Job-Hunting Tips for Recessionistas: Benefits of Learning Programs in a Depressed Economy

We’ve been doing a lot of good work on Instructional Design over the last week, so I think you deserve a break. Today I’m going to consider the wider implications of the benefits of learning and professional development in the current global economic environment.

Now read on…

Job seekers take heart! In the current financial maelstrom, you may suddenly find yourself unemployed, laid off, or downsized, with too much month at end of the money. Well, a report from the Harvard Business Review will bolster your confidence as you search for that all-too-elusive new role. So, especially you executives, take this time to retrain, build your skills, and take advantage of the excellent career development and e-learning programs that have emerged over the last decade or so.

No.

Actually: that's wrong: it seems that you won't be getting the keys to the executive restroom unless you're a member of the correct 'old school tie' network, the right golf club, or can give the interview panel a "positive gut feeling" – whatever that is - in your single, not-very-rigorous meeting with your interrogators. That's if a C-level exec bothers to attend your interview at all.

According to HBR,

...only half of those recruited for the top three tiers of management [in Fortune 500 companies] were interviewed by anyone in the C-suite. And fully half the companies relied primarily on the hiring manager’s gut feel, selecting a candidate believed to have ‘what it took’ to be successful in any job.

When the publication surveyed fifty CEOs of global companies, along with a pool of executive search consultants who work with about 500 organizations, they found hiring practices to be “disturbingly vague:” respondents relied heavily on subjective personal preferences or on largely unquestioned organizational traditions, often based on false assumptions.

Sir Fred Goodwin, ex-CEO, Royal Bank of Scotland: did he have “what it takes?” [Image courtesy The Guardian]

Even better news for jobseekers: the evidence of the survey indicates that regardless of a candidate's suitability for the role, their professional experiences, and their range of competencies, the executives surveyed held

…widely differing views regarding the desirable attributes of new hires. They emphatically disagreed on whether it was best to hire insiders or outsiders, on who should be involved in the recruiting process, on what assessment tools were most suitable, and on what the keys were to successful hiring and retention.

Little surprise then that about a third of promising new hires leave an organization within three years of being recruited.

The HBR admitted to being "stunned" that many CEOs are ignorant of their company’s own demographic projections mandating hiring to replace soon-to-be-retiring managers; "even those who recognize the looming shortage of talent are ill-prepared to fill it."

However, don’t despair: I'm pleased to say these redoubtable captains of industry, the self-styled masters of the universe who got our economy into this whole mess are maintaining their impeccable record of due diligence, risk assessment, and forward planning, and can't be accused of continuing to behave like the greedy, short-sighted, self-serving parasites they've proved to be in the past. Could anyone really agree with a shareholder who said of the board of one of the Irish banks:

If we didn't live in a tolerant society, the chairman and the rest of the board would be hanging by their necks by piano wire.

Now – that’s wrong too.

In a recent blog post, I discussed some of the implications and consequences of the 'PlayStation Generation' entering the workforce; the HBR report supports the view that if the world's 'top' organizations can’t even establish a process for on-boarding employees in the present, we ordinary working Joe’s and Josephine’s are all pretty much up the Swanee if we rely upon them to hire - and perform effectively in times to come.

The famous Suwannee River, Florida. What we are up.

The Review published a very useful seven-step guide outlining the phases of a properly-structured interview process (see Figure 1).

Don’t forget, that these fine fellows - for it is mostly men - are all looking for gainful employment too, since they have all resigned their positions in ignominy, if not shame (most of them don’t seem to understand shame). Perhaps they can take advantage of this comprehensive process too:

Figure 1. Hiring Executives Process Guide (after Harvard Business Review, 2009)

Look and learn.

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References:

Fernández-Aráoz., Groysberg, B., Nohria, N. (2009). The Definitive Guide to Recruiting in Good Times and Bad. Harvard Business Review [Internet] Available from: http://hbr.harvardbusiness.org/2009/05/the-definitive-guide-to-recruiting-in-good-times-and-bad/ar/1?cm_mmc=npv-_-DAILY_STAT-_-MAY_2009-_-STAT0519 Accessed 19 May 2009

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E-Learning and the Economic Downturn: A Salutary Lesson

And Lo! it came to pass that a friend of mine who would describe herself as a training practitioner based out of Hartford, CT. found herself bereft of employment, for the economic downturn that is called Recession was cast upon the land, and the days were dark.

Straitly was she in need of employment, forasmuch as without an income, the door of her house would be riven and the walls of her home would fall down flat, and the silver, and the gold, and the vessels of brass and of iron, they would take from the treasury of the house.

And it came to be that by the power of the mighty word processor and the e-mail, posted she her résumé unto many an organization, including unto those that call themselves Financial Institutions.

And so it was that with mighty trumpets the Tribe of Human Resources responded to her. And they declared unto her that without a special power called "financial experience" she was as a beggar cast into the night, and they smote her down into the good earth with the jawbone of the Ox .

And she was afraid.

And so it was that she said this tale unto me, and she beseeched unto me "What is this Financial Experience in Fund Management that they speak of?"

And I said unto her:

"Verily, fear not these Children of the Almighty Dollar!

For it has come to pass that they are responsible for many a woe among the people, including the fearsome Enron Scandal, and the lending of the silver and the gold in the Sub-Prime Sector, and the Dealing upon the Inside, and the Credit Crunch, and Bear Stearns and Northern Rock shall be as naught. The Prince of Citigroup and the chief of the tribe of Merrill Lynch will rightly fall upon their swords, and they will be mocked when they speak of Golden Parachutes, for they spoke not of fiscal rectitude, and the Walls of The Street did tremble.

Believe ye in the power of Education and Technology, and the Learning that is called 'E'!

For in days to come, the Children of the Almighty Dollar will see that they too are mere knowledge workers, like unto all others in different sectors of the economy.

I say unto thee, they will cry across the land:

"Oh woe are we who were blind! We could not see that learning and development skills are cross-discipline! And frankly we could have done with a bit of expertise from outside the narrow confines of the financial world considering the fix we're in! We thought ourselves as blessèd among ordinary knowledge workers, with skills in software and pharmaceuticals and such.

Oh! Vanity! Pride! In our ignorance of the meaning of the global economy we have been led astray from the path of righteousness!"

For during the Boom Years they did utter nonsense and PR, and the diviners they call stockbrokers saw lies; the analysts told false dreams, and gave empty consolation.

Therefore the People of Finance wander like sheep; they are afflicted for want of a shepherd. Go unto them with thine expertise in workplace learning and say unto them "WISDOM AND KNOWLEDGE SHALL BE THE STABILITY OF THY TIMES!"

And nail ye them to the wall with high Per Diem consultancy rates, for revenge is sweet.

Here Endeth The Lesson.

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