Feelings...woe, woe, woe feelings....

Not being a new comer to the job search discipline, you'd think by now that I wouldn't get too excited about having to go through the whole process again.....but you'd be wrong.

First and foremost, I know God in is control, but why do I feel like "this" on Sunday night before the first round of layoff notices go out tomorrow morning?   Perhaps it is the whole uncertainty of the future thing.  I like where I live, I like what I do, and even I like where I do it.  Who would want anything to change?    Even if you are miserable in your job, the prospect of being laid off and having to search again just seems to trump the other feelings of misery.   Of course, we'd all like to think that we're in control of our own destinies (an illusion), and having something happen to us is most disconcerting.

We all are disturbed at the prospect of change while in our comfort zone at a job, regardless of how "bad" we thought it was.   We realize the prospect of having no job at all is very real and no longer an academic discussion at lunch with our coworkers.  

I'm watching people who've been at my company 25+ years struggle with the feelings that go with the question "what will I do if I'm laid off," and that's just no fun to watch.  Mind you, I'm not having happy feelings at the prospect of being laid off, but I'm not struggling with feelings over the fact that the last time I had to look for a job was when Ronald Reagan was president.

Think about where you were 25 years ago and HOW you looked for a job.  Are newspapers still the first place you'd look for a job today?  Will you go "pounding pavement" and knocking on doors (you won't get past the security desk)?  Will you look for any job just to get into the company and work your way up?  If you've had to look for a job this century, you know that all three of the questions above no longer are possible (or are rarely possible).   This fact, in and of itself, can lead to panic.

I was at a job search resource group and sat down next to a man who'd been in his job with a large, well-known company for 25 years.  We talked a little, and though we were both out of work, I felt bad for him.   The only good thing I could tell him was that being at that job search group would help him tremendously and that he should throw himself fully in all its activities and workshops.  Still, there was a look of doom and gloom on his face that my encouragement just couldn't seem to erase.

Now, we all should keep the perspective that there's always someone worse off than I am, but even knowing I'm not months from retirement or have been in the company 25+ years with no clue how to find jobs in the outside world doesn't seem to make these butterflies settle down in my stomach.

"Survivor" for the Class of 2010

The Wall St. Journal has an superb article on the reality of the job market today specifically directed at the new college graduates...more information below.

I can still remember "way back when" I was newly starting out, believing what I referred to as "the lie" --- "if you go to college, you'll get a good job."  Of course, when you graduate and encounter reality, you're incensed!  It isn't really a "lie" that you can get a good job with a college education, it's just that reality wasn't explained more clearly to you.  As my father explained to me once, education provides you with an OPPORTUNITY for success, not a guarantee.  I can guarantee that if you don't have a college education in 2010, your opportunities will be very limited.

An illustration of the harshness of reality may be helpful here.  I knew a young man who in 1990 who was about to graduate and confidently stated, "I think my degree will be worth about $30,000 a year."  I was listening to him along with another man who had worked hard to build his roofing company, and at this announcement, me and the roofer instinctively turned to look at each other and just started laughing out loud.  The soon-to-be college graduate was somewhat insulted.   I told him that, in effect, the world didn't care about his education and surely wouldn't pay him for having gone to school.   Now, I didn't want to hurt his confidence, but I did want to convey what I had learned (the hard way)---that most young college graduates have what Robert Ringer (Looking Out for Number One) calls "The World Owes Me a Living Disease."  No one owes anyone anything (Someone should let our current government leaders know this.).   The fact that you were disciplined enough to finish a college degree says a lot of positive things about you as a person, and in some fields, there is a body of knowledge with which you have become familiar in getting your degree, but in reality, rather than shake your hand, the world is more likely to kick you in the butt, punting you to the curb.   Now is the time for you to kick your parents in the butt if they ever told you life is fair.  They lied.

Another sad truth is that most young college graduates have no training in job searching in 2010, which is a full-body contact sport with a lot of veteran players on the field.   A relative recently graduated from college, and he seemed somewhat aware of the tough road ahead.  Of course, having spent his last 7 years in college (!), he has no real idea of the tsunami of reality about to hit him. 

Perhaps this Wall St. Journal article can be the kick in the pants for you or a young college grad you know.  It's part of life's body of knowledge that you most likely never learned in college, but is every bit as critical as the subjects you studied to earn your degree.  Your toughness and tenacity is what you will need to survive in the workforce....and I would add your faith, your patience, and your persistence.  "Wax on; wax off."


 ------------------------------EXCERPTS FROM THE ARTICLE:

"Over the next few weeks, hundreds of thousands of Millennials will graduate from institutions of higher learning. They will celebrate for several days, perhaps several weeks. Then they will enter a labor force that neither wants nor needs them. They will enter an economy where roughly 17% of people aged 20 through 24 do not have a job, and where two million college graduates are unemployed. They will enter a world where they will compete tooth and nail for jobs as waitresses, pizza delivery men, file clerks, bouncers, trainee busboys, assistant baristas, interns at bodegas."

"Young people can be forgiven for thinking that the portrayal of the working world in comedies like "The Office" and "Office Space" is completely over the top. Now they're going to find out otherwise. Reality is a mean trick that grown-ups play on the young."

"It's brutal out there, all right. Blogs and instant messaging and social networking systems don't help much because everyone is using the same cutting-edge tools to compete for the same low-tech jobs. The easiest way to get a job is still the oldest way: To know somebody who can get you a job or give you a job."


Read this article in it's entirety!  It'll be worth every minute.   The full article is at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704250104575238692439240552.html.  It's a must read for everyone, not just college students.