Anyone who’s been trying to make it in the working world in the last several years knows that you’re not going to get anywhere without a plan. Unfortunately many of us, especially in my generation, got out of college and discovered that whatever plan we may have had wouldn’t hold up in practice. Now we’re stuck in jobs that don’t make use of our skills, making less money than our parents did at our age, and generally cursing our bad luck. Luckily the times are starting to change, and that means it’s time to dust off those prematurely broken dreams, cast off our protective cynical shells, and get back to mapping ourselves a road to success.
Think Long Term
One of the most important habits to unlearn from the last decade of career doldrums is complacency. It’s important to research and look for what people and businesses need that you might be able to offer. That wasn’t very effective in a stagnant economy, when no one could afford to hire anyone, but the trend is finally showing signs of reversal. Always keep looking for the way out and up to avoid getting stuck in a dead end that you don’t have to be in.
Check Out The News
A great start would be, of course, to take a look around and see what the hell I’m talking about with my mumblings about “the times are changing”. Sure, we have job growth, but not all that much, right? Wrong. We need to look ahead at what’s coming our way in the next couple of years. Here are a couple of important tidbits.
-Manufacturing jobs are coming back from China. The rising costs of manufacturing in asia, combined with stagnant wages in the US, are bringing jobs back the home to us.
-The healthcare sector, especially caregiving, is booming. Retiring baby boomers, rising life expectancy, and an aging workforce is making nursing one of the best-paid and secure professions available to young people.
– The IT industry needs more and more cybersecurity professionals. American companies and people are major targets for identity theft, and hacking technology is rapidly outpacing businesses’ and the average american’s internet literacy and security. Because of this it’s becoming increasingly important for businesses to step in and hire highly qualified IT professionals to protect them and their consumers from cybercrime.
Make Adjustments
Of course, those are only a few of the things that are going on, and are going to have a future impact on the job market. As someone who’s working on re-launching your career you might need to make some changes in your skillset. Use 2015 to learn take some management classes, learn to code, or to take a crash course for technical skill. Then get on LinkedIn and spend a few weeks or months finding and meeting a few people in your new field of interest, so that by the time 2016 rolls around you’ll ready to drop your old job and build a new career in your new field.