Business Happens
Okay, so you've got a job and it’s a great job! You love going to work each day and it feels like you’ll be in this job, loving it, forever and you will be right up until you’re not.
The sad fact of the economic climate at the moment is that a lot of us will lose our jobs through no fault of our own. The business wheel will turn, jobs will be restructured and you’ll be on the street. Don’t believe me? Look at Woolworths: they’re laying off thousands of staff at the moment and they're a big, big company. IBM have just had a big restructure (read lay-off cycle) too. Business happens.
Prepare While You Can
It can sometimes take a long time to find another position in your chosen career and there is a lot of advice out there about how you should prepare for what is every day an increasingly likely period of unemployment.
Regardless of what you think of other people's advice you should accept that you might not have a job forever so you need to prepare for what comes after that. Because what comes after that is kinda up to you.
Some action points.
NOTE – do these things while still you have a job.
Savings Are Important
Save enough money to pay your bills for six months. This sounds like a lot and depending on your situation it may be. But you need to have the money to pay bills while you’re looking for work. In that way you can concentrate on getting a new position and not worrying about where your kids are going to live. If you don’t have recurring bills and your strategy is to go straight on the unemployment benefit then you need to have enough money for two weeks – the rest of us should work on six months.
Build Bridges
Talk to your bank manager - a lot. Make sure you are in regular contact with whoever has your mortgage. That could be a personal banker or a bank manager. Make sure your mortgage is structured correctly by going for an interest only loan and having all your pay deposited into that account. This is effectively an interest+repayment loan but you have the option of redrawing without having to ask the bank. Or make the most of the six months’ savings you've accumulated by keeping it in an offset account. Not sure what that is? Talk to your bank manager (heck, don't take financial advice from me!)
Build friendships. Work on those friendships. It is critical that you build friendships for a couple of reasons:
They keep you sane. Friends offer endless moral support which you’ll need because unemployment is very hard on the soul. If you didn't cry during "Blood Diamond" or "Tears of the Sun" you might be okay on your own but the rest of us need friends, bruh.
They may hear of someone who’s got a job just right for you or give you a contact name or help out in a million other ways which we may not see or appreciate.
Build good work relationships. Quite aside from the fact that this makes your current job easier it means there are more good people who can scout up jobs or act as references for you. Tools like LinkedIn make maintaining relationships after you've parted company much easier but make no mistake you still have to work to maintain them. Don't think you can call in favours from someone you haven't spoken to for 18 months.
Cross-Train
Train in areas outside you job. I work in IT Project Management but through my involvement with the Rural Fire Service I have cross-trained in a lot of areas unrelated to IT. For what it's worth I like to think I can turn my hand to anything now.
If you don’t think you need to diversify you’re going against the trend as even wonder company Google pays for their staff to train in areas completely unrelated to their jobs. Okay this might be so they come up with new and innovative ideas but it might just be so life after Google isn't so tough.
Cross-training might not get you the job you want in your career path but it might help you keep the wolf from the door. Going on short courses or night school takes money and time so you need to start this while you still have your main job.
Based on a single days' positions vacant column in the Manly Daily these are some skills and licences you might like to consider. All of these licenses take a bit of effort to get but you'll be glad you did it if you ever need them!:
Forklift licence – there are a lot of casual jobs that require forklift licences. Warehouses, delivery drivers etc. This takes a weekend and a few hundred dollars.
Medium Rigid (MR) driver’s licence – This dramatically increases the size of vehicle you can drive and many casual jobs call for MR licenced drivers including delivery and demolition. You can get your MR through a driving school in a weekend but it is quite expensive. I wouldn't bother going to an HR licence unless you want to drive trucks for a living.
White Card – you get a white card after completing a general construction course and is essential to pick up anything beyond labouring in that area.
Barista – Learn how to make a good cup of coffee and perhaps pick up a casual café job. The fact that making a good cup of coffee is something they should teach at school is a separate issue.
Responsible Service of Alcohol (RCA) and Responsible Conduct of Gambling (RCG) – Necessary to work in pubs, clubs and TABs in Australia.
1AC Security Licence – 1A allows you to be a static or roaming security guard and 1C allows you to work in crowd services such as standing on a door at a club.
Medical receptionist – allows you to perform administrative duties in doctor’s offices. There are plenty of jobs requiring this certification but it takes 300 hours to get as there's quite a bit of terminology to cover so not something you can simply pick up.
CertIV Aged Care – Aged care is a massively expanding area but again this is a certificate you cannot pick up without some work and planning so if you think this might be something you could do start thinking about it now. Many aged care facilities will take on casual employees after a police check but as the industry becomes more competitive will require you to have qualifications.
Bookkeeping – This is a skill that is relatively easy to pick up but doesn't get much attention these days. Bookkeeping skills will help you get junior office jobs in a wide variety of areas.
Of course your job will last forever and you will never be unemployed. But just in case consider cross-training in something else while you still have the luxury of time and disposable income. At the very least it’ll expose you to some interesting areas you might previously not have been exposed to and make for better water-cooler conversations.
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