| CAREERS NOW 06-08-08 |
| How Many Career Changes in Lifetime? |
DEAR JOYCE: Repeatedly I hear career management speakers announce that we
should all be prepared for flexibility in our careers - that we can expect three or five or seven changes of careers
in a lifetime. Which is it? And how does one prepare to be flexible? - T.B.C.
Those numbers are urban legends. There are no data identifying the number of times the average worker changes careers.
Part of that myth is that the U.S. Department of Labor collects these kinds of numbers; it does not. The big problem
in gathering this sort of data is getting agreement on the definition of a "career change."
Is it a switch in occupations (travel agent to medical assistant) or career fields (accounting to sales)? Promotion
(administrative assistant to office manager)? Workers who change employers but stay in the same occupation (electrical
engineer in manufacturing to electrical engineer in biomedical engineering work)?
What is true is that most people can expect to make many changes during their working lives and that flexibility
begins with a quality core education and set of skills upon which to base future options.
Every two years the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projects employment prospects for hundreds
of occupations in the Occupational Outlook Quarterly. Cruise the Quarterly's Spring 2008 edition titled, "The
2006-16 job outlook in brief." It's free online at www.bls.gov/opub/ooq/ooqhome.htm.
DEAR JOYCE: My parents worry about identity theft and other security concerns and don't want me to post
my resume on a job board resume database. Just graduated, I need to find a job. What is your opinion? - S.S.
Security concerns have always been present in regard to online personal information, ranging from resume databases
to medical records. (See worldprivacyforum.org; click
on Job Search Privacy).
In addition to security issues, the annoyance factor has jumped into the picture. That's the word from Steven Rothberg,
president and founder of CollegeRecruiter.com, a site dedicated to connecting new graduates with jobs. Some sellers
pay for access to resume databases to find potential customers for penny stocks or financial services. CollegeRecruiter.com
no longer sells resume searching access to employers.
Your parents are not having an Andy Rooney moment; they have legitimate concerns, and so do I.
Finding a great job is more likely to be a 360-degree search using all the tools you can muster, rather than throwing
up your resume on job boards and waiting for good luck to strike. For a crash course, read two books: (1) "Internet
Your Way to a New Job: How to Really Find a Job Online " by Alison Doyle, published by Happy About (happyabout.info), and (2) "Guide to Internet Job Searching, 2008-2009 Edition," by
Margaret Riley Dikel and Frances E. Roehm , published by McGraw-Hill (rileyguide.org).
DEAR JOYCE: Can I write different cover letters to apply for multiple jobs at the same company without looking
like I'm not an expert in anything? I was wondering how to handle that. Suggestions? - S.V.
This is a question for my technical reviewer, James M. Lemke, whose day job is director of organization development
for Opportunity International. Here's Lemke's answer:
"The problem for those who want to apply for disparate multiple jobs at one company is that many systems do
not allow a candidate to submit a unique cover letter for each position. Candidates can update their resume anytime,
or change the original cover letter, but that is the lowest common denominator.
"Moreover, if a candidate applies for multiple positions, especially if the skills difference from position
A to position Z is day and night, the recruiter can see the candidate's submittal history and may write off the
candidate as a loser. A candidate should stay focused and apply for positions within the same functional area,
such as senior cost accountant or cost accountant."
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