Job Decisions in a Changing World
by Janet E. Lapp, Ph.D.

Are you keeping upright in this upside down world? The good news is that women are better positioned for growth than ever before; in part because of the natural qualities possessed by women (such as intuition, flexibility, and team-thinking) and in part because Finance is one of the hot growth areas for jobs within the foreseeable future. So congratulations, but keep reading. A knowledge of the context of change is needed too.

Below are eight descriptors of today's world ('now') and of the near-future world ('future') in eight areas of our lives that are dramatically affected by current change. Read through these areas for a general sense of the context in which change is occurring.

1. The Concept of Time Now: Computers and timepieces measure time in thousandths of seconds, time a desired commodity, and speeds up. The Concept of Time Future: Time is instant, programmable, irrelevant to access, too fast for humans.

2. The Concept of Household Now: Nuclear family, suburbia, two-income households, serial family formation (divorce, stepchildren), commuter marriages. The Concept of Household Future: Family constantly redefined, non-fixed households, multi-residence, multinational. Merged home and office.

3. The Concept of Education Now: Higher education, preschool, adult education, 'credentialism,' democratization of public education processes, weakened public school system. The Concept of Education Future: Electronic and lifelong; knowledge 'haves' and 'have-nots' define the social classes.

4. The Concept of Health Now: Life extension, control over nature. Institutions are used to deliver health care. The Concept of Health Future: Creation of nature itself, genetic engineering, brain mapping, cybernetics, remote monitoring, self-care.

5. The Concept of Wealth Status Now: A large income, access to credit, and many material possessions determine wealth. Assets are monetary leverage, real estate, information. The Concept of Wealth Status Future: Financial security is individually determined, wealth is emotional and physical well-being, access to and knowledge of how to manipulate information most important to wealth accumulation. Assets are knowledge, delivery channels, employees, and customers.

6. The Concept of Success Now: To master the skills of a profession or career and to spend one's wealth. The Concept of Success Future: To be self-sustaining and safe, to collect a wealth of experiences, to have often reinvented oneself.

7. The Concept of 'The Boss' Now: The CEO, professional manager or supervisor. 'The Concept of Boss' Future: The executive team, the investor, the self-employed (oneself).

Within the context above, several areas predicted to be growth areas for 1998 and 1999 are listed below. The trick to positioning yourself for the future is to combine the two concepts: Understanding the context of changes, and knowing where to position yourself within them. Then you will be ahead of the change curve.

These are Four Hot Areas:

Health care: Research–including outcomes, products, services, marketing and distribution for genetic engineering; mental health, including stress reduction; alternative medicine such as acupuncture, biofeedback, naturopathy, and aromatherapy; preventive medicine and health management; anti-aging foods and herbs; cosmetic surgery; diet and nutrition; exercise spas; memory enhancers; biosensors; sensory augmentations; food and water monitoring.

Personal services: Vacation planners, personal entertainment programmers, personal editors, personal home organizers, personal beauty specialists, personal pet companions, ergonomics advisers and equipment, and other in-person or electronic activities, that will meet the need for individualized services.

Financial and personal security: Services and programs for retirement planning, unemployment financing, career retraining; long-term care programs for the elderly, monitoring services, protection services and devices, private communities, private education, encryption, anti-theft and espionage equipment, water and food inspection equipment, home entertainment.

Religion and spirituality: Scripture interpretation and enactments, spiritual fiction, faith and emotional healing, guidance in ethics, cults, ethnic apparel, search for self, human-rights, stewardship, blending of Eastern and Western thought.

Here are six workplace trends to ponder as you position yourself for the future:

1. Small and medium-size companies are the engines of job creation. Small companies will be handling the work outsourced by the giants. New technology lets the nimbler and more innovative of the little companies compete against the giants better than ever before. Your future may be brighter in a small company.

2. Even after downsizing is carried to its illogical extreme, corporate giants won't go back to hiring bunches of long-term employees. They think it more efficient and profitable to operate as an outsourcing contracting. The big corporation of the future will consist of a small core of central employees, with a mass of smaller firms working for it under contract. Even within the central core, there will be lots of shifting around and hiring of people for specific, temporary assignments. If you're flexible and have good skills, you could be better off than you are now.

3 Be prepared to work for a foreign company. Corporations are contracting to have operations carried out at lower cost overseas. For example, New York Life has some of its claims processing handled by employees in Ireland. Foreign companies investing in American manufacturing are becoming a growing source of jobs.

4 Gear yourself up to working for a woman. Women entrepreneurs are starting companies at 1.5 times the rate of men. In 1972, 0% of the work force were employed by women, now 12%, and soon it will be 25%. There are now more new jobs being created by women than from all the Fortune 500 companies combined. Entrepreneurial energy is coming more from women than from men.

5 Get as much education as possible. The future belongs to the knowledge worker. The 55-year-old student is a common campus sight. At Applied Engineering, everyone hired has a college degree, often in engineering or physics. They spend 20% of their time on R&D, finding ways to eliminate the manufacturing process that takes the other 80% of their time. AE wants their employees to figure out a way to eliminate their jobs, and then they will find better jobs for them.

6 Whether you're looking or not, keep upgrading your skills. Expect to change careers–not just jobs–three or four times during your working life. For example, a high-technology worker needs to upgrade skills every five to 10 years. Keep your resume current as well. That doesn't mean decreased loyalty to your current employer; it simply means being prepared. Many of the fastest growing good jobs don't require a college degree but they do require education.

"What you earn depends on what you learn.”

Most importantly, keep moving. Start something. Do it NOW.

© 2001-2004 Janet E. Lapp, Ph.D. All rights reserved. Dr. Janet Lapp is an expert at guiding organizations through change. She is the author of Plant your Feet Firmly in Mid-Air, publisher of The Change Letter and one of North America's most energizing and insightful professional speakers. For more information please contact your speakers bureau.