
	The Willamette Galley A Bi-Monthly Newsletter Volume 4, Issue 3, July 2001

Survival Tools: Handling the Current Job Market

By Dan Green

The contracting world is considerably different than it was just nine or ten months ago. When the economy takes a temporary downturn, the hiring process becomes client-driven, not candidate-driven. That means hiring managers can usually have their pick of many candidates for a given position.

Survival Tool #1: Soft Skills

When there are many people with good technical skills looking for work, your soft skills can make the difference regarding who is chosen for a position. (This survival tool is effective in any kind of job market.) These skills determine your reputation and standing with managers and coworkers. Good soft skills mean:

You can adapt and modify your activities and behavior if the nature of your assignment changes.
People consider you easy to work with.
You are an active and helpful team participant.
You truly listen to instructions, follow through, and don't need to be told twice.
You show initiative and add extra value to your job, but are careful about overstepping the bounds of your responsibilities.
If there is friction between you and another person in your area, you make the extra effort to peacefully resolve the problem.

We can't over-emphasize the above points. It's your attitude right now that establishes your reputation.

Survival Tool #2: Training

The number of open positions, both contract and direct-hire, has declined. The positions we do see tend to be very technical in nature, requiring such skills as being able to read and/or write a high-level programming language, such as C++. If you are interested in gaining such skills and can get training in SQL server, Java, Perl, and XML, now is a good time to do so.

Survival Tool #3: Strategic Decision-making

Your decisions are personal and always depend on your marketability, your skills, your life situation, and various factors that may only apply to you. The following statements are therefore very general.

If you are considering a job change, check out the market thoroughly before you do.
If your job is ending soon, be very flexible in the type of assignment you are willing take. Instead of pinning your hopes on a particular job or type of job, you may need to be creative about how you can best put your skills and experience to work. There could be a niche for you that you hadn't previously considered.

Dan Green with Sakson & Taylor, Inc. can be reached at dan@sakson.com.