… a sufficiently interesting job offer in the UK came along and I accepted it? Well it could happen - I could even get an offer in Kyrgyzstan as well… that could shake more than one!
Now why would that happen? Because I published my CV on an on-line job search website as well as a couple of social network sites? And why would I want to publish my CV on such websites? Well apart from being an inveterate writer ( I have 4 websites and 1 other blog) its the thing to do today. These detachable extensions, or addendums, of the profiles these sites invariably require filling out, these mini stories - the smaller and more concise the better -of one's working life might just incite the interest of some sufficiently curious, perspicacious and farsighted reader looking for just that wealth of experience, expertise, quality, talent and potential that only my specific CV contains!
Beating my own drum? Darn right I am! If I don’t do it no one else will and why would they? they’re so busy beating their own! Yep, its a cruel, narcissistic, numbrilistic, best person first world and with the state of the job market as it is today you’ve got to be dum or set up for life not to want to (or have to) beat your drum... a lot louder than the others.
That's reducing the situation to its simplest form, some people are much more discreet and register with social networks for the fun...yeah, right...anyway there’s a lot of people connecting because they're looking for jobs, either because they don’t have one and want one, they have one and aren’t optimistic of their future or because they are so darn opportunist they've got nothing to lose and everything to gain. I’m not in the first situation so I would have to be in one of the latter, right? …
And why would I be that? Why would I want to go "oppotunity" hunting? Well, the other day I was sitting listening to my client talk about their particular woes and worries and I thought it would be a good idea.
What woes and worries? Well it would appear that their own particular multinational company of an employer is in the throws of a programming/initiating a social restructuration plan and, using every trick in the book they are hastily but methodically writing to do so, is contemplating diverse and various means of inciting their workforce to look elsewhere to see if the grass is greener.
When I heard the modalities of their social plan , employees could receive, amongst other things (?) a lay off package of something like 1.5 months per year spent in the company, I a little too glibly mentioned that if my particular company made me such a proposition I would be off back to the UK so fast there wouldn’t even be any shoe marks on the floor! But I reassure you my company would never be so gracious so it ain’t likely that I'll be off any time soon, at least not of their instigation.
I must admit my remark did rather took aback more than one of the attendance. But one person in particular did sit up, the same person with who I had recently debated the average time people should stay in a company before they had accumulated experience and expertise and should consider moving on to greener pastures. Let me explain. my personal vision – the fruit of ± 25 years in the hotel and restaurant industry – is that the average time to spend in any company and before a certain age is reached, i.e. 30, should be 3 years!
I know that up until 15/20 years ago in most western societies , and I am stretching this to include Japan, the aim for most people leaving school or college was to find a place in a company and stay their until retirement, priming job security over adventure and riches (riches? ok)… earning more and more money as you progress so as to ensure a comfortable life style and an intelligent pension plan …but things have changed. In the 90s Japan underwent a cultural shock so deep it changed they way of looking at their professional life forever!!! A lifetime job was a thing of the past and more and more people started adopting what I call the “American School room” approach. This consists of the teacher inciting students to change their seat in school classes every so often so they don’t get in rut and get to physically and metaphorically look at things from a different perspective.
As I said I spent some 25 years in an industry where such an approach was encouraged and so when I see people in my work entourage, close or not so close, in a rut or insistent on clutching on to their current job, in spite of the fact that the future could actually be quite dismal for them, I want to go over and shake them.
But then who am I to do so? They have mortgages, loans and young kids at the small school on the corner. Their life is there and friends are all around them. Why would they contemplate exchanging such a nice easy life? OK so there’s a crisis but they have a job (for now) so why should they put all that in peril, up root, move elsewhere and start again? Because of the crisis?
Yes so there’s a crisis and when the person I was talking to the other day quietly pointed out that I too had been in the company 10 years I said yes but I’m 53 and have undergone a change in job role during that time. He saw my point of view but like I said he was rather caught off balance by my mind game, remember I said at the top I’m not adverse to a change and if the right offer comes along? Believe me I have no affinity so strong where I am at the moment that I wouldn't consider a change be it in the UK or Kyrgyzstan.
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire