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How Prepared Are You If You Lost Your Job Tomorrow? Creating a Career Plan B
Kelly Magowan
When it comes to 21st century employment and security, there is no doubt a healthy mix of pessimism is required. For employees and the self-employed, no matter how great you are at what you do, external factors can make us all vulnerable. So take control and manage your career rather than letting it and other factors manage you. Create a Career Plan B when times are good; this will help you through both the good times and the bad times.
5 Key Areas To Cover When Creating Your Career Plan B
1. A Current Resume And Other Personal Branding Tools That Sell You and Are Ready to Distribute
The key to resume writing success is to write with your audience in mind, rather than making a list of every job you have held and the key responsibilities. What does the reader need to know about you that is relevant for the jobs you are applying for?
Some important areas to include in your resume are: |
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Career Objective: This is a sentence or two that explains what you have done (your expertise), what you want to be doing and how this adds value to the prospective employer whose job you are applying for. |
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Qualifications/Education: Keep it brief – what, where and when did you study. Avoid including every training course you have ever done. |
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Work History: Do not go back more than 15 years and if you do, summarize this. Focus on your more recent roles – listing employer, key responsibilities and that you quantify and qualify these. |
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Achievements/Wins: Show your expertise is a cut above the rest by including your key achievements, which can be done for each role or you dedicate a section in your resume to achievements. Everyone wants to hire someone who can go above and beyond, so be sure to sell your wins; and |
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Only Relevant Information: Name, contact phone and email are as personal as it should get. If you want to include volunteer work, board positions held, hobbies etc, that is fine, however be selective.
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Your resume is one the many personal branding tools to use throughout your career to assist in securing a new job or climbing the corporate ladder. It communicates what you stand for and how you want to be remembered. Some other personal branding tools include: your elevator pitch; networks; appearance; written and verbal communication skills; awards and accreditations; achievements; values; reputation; and so on.
2. Have Active Networks To Leverage When The Need Arises
Networking is a career management tool that is too powerful to ignore. Many of us dismiss networking as something unpleasant, however whether or not you are aware of it, chances are you are networking every day in different forms, be it in your work or personal life.
To develop your (online and offline) networking skills, you need to be clear about your area of expertise and/or the areas you want to develop and gain knowledge and exposure in or to. You may be looking to access people and or particular information.
The four 'commandments' of seeking help from others: |
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Define what you want to find out. |
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Learn who is out there with this information. |
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Know you may need to try several times (effort = time + expenses + energy), and |
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Plan what you can offer in return for someone's help (that is, practice reciprocity). |
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Most importantly, like your social networks, professional networks need to be nurtured and maintained. If you try to develop your networks only after you have lost your job, you will start many steps behind... so start now.
3. Learn About Who You Are
Most people that are not overly excited or satisfied with their current occupation yet do not really know what else they want to be doing. It is hard work and often uncomfortable to spend time reflecting on who you are, what motivates you, what skills you love using, articulating your values, what you want to be remembered for and so on. It requires time, commitment and a genuine desire to find out more about yourself and what makes you tick. It is unlikely that you will have an epiphany and wake up one day in the perfect job – you have to work to create this reward.
4. Know What Types Of Jobs You Are Going To Target And Prioritize
We all have a finite amount of time available to us each day and time is precious. When job-seeking, it is important to be focused on the jobs that you are actually going to be interested in. As highlighted above, knowing more about yourself and the work you are focused on makes job seeking a far easier process.
You can also readily eliminate jobs and companies that do not meet your needs. Once you know the jobs you are after, the second part is to be aware of where you would source such jobs (for example, online, via personal networks, professional networks, industry magazines and so on). Given most jobs are now posted online (be it via job sites or the employer direct) it is important to know how this process works. Below are some tips to save you time when assessing which job ads to spend time applying for and which to avoid. The rule of thumb in job seeking is quality is better than quantity.
Some ways to vet job ads include: |
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Focus on the specific and detailed job ads, avoid generic ads. |
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Ads with multiple roles listed may be a case of the advertiser 'fishing' (that is, trying to see who is out there, but not really having current jobs to fill). |
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Check the date the job ad was posted and access accordingly, and |
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Be cautious of job ads listed in too many places with multiple agencies. |
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Most importantly do not be afraid to call the advertiser and find out more about the job and company before you spend time writing your application. This is the best way to qualify a job ad.
5. Have A Realistic Picture Of Your Financial Situation
Today, redundancy is a part of working life. No matter how much we think it will not happen to us, research shows it will happen to almost all of us at least a few times during our careers – and it might take us 9-12 months to secure new employment. For this reason, it is important to be aware of the information contained in your current employment contract and to have a clear picture of your financial situation.
Some questions to think about include:
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What are your entitlements going to be, if any if you lose your job? |
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Will you receive outplacement support (namely, assistance in gaining new employment)? |
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Are you in a position to renegotiate your employment contract and redundancy provisions? |
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How long can you survive financially without an income? |
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If you have a partner, are they in a position to meet the financial commitments alone, and if so for how long? |
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If you had to get a loan, where would you go and how likely is it to be approved and in what timeframe? |
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If you do lose your job, the emotional blow will still be there. However, it will be softened if you can swiftly put your Career Plan B into place. It is a part of every successful person's career risk management strategy – so make it part of yours.
Kelly Magowan, CEO Six Figures, has been specialising in the arena of Human Resource Management, Recruitment and Career Counselling for over 13 years. In 2008, Kelly launched Six Figures the Executive Job Site for $100K+ jobs and talent.
For further job search and career resource information visit the Six Figures Resource area: http://www.sixfigures.com.au/job_seekers/resources. |
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September 2009 |
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