What color is your parachute? The Job Seeker's Bible

Author: Richard Nelson Bolles [USA]
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1998-01-01
Features: In the past few years, trends such as hostile takeovers, mergers, and economic recessions have led to the disappearance of many jobs. Indeed, at the same time, new fields of work have emerged, with at least 2 million new job opportunities created in the United States each year. This process is cyclical and recurring. Indeed, the workplace is always changing, constantly shifting, and in a state of turbulence—just as it has been in the past, now, and will be in the future. Therefore, in the 1990s, changes in the workplace were merely a continuation of what had already occurred. However, the 1990s had its own unique characteristics, primarily reflected in the following six aspects:
First, the speed of this conventional change process has greatly accelerated, much like a scene filmed with a slow shutter speed and then replayed at normal speed, where you can see clouds racing across the sky. Someone has already come up with a name for this "acceleration process": mergers, restructuring, downsizing, layoffs, etc., to describe the accelerated operation of the job market.
Second, another feature of the 1990s was that more workers (employees) were affected by this "acceleration," and they came from various strata—even those who had previously seemed immune to changes that impacted everyone else—particularly white-collar workers and middle managers. In the United States alone, 3 million people are laid off each year, meaning that since 1979, a total of 43 million jobs have been eliminated. This number exceeds the normal average. In fact, since 1979, 70% of American families have faced layoff issues; 40% of family members have had relatives, friends, or neighbors laid off; and in every three families, at least one member has been laid off.
Third, another unique aspect of the 1990s was that warning signs became increasingly difficult to detect. Even when changes led to the termination or disappearance of many professions, there were often no warnings at all. Many workers learned they had been laid off from a radio broadcast while rushing to work. This situation greatly deepened people's anxiety and worry, making it difficult for them to feel secure in their jobs. For every laid-off person, there was added fear and unease among colleagues or relatives who were still employed.
Fourth, the labor system in the 1990s became more unfair. If an employer wanted to lay off an employee (for any reason), they often used mergers and downsizing as tools and acted immediately. Another unfair situation was that loyal, capable employees who had devoted themselves to a company for over a decade or two could also be unjustly laid off without explanation. Such cases were common, and in many organizations, these laid-off workers included many who had made outstanding contributions to the company's current success and had sacrificed greatly for it. They were laid off because downsizing required each employee to fully prove their "value," and the contributions of these loyal employees were difficult to measure against the company's new bottom-line standards. As a result, more and more American companies were unknowingly becoming "heartless machines"—unconsciously cutting away the "loyal employees" essential for the survival of the organization, making factories increasingly inhumane.
Fifth, another distinguishing feature of the 1990s was the emergence of a global market, where new jobs originating from the United States or other countries faced intense pressure from low-wage competition from other parts of the world. As a result, many new jobs offered salaries so low that most job seekers found them unacceptable. This could also lead to a decline in living standards.