Tag Archives: Career Change

Human Capital Obsolescence

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This post’s title was inspired by an article in TechCrunch.
Go read “Silicon Valley’s Dark Secret: It’s All About Age“, including the comments, and then come back here.

I’ll wait ;-)

The author’s focus is on tech talent (particularly software programmers) in Silicon Valley but I think the lessons apply to almost anyone in an IT tech role and based in the developed world.

Note the advice he offers within points 1, 2 and 3.
I imagine these are well-known by IT Pros in their 30s and 40s, but I often wonder how many are actively planning to do anything about it before events force their hand?

By events, I mean: economic black swans such as the “Lehman shock” (as the global 2008 financial pandemonium is called here in Japan), corporate outsourcing to developing countries, and technology changes.

For me, the wake up call was reading Ashutosh Sheshabalaya’s book, “Rising Elephant”, around 2005/6. He was very clear that big changes were coming for both the US and Europe as India’s offshoring juggernaut built global momentum.

With the perspective of hindsight, here’s a very prescient interview of the author in 2004 – and remember that the debt-fueled boom of many Western nations was in full swing at that time, and minds were not alert as to what would happen when the ‘inevitable’ bust arrived.

“Author Says Offshoring ‘Real WMD’ for US”

And now that many countries are still in the economic doldrums, 2 years beyond the 2008 debacle, you can imagine the pressures to cut costs, “do more with less” mantras that are fueling corporations’ planning and decisions.

Excepting a major and ‘unexpected’ geopolitical event (e.g. resource wars…) that might derail the ‘global playing field’, the outsourcing trend (in my opinion) is likely to accelerate in the years ahead. Driven not just by skills and wage arbitrage but by technologies such as ‘telepresence’, it will be easier and cheaper to create, monitor and manage virtual office environments. (Although time differences will always suck…!)

A small ripple in this economic pool are the changes to the ex-pat population in Japan (mainly Tokyo). A lot of people have apparently ‘disappeared’, as this article in Japan-based entrepreneur Terrie Lloyd’s ezine of 24th August reveals:

“… many of those missing 4,700 people are in fact foreigners.
We are hearing repeated stories of luxury apartments going
for 50% or less of their pre-Lehman shock rentals…”

You can probably guess what’s happened to the missing – sacked, repatriated or relocated (in many cases to Singapore).

This can happen to anyone, at virtually any time.

Be prepared…

- Mark McClure

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What is it You’re Escaping to?

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Pamela Skillings’ ‘Escape from Corporate America’ blog links to a great video interview of her by Devesh Dwivedi.

I’ve posted the 22 minute video link below and recommend it to anyone still in the corporate world who’s thinking about ‘career change’ but not sure what to do next.

This is the first time I’ve encountered Devesh and I was impressed with his interviewing skills. He asked each question and then kept quiet while Pamela got on with answering it!

Some of the interview highlights that resonated with my experience were: Continue reading →

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What I Used To Secretly Read Between The Bedcovers

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Even though I now consider Japan home after being here since 1994, I still miss just passing time in English language bookshops. Naturally, during our recent trip back to N.Ireland I was in seventh heaven whenever a chance arose to do just that.

Browsing the magazine section I came across a real blast from my past – see the front cover of Miniature Wargames magazine below.

miniature-wargames-japan

Leafing through the pages reminded me warmly of the hobby I fell in love with more than 35 years ago – playing with toy soldiers aka miniature or figures wargaming.

Back in the early 70s I recall borrowing Donald Featherstone’s now classic books on solo wargaming, American Civil Wargaming, and Napoleonic wargaming. In fact, so besotted was I with his writings, that I had these out in rotation – much to the librarian’s amazement.

However, being a very busy teenager at school with sports and studies, meant that time for hobby reading was limited. And in those days, with no Internet to distract, my parents had a 9pm lights out policy during the week.

Where there’s a will, there’s a way. Therefore, unknown to the adults downstairs, I found that light cast from the hallway was sufficient to read Mr. Featherstone’s books from my bedroom. Should someone come up to check on the supposedly sleeping children, I was able to slip my book under the covers, and then turn on a small flashlight once the coast was clear!

Ah, the guilty pleasures of reading about Blue vs Gray table top encounters or of 15mm versions of Wellington’s famous infantry squares fighting off heroic charges by French Hussars.

(A word to the curious: note that, for me, this hobby was a form of play, not a means to safely simulate and glory in the bloody horrors and chaos of real warfare.)

Of course, time passed, I grew up and somewhat sadly put away my toy soldiers (I was mostly a solo wargamer) but did retain a strong interest in military history and a loose attachment to board wargaming (which used cardboard maps and counters, instead of model soldiers.)

Standing in that Belfast bookshop, for a few minutes I relived many of those childhood memories while a part of me felt real sadness that I didn’t become a lifelong hobby wargamer.

Still, it’s never too late to take up a hobby again – even if a busy life and limited space to store toy soldier armies, conspire against a return to the contentment afforded by innocence.

Following in the spirit of my earlier post on making ‘small moves’ , I think my next moves will be to subscribe to the magazine and maybe make an appearance at the West Tokyo Wargames monthly meeting (amazing what you can find on Google!)

That should be enough to tell me if my rediscovered interest is genuine or just a fond remembrance of things past. Either result is OK in my book.

Have you a hobby or interest long abandoned but worth taking a look at again?

- Mark McClure

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Northern Ireland, Here We Come!

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Well, if all goes to plan this post will be automatically published while I’m in a plane somewhere over Siberia, bound for Belfast, N.Ireland (via London’s Heathrow.)

We haven’t been in ‘Norn Iron’ since Xmas ’06 so it will be good to see family again, demolish an ‘Ulster Fry’ or two, enjoy packets of Tayto crisps washed down with a few pints of the black stuff, and even take in a Sunday carvery meal at the Bushmills Inn . (Yes, that Bushmills. Home to the world famous whiskey distillery.)

The sum total of these separate events is what we Ulster folk often refer to as ‘great crack.’ (See this Wikipedia ‘craic’ article for a sense of the Ulster-Scots word, ‘crack’, and its Gaelic derivative, ‘craic’.)

On a more serious note, I’m also planning to do some on-the-ground research about how Irish people in mid-career are dealing with the now much tougher economic times.

Being outside the European Monetary System and possessed (?) with a large public sector, N.Ireland’s economy doesn’t appear to have (yet) hit the buffers in the way that the Euro-bound South’s has.

To get a sense of how serious things look for the South even when viewed from the Far East, in Feb 2009 I wrote about the experiences of Irish exiles who’d returned home to the still roaring Celtic Tiger. The Irish Times article by Brendan Landers, linked to in my post, made for sober reading and I suspect that reality 12 months on is now much bleaker.

Bottom line: the career upside for many Irish men and women may be some time coming.

Ultimately I think that means smart and ambitious Irish people are going to need all the crack and entrepreneurial dynamism they can muster to pull through.

Why?

Because their country’s FIRE-based economy is not only extinguishing the wealth of future generations but is being rendered uncompetitive by a high cost base and the appearance on global labour markets of tens of millions of young and ‘success-hungry’ white collar workers throughout much of the developing world.

I see many Irish people having to make major career change decisions over the next few years.

- Mark McClure

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How To Market Yourself In The Shower

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Just how far would you (legally) go to get your ideal job?

What impressed me most about Eric Romer’s pursuit of an online marketing role with HeadBlade was how he got their attention by using the very skills they were searching for.

headblader-daily-routine

Here’s are four specific things he did:

  • 1) Made an engaging YouTube Video under the targeted name ‘hiremeheadblade‘ that showed him using their products, and demonstrating a good understanding of what makes them so attractive.

  • 2) Created a very compelling wordpress blog at HireMeHeadBlade.com (which as of March 2012, had fulfilled its original purpose; the domain name is now being used by someone else.

  • 3) Got involved via Twitter with HeadBlade and others who could help.

  • 4) Created a FaceBook page.

In effect, Eric was ‘walking the online career walk’ and not merely ‘talking the resume/CV talk.’

It was therefore no surprise to learn that HeadBlade’s people got in touch with him within hours of launching his online marketing ‘job hunt’ campaign.

(I suspect Eric was targeting keywords that HeadBlade were probably tracking using tools like ‘Google Alerts’.)

So what was Eric’s primary goal for all this online branding activity?

Well, I think the strategic goal was, of course, to get hired by HeadBlade. Big time win!

Employers Really Do Check Out Your ‘Online Profile’…

But the tactical goal was something many job seekers can learn from – and that was (imho) to get an interview. Eric’s use of online tools and personal branding are a great example of the potential offered by social media for savvy people looking to show potential employers what they can offer.

And in an increasingly interconnected world where the educated labor pool continues to grow by the millions each year, smart and ambitious people will need to use all the tools at their disposal to stand out and compete.

To finish this post, take a look at this screenshot from his YouTube page:

Eric-Romer-Hire-Me-HeadbladeNotice how he has his online contact info in the profile box, as well as ‘tags’ for searches within YouTube.

Very smart!

Two other nice touches in his ‘hire me’ campaign were:

  • - A ‘thank you’ YouTube video.

- A followup blog called, appropriately enough:
HeadBladeHiredMe.com !!

These are really clever moves because in years to come such ‘digital footprints’ will remain on the Internet and may come to replace the purpose behind having paper-based resumes and CVs.

Sounds a wee bit outlandish?

Well, in the words of one of the leading online content marketers I’m following, Joe Pulizzi:

“I never look at resumes anymore”.

That may be ahead of the curve for most HR departments out there in cubicle land – but give it time, give it time ;-)

More importantly:

Do You have an Online Social Media Presence and Career Marketing Strategy?

If not, why not?

- Mark McClure

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