Autumn Marathon

Career Change: Then and Now (II)

The business world and the labor force have changed very significantly since my last extended period looking for work or business opportunities in 1996-97.

Globalization of the world economy was underway, but the consequences were not yet as far reaching as now and the phenomenon was less-well understood.  At that time, we were just a few years past the debate over NAFTA (actually, even now the debate isn’t over, but the legislation passed in 1993).  Journalists had not yet begun to document how the globalized economy functions, as the New York Times Tom Friedman would after the turn of the century, so it was difficult for an internationally-focused professional to interest hiring managers in regular corporations.   

Widespread, commercial use of the internet was in its infancy.  I will describe specific aspects of improved, cheaper electronic communications in a subsequent post, but will note here the differences in terms of its effect on my search.  In 1996, I had just spent the previous five years working overseas - in Colombia and Russia - and most of my former colleagues and friends did not yet have email addresses.  So it was definitely more expensive and difficult to keep in touch with my professional network.

The concept of a white collar career was changing in the 1990s.   Corporate America had gone through a big round of layoffs in the early 1990s.  The affected, mid-career workers were the first who, in many cases, hung out a shingle to consult or start their own businesses.  Tom Peters wrote in 1997 about “the brand called you” reflecting that professionals already understood that the labor force was moving away from the tradition of lifetime employment in a single company.  Again, in this area, the transition was not as complete as it is today with HR departments and career counselors informing workers to expect five or six job changes per career.

Bottom line is that the US labor force has more thoroughly adapted to an idea of the career that is either more dynamic or less secure (depending on one’s mindset).  There is much less stigma - almost none as far as I can tell - to having lost one’s job.  So many people have been through a career change, that it’s not uncommon when interviewing to have a sympathetic discussion about the interviewer’s own experience with unemployment.   This shift in mindset is probably healthy, nevertheless, US society has not yet made the transition to a mobile workforce entirely.  With our health insurance system tied to employment, an increase in the unemployment rate is sure to result in a significant uptick in the uninsured.  National healthcare is again on the political agenda, so the illogic of linking employment to healthcare is being discussed which might be the first step toward a solution.