Things are looking good right now – going into the new year – if you’re a job seeker already in the hunt or even if you’re just now starting on your job search. That is, provided you can say yes to these three questions:
1. Do you have an impenetrably winning attitude?
2. Are your skills up to date and staying that way?
3. Do you have an unshakable commitment?
Strongest Job Market Ever
The American job market has just finished up the greatest, most robust four years in history. Job creation exceeded all previous levels as well as all expectations – and put up the most impressively solid upward graph line, employment ranks have swollen, and there are still more open jobs (7.7 million) than unemployed seekers (7.1 million).
A slump is likely.
But are we headed for a downturn? Many prognosticators, me included, think so, for two reasons:
1. Growth like what we witnessed for four years can’t sustain forever. It’s just not possible, So there’s only one direction for the job creation engine to go, and that’s down. Fortunately, while the job market was setting all kinds of records, it was also building an immunity to invasive forces. Net-net: the damage should be mild, but there, nonetheless.
2. This one is more serious. Our president-elect proved in his first term that he is not exactly pro-worker, pr-labor, or pro-middle class – and nothing in anything he has said or done since then indicates he has changed his stance.
Success in spite of it all
Yet any successful job seeker – or CEO or military leader or investor or sports coach – will tell you that you don’t have to go into a contest as the favorite in order to win. That’s where your answers to the three questions have everything to do with it.
1. Do you haan impenetrably winning attitude?
Attitude, says the old adage, determines altitude. More to the point, whether you think you can or you think you can’t, either way you’re right. And besides, as General Dight Eisenhower always said, “Pessimism never won any battle.” You can’t measure a good attitude, as it’s intangible, but you also go nowhere without it, even in a down market.
2. Are your skills up to date and staying that way?
Skills have always mattered, both hard ones and soft. And the skills gap made all the difference. The difference today is that AI has changed absolutely everything at a pace and scope like never before. Never has it been more important to be a continuous learner. It used to be said that any technical skills you learn will be obsolete in two years. Today, you better believe that window has shrunk.
3. Do you have an unshakable commitment?
In difficult times, nothing substitutes for determination. Think through your career goals and adjust where necessary, Remember, AI will not just change things in AI, which makes many people nervous, but it has also been bringing with it some of the most jaw dropping opportunities imaginable in all fields. Commit to loving this change, understanding it, and doing what you have to do to navigate the rugged terrain. The rewards are potentially huge.
There you have it. Attitude, currency, and commitment. I’ve never known anyone with those three traits who wasn’t succesful. You?