Job Counseling in Hard Times

By their nature, job counselors are service oriented. Hour after hour they connect with others and demonstrate an understanding of their client's situation. They become very good at helping their clients to solve complex dilemmas.

The other-centric nature of their work can lead job counselors away from a sense of their own situation. Constantly looking outward starts to cloud their self-awareness.

Comment:

If you haven't already done so, it's time to look at your own situation.

You're Not Immune

Many aspects of the job counseling business are under pressure. Counselors who arrange job fairs and recruiting trips have seen the entire activity shrink. In many instances, recruiter participation is down by 80%. It's hard to justify current staffing levels with such a drop in the events.

Counselors working with recruiters face a double-edged sword. Fewer projects mean fewer commissioned searches, and employees are sitting tight in their current positions. In the recruiting world, less business translates into less staff.

One bright spot has surfaced, however. Outplacement groups have seen a surge in demand for job search training. Unfortunately, they represent only a small percent of the job counseling and recruiting marketplace.

The point, however, is to remember that job counselors are at risk in today's hard times market. That means you.

With that in mind, it's a strange sensation to be giving advice on the same topic that you're worried about. The key is not let your familiarity with staff cuts distance you from the possibility of your own layoff. The profession of job counseling is not immune to market fluctuations. You need to develop a personal coping strategy.

Getting Visible

With layoffs in the wind, it's important that you find a way to reinforce your value to the company. This is not the time to be the silent, hard worker. Your impact must be visible.

Becoming the champion of a new process always increases your image. You'll need to generate the proposals, push them around the office, and work the elevator crowd with your vision. Promoting a new project demonstrates the type of action that will revive the company down the road. You're seen as part of the solution.

Obviously, promoting a Knowledge Networking Program for your job hunting clients is a nice project choice. It hasn't been pushed before; it doesn't conflict with other approaches; and it has little cost. If you wish to pursue this path, review the section on Business Opportunity discussed in the Recruiters Only chapter.

Other projects will also work. Remember, you want that mix of being catchy, not offensive, and a little different. Leading a revenue generating project is your safety net during hard times.

Practice What You Preach

Once you realize that your situation isn't that different than those you're counseling, you should start practicing what you preach. If Knowledge Networking is good for your clients, it's good for you.

Review the steps in the sister article Job Hunting in Hard Times: The Art of Knowledge Networking. The suggested steps (identifying the industry, listing contacts, dropping notes, and making contact) are all appropriate actions for your situation.

Use your insights into psychology and job search to get yourself moving. If you find yourself hanging back, the Edwards' book, The Practical Dreamer's Handbook, does a nice job painting the fleeting nature of opportunity.

Backup Revenue

The opportunity to use Knowledge Networking to generate extra income should not be ignored.

If you are putting together the articles anyway, it doesn't take that much more to add the Affiliate links. If the numbers stay low, you haven't lost anything; if the numbers take off, you have a backup revenue.

Additional Reading

The Practical Dreamer's Handbook by Paul Edwards and Sarah Edwards. Tarcher, 2000.
* Excellent perspective on the fleeting nature of opportunity. Highly recommended.

Affiliate Selling: Building Revenue on the Web by Greg Helmstetter and Pamela Metivier. Wiley, 2000.
* Background and implementation suggestions. Practical instructions on how to weave the links into the Web site.

Job Hunting in Hard Times: The Art of Knowledge Networking
* Covers the contact process in greater detail.