Is Your Career AI-Proof? Preparing For The Changing Nature Of Work

iStock | hirun

There are a lot of strikes going on right now. The Writer’s Guild of America, The Screen Actors Guild of America, United Auto Workers, Airline Pilots, Hotel Workers, and Flight Attendants, to name a few. These strikes are not just about money. At the heart of these actions is an existential fear their professions are doomed.

Actors and writers fear Artificial Intelligence. Auto workers fear automation. Pilots fear self-piloting planes. Hotel workers fear they will be stuck in poverty. X workers fear the math won’t add up in their favor. The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts the future decline or growth of labor sectors down to the number (results may vary).

If you think you’re in a doomed industry, company, or position, be proactive, but don’t panic.

1.     Change is evolution, not revolution. Societal changes take time, including work. Think of a Town Crier, who yelled the news to whole villages as far back as ancient Roman times and as recent as every British royal announcement (and still exists as a ceremonial position and  bizarre sub-culture). Now we have the internet and, by last count, 5.18 billion town criers who can yell to the whole world 24/7. Did the job really disappear or did it transform little by little until it became social media? You have transferrable skills that you can use to skip along the lily pads as required by any major changes in your status (aka doom).  

2.     Time is on your side. Once again, be proactive, but don’t be sloppy. You have time to research, formulate a strategic plan, and make big decisions like re-locating or moving in a new direction. Take small steps if you need to, like updating your resume and LinkedIn profile. Those are great ways to see knowledge gaps (resume) and tell your professional story (LinkedIn). After that, raise the stakes by exploring opportunities in your area and beyond. Start make an honest data driven assessment of your job landscape and see where it takes you.

3.     Doomed doesn’t mean done. For example, COBOL. Nobody uses that anymore – that’s a dead language, right. The point is, plentiful COBOL developer jobs and positions may be a thing of the past, but people who know COBOL are still in demand, sometimes high demand. Those skills are still needed to maintain systems still running COBOL, update them, or migrate them to new platforms like cloud computing.

4.     Doom can be balkanized. Some professions may be balkanized. Here are two examples. Women’s reproductive health care professionals and bail bondsmen. In some states being a reproductive health care doctor, nurse, or worker is a very risky proposition and in some states it’s fine and in (increasingly high demand). In some states bail is now illegal and your chances of working as a bail bondsman is doomed, but in many states it’s business as usual so your industry hasn’t vanished, it’s just moved to another state. If you can move, you can find the markets that still need your skills and experience.

5.     You may be able work on a remote basis. When you think about the way you go about finding work, and for whom you will work, you may consider broadening your horizons. Your type of work may be doomed where you live, but there is still a robust need for your services elsewhere that places you in a leveraged position. If you haven’t considered remote work before, circumstances may dictate you seek out new ways to use your skill set and remote work can be a rewarding and lucrative option.

6.     Always Be Training. Training, training, training! If you need to learn new skills, learn new skills. Think of it as swimming or drowning. It’s going to end one way or another so you may as well learn to swim. Explore job transition programs and aid from local and state governments, or the federal government. For example, AI. Everybody is justifiably scared AI is coming for their job and they may be right. They’re probably right. However, AI isn’t coming for every job, but it will transform the way things are done globally the same way the personal computer did. People with advanced computer skills had an advantage and people who know how to use AI tools will have an advantage. There is time to learn them, but get cracking!

---

Philip Roufail contributed to this article.

Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, career coaching services, and outplacement services. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.

Keep Building Your Professional Brand Through Networking

iStock | metamorworks

Networking is more important than ever, but many people resist taking the extra steps required to nurture their professional relationships. Here’s a few key networking activities you can undertake to bolster your brand:

1.     Be active on LinkedIn.

2.     Maintain contact with people you know.

3.     Be active in professional associations.

4.     Attend professional conferences.

5.     Call on old friends.

6.     Manage Your Social Networks with Care.

The above recommendations are the long game and should pay dividends over the long-term. However, for those who thrive on more immediate gratification, there is a more direct way to network that ideally has a domino effect. It is a traditional, old-fashioned way of doing things called in-person face-to-face contact with strangers. That’s right my little digital babies. It’s time to ditch the pacifier (digital devices/modes of communication), polish your shoes, and act like a professional.

For this one, there is no list of calls-to-action. Networking in this way is a simple formula of follow-through and follow up. Here are two true, real-life examples of how a little networking in simple situations can open doors you didn’t even know existed.

Example #1: The “Chance Encounter”

This is a tale of a chance encounter, except there are no chance encounters if it’s followed by quick and decisive action. A professional working a job that was not the right fit but needed money coming in, meets up with a friend. When he arrives, his friend is speaking with a woman he doesn’t know. His friend introduces her as an old acquaintance that he randomly bumped into.

They discover they’re in related fields. Our professional has a loyal Instagram Live following for his work-related posts. The old acquaintance has a podcast. This was a fortuitous encounter, providing an unexpected professional opportunity. They agreed to watch/listen to each other’s respective endeavors and parted ways.

It could have ended there. But each person treated this “chance encounter” as a networking opportunity. They followed through. They watched the Instagram Live/listened to the podcast – and followed-up – contacted each other to.

This was followed by a meet-up, which is the ideal progression, but that is the part you have to make happen. While the first meeting was more friendly than professional, the second one was all business and it ended with invitations to appear on each other’s platforms. The partnership worked out so well it, the joint-appearance became regular features. And, yes, an actual happy ending. Our professional was contacted by multiple businesses after participating in several podcasts and accepted a new position with one of them. At last report, it was going very well.

Example #2: The Web

A professional network is not a list of names in your rolodex (please click here if think that’s a watch). It’s a web of names.

A professional loses her job in a corporate restructuring and is searching for a new job with the added obstacle of being unemployed. She reaches out to ten of her strongest contacts (and friends), but does not get any actionable leads. In this case, the traditional networking hasn’t succeeded.

Proactive, she does her research to see if anyone in her web of contacts has a connection, no matter how remote, to her target companies and she comes up with one that pushes the boundaries of six-degrees-of-separation. She gambles and sends her resume with a friendly note. As it turns out, it’s only two degrees of separation. Through the web of their professional contacts, the recipient knows who she is. He can’t help her per se, but the company has an internal list of unpublished job openings he’s happy to forward to her.

I think you know how this example ends. Her determination and web of contacts directly led to her finding a new job. Armed with a back door into one of her targeted companies that significantly expanded her opportunities, she was able to land a new job with them. At last report, it was going very well.

Follow-through and follow-up. Easy.

---

Philip Roufail contributed to this article.

Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, career coaching services, and outplacement services. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.

Transitioning from Freelance Success to Corporate: Navigating the Why, How, and What’s Next

iStock | Filmstax

The conversation about freelance work vs. corporate(i.e., in-house employee) life is typically the pros and cons of leaving your current job in pursuit of a freelance career. But let’s look at this from the opposite perspective – what if you are a successful, financially secure, free-lance sole proprietor but you want to return to the corporate fold?

The first question your friends, family, and, especially, potential employers will ask is, “Why?” Why… would you want to work for somebody else when you’ve been your own boss? Why… would you go from pocketing the profits to drawing a paycheck? Why… would you go from making your own schedule to clocking in? Why… deal with office politics – now more than ever? Why… choose to be subject to the whims of corporate restructuring, buyouts, mergers, downsizing, etc., instead of the master of your fate?

Control the Narrative

You are most likely to be met with skepticism, and the top misconception will be that your turn at a freelance career failed so you must “get a real job.” From the onset, you must overcome the perception of failure and the only way to do that is to control the narrative. Let’s say the perception is reality. Working free-lance you couldn’t make ends meet and so you had to jump ship. You still need to control the narrative and the best course of action is always the truth.

The truth is that to launch, succeed, and sustain a freelance career based on whatever magical special skill you possess isn’t enough. You must also be an entrepreneur who can run a small business, which is what a sole proprietor is. Let’s say your special skill is turning water into wine (digression: please DM contact info if this is a skill you possess). That’s not enough. There is a lot of work beyond your superpower. You must also be a CEO, COO, and CIO rolled into one, a salesperson, an accountant, a marketing guru, a tax expert, (just to name a few), or be able to afford people to do all that for you.

Not everybody has the financial acumen or business skills to do all the other things being a free-lance worker require. Sure, you’re your own boss, but you work alone. Sure, you pocket the profits – after operational expenses, taxes, licenses, etc. Sure, you make your own schedule, but the flexibility can be chaos. Sure, it’s great to be master of your fate – until it isn’t. Life circumstances change and sometimes changes are needed.

If you want to be a full-time employee again, employers are going to have reservations about your assimilation into a corporate hierarchy and working with others. You must demonstrate you have a genuine desire to return to the corporate world and aren’t buying time until you can go out on your own again. No company wants to be a stepping stone. Remember your narrative! You want to work with others toward set and achievable goals with measurable results and increase your skill set through collaboration. You want to spend time doing what you’re passionate about, not spending late nights on QuickBooks.

Back-Up Your Narrative with Your Resume

Your resume should be as close to a written record of your narrative as possible.  If you free-lanced for a year during COVID or during a bout of long-term unemployment, you can gloss over it without raising eyebrows. If you’ve been hustling for over a decade you must own your achievements and find a way to condense what you’ve done to advance your narrative explaining your motives for this major transition.

Your resume will be a prelude to an interview so it is in your best interests to lay the foundation of your narrative. There are many commonalities between your resume and how you present yourself in a job interview. You want to show a history of success but highlight jobs that were collaborative, in the company’s field to which you are applying (if possible), and demonstrate long-term commitments with results that exceeded expectations.

For example, let’s say you worked for six months at a prestigious company in the same field at your targeted potential employer. Recruiters and hiring managers are going to want to know the quality of those six months. Were you (for example) a freelance marketer or an outsourced consultant chief marketing officer/director? The former is a temporary task-oriented assignment. The latter is embedded in a company and directs important strategic projects. How you present it is important.

Spend the time tinkering with your resume until it tells a consistent story about your freelance work history with a focus on jobs that most mimic a corporate environment. You are the only person responsible for your first impression. Do the work. Look spectacular.

Compensation

Show me the money! Another misconception about working freelance is that you’re rolling in money. Maybe you are. Good for you! More on that below. But most freelance workers are like any other small business – you pay for everything else before you make any money and the margins can be slim. Operations, taxes, insurance, gaps in employment, etc., take their toll on your bottom line. Working for a company means stability and predictability and all that extra work running the business will be done by other people.

If you want to get an idea of how a freelance-to-corporate transition will affect your finances start with payscale.com and go from there. For example, let’s say the average salary for your specialty is $75,000 a year in your region. That’s an average, so where you do believe you will fall in the range? Higher? Lower? Why? Be prepared to make your argument. Is it more or less than your freelance business? How about the benefits (e.g., health insurance) you’ve been paying out of pocket?

Do an assessment of all the liabilities and assets and determine whether the move will most likely be a PACKAGE (not just take-home pay) increase or a decrease. This requires a deep dive into the numbers to know how your financial situation will change. Do all calculations before you do an interview! If you’re a super successful freelancer you may have room to negotiate a larger package because you are leaving money on the table. However, the battle to prove you can work in a corporate environment may be more difficult. There’s always a trade-off!

Bonus Tip: Don’t announce the dissolution of your freelance business until you start your new job and the check clears. You never know what’s going to happen.

---

Philip Roufail contributed to this article.

Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, career coaching services, and outplacement services. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.