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Employment Issues in the 21st Century

© Lea Moore

One of the greatest issues any of us faces is the decision of how we're going to support ourselves and our families. The decisions we make in our youth will affect us for the rest of our lives.

Today's employers are looking for intelligent well educated employees who are technically experienced.

Many of us will find it necessary, as we get older, to return to educational institutions to advance our knowledge of information technology systems, develop skills in new areas, or study to receive degrees in our fields of expertise. Because no one is guaranteed job security, and companies have more and more tendency to lock out employees rather than giving them fair notice of facility closures, it becomes ever more important to be prepared for the worst. This means, in the grand scheme of things, that we must become proactive in our approach to marketing our skills.

This means we should not wait to get our pink slip to decide to take those classes. It means that we must stay one step ahead of those who hold our livelihood and their hands.

There are a few steps that each of us must take in order to be prepared for the possibility of a career change, change of employment, or lay off.

1. Educate yourself: finish your degree, pursue a degree, enroll in some career appropriate classes. 2. Save some money (you'll need $400 or $500). Make an appointment. Have your resume professionally prepared and keep it up-to-date. 3. Understand that it's not personal. More often than not, if you are working for a large corporation, the brass won't even know your name.

The next thing we have to keep in mind is that if we are over 35 we could be competing against a member of the generation of technology. In order to maintain our competitive edge in the dog eat dog world of employment we must continue to enhance our skills.

If you want your resume to reflect your mastery of advanced technology concepts, it is important that you receive documentation verifying your knowledge. This can be accomplished in a few different ways.

All major cities, and most rural areas provide one and two day classes that will teach everything from basic fundamentals to advanced theory and programming in a wide variety of software and hardware applications. These courses take six to eight hours to complete and at the end you will be given a certificate of completion.