Page 47 - Talane Miedaner - Coach Yourself to a New Career_ 7 Steps to Reinventing Your Professional Life (2010)

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f you have been downsized or pink-slipped or
just can’t seem to find work these days, or if
you keep getting overlooked for that promo-
Ition, the first thing to realize is that it probably
isn’t personal. It will feel very personal, but in most cases it isn’t. The
economy is changing; jobs that used to exist are now being elimi-
nated, and new ones are opening up that you may not even be aware
of. The pace of change is relentless and impersonal. It used to take
one generation to replace a job with machines or technology, and now
it takes only four to five years, and that number is rapidly decreasing.
You know that if you buy a computer, it is already obsolete, and the
plans for the newer, better, faster one are already in the works. The
U.S. Department of Labor reports that 50 percent of the jobs that we
will have in the next six years have not yet been created. The average
length of a job in America is only 3.2 years. Do the math and you’ll
discover that the average person will have fourteen to sixteen jobs
over the course of a forty-five-year work span. The days of working in
one job for one company and getting that gold watch on retirement
are long gone. Change is the name of the game today, which makes
it all the more important to know what your inherent strengths and
abilities are so that you can find the careers that best fit you.
One client had been given the pink slip and a year’s worth of
severance pay as well. She was angry and hurt about being fired.
She spent the best part of her severance and wasted seven months
fuming before she called me and started coaching. She had loved
her work and couldn’t believe that they would fire her. The first
thing she had to understand was that it wasn’t personal; it was
political—but she just couldn’t seem to get over it. Don’t waste
your own precious time. Get your personal and emotional needs
met outside of work and you’ll see that you suddenly project a cool
demeanor of professional detachment. This is the secret to being
detached from something you love. It will not only make you much
more attractive to your current employer (assuming you have a
job) but also make you more attractive to prospective employers.
Get your personal requirements satisfied and you’ll instantly be a
more promising candidate.