Changes in law (e.g., quotas), society and technology have led to the most diversified workforce
in the history of mankind in terms of race, religion, national origin, gender, personality or age.
Find more details in this post – Future of the job market. Never before have so many generations participated in the workforce:
- Baby Boomers, 1946-1964
- Generation X, 1965-1979
- Generation Y, 1980-1989
- Generation Z, since 1990
The tools, the mindset, and business or career advice from the 90’s or even 00’s don’t work in
today’s VUCA world of the 10’s; to quote Wikipedia:
– – – start of quote
V = Volatility. The nature and dynamics of change,
and the nature and speed of change forces and change
catalysts.
U = Uncertainty. The lack of predictability, the prospects for surprise, and the sense of awareness and understanding of issues and events.
C = Complexity. The multiplex of forces, the confounding of issues, no cause-and-effect chain and confusion that surrounds organization.
A = Ambiguity. The haziness of reality, the potential for misreads, and the mixed meanings of conditions; cause-and-effect confusion.
The deeper meaning of each element of VUCA serves to enhance the strategic significance of
VUCA foresight and insight as well as the behaviour of groups and individuals in organizations.
[…]
For most contemporary organizations […] VUCA is a practical code for awareness and readiness.
Beyond the simple acronym is a body of knowledge that deals with learning models for VUCA
preparedness, anticipation, evolution and intervention.
– – – end of quote
When advising we know that it is dangerous and irresponsible to rely solely on our HR / recruitment experience that everyone of us has accumulated over their careers which for some of us is 15 or more years. What worked 17, 9 or even 5 years ago, will very likely not work
anymore. Because the market is VUCA – it changes very quickly.
So what do we do to maneuver the VUCA environment?
We collect data on our own. Thanks to i) us handling the entire job hunting-related correspondence of selected clients and ii) clients voluntarily sharing all of their meticulously tracked job hunting-related statistics we know things like:
- response rate, in other words: if and how many headhunters / decision makers / HR managers
reply - response speed
- response texts: templates, politeness, level of personalization
- interview rate
- interview tools
- interview methods & questions
We use scientific research from Decision Dynamics, a company that has been collecting and
analyzing data on i.a. people’s careers for over 40 years.
We test new tools and methods on ourselves and our individual and corporate clients first before we share them.
Instead of relying on our experience, we challenge our “intuition” or “intuitive reflex” that was
formed based on past events. Why? Because past conclusions or old thinking patterns might no
longer be valid.
When searching for career advice or selecting your career partner, check:
- do they use tools and methods from the 90’s or 00’s?
- do they take their own advice in terms of Social Media?
- do they rely on documents prepared 15 or 10 years ago?
- has your consultant been on any HR or career-related course in the last 2 years?
- do they use data or research (as opposed to only their experience) to back up their career
advice?
Your career is too important, make sure you have access to the most up to date information.
You could, for instance, talk to one of our Career Angels during a free 45-min career consultation. To schedule one, simply click here or send an email to Bichl.Sandra@CareerAngels.eu.
