You Need Wider Range Of Skills To Land Your Next Job
Monday, April 27, 2015, 6:00 AM | Leave Comment
In any industry these days, you need wider and broader range of skills to land your next job. I can never understand the industry, any industry as far as employment is concerned. There was a time when you had to know one trade and one trade only.
That was right after the second World War. The reason was, experts tell us, multiple fold.
The war had created more jobs but there was shortage of skilled workers.
So the industry started to train each worker for one specific job.
For some time then, it was one task for one person.
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Many tasks, one person…
Then with the advent of computers usage which was spreading like fire on dry wood, the automation of multiple tasks took a foothold.
Only one person was needed to operate the system and it would do many tasks that previously was done by many workers. Many tasks but one person at the computer.
Then a time came when companies started to look for people who were highly skilled in one task only and they didn’t need higher education either.
In the early 1990s, World Wide Web came about. It changed the whole thinking. HTML (HyperText Markup Language) was the computer language devised to allow website creation.
So if you just knew HTML, then you could develop a decent-looking website in a good-paying job. Even a high school kid was able to make a page.
It seems that some websites of today are still created by kids. When I look at some of those websites, they have no bearing of a businessman.
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More skills per person…
Then came other languages and scripts you had to know for extra functions and beautification of your website. So in addition to HTML, the person had to know more to get a “serious” job with more money.
The current jobs crisis, that has spun so many heads leaving even Linda Blair behind in the dust, has brought an unwelcome discovery for many unemployed Americans. Job openings in their old fields exist.
Yet they no longer qualify for them. The reason is that the candidates have to know more than they already know. It’s a catch-22 kind of scenario. How do you get experience in multiple disciplines if you can’t get a job?
It’s freaking everybody out. After the stimulus package, the government and some economists hoped that the money dumped on some companies and in the economy in general would create more jobs. [America is very good at throwing money on problems and not on solutions to the problems.]
Now the experts tell us there are jobs out there but you have to know more than you do. It’s like stabbing someone in the back with no doctor in sight. And one day when they find a doctor, the guy is already dead.
People are so frustrated I bet that’s what is going to happen. Many have given up looking for a job including yours truly.
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Consider these examples
The recession has given companies some good understanding of their business especially their finance. Companies have become more productive by doing more with fewer workers.
Some asked staffers to take on a broader array of duties, previously done by many. If you hope to get those jobs, you must meet the new requirements.
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Some database administrators now have to manage network security
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Accountants must do financial analysis to find ways to cut costs
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Factory assembly workers need to program computers to run machinery
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Skilled not just in managing health and safety but also in guiding employees to adapt to workplace changes
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Information technology workers must work as business analysts as well
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In manufacturing, employees increasingly must be able to run the computerized machinery that dominates most assembly lines as well as inspecting finished products
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The plant manager must have certifications in productivity-boosting management practices
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The solution?
Most of the companies have started to train some of their own for multiple tasks that they could not hire from outside.
or you can further your education to qualify in their standards. You can consider enrolling in an online MBA program and choose what will fit for you, gain the skills and knowledge you need to improve the probability of success in landing to the dream job you want.
However, what’s going to happen to the unemployed? Who is going to train them? I guess the government has to print more money and dump it not on the solution but on the problem. And the problem will remain as such.
In a Nutshell
Human resource specialists say employers who increasingly need multi-skilled employees are not willing to settle for less. They would rather wait and hold jobs vacant. There goes my job.
