I read a piece in The New York Times last week that said if you’re over 50 in the present economy, you may have had your last real job.

Add to that Millennials – 80 million coming of age right now – many of whom have graduated from college to find no jobs and big college loans to repay.

The young folks who find jobs often don’t get benefits like health insurance as part of their employment agreement.  Many are kept to part-time status to eliminate the need to pay their benefits but are expected to remain available 40 hours per week.  How unfair is that?  

And those in the middle know all too well that their positions and careers can be outsourced, “right-sized” or plain eliminated for corporate profit without notice.

How does one live and work in a world of uncertainty?

1. Cooperate with the inevitable.  There is nothing you can personally do to change the way things are, but focus on the ways you can change yourself to maximize that world.
2. Develop skills to work as a “resource” not an employee.  There are fewer benefits to being a full-time employee in today’s economy.  Acquire the necessary skills for the marketplace and offer them to employers with you determining the number of hours of your availability.
3. Spend at least 15% of each week acquiring new skills and making new contacts.  In the previous economy, most workers didn’t get serious about networking for the future until they were out of work.  That will no longer do.
4. No pity parties.  People get rich even in bad economies.  Waste no more time or emotional energy on the bad state of the world economy and dedicate yourself to becoming a new breed of worker – at will, at the ready and loaded with new skills.

Morley Winograd, co-author of several books on Millennials warn, “don’t count Millennials out”.

The way to deal with uncertain employment prospects is to embrace the opportunity to become even more desirable by accepting a new approach to employment.

It was only a few generations ago – perhaps even in your family – when a person would work for only a handful of companies in their lifetime.

And Baby Boomers adapted to a new, faster workplace where they were constantly on the move from one job to the other albeit it in full-time jobs.

Now, the world has changed again and we must be ready to accept and adapt in order to succeed.

“The best career advice given to the young is: Find out what you like doing best and get someone to pay you for doing it” – Katherine Whitehorn

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