by Peter Weddle
Does that mean you shouldn’t bother with additional education and training if you’re in transition? Absolutely not. But, there’s a right way and a wrong way to go about upgrading your skills. And, the key to success is to recognize the difference and immerse yourself in the kind of retraining that will actually help you.
Job retaining is just that. It trains you to pursue a certain kind of job. There’s nothing wrong with that… if you’ve done your homework.
For example, a recent article in The New York Times recounted the experience of an administrative assistant who was laid off in early 2009. The state unemployment office urged him to upgrade his skills so he spent six weeks in a training program on word processing and spread sheets. He finished the course, updated his resume and hit the bricks. And, he’s still out there looking for work.
Why? Because, as the Department of Labor’s own research shows, the job market for administrative assistants is shrinking, not growing. If this person had been given that research or done his own simple browser search for it on the Web, he would have discovered that the retraining he was being urged to take was preparing him for a career that didn’t exist.
What’s a better alternative?
Ditch job retraining and take career retraining instead. That’s not semantics; it’s an entirely different way of viewing education for employment.
What Is Career Retraining?
Unlike job retraining, which focuses on acquiring the skills for a certain kind of job, career retraining prepares you for a career—multiple jobs—in a field of work. It involves several steps before you even step into a classroom.
* First, find an occupational field in which you would enjoy working and have the innate talent to succeed.
I realize that being in transition exerts severe financial and other penalties, so you want that time to be as short as possible. Nevertheless, investing the effort to acquire true self-awareness before you start off on your search will dramatically increase both your short and your long term prospects of success.
* Second, figure out which way the winds are blowing in the workplace.
Nobody’s crystal ball is perfect, but there is plenty of information about which fields are growing and which are being overtaken by technological innovation, consumer preferences and other change agents in the economy. Acquire that insight, and then, pick an occupation in which you would enjoy working, have the innate talent to succeed and are likely to be employed for awhile. Said another way, chase a dream you can count on for at least the next 5-10 years.
* Third, become an expert in two fields: the occupation you selected for your near-to-midterm employment and the management of your own career.
In the 20th Century, up-to-date skills usually provided career success. In the 21st Century, they are necessary but insufficient. Today, you need state-of-the-art skills and an equal capability in career self-management. Being an adept manager of your own career enables you to evaluate the counsel you receive from others and to acquire the information you need to make informed choices on your own. You’ll know how to steer around the obstacles that affect everyone in the modern workplace and what to do (and when and where to do it) to keep your career moving forward.
It would be nice if one could say that a single six week course adding a few skills is all it takes to get reemployed in this lousy economy. But, that would be untruthful. It would be great to claim that finding a job in today’s world of work is just like finding a job in the last century. But, that would be unrealistic. The 21st Century workplace has been completely recast, and it’s that new environment for which we should be retraining.
Visit me at Weddles.com Peter Weddle is the author of over two dozen employment-related books, including the recently released The Career Activist Republic and Work Strong, Your Personal Career Fitness System, one of the most innovative career success books in print. Both are available at Amazon.com.