On the Bubble
An Election Year
Depending on the time of year, the spotlight can swing from the candidate to the voter. All eyes start on the candidate waiting to find out if the ride on the bubble goes on or if the bubble pops from under him/her. Later on in the year, the attention flips over to the undecided voter who is torn between voting one way or the other.
It's better to be the voter, you would be tempted to agree. In the job market, you may not think that you have a choice between one side or the other. You may find yourself on the threshold of a new career or needing to keep one going, and not knowing which way things will turn out. However, you actually do have choices.
If you knew that you could get the quality job that you have been wanting, that's definitely where you want to be. You want to be deliberating over your fate rather than being deliberated on. To be clear, this doesn't mean that you are giving permission to be hired, but it's the end result that matters.
Make or Break
It can certainly be tough as an aspiring candidate or job applicant. You don't know how to feel. You start feeling hopeful, but events can lift or crash that feeling easily and repeatedly. You know that things are tough out there as a worker and getting tougher, when you read that CEO's are being on-shored.
The current CEO's of Microsoft, Alphabet and now IBM were all born in India. This is not to disparage American-born executives leading other companies. The aforementioned list of corporations just happens to hold or have formerly held exceedingly high profiles. Berkshire Hathaway may follow suit some day.
With the present addiction to contingency recruitment, it is not difficult to imagine that workplace changes are probably irreversible. The revolving door of intellectual capital cannot help but to disrupt the fostering of talented managers.
The Urgency
Against this backdrop, I challenge you decide to switch from letting a career happen to you to being a career player. That is, if you face never launching a career or not sustaining one that has started, do not fade and go quietly. Be something other than a hopeful worker. Be a worker in a position to pursue career options.
The future is not completely decided. You have it within you to stand up and to be counted. That goes for the job marketplace as well as it does anywhere else. It all starts with self-determination. This is not complaining, or complaining on behalf of a group. This is voicing that the circumstances are deemed unacceptable.
You do not want to give up. Whatever you are meant to believe, you still have something to say with your career. With it, you have something to say with your dreams, as well. You, for one, want to be counted in the traditional workforce and will accept nothing less.
One example of how things can change, can be inspiring and cause for hope. Companies used to relegate their call centers to locations in other countries or do away with them altogether. Today, there is more of a focus on the consumer experience, and on buyer retention in general. Call centers are starting to move back inside our borders.
The Chosen One
When you decide to be counted, you are setting an example for others to do the same. That is huge. All it takes in the beginning of an inflection is to take one step in the other direction or to the other side. Quite literally, the future depends on it. The statement that you are making, is that this is your time.
Be the one to ignore the statistics and/or the odds. Disregard what others are thinking or telling you by making you believe that your career doesn't make a difference. What you think about whether or not your career is viable is ultimately what is paramount.
Not doing so is also a statement. That is the best reason yet. You can make a difference with your career. You will make a difference, because you know and believe that you can. You have it within you to find a way to do so. It all starts with you and what you set your mind towards.
Workforce Advocacy
By extension, any agent of one making a difference, is also making a difference. Call it job-market activism. It is advocating for individuals to make that crucial choice. That collective choice to say no to the usual way of looking for a job that has become so fruitless for many.
This may lead to some fairly significant changes if turned out in numbers. It may lead to democratizing the hidden market. It could lead to a free market for skills. It could also lead to hiring more like in real time instead of the six weeks that it takes on average now.
Who would ever describe being 'on the bubble' as exciting and thrilling? Definitely, the media group that first coined the phrase, would not. From their perspective, the more drama and carnage the better to draw readers/viewers with. What if the candidate wanted nothing more than to be right there, risking everything? For everything.
