By Rosa E. Vargas. As a member of a community of resume writers and career coaches called the Career Collective, this post is one of many responses to help job seekers secure their future in a changed economy. I encourage you to visit other members' responses, see links at end of this post. Please follow our hash tag on Twitter: #careercollective. This month we have combined efforts with QuintCareers.com in Job Action Day, 2009!
What will it take to secure your career success in the future? As the world advances and becomes more information-rich, environment and health conscious, and technology savvy, the job market quickly adapts-- are you? Let's assess; please ponder the following...
Is your digital self strong enough to leverage an interview over other candidates who are job searching online? Are you ready to shape a strong career built on a series of short-term employments? As the world shrinks, who can you communicate with internationally? Do you foresee a green job in your future? Will your carbon footprint exclude your eligibility for a job? Well, no, but let’s take a look at what may be ahead for the hireable candidate of the future...
The Future Job Market Place:
As the needs of our planet and market demands change, so is the way companies run operations and business development, produce and promote services/products, and staff their teams. This climacteric change amidst one of the worse economies in America's history has spurred a new way of caring for the environment, thinking of consumerism, and planning our future ventures.
It seems our focus will be on Technology, Science, Engineering, Math, and Eco-friendly initiatives...and for that we will need industrious, innovative, and adaptable professionals who have a thirst for knowledge and thrive on challenges. For more on the future job market: See Top 60 Jobs That Will Rock the Future also Career Choices That Offer a Stable Future.
Web 2.0 Image/Branding:
If you are in Generation Y, you are already aware of what social media/networking and Web 2.0 Branding is because this is the way you communicate with your friends daily. However, for others...Social Media Networking is essential for the job seeker of the future. Beyond posting your resume to the top career sites, you must establish and cultivate an online presence. Why? Because the way in which we exchange information is mostly digital and via the web. As companies strategize to staff their teams with forward-thinking and information-driven members, you must prepare yourself to join this type of leading-edge team. Where should you begin? Begin developing a presence online on sites such as Twitter, LinkedIn, and FaceBook. For a more comprehensive list, see.
Investing In You:
The professional of tomorrow must be a life-long learner according to Paul Saffo, a Silicon Valley based technology forecaster (quoted by Jenny Lynn Zappala), and I agree with him 100%.
You must keep yourself "marketable" via ongoing education because in the future you will most likely fill a succession of numerous short-term employments. Many of today's job seekers are not use to thinking of their careers in this manner. Let's face it; most of us pretty much went to school, chose a field, and worked at the same company for years until retirement. That is not the way of the future. Begin to think of yourself as a contractor for your own company rendering services to corporations.
In addition to staying abreast of the latest in the job market, perfecting your online brand, and learning new computer skills, you may want to invest in learning new languages. The consensus is that future dominant languages will be English, Spanish, Mandarin, and Arabic. You may want to invest in learning the language of the Web as well. A little HTML, XHTML, and XML won't hurt you as publishing a simple web page will be as common as how administrative assistants were required to prepare memos in a word processor.
Rosa Elizabeth Vargas
www.careersteering.com
**********************************************************************************************************************
Please visit the following post by the Career Collective Experts regarding the same topic I addressed above!
Meg Montford: Job Action Day: Finding Your “MOJO” After Layoff
Debra Wheatman: Plan B from outer space; or what do you have in case your first plan doesn’t work out?
Heather Mundell: Green Jobs – What They Are and How to Find Them
Erin Kennedy: Cutting Edge Job Search Blueprint
Grace Kutney: Securing Your Career While Navigating the Winds of Change
Hannah Morgan: Career Sherpa– Why Our Job Search Advice is the Same but Different
Gayle Howard: The Enlightened Jobseeker
Laurie Berenson: Making lemonade out of lemons: Turn unemployment into entrepreneurship
Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter: You Can Thrive In, Not Just Survive, an Economic Slogging
Rosalind Joffe: Preparedness: It’s Not Just for Boyscouts
Rosa E. Vargas: Are You Evolving Into The In-Demand Professional of Tomorrow?
Dawn Bugni: Your network IS your net worth
Miriam Salpeter: Optimize your job hunt for today’s economy
GL Hoffman: The Life of An Entrepreneur: Is It for You?
Katharine Hansen: Job Action Day 09: His Resume Savvy Helped New Career Rise from Layoff Ashes
Martin Buckland: Job Search–The Key to Securing Your Future Career.
Chandlee Bryan: Where the Green Jobs Are:
Heather R. Huhman, Take Action: 10 Steps for Landing an Entry-Level Job
Barbara Safani: Where the Jobs Are 2009 and Beyond:
Kathy Hansen: Job Action Day 09: His Resume Savvy Helped New Career Rise from Layoff Ashes
