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Wage Futures
August 13, 1999
In case you haven't heard, that great sucking sound you hear
is the Economy absorbing the good Jobs and spewing out sucky ones. The Economic
Policy Institute estimates that inflation adjusted earnings for families
has declined by 3% over the last ten years, which works out to $1000 less per
family every year in real dollars. They
are an incredible source of interpretive data, taking the Department of Labor
Stats and putting a human face on them in ways that the average person can
understand. The short-term data is reasonably positive for
Jobhunters. Unemployment has stabilized
around 4.3%, which matches generational lows.
Wages are moving up, albeit incrementally for the majority of us. New entrants to the Job market are able,
with some effort, to find employment.
Unfortunately, most of the Job growth is in the service Economy, which
historically pays less with fewer benefits. The long-term outlook is less rosy. The move into a Global Economy means that worldwide hourly
wage levels will flatten out, with the vast majority of workers earning closer
to the median wage. Educated workers in
the most populous countries (China, India, Pakistan) will represent half the
world's labor force, and they will gladly perform tasks for a fraction of the
amount that their First World industrialized counterparts will. As work becomes more and more mobile, work
will gravitate toward the lowest common denominator, low wage laborers. If the median daily wage in the world is now under $1, it is
reasonable to forecast that in the next decade most emailable tasks will be
completed by workers earning less than ten times their current income, or
$10/day. This will represent a huge
earnings boost for much of the world, but could easily have negative impacts on
white-collar workers in the US and Europe. There is enormous opportunity today in the speculative
bubble called the Internet Economy. And
there is a frightening likelihood (at least to Western Hemisphere workers) that
the Information Economy may level the playing field for world wages. And for us, that level is headed in only one
direction - down.
Work Sucks
August 12, 1999
Let's face it, most Jobhunters either have Jobs already, or could be working if they chose to.
Before I get a rash of nasty emails from frustrated Jobhunters, I'll mention that I've been a Jobhunter almost half of my adult working life, and unemployed for uncomfortable stretches as well. The problem with most of the Jobs that are available is, well, they suck.
You get the picture. The bulk of available Jobs are in the "it sucks" category, so it's safe to assume you are either planning to leave your current Job for the 'dream Job' your Internet research has led you to, or you are managing to get by for awhile without your free time being eaten up by one of the 'suck Jobs'.
Sometimes you are better suited getting laid off from your present sucky Job so that you can have some room to maneuver while you are pursuing another Job. At some point you can see the ax falling (in stages) as the Employer/Employee relationship begins to break down. Unemployment Insurance is designed to help you through these times - don't be afraid to calculate it into your plans when you figure how long you can survive while you are looking for a better line of work.
Work careers rarely progress from one highlight to another. The chance meetings and overheard comments are often the ones that lead to fundamental shifts in who we are and what we do for a living. The best-laid career plans can be derailed by Economic, Personal, or Social events that are entirely out of your control. Having a career plan is a wonderful starting point - just don't confuse the map for the real thing.
Be flexible enough to deviate from the plan when life's quirky opportunities arise, and you won't suffer the same consequences as those that focus so closely on 'their plan' that they miss seeing what life really has to offer.
Know Your Enemy
August 11, 1999
In war, the maxim "Know Thy Enemy" has long been
touted as part of a winning strategy. While the Hiring Manager isn't really your enemy, they do
represent someone who often seems to have your fate in their hands. And that alone is reason enough to pay
attention to how they go about doing their business. The Electronic
Recruiting Daily is one of the places HR managers & recruiters to talk
about how they perform their Jobs, and discuss ways to improve their
effectiveness. I read it daily, and you
should too. One of my favorite contributors is Wendell Williams,
managing director of the Emergenetics
Consulting Group in Atlanta. His
thoughts on Interviewing are worth reviewing.
First and foremost, Wendell notes, there are "four broad personal
skill areas that can influence your chances of being hired." They are your ability to: ·
Plan and organize work. ·
Get things done through others ·
Learn and solve problems, and ·
Show evidence of your motivations and interests. Wendell asks us to consider some hypothetical questions and
possible answers that take these four personal skill areas into account. For Example: Q. Are you a
motivated worker? A. Explain that you are committed not only
to the task at hand, but to the Employer as well. Q. What are
some examples of unexpected problems that arose that you solved in your last
Job? A. Refer to
specific cases, and focus on the process you went through. Q. What do
you know about our Company? A. They
are testing to see how much you want the Job - did you do any research on their
products & corporate culture. Is
there a Company Founder still there?
Who are the manager's icons? Q. Is it more important at work to be
an individual or work as a team member? A. Rare is the Job where you won't have
to get along with other coworkers.
Individual accomplishments are important in context, but only matter
relative to the Company's (team) goals. Q. Do you think you are a good fit for
this Job? A. While the obvious answer is Yes!,
consider a more reflective response.
Answer based on your experiences filtered through work conditions like
structure vs. freedom, casual environment vs. formal, innovative vs. traditional
policies, and individual vs. team focus. Once you have
passed the first level or two of screening, you are being interviewed less on
your abilities than on your personality traits. You can be trained to do new tasks that are just a variation on a
theme of your normal Job duties, but teaching you interpersonal skills is not a
Job that any Hiring Manager wants to take on.
Enablers
August 10, 1999
Eventually, the Internet will be an integral part of our
daily lives, allowing us to access information at light speed (like available
Jobs and salary surveys) that will change the ways we communicate, live, and
work. Right now, however, the Net is only a harbinger of things to
come. This is especially true for people with disabilities. The Net offers incredible promise - the
freedom to communicate and work unfettered by heretofore hard to overcome
handicaps. Despite a relatively robust
Economy and low unemployment rate (4.4%), over 70% of blind Americans that want
Jobs are unable to find Employment. The number of disabled people in this country is hard to
pinpoint. The Census Bureau reports that 10% of the working age population is
disabled to the point that their disability interferes with the performance of
daily tasks. Other estimates of the
number of disabled people in the US are as high as 50 million, or one out of
every five Americans. Less than a generation ago, blind workers could work in
offices performing a wide range of Job functions, from phone receptionist to
taking dictation, among other tasks.
The computer revolution and the evolution of point and click technology
made tasks easier for most of us, but forced blind people out of this Job
market. Once email skills became an
office skill prerequisite, the writing was on the wall for blind office
workers. But now software programs that offer speech recognition are
approaching 100% accuracy, and typing (computer commands, emails, letters, or
anything!) may become a task not unlike the tedious copying of documents that
Monks spent their lives toiling at - it will be completely obsolete. For all the terrible typists out there,
"Huzzah!" MossRehab ResourceNet serves both
the recently disabled (and likely disoriented), and those that have accepted
their new circumstances and are ready to make the best of their situation. Nationally linked organizational sites provide a good
starting point for those looking to access some of the available
resources. The National Organization on Disability, the President's Committee on Employment of
People with Disabilities, the National
Alliance of the Disabled, and the Job
Accommodation Network all fall into this category of comprehensive, fully
linked sites. Other useful sites include AbleNet
Foundation, Justice for All E-Mail
Network, Project Hired, and the Worlwide Virtual Community of the Disabled. If you know of someone who is disabled, pass
along these leads so they can expand their access to a network of like-minded
individuals with information, support, and Jobs.
Usability
August 09, 1999
While not particularly user-friendly, the web does have a number of resources for computing professionals interested in usability issues. The interface between man and machine has long been a slippery slope, greased only occasionally by early adopters of new technologies that were eager for others to share their technical toys, for a price. Several sites have information and links that address related issues from usability to office ergonomics. If you are interested in designing a better website or improving a software tool, go to
Wonder where web professionals click to when they want answers to technical design and use questions? Some go to Internetworking for the Internet Technical Group's quarterly newsletter. For technical publications relating to man/machine relationships, in addition to web design, check out the Association of Computer Machinery's forum. Links to tutorials and discussions on design are intermixed with transcripts from their annual conference.
While the benefits of learning more about these issues may not be readily apparent, it is in places like these that you're likely to get the first inkling as to what tomorrow's cutting edge in applications might be. And your next Employer might want to know what you think the best new software and web designs are today.
Other sites that are very informative:
Ubiquitous Computing
Ask Tog
MouseSite
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Materials written by John Sumser © TwoColorHat. All Rights Reserved.