Is becoming unemployed your nightmare?

Yes, it can happen to you too. It can and does happen to anybody, including CEOs, presidents and Nobel Prize winners. Once or several times in your life, you are likely to face a time when you lose or give up a contract and need to seek a new job.

It is a demanding period, but at the same time it’s a normal part of how the job market works nowadays, and an opportunity to try something new. Wise up. Reduce your fear of being without a job by getting prepared. Start now.

Here is what you need to pack in your virtual “career security suitcase”, so that you can worry less from now on.

Your Career Security (Virtual) Suitcase                                                    

– what to pack:

The survival kit

Enough money to survive for a minimum of 6 months.

Start saving now if you haven´t already, and then “freeze” the money.

 

The key basics

Your top 10 strengths + several matching career ideas.

You should know or find out soon what they are. It gives you confidence, which shows in how you present yourself. The more people learn now about your (favourite) strengths, the greater the chance that they will remember you when seeking such skills one day!

 

The tools

Ideas about how you would seek a job. The knowledge of what works (e.g. networking) and doesn´t (e.g. sending the same CV as a reply to different ads) when searching for a job. The self-presentation tools: updated online profiles, participation in social networks, know-how for CVs, covering letters, interviews, networking talks etc.

You can find plenty of advice here.

 

The jewels

Your contacts. Your skills. Your knowledge. An overview of trends. Experience with using your top talents.

Use opportunities to gain new precious stones for your collection. Keep polishing them.

 

The proofs 

References, i.e. up-to-date details of people who would give you good references when needed. Diplomas, certificates, your presentations, links to what you have published and projects you have contributed to, etc.

Develop a habit of saving some information or proof when you accomplish a task. When applying for a job, it will be much easier to pick relevant items from the file than to simply try to remember them.

Increasing your career security is in your hands.

Many people imagine career security in the form of a lifelong contract with conditions that make it almost impossible to lose a job. Yes, that´s an option, and it does indeed provide security. But it is a relative security, because it is given from outside, and it will last only as long as you do not need to quit that contract. It is like betting everything on one card. Which can become a golden cage if you rely on the one card only.

True career security is in your hands. It is about getting well prepared for living with changing life circumstances. Playing with, or keeping in mind, several cards. Knowing that if you ever need to or want to change your job, you can succeed.

Use this website to build up your career and life security. For individual career and life coaching, contact me here.