Recession leaves everyone with bad memories and tough lessons. From broken trust and partnerships, to loyalties and relationships, it stops at nothing till the recovery sounds the war cry. Recovery is at the horizon, so it’s the time to make it even. Stimulus packages, have given a boost to the world stock markets, and it has placebo effect on businesses as well. On top of it, individuals like us are inching towards feel better factor. Does not matter, one is out of job or compromising his abilities – it’s time to jumpstart the career again. It is right time to reboot your career.

Reboot the career:

Polishing your skills and gaining the ones in demand should be the first step to begin with. Each recession leaves us with some dos and don’ts, last time it was “dotcom” and this time it is “securitization”. Does not matter if you are an IT guy or an accountant: catch up with the go and no-go areas of you industry.

In every skilled or unskilled job market, one vertical shows quicker revival then the other. So, switching from better one to the best will be logical thing to do. For example, IT guys should look for something different then banking and finance domain, and for office secretary it is better to try in non-financial firms.

If your job is not affected by the ongoing recession or has not even got the heat of it, then I must say that you are lucky guy. Hold on to your profession for time being but change it as soon as recovery is full. Logic is simple, if a domain of expertise has not gone down with recession, it will not have high growth trajectory once we recover from recession. Yes, there are exceptions to this piece of advice but they are driven by chances rather than choices.

Old is Gold:

Economic recovery is foreseen not only by pundits but by businesses as well. If you were laid off, there is no harm in reaching out to old employer and enquiring about vacancy. After all hiring a newer employee, training him/her is going to be money-consuming task. Having you back on your desk is win-win situation for both.

This is right time to renegotiate, if your employment benefits were cut. As the job markets are improving, companies should fear loosing good employees. Loss of a good employee is just like loosing business. It is double hit on the company; first they loose an employee and second the money, which they have invested in bad times. So, start preparing to make it even or at least come out of anti-competitive clauses.

If nothing works out, old is still gold, as the cliché goes, “Social networking is well penetrated and most widely used phenomenon on the web after emailing and googling”. Do not shy away from searching jobs on social networks, this is double-edged sword. For Job-hunting one might prefer Linkedin to Orkut, hi5, Facebook, Myspace. Select the social network with more professional relevance rather than pictorial. Give importance to such professional networks and never loose the importance of local and community networks. (More..)

Consulting opportunities:

Nothing is better then being your own boss. Some of the biggest success stories in business have started their march in the thick of recession. People out of jobs or dissatisfied with their jobs have high chances of coming together, as a unit.

If you have not started your consulting business till now, this is right time to do so. Getting together with likeminded people is the first step to begin with. Every business struggles at the beginning, better that struggling time passes during the recession. One might not have deep pockets but can always put his hard work into it. Money lending fraternity will soon resurface, looking for places to put their bets. The consulting contacts, which were lying low, are showing movements. Web 2.0 to green energy, money will be put everywhere and takeover bids will cut deals with sick units, Healthy ideas will sell off to the hostile capitalism. So, there will be enormous consulting opportunities on each step.

For self-employed there is also a Silver lining. As company hiring will go up, pressure on freelancing rates will also reduce. Till we are confidently out of the recession, hiring full time employees will not be the primary choice of many companies. This will give boost to freelancing and contact job markets.

Fresh Graduates: A piece of advise

Art or Engineering, none of the degree was in demand and the job queues were elongated. Hardest hit were the ones who just came out of college looking for their first genuine assignment. Fresh graduates are competing against the younger batch of their own field, which is also out of the college.

I am holding the same view, as per my last advise to fresh graduates on job-hunting. Work on freelancing and crowdsourcing (More..) in your own domain. Do not divert from what you have mastered over the years for easy bucks. In other words, do not reinvent yourself because of bad market conditions. While applying for jobs, give personal touch the each job application and relate your resume to the job description. Give local media equal value, what you would give to monster.com or any other big job portal. Employ social media and keep your resume real (More..).

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Best wishes to all – for newer avenues.

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Courtesy:

Free Stock Photos for websites – FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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