The Old Great Career Ain’t What It Used To Be

We all know that the market is tough now; that is, opportunities are few and money and power are even in shorter supply. This isn’t news. In fact, the changes that are bringing us to this point have been going on for decades. In this post, I’ll show you what today’s career will look, and it ain’t what mom and dad had.

My dad worked for the same company for over 34 years. I tried to follow in his footsteps, even working for the same company, but it turned out to be an impossible feat to replicate. Before the half-way mark in his career, I had already worked for 4 different companies.

Within my short experience, I had the opportunity to engage in a little organizational change. People (you may know some of them) often say that the only thing you can truly expect is change. Well, they are right. During my time in these four companies, I had the luxury of surviving through 5 restructurings, 3 mergers, 1 Acquisition and 8 layoffs. That averages out to one exciting event every year of my career. This is considerably more change than my dad saw in all of his 34 years. He’s happy about that too.

Wondering if I would continue this path of professional discovery over the length of my career, I began to do a little research to see if this was normal. And, it is. Young professionals today will see the same volatility in their career as I have. Here’s what they can expect.

Occupational Variety. The Department of Labor Statistics (DOL) tracks job tenure (i.e. how long one remains is in a job). They began tracking this back in 1983. Back then, professionals in their forties were in a job for 15 years. Now, it’s less than 8 years. The youngest professionals (i.e. twenty year olds) will change jobs every 2 or 3 years. As we grow older, this seems to slow down, but only slightly. Interestingly, men still move around much more than women do, although I’m not sure why. Maybe they are more dedicated.

As we stroll through our professional lives, we hold 2 or 3 jobs in our twenties, 1 or 2 in our thirties and forties, and finally 1 or 2 leading up to retirement. That means we can anticipate around 8 to 10 jobs over the length of our career.

My dad knew everything about his job. After 34 years, he should have. This was a huge benefit to the company. Now imagine a workforce with a wide range of short term experiences. They are a “jack of all trades but master of none.” Which one is better? For today’s young professionals, that’s the question they have to be able to answer.

Monetary Degradation. All this job changing over the life of one’s career brings with it a few things that we don’t necessarily like. Not every job change is a direct jump from one company to another. There are periods of unemployment in between. Many of us know what that means, no money. Of course, this isn’t the only bad part of it. The DOL also tracks wage losses.

Wage losses are the result of long stents of unemployment. For some, we are out of work so long we don’t care what they pay us. We just need to be working. Unfortunately, companies don’t mind paying you less. And that’s what they do. In 1984, the loss in wages incurred after involuntary unemployment was about -10%. This number is now about -17%. You might consider getting an career agent!

Safe Zone Elimination. The White House has been recently talking a great deal about educating the work force and how it will improves things. For the most part, it should help. However, there are some things you should know before swallowing that pill. In the discussion above on wage loss, the group that is suffering the most are the educated ones; that is, the college graduates. Maybe this is why many refer to today’s recession as the “white collar depression.” This group experiences about a -21% change in wages as they start that job after unemployment.

Okay you savvy people out there, I know you are thinking that in changing jobs so many times and losing so much salary each time you change, eventually you are working for free. Sometimes it may feel that way. Well, maybe you’ve heard the adage that “the only time you can negotiate your pay is on the way in.”

My parents always preached that education was the safe zone. Get plenty of it and you don’t have to worry about your career. Well, that doesn’t seem to be the case. But, maybe it makes us into better navigators. The path we take isn’t straight up a single corporate ladder. It’s all over the place.

This post isn’t designed to scare you or cause unwarranted anxiety. It is simply to illuminate the situation. We know a career is more challenging today. Now, you know a few reasons why. In my next post, I’ll tell you how you can get around these barriers and maybe even recognize them before you hit them.

Author:

Todd Rhoad, MSEE, MBA is Director at BT Consulting, a career consulting firm in Altanta, and author of the soon to be released, MBA Owner’s Manual. He can be reached at todd.rhoad@blitzteamconsulting.com.