I learned something a long time ago– you can swim with the flow of the river or swim against it. If you decide to swim against it, the likelihood is that you will drown.
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I want to talk to you older workers for a second about something that I know you know on one level is happening but on other levels you deny how it’s going to affect you and it winds up costing you your career. That is the notion of change. Let me use my career as an example.
When I started recruiting in the 1970s, the hot technology was COBOL. Ultimately, what happens is that things changed “in different technologies became the “hot technology.” Those technologies changed and new things replace them. This is an about the hot technology and what is hot in the market; it is about the need to adapt.
I remember when COBOL was becoming passé and people were starting to use minicomputers, programming languages are completely irrelevant now. They were recruiters who were saying, “there are no COBOL jobs and I have these great COBOL people,” and they didn’t adapt.
If you look at your field, the one that you’re working in now, and the changes that you’ve seen over your proof career or long career, you’ll see that things have changed.
You can argue with them and say to yourself, “I don’t want to have to learn this stuff,” and concede the fact that your career will come to an end because there are people who will want to learn that stuff, who do want to become involved with those things that are new, and desirable. It’s not like you’re going to be the best and that new thing, but you need to get some experience with whatever that thing is that is the new thing in your field.
You need to keep attending conferences. You need to keep paying attention. Reading trade publications, understanding what the change is how to adapt with it, and making the change, as well.
For you, unless you do this, let’s skip ahead a few years. There will be some version of recession. When firms start evaluating who to cut, unless you have adapted, you are an expensive item to. That’s true especially knowing the old stuff.
You always have to learn “new.” You always have to adapt, or else, otherwise, I’m going to start calling you “Dino,” for the dinosaur – – a legacy in your division. An old timer. The person who they tell stories about or jokes about at the office as the person who missed the opportunity to be on the cutting edge. Who missed out and made the decision that cost them their career.
There are so many instances I have seen of people who made this mistake, who hang on for dear life. The truth is if you learn the new stuff,, even if they do cut you (after all, there’s no guarantee that they won’t), you can find another position or contract work during the down times because you know the new stuff and you have experience with the new stuff.
Stay up-to-date with your field. Make sure your current and, if there are so many things that make it hard, to the best! Just don’t get stuck in the mindset that says, “Something else.Ugh,” and started to whine about it. No one likes a whiner, no matter what the subject is. Don’t become the office complainer.
Adapt. Spearhead the change. Encourage other people to adapt as well. You will wind up being a survivor.
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On this show, I offer career advice, rather than pure job search advice is designed to help you have a long and prosperous career
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