Pitchrate | Reinventing Yourself in a Jobless Recovery

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BJ Gallagher

BJ Gallagher is an inspirational author and speaker. She writes business books that educate and empower, women's books that enlighten and entertain, gift books that inspire and inform, and kids' books that charm and delight. Her message is powerful, positive, and practical. She motivates and teach...

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Peacock Productions

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Expert

Published:

03/15/2011 03:49pm
Reinventing Yourself in a Jobless Recovery

The good news is that the economy has hit bottom and is now in recovery – we're on our way back up. The bad news is that many jobs that disappeared in the Great Recession aren't coming back – they're gone for good.

While the outlook for our country is getting brighter, the outlook for hundreds of thousands of individuals still seems bleak. What can you do if you're one of those folks whose job and/or company is gone forever?

If there's anything I know for sure, it's that Americans are resilient, resourceful, smart, and creative. Americans are can-do people. We are inventors and innovators. We are pioneers and adventurers. We put a man on the moon; we pull off medical miracles; we develop wonder drugs; we invent killer apps. We can certainly put ourselves back to work. Here are ten tips to get started:

1. Attitude really IS everything. Yes, you've heard it a thousand times ... because it's true. If you think your situation is hopeless, you're right. If you think there must be work out there somewhere, you're right. Your most important task right now is managing your attitude and emotions.

2. Change your paradigm – forget the word "job" and instead focus on "work" and "earning." Give up the notion of finding a 9-to-5 job – they're scarcer than hen's teeth. But there's still plenty of "work" to be done – contract work, project work, temporary gigs, portfolio work. Think of the movie business, or construction work, harvest season on the farm – where people come together for a limited period of time to work on a project. When it's complete, everyone moves on to their next gig.

3. Make an inventory of your skills, talents, abilities and experience you have to offer. Make a list of your strongest skills and best abilities. Try to think of generic skills you can take from job to job, and that apply almost anywhere – financial skills, managing projects, writing skills, verbal communication skills, the ability to manage a team, project management, organization skills, tech skills, office skills, juggling priorities, meeting deadlines, working under pressure, solving problems, resolving conflicts, dealing effectively with customers. You have to know what value you can add to an organization in order to sell yourself.

4. Look for opportunities, not safety. There is no place on the map called "Safe." Job security falls into the same category as unicorns and tooth fairies. Your only security is your ability to secure work. Give up looking for a "safe" profession (and for goodness sake, don't tell your kids to look for "safe" occupations, either).

5. Learn to dance with change. For over twenty years now, workplace experts, authors, and career consultants have been telling us that the only certainty is change. But denial is stubborn and many folks still hope that things will "settle down" and "get back to normal." Wake up and smell the Starbucks – change is the new normal.

6. Don't let what you can't do stop you from what you can do. Stop focusing on things that are out of your control. Focus on things you can control – your mindset, your actions, how you spend your time, getting out there and meeting people, making contacts, and following up on leads.

7. Be careful what you read, watch, and listen to. News, by definition, is that which deviates from the norm. If millions of people go to work every day, that's not news. If lots of jobs disappear and thousands of people are without work, then that's news. But if the news is all you pay attention to, you're not getting the big picture – or the accurate one. Sure, it's OK to glance at the newspaper headlines or tune into the evening news for a few minutes, but don't linger over the news or you'll get depressed. (Refer back to tip #1.)

8. Polish your people skills. Business success and career success are all about relationships: relationships between bosses and the people who work for them; relationships between businesses and their customers; relationships between coworkers; relationships with vendors and other stakeholders. Eighty percent

Keywords

careers, finding work, earning, skills for success, job search, interviewing, reinventing yourself
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