Targeting the Job You Want

The Morphing Job Market

The changing economy and rapidly developing technology have combined to make the job market much more fluid and flexible than it was 20 years ago. The economy continues to morph, making traditional career planning techniques obsolete. Once, a loyal worker expected to stay with one employer for an entire career. But now jobs seem to be merely temporary assignments. Consider the statistics. The typical American worker has been in his or her job only four years. A recent college graduate can expect to have more than a dozen jobs in five separate careers. In 2010, half of workers will hold jobs that hadn’t been invented in 2000.

Want proof? In the early 1990s, few people had ever heard of industries that now employ countless people, such as health maintenance organizations, wireless communications, for-profit schools or the Internet. In 2010, half of all workers will have untraditional jobs and will not be full-timers on one employer’s payroll. As a result, workers must engage in a continual job search. This concept means staying constantly aware of market forces inside and outside the organization where you work.

Today, changing jobs is relatively...