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10 Signs That Your Career Is At Risk
The most successful people in life consistently transform their economic fortunes
by strategic positioning, the acquisition of relevant knowledge and speedy response
to opportunities. However, some individuals significantly disable themselves from
this process through their career choices and economic positioning. These are
people with limited options who run the risk of being marginalized by the dynamic
and evolving knowledge economy. Believe it or not, you are under threat of career
stagnation or extinction if:
1. Your career prospects are only tied to your current job. Some people are
only suitable for a particular job in a particular company. They have a
narrow set of skills and abilities that make it impossible for them to be
employed elsewhere. They therefore hang on to their jobs as if their very
lives depend on them. You must be good enough to be employed at the same
or even a higher level if you had to leave your current job or if your
organisation closed down. You are at risk if you lack the capacity to rebuild
your career outside your current job. I have seen people who have been in
management before find themselves unemployed for long periods because
they failed to broaden their scope of relevance.
2. Your career success is dependent on a person. Some people are surviving
in organizations not on merit but by virtue of the fact that they are in the
good books or related to someone in a position of authority. That is not the
right way to build one’s career. Should that person suddenly leave the
business or change their opinion of you, it could mark a certain decline or
demise for you.
3. You only have the minimum qualification for your job. Sometime ago,
certain positions in corporate organisations were filled by people with O-
Level and A-Level qualifications. Things have since changed and today,
many of those hitherto-mundane roles are occupied by university graduates.
Similarly, some positions previously held by graduates are now being
offered to post-graduate applicants. You may still hold such a position by
dint of hard work and long service even though you have a lower
qualification. However, you must not be comfortable there: you are at risk
because you will most likely be the first to go if the company ever needs to
cut its staff numbers. In that case, your options will be very limited because
after leaving the organisation, you are not likely to find the same job or level
elsewhere.
4. You have only one dimension of one skill. Our dynamic world keeps
changing every day and the knowledge and skills we have and work with are
continuously becoming obsolete. If you have only one dimension of the
critical skill you require for your work you are in trouble. Imagine someone
who types excellently on the typewriter but cannot use a computer. That is a
limited dimension of the typing skill that could easily render the person
redundant. The same thing applies to people who get stuck on one machine
or only one model of the key machine used in their work. The rapid rate of
change in technology implies that you must update yourself and consistently
keep abreast in order to retain the same position. If you refuse to upgrade
yourself or migrate to newer models of the machines you work with, you
reduce your chances of earning more and growing in your organisation. Do
not leave things to chance. Start improving your skills today.
5. You can be replaced by someone more competent at a lower cost. What
would you do as an employer if someone with a low competence level wants
to get paid more and you are aware of better and cheaper alternatives? That
is the challenge facing many people today. They are not at the cutting edge
of their fields but are sadly unaware or unconcerned about it. There has been
a lot of lobbying in the USA because competent Information Technology
(IT) professionals from India are available for half the price of their
American counterparts and are thus knocking them out of business.
Incidentally, the hue and cry that led to the unfortunate xenophobic attacks
in South Africa in 2008 were partly because migrant workers from other
African countries were alleged to be offering better service at lower cost to
employers and thus marginalising the locals. You are at risk if your potential
employer can find more competent and cheaper alternatives not just from
your country but from any part of the world. Globalisation has made it
possible for organisations to look anywhere in the world for the skills they
need. Your competition is therefore no longer restricted to your geographical
jurisdiction.
6. You can easily be replaced by a machine. With rising costs of labour
especially in more advanced economies, technologies and machines are
consistently being designed to significantly reduce the number of people
who operate them. This trend means that future production processes will
become more integrated and require significantly less hands. As a result,
unskilled workers in many fields will find themselves competing with
machines for their jobs. And considering that machines do not come with all
the human resource costs and uncertainties that come with employing
people, the natural consequence is marginalisation and removal of such
people.
7. You are functionally illiterate. Formal education opens one up to the world
and lays a foundation on which other educational structures must be built.
One cannot possibly acquire all the knowledge one needs for career success
from the classroom. Indeed, people often study subjects in school that have
little or no direct relevance to the industries in which they operate. One
could therefore conclude that the primary role of educational qualification is
to open the career door. After entry, there is no point flaunting the degree
because qualifications by themselves do not solve the problems that plague
organisations on a daily basis. What really makes a difference is the
industry-specific or relevant knowledge that you acquire along the way
either at school, through courses and seminars or by careful observation,
reading and personal study. If you are not appropriately informed or
educated about the work you do and the industry in which you operate, you
are likely to be marginalised as your company continues to grow and the
marketplace becomes more competitive.
8. You cannot survive six months without working. One of the easiest ways
to measure financial independence is the ability of the individual to live a
normal life for six months if for some reason they find themselves out of
work or unable to earn an income. If you have not invested to the point
where your stocks or assets can tide you over a six-month period, your
career progress could easily be derailed by circumstances. While speaking in
a conference in the United States, we met a young man who had lost
everything because he suffered a domestic accident that left him bedridden
for three months and unable to work. His first challenge was that he was
uninsured: that meant he got no compensation for his injuries. Subsequently,
he also lost his job and ended up at home for the most part of that year. He
suddenly found himself unable to pay his mortgage and bills. At the time we
met him, his home was being foreclosed while his cars had been
repossessed. From a well-paying job and comfortable conditions, the guy
found himself unemployed and almost homeless within a short space of
time.
9. You do not have what it takes to make it in another country. If you lack
the talent, language or skills to earn a living in any other country than the
one you are living and working in, you could also be at risk. In today’s
globalised economy, you could find yourself having to live in another
country when you did not plan for it. Political instability in parts of the
world has made this a reality for many. Alternatively, opportunities related
to your field could open so wide in another country that it would be
imperative for you to work there for a while to advance your career. If your
knowledge, skills and experience are so local that they are not relevant
abroad, you deny yourself the chance to participate. Moreover, if you are
only a vernacular speaker and cannot communicate in any international
language, you are likely to further reduce your options.
10.You are forgetful, careless and lack attention to detail. Information is an
important currency for personal and organisational development. In most job
assignments, one of the most critical requirements for success is the ability
to observe, assimilate, store or retrieve relevant information when needed. If
you are forgetful or careless, you could easily ignore or mishandle important
data and thus restrict your career progress. Information is about fine details.
Sometimes one misplaced dot or comma can totally distort the value or
meaning of an important business transaction. If you are not detail-oriented
and are in the habit of making careless mistakes, you will never be a
favourite with any boss and are likely to suffer career stagnation
We live in a constantly changing world. 31 billion questions are asked on Google
every month. With over 750 subscribers Facebook would have been the world’s
third most populous country if it were one. Social networks are the most dominant
activity on the internet and have redefined the face of communication and business
the world over. In the face of rapid changes, globalisation and increased
competition, individuals who are not equipped with requisite knowledge, skills,
competence and versatility will find themselves becoming dinosaurs in the 21st
Century.