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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