Is it the End of the World when Job Booms become Busts?

When the economy flattens out or moves into recession it can change the way we view the world around us. It can also conversely alter how we are viewed by the world. When companies and individuals have to tighten their belts it often unfortunately causes a narrowing of perspective.

This is precisely what our guest blogger Taylor Grey Meyer has recently encountered and her experiences and the lessons she has learnt from them are enlightening.

Over to you Taylor…

If you haven’t heard of me I’m relieved.

If you have, don’t expect any apologies for the counter-offer email I wrote back in August to an invitation to apply to spend $500 to attend a job fair.

At that point I’d been to:

• grad school;
• flight school;
• written a children’s book for charity as well as articles for magazines,

and I still couldn’t find work.

The net I was casting was exceptionally wide. I answered ads for bartenders, cocktail servers, sandwich makers, even a minimum wage ticket-selling position for the team who later presented that ludicrous ‘opportunity’.

Interview after interview employers turned me away. They viewed my law school schedule and experience as a major turnoff rather than a strength. Things were so bad that I defaulted on a student loan and was sleeping on a law school friend’s couch. By the time that email was received, I’d had enough!

I quit school and decided to move abroad to teach English.

That’s the back story to what a search engine entry of my name will reveal. An overqualified but unemployed 31 year old with all kinds of experience who finally got her money’s worth from all that education by telling a sports franchise to suck it.

Right away emails started pouring in. Thousands of them from all over the world, from people wanting to share similar experiences from:

• less than positive HR encounters,
• to massive pay cuts,
• from lies they told to appear less qualified and therefore more appealing,
• to losing homes, and
• moving back in with parents.

It seems well-educated, experienced and versatile applicants are having the worst time finding jobs. According to the USA Bureau of Labour Statistics roughly 23 million Americans are either unemployed or underemployed. This is a major reason my ‘counter-offer’ struck a chord.  I just happened to follow through with a thought so many people only entertain.

And now I’m at it again writing that is.

I started a blog soon after realising my job seeking experience was not exclusive. Still, this isn’t really something people understand unless they’ve lived it.  From the outside, it sounds ridiculous, not being able to find work when you have a masters or PhD and a well-rounded work history. So what I hope to do through my site and upcoming ventures is help give others in similar situations a voice. A place to relate,
commiserate and hopefully, laugh.

Humour is needed most in the direst of circumstances.

Being broke, out of work and watching your once perfect credit score circle the drain. If you can laugh in the face of a seriously demoralising predicament, you’re on your way to victory.  I’m hoping that if content is delivered in a way that is as informative as it is cathartic, more people will read, submit and share.

I’ve read recent articles about Australia’s projected soft economy, the end of the mining boom, and speculation over increasing bad debts.  I sincerely hope these contractions don’t lead to something Australian professionals can characterise as ‘Jobageddon’.

But if it does come to that, the equivalent of the European and American job crisis, there are a few things to remember…..

Companies..in your struggle to stay in the green, do not endeavour to capitalise on the desperation of job seekers.

Everyone is hit by an economic downturn. Don’t foster bad feelings by giving your potential applicant pool an extra (and unnecessary) smack. Just like you, we don’t like it rough.

HR Managers..be mindful of the power you hold over an applicant’s life.

Act ethically. Be willing to hire experienced professionals, rather than recent graduates you mistakenly believe are less of a risk. Take note of the many studies done that disprove this faulty hiring partiality.

Job Seekers..be flexible and thick-skinned.

Some may label you lazy. You may be given bad advice from people who are lucky enough to never have been out of work. You might be called entitled, because shocker of all shockers, you thought you’d have a job upon finishing school and a way to repay those student loans.  You’ll be told to start your own business by people who seem to forget that doing so costs money, and money is difficult to come by when banks refuse to lend.

Meanwhile, you may feel like there is something seriously wrong with you.

Rest assured there isn’t.

You paid into a system that didn’t deliver what it claimed.

Find a way to be as self-reliant as possible.

Learn a trade or a skill that you can not only fall-back on should you find yourself laid off, but one you can get entrepreneurial about. The old system of being an employee protected by the shade of a company’s umbrella seems to be ending. Don’t depend on companies to offer liveable salaries, provide healthcare (in the U.S., of course), or a pension.

Believe it or not, an economy in recession does bring some options.

Think of it as a freeing influence you can leverage to pursue something you’re passionate about. On the flip side, if the position you had was your dream job, don’t beat yourself up about taking a less fulfilling position.

This isn’t failure. It’s survival.

Don’t let ego dictate what you’re willing to do. There’s no shame in earning a pay check by doing something you’re less than thrilled about. And who knows what doors that less than ideal job might end up opening. It’s all how you spin it. Learn positive self-talk. Commend your industriousness.

You’re becoming stronger and better prepared, attributes that will inevitably lead you to your next lucrative opportunity.

 

Taylor Grey Meyer has a degree in Psychology and has attended graduate school for Sports Management.  She is an author, a designer and has worked as a teacher with at-risk children. She also has a website where she blogs about managing your career and maximising your work and business opportunities.

Tagged as: job hunting tips, Life Lessons