I’ve already had three careers. I was a foreign language teacher, then I was an information consultant and now I work in marketing. These changes were my choice and a natural progression of my interests.
For many of us, the way we have worked in the past has changed. Most of us will no longer work for one employer for a lifetime; we’ll need to act as freelancers who ‘market’ their skills to organizations who pay to get work done.
For employers, the economics of this might make sense but how can they be sure that their ad hoc work team has the right skills? How do they compensate them?
For workers, how will we keep our skills up to date? How will we get benefits? How will employers find us? What skills will we need to negotiate our new contracts? These are just a few of the questions that we and the next generation of workers will need to face.
Technology is enabling new ways of working together. Google Wave, cloud computing, Google docs and Basecamp are just a few examples of current tools that are changing the way we work.
Sure there still will be plenty of ‘regular’ jobs, but it’s worthwhile for all of us to think about what we will need to do to rise to this challenge. Entrepreneurs have a golden opportunity to create the tools for the coming freelance boom.
Something new is cooking in Rochester to help people looking for work. It’s the Career Navigator program currently being offered by Rochester Works and is sponsored by the United Way, Finger Lakes Wired and others. Our own Career Sherpa, Hannah Morgan is one of the driving forces behind this project.
This 5 day training program (the pilot version of the program is free to attendees through Jan. 2010) is designed to teach transferability of skills, provide tools/resources to promote proactive job search methods and maximize the power of group learning and support. Classes will be held weekly at various locations around the area. I spoke to Hannah about the program:
How did the idea of Career Navigator get started?
“In the economic downturn, we saw so many talented people losing their jobs. Through no fault of their own, they found themselves out of work; many for the first time in their careers. We also noticed that people were slow to learn about the strategies that would help them get back to work. Things have changed significantly in the last couple of years and job seekers need to learn entirely new strategies.”
Where are the programs held?
“Rochester Works looked to partner with various organizations who would donate space to host the program. We will be holding the program at Pathstone, High Tech of Rochester, the United Way and other locations.”
What else can you tell us about the program?
“We will be holding weekly sessions nearly every week between the beginning of September and the end of January. We hope to serve more people and help them be more prepared for the job search process.”
What are the benefits of attending the program?
a) It is intensive – all the information is delivered cohesively
b) Participant-centered learning allow attendees to more easily put principles into practice
c) We help each participant understand what they want to do and then we delve into resume creation
d) We assess people’s skill s and marry them to positive employment trends to help them be redeployed whenever possible.”
I’ve already had three careers. I was a foreign language teacher, then I was an information consultant and now I work in marketing. These changes were my choice and a natural progression of my interests.
Life Transitions, job search | Deborah | 
February 4, 2010 12:06 pm | 
Comments (0) 
Subscribe