"As the pace of change quickens, the need to keep learning deepens"/ "Overcoming that big gap in your career"

Sept. 10, 2018 "As the pace of change quickens, the need to keep learning deepens": Today I found this article by Virginia Galt in the Globe and Mail.  

I like the istock  of the word CHANCE.  At the second C, there is a finger that pushes the letter G into it to change it to CHANGE: 

A challenging new workplace reality for many Canadians is the need to constantly learn and develop new skills as the pace of change accelerates.

"The hard part for people nowadays … is that you have to commit yourself to [expanding] your knowledge and experience – and that's just to stay current. If you want to be ahead of the curve now, you've got way more to learn," says Heidi Rolston, vice-president of learning, diversity and inclusion at Hootsuite Inc.

For the rapidly growing technology company, whose software helps businesses manage their social-media accounts, "it's critical that you have a team of adaptable learners who are up for all the challenges and opportunities growth presents," she wrote in a recent career blog.

By way of organizational support, Hootsuite aims to create an environment that makes learning "part of how we work." It's a work in progress, Ms. Rolston said in an interview. "We are trying to educate the organization around this idea that learning does not only happen in the classroom … the most significant learning is going to happen on the job."

While employees understand the importance of professional development, they often are so busy working "in the moment" they don't take to time to reflect on what they have learned and how to build on that knowledge, says John Horn, board chairman at the Canadian Education and Research Institute for Counselling (CERIC), a not-for-profit organization that supports research on career education and development.

However, now more than ever, career stability cannot be taken for granted. "Whether a new grad, mid-career professional or mature worker, Canadians can expect multiple career transitions. They will need to reinvent their talents and redefine 'career success,' " CERIC said in a recent bulletin.

Mr. Horn, manager of learning and development at Vancouver City Savings Credit Union, encourages employees to take charge of their own career development and choose their own format, whether it's e-learning, challenging work assignments, coaching, classroom workshops or formal training.

"Placing your own destiny in your hands is smart and good advice," says Vancouver-based career coach Ian Christie, founder of Bold Career. "One of the biggest career traps people fall into is what I call accidental career progression. Your company needs you to do this, they're reorganizing, redefining roles and all of a sudden you have a job you never intended to have," Mr. Christie said in an interview. 

It's difficult to move on from a role that is important to your organization but not so much in demand in the broader labour market.

In his practice, Mr. Christie sees clients who are excited by the prospect of new and emerging job opportunities and keen to explore how they can position themselves to take advantage of those opportunities. But he also sees people who say "I am happy where I am, just tell me what I have to do to hold on to my job."

"There's a risk attached to that approach. … It's sad to see people just hanging on by their fingernails to some role they have had for the last 15 years."

At VanCity, Mr. Horn is always on the lookout for new books and informative blogs to read, online courses to explore, interesting YouTube videos to watch. A big proponent of colleagues sharing knowledge – regardless of job title – he once blogged about the insights he gained from VanCity's young interns. 

"We want 'reverse mentorship' and 'professional reciprocity' between our interns and regular employees. … How we might better engage youth as employees and members of our financial co-operative is something that they've been teaching me."

That blog, posted by Mr. Horn in 2015, was co-written with Ashley Dhaliwal, a VanCity intern at the time. She now works in a human-resources role at Hootsuite in Vancouver.

Mr. Horn's enthusiasm for continual learning was infectious, Ms. Dhaliwal said in an interview. "Of course, formal education is a great way to further your development, but it's not the only way."

Ms. Dhaliwal said she learned invaluable lessons from her master of management courses at the University of British Columbia's Sauder School of Business and her internship at VanCity: "How to be resourceful, how to have the confidence that I can figure things out, understanding [in the face of a new challenge] that maybe I don't have the skill set yet, but I can find it, or I can ask somebody or I can Google it."

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/careers/management/article-as-the-pace-of-change-quickens-the-need-to-keep-learning-deepens/

"Overcoming that big gap in your career": Today I found this article by Gordan MacKay in the Globe and Mail:

Career adviser, certified career development facilitator with 20-plus years of experience in manufacturing

Some people work continuously from the beginning of their first career position right through to the point when they retire. A few even do this in just one company. You might call these people the lucky ones, as they haven’t experienced a lot of upheaval through job loss, illness or family emergencies.

 However, in this modern era of constant mergers/acquisitions, downsizing, rightsizing, offshoring and outsourcing, it’s become very rare to find many people who haven’t found themselves unemployed through no fault of their own.

The problem is this: If you have been out of the work force for a year or more, how do you deal with that gap in a job interview (presuming it hasn’t already knocked you out of contention)?

The fact is that HR and recruiting people are – and always have been – suspicious of people with gaps in their employment. They vastly prefer to see candidates who have been continuously employed in their fields, preferably with regular signs of advancement.

The only acceptable gap of any more than a month or two, in their minds, is for further education that relates directly to your career path. Taking off a year or two to complete a Master’s degree in your field or in business management would never be a hindrance to securing an interview. 

Filling six months or so with a full-time certificate course that relates to your profession is just fine. Anything else will either cause them to cull you from the herd or, at the very least, grill you in the interview.

So what do you say if you had to take time out of your career because of a serious illness or the need to care for a family member? What do you say if you were unemployed for a long time purely because you weren’t able to land another position?

The simple answer is the truth, but you have to be careful how you say it.

In some cases, taking a break from employment to care for a close family member is both expected and necessary. If that was true for you, just say you did what you had to do. Now that it’s over, you’re ready to get back to work. (They don’t have the right to ask if it might happen again, by the way.)

The most difficult situation to explain is the gap caused by one’s inability to get another job. I’ve worked with clients who were unable to secure appropriate employment for long periods of time. There were often multiple factors involved, but the big two were a lack of desirable opportunities and/or employer requirements that didn’t match the candidate’s qualifications.

When asked why they were unemployed for the period involved, I suggested they reply that they were being selective in their search and only applying to positions for which they had the right qualifications and ones that matched their long-term career goals. 

While that answer might not satisfy every recruiter, if it was the truth, it was the best answer one could give. It’s far better to sound focused on one’s career direction and discriminating as to which opportunities one pursues. The worst possible response would be one which makes you sound resentful.

Always keep in mind that you have been invited for an interview either because of or in spite of what your résumé has indicated about you. If there’s a sizable gap in your career, they’ve probably noticed it but decided you’re worth meeting anyway. Don’t worry about it. Just go in with the confidence that you’ve already moved ahead of dozens or hundreds of other applicants.

Your performance in the interview will determine whether you’re the right person for the role and the recruiter’s answers to your questions will help you decide if this is the right situation for you.

In the unlikely event they don’t ask about the gap, don’t be the one to bring it up. Just leave it alone and focus on doing your best to be the person they want when answering their questions. 

Once you have established your credibility in terms of skills and abilities for the role, the main determining factor will be personality and fit. Always remember if they don’t like you, it’s highly unlikely they will hire you.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/careers/leadership/article-overcoming-that-big-gap-in-your-career/

6 days ago

Considering this: "The fact is that HR and recruiting people are – and always have been – suspicious of people with gaps in their employment. They vastly prefer to see candidates who have been continuously employed in their fields, preferably with regular signs of advancement." 

Goes to show that prejudice is really instistutionalized in all sorts of ways other than the common perception of discrimination in just skin colour, gender, age or whether or not someone is LGBT. There could be hundreds reasons why someone takes a year or more off. As far as I know, this is supposed to be a free country. If someone has the financial ability to take time off as they please, that shouldn't be a problem. Honestly, if you had enough money, would you really continue to commit yourself to the constant rat race, sweatshop or gilded cage that the working world has become?

6 days ago

And now for a dose of reality.What do you do when your employment has gaps for reasons of stress or mental health challenges? Should you lie and say you were caring for an ill family member? Your potential employer, as far as I know, has no right to grill you about your health but surely mental health is on the mind of every interviewer given how much media coverage mental health issues get today.

Will being brave and disclosing your situation result in people praising your honesty and courage and hiring you?

 Or is it more likely they praise you publicly while thanking you mentally for removing yourself from the short list?

Every employer prefers healthy and capable candidates and employees - see StatsCan report on employment and disability from 2011.

https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/75-006-x/2014001/article/14115-eng.htm

So what do you recommend for someone who has employment gaps related to anxiety or depression that can last over a year at a time?

6 days ago

I took a 2-year sailing cruise (on my own boat) from Ontario to Bahamas about 3/4 of the way through my career. When I applied for a senior position, I conveyed the lessons this experience taught me that are assets to my work: long-range planning, ability to foresee various outcomes and always have alternate plans, stamina and supply management. I got the job and had a great 5 years at it before retiring.