The economy is in the dumps. Companies are not hiring, and many employers are asking employees to do more for less.
As a result, the quantity of dissatisfied employees is higher than before. Now, to be truthful, we’ve long had a fair number of people who were displeased with the job. The difference now is that even though more people are unhappy with their job, less employees are really starting a search for that next career.
Nonetheless a bad economy doesn’t mean that you should not be looking for new and better prospects. If you’re more happy at work, your productivity will increase, your employer will get better results from your work, and in the final analysis, everybody will be better off.
But most individuals don’t change careers often , and as a result they get stuck in sentiments and habits that work against them, not for them. In a recent article on good second careers, I talk about giant mistakes employees make when going through a career change. Here are the top three:
1. Giving up before starting. “The economy is bad, unemployment is high, I won’t find something else”. Sound familiar? The truth is that as there are more candidates trying for a position, you can stand out better from the pile of thousands of resumes, if you know how to distinguish yourself from the pack.
2. Concentrating on a resume and nothing else. There are many people who are sure that a resume is the most significant thing when looking out for a different career. Nothing could be farther from the honest truth. A resume is one tool in an arsenal of many [**] and definitely not the most highly effective.
3. Relying on executive recruiters to do the work for you. Executive recruiters are like purchasers for corporations. They identify the most suitable product (candidate) for a corporation and get paid for that service. Executive recruiters have their place, but counting on them to do your work is a big mistake. What’s that work? Marketing and selling that product yourself.
Ernesto Garyman advises professionals on strategies and methods for a second career. His Good Second Careers blog has many second career articles.
categories: career change,second career,unemployment,job search,career mistakes,resumes