Guest Post:
Today I’m launching the first in a series of guest posts that will come from individuals from all walks of life — college grads trying to make it in the work world, parents trying to figure out their own careers and those of their kids and spouses, stay-at-home moms and dads wondering what their career futures hold. I hope you enjoy these first-person career journeys.
The first comes from Amy Zipkin. Her occasional posts will be titled “A Family’s Career Journey.”
Amy Zipkin is a freelance journalist who reports on emerging business and career trends and the people who create them. She regularly contributes to the popular The New York Times profile, “The Boss.” Her feature stories have appeared in The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune, special supplements to The Wall Street Journal and the papers of the Tribune Media Company. She blogs at www.amyzipkin.com.
Usually I’m writing profiles of executives and business trend pieces. Still when I told Eve my college aged daughter is grappling with decisions about majors and internships and my husband is career transitioning, she generously offered this guest blog post.
My daughter’s a sophomore and some experts are saying careers she’s preparing for don’t even exist yet. So as she has been weighing a major—finally deciding on history last week—what else will she need to do to make sure she’s not overqualified or under prepared at graduation?
Will the work ethic that had her clocking part time hours at the local book store since she was 16 and loading up her schedule with a two day a week part time internship last summer inoculate her against the downturn and unemployment rates that hover in double digits for her age group or is it a recipe for burnout?
An internship appears to have an edge, but is no guarantee. Last week the National Association of Colleges and Employers, a Bethlehem, PA trade group, released the results of their 2009 Student Survey and 23 percent of graduates with an internship had a job in hand just before graduation last April. Just 14 percent of those who hadn’t been interns landed jobs. In all likelihood a good attitude will also serve her well as Eve recently reported.
Still depending on how long a recovery takes recent grads in the job market now, and perhaps my daughter, may pay a price for bad timing. Till Von Wachter, an associate professor of economics at Columbia University says graduating in a recession leads to persistent effects on earnings and career outcomes. He writes in an e-mail, “Some never quite catch-up, and stay employed at lower wage jobs in lower paying firms after a recession ends.”
As my daughter weighs her options, she may consider her father’s experience. He’s been in data processing since punch card and slide rules were considered high tech and he landed his first job six months ahead of a recession.
He’s navigated a dozen jobs, and several career changes including joining and being laid off from two start-up companies, one in the mid-eighties that burned through millions of dollars before evaporating and another that downsized during the dot.com bust before selling itself to a competitor.
He walked away from the first start-up with worthless stock certificates. Soon, there was the job with another company that, up to that time, had a tradition of no layoffs. When they went through a major retrenching five years later we had a lesson in belt-tightening that also served us well after the dot.com bust.
He was laid off from his job as a sales engineer in June. As he segues to new career options once considered the stuff of science fiction—software as a service (SaaS) and digital marketing services among others, some experts say he, and probably my daughter, would do well to consider the new requirements of job hunting. Social networking may not be enough.
Rita Weiss, a career coach in Westchester County, says its essential to get clear on what you want to do and when networking always thinking “How can I help” as opposed to “What can I get?”
Still she says this is no time to go it alone. While peer groups, associations and volunteer activities can all help, she advocates finding an accountability partner. She writes, “Most of us find it far too easy to not follow through on commitments we make to ourselves.” But when we make a commitment to others, there is a much greater change that we will follow through.”