Think Like an Employer
An employer has a lot to think about, especially one with sales big enough to hire people to provide products and services to take care of their clients.
Any business must promote their business to get sales, provide the products or services to meet demand, collect the revenue, pay for supplies and other costs to operate, and do the accounting for legal obligations.
When employers hire employees, they must fund their payroll, pay Federal and State taxes, and consider providing benefits to keep their best employees from going somewhere else to work.
Then, they must forecast sales and budget costs to determine how many employees they need to fulfill their profit expectations. Employers have limits, especially with how many they can hire and how much they can pay.
Would You Hire You?
Before you get upset with the employers you send resumes to, reflect on this question: If you were them, would you hire you? Why? Did you enumerate your skills and related work experience?
Think like an employer. Can you help them obtain clients, produce products or provide services, or provide staff functions, like customer service, collections, or accounting?
If you have skills that employers are looking for you can increase your income options. In fact, even you might hire you!
Are You Skilled?
Employers like people who are willing to grow with the job and with the company. Promotion within happens for people who have proven their skills to management.
There are certain skills that any employer values. Skills that make training easier and skills that can help the company stay competitive.
Few of us can brag about our skill sets. But the following list of skills would be good to improve before you apply and after you are hired. Improvements in any of these skills will get attention with your annual reviews:
- Communication skills both written and verbal.
- Computer skills.
- Time management, planning and meeting deadlines.
- Financial skills, budgeting and managing operating costs.
- Data analysis and strategic planning.
- Technical skills, including AI and other resources.
- Professional training related to your job function.
I know that some reading this post may be working in retail situations where the above list may not make sense to them. But there is always a way to do better!
Are you able to talk to your manager about your job? Do they expect or ask for updates on how your job is going or how it could be improved?
Remember to think like an employer. Do you have skills they need?
Plan to be Challenged
I am sure you were relieved when you were hired to do your present job. A regular paycheck is a good thing.
However, remember that your employer has limits and there is no guarantee that you will keep that job if sales go down.
What must be important to you is to have the skills necessary to replace your income if you do lose your job.
I must confess that I was not as focused on skill improvement as I should have been during my working career. I used the excuse of constant learning for changes in my current job which left little time to worry about what I might need to know if that job went away.
As I was nearing retirement, that became less of an issue. But most of you reading this may have many years left to work before your retirement. You need to be concerned about the skills to know to be competitive in your next job search. And maybe the skills to develop to keep your current position!
Prepare to be challenged. It is scary to worry about a job loss, but it will be more scarry if you have not kept pace with changes in your career path. I have experienced that.
After losing a job I had for thirteen years, I found that I could no longer compete for similar paying jobs. So, I made myself suffer through low paying jobs for two years while I went back to school to get my MBA. That was hard.
It would have been better for me and my family if I had challenged myself to do regular online classes while I was employed to keep pace with changes in my chosen profession.
Changes in technology, such as AI, will affect most every job. Stay alert!
Plan to be challenged and be ready to react!
Do Your Best to Do Better
Speaking of challenges, most jobs have an annual review attached to them. Many consider the review as the excuse your manager must come up with to give you a raise. But the fact is that annual raises are not universal.
Remember to think like an employer. Depending on the sales forecast, most employers limit what they can afford for raises, especially related to how that position affects profitability.
Here is your challenge. In your current job, do you contribute to sales? Do you manage costs related to sales? Are you in a staff function? If sales decrease, will your job still be needed? And do you affect the profitability of the company?
Your answer will vary depending on your job and how well you perform your job.
The point is that you must do your best to do better every year you have your job. Your annual review has a better chance of including a raise and allowing you to keep your job when staff must be cut that are not the most valued employees. I hope you can be one of the most valued employees!
Let Your Skills Speak
There are many skills that can be learned away from work and applied in most jobs. Those skills include leadership and management skills, sales and marketing skills, soft skills like training and communication skills, and technical skills related to tools, software, and hardware connected to a job.
Just because you do not have a job that requires these skills specifically, that does not mean they will not be valued.
People in leadership and management positions look for employees who can follow orders and be part of the solution and not the problem. If those qualities are observed, they are considered for management duties when required in the short run or in another job opening.
Sales and marketing are skills that can be learned and usually require considerable self-confidence, which also can be learned. Public speaking is a skill related to this area. Look into classes or locate a speaking club, like Toastmasters International. I spent a year participating in club meetings, giving speeches and learning about communication, while building my self-confidence. Plan for a similar challenge for improvement!
Soft skills, like learning to listen better, adding to your vocabulary, learning to write clearly, and how to be reflective in your verbal communication will greatly enhance your value as an employee who can help your employer communicate the needs of the company and make the work environment more productive.
Technical and specialty skills are important to employers. AI, hardware, software, and machine technology are among the many technical aspects related to the potential efficiencies of a company’s operating system, which will affect profitability.
Make the effort to learn and share what you have learned with your boss, which will help your annual review go much better!
Let Your Resume Show Your Skills
Even if you have a long tenure with a company, keep a file on your skills and the new skills you learn and how you have applied them. Keeping a journal about those skills will help you recap them on a resume.
An annual review of your skills and what you have done to add more to that list, even if your job is not at risk. That will help you prepare for your annual review.
Such a review should lead to questions to qualify your list of skills. Like what skills can you add to make yourself more valuable to this company or other companies you may apply to? Or what skills can you improve on? Or what kinds of special skills do you need to learn to improve your performance or the profitability of your employer?
If you can find ways to answer these questions, you will have a good base for skill improvement and be able to make realistic claims for skills on your evolving resume!
Returns Come with Time Invested
If you fear the changes in mental work and the potential effects of AI, then learn more physical trade skills. They will always be in demand, though most people shy away from physically demanding work.
The choice is yours as to which kind of work you seek. Just remember to think like an employer to determine what skills will be in demand, thus adding to your job security.
No job is guaranteed. But consistently adding skills will increase your income options.
If you add enough skills, you could learn enough to become the employer and have a better chance of hiring the one giving annual reviews to your employees!