Your work. You take the lead - Create your job search workshop

Author: Catherine Baker
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-07-01
Features: Loyalty has changed
The changes in the business world have made the unwritten "employment loyalty" contract more frequently broken than ever before, with the abusers being either companies or employees. In the past, employees believed that as long as they performed well or didn’t make major mistakes, they would stay with the company. This expectation no longer applies.
Because companies are constantly restructuring, merging, redefining their core business, or downsizing, no one can guarantee job security, or that they will work at the current company until retirement. In fact, statistics show that you are unlikely to end your career at the company where you started or the company you currently work for.
I often hear people worry about their company lacking loyalty, but companies are the same way. Today, it is common for people to leave their companies when better job opportunities arise. Research shows that people change careers every three to five years on average. Younger employees do so even more frequently. In today’s job market, whether you like it or not, both companies and employees are breaking their loyalty to each other.
Let’s view your career as starting with an empty box. When you take your first job, you gain skills and experience. Then you decide to switch to another job. It could be within the same company or at a different one. So you put your skills into the box and move on to your new job. There, you gain more skills and experience, and then you put them into the box again when you move on to your next job.
As your career progresses, the contents of your box keep growing. Every time you stop, you take out the skills you carry with you, use them, and continue to add more. As long as you have a job and are properly compensated, you are loyal. If you find that the company no longer meets your needs or your boss thinks you no longer meet their requirements, you will put your box back together and take it to your next position.
I will help you manage this process in this book.