How to Improve Your Career Agility

It’s been obvious for the past several years that the world of work has changed dramatically regarding the employer-employee contract. In fact, it has changed almost as dramatically since we started to climb out of the 2008-11 great recession as it had in the 18 years leading up to it. It is well known that today workers are primarily responsible for their careers, not employers. Employer/employee loyalty has been replaced with a quid-pro-quo temporary relationship. Most Gen-Xer’s and nearly all Millennials know no other condition. The old adage “if it is to be it is up to me” is the tagline for our careers today; therefore, it is paramount that workers stay vigilant and agile regarding how they cultivate their career. Passive engagement versus active career management is very risky given the uncertain nature of the U.S. and global economy, budgetary constraints and geopolitical conditions.

To further put stress on careers employers have hedged their bets by relying more on temporary and contract workers and less on permanent employees. Prior to the great recession of 2008, during the 1990–2008 period, employment in the temporary help services industry grew from 1.1 million to 2.3 million and came to include a larger share of workers than before in higher skill occupations. Employment through this industry has been very volatile because temporary workers are easily hired when demand increases and laid off when it decreases.

Careerbuilder’s 2015 Jobs Forecast stated that temporary employment is expected grow throughout the year as employers struggle to fill in-demand roles and strive to maintain more flexibility in their workforce due to the previously mentioned uncertainties. Forty-six percent of employers planned to hire temporary or contract workers in 2015, up from forty-two percent last year whereas thirty-six percent of employers planned to increase full-time, permanent headcount in 2015, a jump from 24 percent last year.

These factors and several others clearly point out that today’s employees will have many jobs throughout their career, some non-traditional, and they have to be prepared to be agile. This job mobility trend started to show up in the latter years of the baby boomers (1957-1964) where they held 11.7 jobs from age 18 to age 48. Nearly half of these jobs were held from ages 18 to 24. (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)

Young adults born in the early 1980s held an average of 6.2 jobs from age 18 through age 26. From 1978-2008 workers from age 18 to 44 with a Bachelor’s degree held an average of 11.3 jobs. A 2012 survey by Net Impact showed the average worker stayed at his or her job for 4.4 years, but the expected tenure of the workforce’s youngest employees was about half that. Ninety-one percent of Millennial’s (born between 1977-1997) expect to stay in a job for less than three years, according to the Future Workplace. A Multiple Generations at Work” survey of 1,189 employees and 150 managers. That means they would have 15 – 20 jobs over the course of their working lives!

You wan to achieve career preparedness and agility.

There are many reasons for changing jobs, or at least being prepared to do so.

• Higher salary
• Less stressful job
• More interesting work
• Work-life balance
• Change in career direction or career advancement
• Company reorganization, merger or acquisition
• Outsourcing of job function
• A restrictive workplace
• Company or employee relocation
• Lack of recognition
• Skills and abilities are not a fit affecting performance
• Incompetent or negative boss
• Personal values are not aligned with organizational priorities