This is not a problem for “Millenials” (born 1980 and 1994)—they are calibrated to current career conditions. But what about Gen Xers (born 1961 to 1979)? Gen Xers have been called “the in-between generation” – overlooked and under appreciated. Many Gen Xers have career schizophrenia – attitudes somewhere between the desire for stability and structure of the Boomers and the career fluidity of the Millenials.

Here’s a suggestion for Xers – think of your career as a product that you are selling in a turbulent and competitive market place. After all, the shelf life of jobs is getting shorter and shorter, and competition for jobs is getting tougher and tougher. In these market conditions clever marketers keep their product (i.e. career) vibrant and attractive to consumers (i.e.
employers) by revamping and repackaging. If you look at your career as a product it forces you to address some basic marketing issues such as:

• Your brand image / appeal to the consumer (employer)
• Your promotional strategy (how do I make myself known to the consumer)
• Your value proposition – how do you provide value for money to the consumer?

By thinking in terms of “career marketing,” you may just stay one step ahead of the competition for that next career move (before it evaporates!).

To verify the homographic (double meaning) nature of “career,” I looked it up in the dictionary and found the following:

“Career: One’s calling in life; a person’s occupation; one’s profession; To move rapidly straight ahead, especially in an uncontrolled way.”

The dictionary also differentiated between one’s occupation and one’s career. Occupation, it said, is “the specific activity with a market value that an individual continually pursues for the purpose of obtaining a steady flow of income”. Career is “the sequence of occupations, jobs, and positions in the life of an individual.”

Research on career patterns published in 2001 followed the occupations and career stability of 170 people over 25 years and found that higher career stability was linked to lower midlife career and job satisfaction.

Putting all this together it seems that if you move rapidly, straight ahead in your career, in an uncontrolled way with a series of occupations you will have higher midlife career satisfaction. But please don’t take the word of an old homographer about this.

And so it began. Three-months of re-learning the basics of music theory. Six-months just practicing my right hand picking, a further year working on six tunes over and over again, and another year expanding my repertoire to fifteen tunes.

Now, I am not interested in establishing a career as a professional banjoist but I was interested in my teacher’s perspective on career development in the arts given his 50+ years successful career as a performer and a teacher (the guy knows Bob Dylan!).

When I asked him for his advice for establishing a successful career he said “ask five questions”:

1. Does it make you happy?
2. Do you have the aptitude to succeed in this field of endeavor?
3. Can you focus your energies sufficiently to practice and practice again?
4. Can you connect personally with people in this field?
5. Do you have the perseverance to overcome obstacles you will meet?

A person perusing a more conventional career may find advice from an old banjo player a little irrelevant; but the more I thought about it, the more his words made sense—even for ambitious people in today’s competitive corporate jungle.

With this in mind, here are four-tips for people who “have to” change their career:

1. Expect to fall into a pit – but don’t let it be a pit fall! Forced change involves restructuring your outlook on life. This can be a struggle. Understand that change is a process that you need to work through. It is not an overnight event.
2. Maintain your self esteem – no matter what has happened – you are worthy, deserve respect, and are entitled to another chance at career happiness.
3. Take the opportunity to think deeply about what you want out of life – as Joseph Campbell said “follow your bliss” (visit the Joseph Campbell Foundation web site at http://www.jcf.org)
4. Strengthen relationships. In times of change look to your loved ones and friends for strength – control your emotions and welcome and appreciate their support

• If things get too bad, just leave! This is a difficult decision, especially in an economy such as this one. But remember, if your boss is making your work environment a living nightmare, it’s not worth sticking it out. Many of us spend the vast majority of our time in the workplace – far more than we spend with our family and friends, unfortunately – so it is best to find work environment that will not damage your mental and physical well being every time you walk through the door.
• Try not to take everything personally – this may be hard if the manager is truly vicious. If the manager is equally terrible to other employees, chances are there is something lacking in their personality, professional life, or maybe their personal life (who knows) and that is what drives them to take it out on their employees. Do your best to grow a thicker skin and leave the drama behind you.
• Let ‘um have it – if you feel that you are being treated unfairly or treated poorly by your manager, let them know it. You don’t have to be rude or confrontational, but you should be firm and let them know that, regardless of their position within the organization, they do not have the right to be cruel and unprofessional. If the manager is unhappy with this conversation and continues the unnecessary mean spirited behavior, it may be time to alert a more senior supervisor (or HR) to what is going on. At the end of the day, people should not feel terrorized while on the job.

• Don’t just lie down and die – If the environment changes then change with it. Be flexible enough so that you can grow with your job. Just think – as a Baby Boomer if you refused to accept the switch over to PCs you’d still be clicking away on a type writer!
• Don’t just ditch the job! This is not recommended in this economy. In addition to the poor timing, leaving your current organization because of your personal unwillingness to adapt will not bode well for securing that new job.
• Ask for help – If your job description changes don’t be afraid to ask for the tools and resources you need to adapt. If anything, your boss will see that you understand the need for the change and will hopefully appreciate your willingness to work on your skills.

The big tip here is to be flexible and open to change, and it’s not just about preserving your job. It’s about being open to improving yourself and, in turn, your organization. In most cases working in an organization is a reciprocal relationship – be savvy enough to let them see you are an asset worth taking care of.