Hands up anyone out there who isn’t overwhelmed by the morass of information about all the things you need to do to manage your career or job transition. How do you feel when you see the myriad of suggestions: the do’s and don’ts; the always and nevers; the 5, 10 or even 15 ways to get things right or wrong? It’s time for to say “Job seekers adapt don’t panic” help is here!

Confused? Well me too! And this is my profession!

Every day there are more and more statistics telling us how the old order is gone, the new one is here (at least for the next few hours, until it changes again) and we actually fail to embrace it, at our peril!

The new order

If someone had told me 15 years ago I needed to work on my SEO, I would have taken myself (somewhat half-heartedly, it has to be said) to the gym. Facebook, hitherto, the domain of the young and wild, now has my mother (age 97, and certainly not wild) on its pages, simply to keep in touch with her dispersed family. True, her location is listed as being in Florida, when she’s clearly in the North of England, but that’s a minor glitch.

So technology has changed all our lives and the way we do many things, especially in the communication and processing of information. It has overturned traditional business practises at every level and new ones are coming in to take their place. The pace of change is staggering and not unsurprisingly job search and recruitment is part of this amazing revolution.

For how long?

The question is how long will this new status quo last? The honest answer is that no one really knows, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Because of course, there will be even more changes. What is true today, will not be the same in 5 years. And although pundits can take educated guesses, the reality is that no one can say for certain, when and how.

So let’s look at some of the latest stats:

• Recruiters take 6-12 seconds to scan a CV in the first instance.
• Many  recruiters prefer for passive candidates, but that bias is shifting slightly post COVID.
• 43% of candidates are ruled out by because of their internet presentation
• 500 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute
• Facebook has 2.9 BILLION users and has overtaken LinkedIn as a platform for sourcing. Note well.
• Over 500 million tweets are sent out per day
• There are 600 million blogs on the internet
• Tik-Tok is emerging as a go-to place for job search advice as career coaches and recruiters strut their stuff to share their tips.

So what do we learn from this? Times they are a-changing for sure. But what can we do about it? Not an original thought, but pure Darwinism, straight from the 19th century.

Job seekers adapt

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent; it is the one that is most adaptable to change.” – Charles Darwin (1809 – 1882)

Are you struggling to adapt? Check out the career transition programmes  

What can we do?

It doesn’t mean we sit with our heads in our hands being overwhelmed by tweets, stories, blogs, LinkedIn Lives and Clubhouse notifications. It might also be advisable to re-think the idea of putting our Elevator Speeches out on YouTube or a LinkedIn profile from our sitting rooms, in the hope that overnight, we might be catapulted into an international arena and have every global head hunter beating a path to our doors.

For any of you who think of music and vinyl or iPods or in the same sentence – don’t panic. Even older Millennials are approaching 40 and complaining about experience of ageism. Because for all the changes that are going on, critical core skills, personal qualities and experiences are still valued and it’s just about tweaking, or over hauling process management and packaging. All very do-able. And don’t worry, a generation X ,Y, or Z person, who texts a recruiter to say “gr8 c u l8r” is also going to have to adapt!

Career management and transition strategies should be just that: manageable, dynamic and strategic. What does this mean?

• You have to identify and set yourself achievable (= manageable) goals within your skill set, either current or attainable
• Your process has to be organic and open to change
• You have to have a structured strategy that reflects your core values and goals

 Updated October 2021.

 

If you need support to get YOU out of your panic  – get in touch NOW