FEATURE ARTICLE
October 2004

Gaining an Edge in the New Economy: The Buck Starts Here
By Robert C. Chope, Ph.D.

These remarks were taken from Bob’s keynote speech to the Northern California CACD meeting April 24, 2004 in Belmont, California.

As you all know, California’s labor market is turbulent and worrisome. There’s instability in all economic sectors, not just in high tech, and layoffs continue. Counselors are losing work, tenure track faculty are being laid off, we have tax cuts and war, the stranglehold of managed care, Trump’s "you're fired," outsourcing, offshoring, onshoring, rightshoring, and a "jobless recovery." We also have "hypertasking," Palm Pilots, Blackberries, and Tivo, and the unfortunate creation of a generation of people who, I’m afraid, will not experience careers as we have known them. It’s not a pretty picture. So how can we best help our clients and perhaps each other? Here are a few some suggestions.

1. Don’t have your clients manage their problems alone. I don’t. My practice group, the Career and Personal Development Institute (www.cpdicareercounseling.com) remains my most intimate problem-solving group and idea generator. I believe all of our career clients need structured support, and we can be supported in helping them. Everyone needs shoring up in difficult times.
   
2. Encourage clients to build and maintain a strong network. Connections are vital assets.
   Jobs obtained over the Internet account for two percent of all hires; personal and professional contacts account for over 50 percent. So what should your clients do? Access contacts! Everyone should maintain an e-mail address book that includes friends, former faculty, employers, colleagues, and administrators. And when your clients announce what they’re looking for, they should be focused and direct with clear objectives. If they’re unable to name what they’re searching for, they should use their network to generate ideas or point to new possibilities.
   
3. Prevent clients from burning the bridges to former employers; many companies try to maintain contact with retirees and those who resign for family obligations. GE for example, offers contractual and minimal part-time work, as does Booz-Allen-Hamiliton.
   
4. Teach clients how to sell their talents. Everyone has specific and transferable skills. Have them practice selling these to friends and family who’ll listen. Their resume and cover letter should allow these attributes to sparkle.
   
5. Have clients create multiple income streams. The work world now has pockets of project driven employment. So, clients should consider portfolio careers, performing different classes of jobs at different times. Instead of seeking full-time employment, have clients try several part-time positions for a while. Creative artists, contractors, and stage actors regularly experience this. I title this the Actor/Actress Model of Career Counseling.
   
6. Persuade clients to consider relocating. Have them pursue positions that are out of the area. An organization that’s hiring in Los Angeles may have a similar position in town. But your clients would never know that if they didn’t apply to the position in Los Angeles.
   
7. Suggest that clients become volunteer walk-ons. Billionaire Warren Buffet believes that people should decide who they want to work for and then pursue that work, even if they volunteer for a while. Have your clients offer to take on a short-term project that they’ll deliver, without cost, to demonstrate their knowledge base. Since college athletes do this, I call this the College Athlete Model of Career Counseling.
   
8. All of us should remember that the future job search will be never ending. Positions won’t last. It’s likely we’ll all need a career counselor for life. Your clients would be wise to meet with you two to three times per year for the rest of their working lives. Jane Goodman, former ACA and NCDA president has named this the Dental Model of Career Counseling.
   
9. Have your clients become students of workplace instability; the next great ideas will come from instability. There are massive workforce transformations. Women are now 47 percent of the American workforce, receive 57 percent of the degrees and, in 30 percent of the households, earn more than their husbands. Eighty-seven percent of American households with two adults have two workers. We will all be affected by 9-11 for generations. Jobs in homeland and computer security will have rapid growth in the near term. Many returning Iraq War veterans have lost their jobs; others need upgraded skills. We all need to be more imaginative.
   
10. Encourage clients to use the Internet to generate ideas, and research positions, companies, and competitive salaries. Clients can post a resume at a site if they wish but shouldn’t expect miracles. Job searching is hard work. But, there are sites for everyone. Even those without a network can establish one almost instantly through sites like www.ryze.com.
    
11. All of us need to be concerned about social justice issues in career counseling. There are over 2.03 million people in prison, and 67 percent of those in prison had not worked before being incarcerated. Thirty-five percent of inner-city youth are not only unemployed, they do not look for work. We have few innovative techniques to motivate them. Perhaps the most promising new models for the disenfranchised and homeless populations will come from social entrepreneurship. Facilities like Delancey Street and The Rubicon Programs are successful ventures. Career counselors ought to support these efforts.

Finally, remember the words of Franklin Delano Roosevelt as you engage in your work. "No country, however rich, can afford the waste of its human resources. Demoralization caused by vast unemployment is our greatest extravagance. Morally it is the greatest menace to our social order." Maintain your vision, flexibility and adaptability, along with realistic expectations for your clients.

Robert C. Chope, Ph.D. is Professor of Counseling at San Francisco State University and Coordinator of the Career Counseling Specialization. He is the author of Dancing Naked: Breaking Through the Emotional Limits that Keep You from the Job You Want.