Job Security | Hard Lessons

Where Do Carrots Come From? (#2 of 3)

BugsCarrot Ask a group of 3-year-old preschoolers where carrots come from and don’t surprised if you hear “from rabbits.” Adults answer a lot of “where” questions wrong also. In last weeks post, I discussed “Where does job security not come from?” This week’s “where” question is: Where does job security come from?

Job security does not mean working at the same company—doing the same thing—for your entire career. Those days are long gone. Because of globalization, technology, demographics, and so on, many of today’s jobs will not even exist ten or twenty years from now (or even five years from now). So what can you do or what can you tell young people to do that will help them stay successfully employed throughout their working life?

Keep your life together: physically, emotionally, financially, mentally and spiritually. You will be a more productive, desirable employee if your life is not an on-going wreck.
Whether you like what you are doing or not—be excellent at it. Mediocre or average employees are the first to go when the economy has a downturn.
Become indispensible where you work now. Be so good that your employer cannot even imagine that you might be gone.
Work well with people: customers, clients, co-workers, whoever. If you can’t get along, you will likely move along.
Be a learner—keep your skills fresh and stay ahead of the game. Job extinction is a reality in today’s world. You may have three degrees and twenty years of experience—nobody cares. What matters is whether your skills and experience are relevant and beneficial to your employer in 2014, and next year and the year after and….
Never forget that no matter how hard you work, how hard you try, and how lovable you are, your employer expects you to get results—consistently and at a high level.
Never “settle in” or think you have it made or develop a sense of “the company owes me.” You have to earn what you get and keep on earning it.

Are these things a guarantee? No. But there aren’t many unemployed people who use these seven things as a career guide.

Job security and job advancement are not the same thing. So next week’s “where” question is: Where does job advancement come from?

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Where Do Carrots Come From?

BugsCarrot

The grocery store? A farm? Grandma’s garden? The refrigerator? Nope. According to the 3-year-old preschoolers I was teaching Sunday morning, carrots come from rabbits. And why should they think otherwise since….

So, you are wondering, how am I going to get a business/leadership post out of an introduction about carrots, rabbits and 3-year-old preschoolers? With three “where” questions:

#1—Where does job security not come from?
#2—Where does job security come from?
#3—Where does job advancement come from?

I can’t answer all three in one post, so today I’ll start with #1.

Job security does not come with a college degree—unless you have a degree that is in demand. Get a degree in philosophy, music, history of religion, etc., and you’ll likely end up working at the mall with a pile of college debt you can’t pay off.

Job security does not come from unions. (Union membership has dropped from 21 million to 14.5 million in the last 35 years.)

Job security does not come from the government. We have the largest government programs in our history. How are they working?

Job security does not come from the company you work for today or the skill set you have today. In a fast changing world, your company better be changing and you better be changing.

Job security does not come from doing your best or working hard. If your hard work and doing your best don’t yield the results your organization needs, well…you know what happens.

I am not trying to discourage you with these “does not come from” truths. However, as long as you cling to them for job security, you are like the 3-year-old who believes carrots come from rabbits.

So where does job security come from? That is next week’s post—stay tuned.

If this post was interesting and useful, please forward it to friend.