience” typically gave an applicant a slight competitive advantage, but many large corporations now prefer recruiting people with little or no experience, saying, “We want to train them our way.” In decided contrast to your father’s job market, many employers recently have shown reluctance to consider applicants who are not currently employed. Curious resume snobbishness has emerged as employers surmise that a worker laid-off or downsized elsewhere lacks motivation, drive, talent, skill, and training to hold his own in their vacant positions. The conventional wisdom always suggested that the best time to look for a new job is while you still have your old job. Now, however, the conventional wisdom sounds more like a command than a simple suggestion.
Work as a recruiter also has changed. Sophisticated software and online resources simplify the work and increase recruiters’ productivity, effectively screening less-than-qualified candidates from digital screening pools. The wonderware may, however, ironically disqualify some of the most promising candidates for creative or exceptionally demanding jobs. The “bots” in the software naturally read resumes and cover letters for key words, matching job-description essentials with applicants’ statements. An otherwise mediocre applicant with some specialized skill in “search engine optimization” may rise to the top of the pile while a gifted but not so savvy prospect will sink or fall out of the rankings.
Similarly, the standards and definitions of “skills and attributes” have changed. “Exceptional communication skills” used to signify command of the mother tongue and the uncanny ability to make complex ideas seem simple and desirable. Some employers even valued allusions, metaphors, and other figures of speech that defy search engine optimization. In the Twitter-driven age, however, fast-flying thumbs and command of tweet-speak matter far more than the ability to quote Shakespeare for any occasion. “Bi-lingual” as often means “fluent in English and hyper-text mounting language” as it means “speaks both English and French”; and “multi-media” has, for the most part, replaced “multi-cultural” as the virtual world invents a culture of its own.
Drawing and blurring the line between public and private
Recruiters typically develop exquisite sensitivity about candidates who do and do not “represent the brand.” In your father’s job market, the applicant’s wardrobe revealed a great deal about his or her fitness for a position. Now, FaceBook expedites sorting for propriety and a good profile substitutes for a nicely tailored suit. Recruiters for venerable corporations and professional practices look at applicants’ ostensibly personal internet information, and the buzz-mill vibrates overtime with stories of Ivy League valedictorians losing-out on good jobs because they confessed to drug use or promiscuity in their blogs. YouTube has killed more careers than it has launched.
Today’s global job market sets no limits geographically for applicants and the wall between public and private has toppled. Intelligent job seekers must first ‘brand’ themselves in an effort to ‘imprint’ upon the recruiters and employers of the world and make certain anything adverse to the individual brand is ‘cleaned up’ prior to, rather than – after the hiring party discovers it online. We asked a top -yet unnamed professional recruiter for a quote in closing and that reply suggests follow the golden rule which is to apply while you still have a job and make certain your online profiles and rep reflects a cohesive message across the board.
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