By Kevin M

I’ve been writing a good bit in the past few weeks about the virtues of self-employment, based heavily on my own experience in turning this blog into a primary income generating venture. I believe that being self-employed may now be the new preferred way to “creating a career”, as opposed to the more traditional route of jumping on the corporate ladder—mainly since the ladder no longer seems to exist.

Today I want to take a look at contracting, since it’s become an increasingly common path into self-employment. For the record, I’ve done a good bit of contract work over the past few years so I won’t be talking (OK, writing…) hypothetically. And I still do take on contract work under the right circumstances.

OK, so you enter a contract arrangement—they have you sign a thick contract filled with rich legalese, they aren’t going to withhold taxes, you’ll be issued a 1099 at the end of the year (instead of a W2) and you’ll be required to file a Schedule C—Income from Self-employment, on your income tax returns. Wow, you’re self-employed now, right?

Not necessarily. And maybe not at all.

Many contract arrangements have nothing to do with self-employment. They’re mostly watered down jobs that have close to zero chance of ever being converted into entrepreneurship of any kind. They can be a trap if you take them on, thinking it’ll make you self-employed. No only will you not be self-employed, but you’ll be only minimally employed at that. It’s important to know when a contract arrangement really is a form of self-employment and when it’s something else.

When contracting is NOT self-employment

I’m tackling this one first because I think this is the more common situation. Some of the typical characteristics of non-self-employed contracting include:

1. You’re required to work full-time
2. You’re specifically prohibited from working for the company’s competitors (translation: you’re exclusive), a restriction that can even extend beyond termination
3. The company controls where you work and the hours you keep
4. Strict adherence to company guidelines and procedures are required—you have little or no flexibility in performing your work
5. Your pay is entirely dependent on hours, not the results of the job performed
6. The employer withholds no taxes—you’re paid by 1099 and must file a Schedule C with your income tax return (giving the appearance of self-employment for tax purposes)
7. You’re responsible to a specified chain of command, including an immediate supervisor
8. Your work is closely supervised and directed by an employee of the company—there’s no element of freelance here
9. You can be fired without notice or cause, though the process may be called something different
10. Since you technically aren’t an employee, you have no company benefits
11. Since you aren’t an employee, you have no right to sue for typical employee grievances
12. Any and all contract provisions are for the protection of the employer

A recruiter friend of mine tells me that these provisions are becoming extremely common. But a contract situation with even a few of these provisions is not self-employment in any way. And though the stipulations are quite common in today’s contract job market, a situation with even a few of these elements would not qualify as a contract situation under IRS guidelines either. That’s really a job, but one in which we, as the employees, have most of the responsibility and liability.

Employers love this arrangement because it a) relieves them of most administrative functions, including collecting and filing income taxes, b) circumvents providing employee benefits, c) allows them to terminate the “contract” at will, and d) generally denies the employee the right to bring a lawsuit for unfair practices, inadequate working conditions or for wrongful discharge.

Now if you take an assignment like this because you need a paycheck—as I have myself—you certainly have my respect. Just understand that it’s usually mostly a compromised job situation and in NO way self-employment or anything that will lead in that direction.

Your “self-employment” is only in the eyes of your employer, who loves it because it gives them all the advantages while denying you the same. The 1099/Schedule C arrangement is completely cosmetic and in no way proves self-employment status. Neither does the written contract you sign because it establishes an unequal partnership favoring the employer, and is also completely cosmetic.

When contracting IS self-employment

Recognizing that the situation described above is probably the more common contract arrangement, there are contract arrangements that very much are a form of self-employment. How do you know? Here are some clues…

1. You have a written contract with a company to provide specific services that can, but don’t necessarily, require a certain number of hours
2. The assignment is usually temporary, concluding when the specified services have been delivered
3. You are free to work with competing clients simultaneously or subsequent to the assignment
4. The client does not require you to work on site, or allows a certain amount of work to be done off site
5. Though you may have regular interaction with client management, you are not supervised by them
6. You can enter the contract and be compensated under your corporate name
7. You can bill the client for expenses, such as travel, incurred in connection with the assignment
8. Payment via 1099 (no withholding taxes) is legitimate because it’s understood by all parties that you will contract with multiple clients and may have legitimate business expenses to write off
9. The arrangement can be part-time, seasonal or as-needed
10. You have complete or substantial control of how the work gets done—the client specifies what they want done, but leaves it to you as a professional to make it happen
11. The contract itself is a fully negotiated document, prepared by and agreed to by both you and the client

Contracting with these provisions is a form of self-employment. The key element is flexibility—under this kind of arrangement you have considerable flexibility because the client is relying upon your specific skill set. Compare this with the tightly controlled job-posing-as-independent-contractor in the first example and you can easily see why that one isn’t really a form of self-employment.

Why does it even matter?

Employers are concocting all kinds of ways to cut payroll costs, and contracting has become an extremely common method. What’s important is that you don’t get caught up in the employer’s claims that you’re somehow self-employed just because they hire you as a “contractor” or some similar nomenclature.

If you want to be self-employed, then you need to make sure that the contract arrangement you’re agreeing to will be a step in that direction. A contract should allow you to be free to do the work the way you need to do it, and allow you to freely solicit and work for multiple clients. That’s being self-employed.

Contract arrangements that control your time and workflow, and prohibit outside activities are just jobs by another name. If your long-term plan is to become self-employed, either through contracting or by some other method, the first situation won’t help your cause.

If you want to be an entrepreneur, you need to learn the difference between the two contract arrangements. One will bring you to self-employment, the other is really a job—and a job with less security and fewer benefits than traditional employment.

Have you ever done contract work? Have you ever been in a contract arrangement that looked a lot like the first example? How did you feel about it?

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Guest Post

The single defining factor of the 21st century job market will be automation. Technology is driving us to a point where human hands and minds are no longer needed for a wide variety of relatively simple tasks.

Once upon a time your average high school graduate could find steady work in a factory. Those days have been mostly over for years, and for the last several decades the once-optional college degree has become the key to finding work. But as we enter a new century, it’s becoming abundantly clear that a degree itself is not enough. Ambiguous higher education simply doesn’t cut it anymore in a world where automation is cheaper than paying someone a salary.

Higher education needs to be specific—and technical

Higher education was once merely a metric for judging someone’s ability to stick to something, at least for the most part. It’s different now – those two-to-ten years spent in school better have been used to study something that made you something of a computer yourself, a finely-tuned workhorse that can perform at something very specific very well. The reason being is that when it comes to the automation of labor, the most simple and easy-to-replicate jobs have been the ones that computers and machines have replaced.

But it’s not just automation that’s causing careers to become more complex and specific – it’s also getting more bang for your buck through the use of advanced communications methods and other leaps in information technology.

There was a time when knowledge was acquired, maintained, and decimated by humans only. Thanks to software, improved electronics, and less emphasis on geographical boundaries, teachers and other such vessels of human understanding are no longer needed in the quantities they were before.

The “secret” to career success: Making yourself irreplaceable

Yet for those who are career-bound as we enter this new age of employment, there is a silver lining around the cloud of technological progress. It’s apparent that two forms of work are still going to be available to humans throughout the first half of the 21st century:

1. Person-to-person specialty labor that machines and computers simply cannot replicate, and
2. positions where you yourself are the one behind these technological leaps forward.

As far as the former is concerned, careers such as being a pharmacy technician or a social worker are still likely to be available en masse. The reasoning, as previously stated, is simple: technology will struggle to match the most important aspects of these jobs, which mainly entail having a sense of compassion and emotional understanding for other people in certain situations, and customizing your strategy based on the behaviors of those you work for.

The latter is much easier to understand. Simply put – we still have a long time before computers and machines completely take over the world. In the meantime, careers that specialize in the math and sciences are the most likely to maintain the onslaught of automation and technological progress itself, as these are the careers that will be driving this progress forward.

Anyone wondering what to devote their lives to should seriously consider careers that are expected to see growth. If you think the job market is bad now, just wait until automation goes into full swing over the next several years as companies attempt to adjust for the poor economy. For the chance of a better future for yourself, it’s critical you plan with the frame of the full future in mind.

This career update was provided by Amanda Green. Consideration was given for this article.

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Nursing Your Career Back to Health

By Jessica Wagner

Many schools online offer a liberal arts degree preparing graduates to later become career counselors. Career counseling could not only save others financially, but help them live the financial lives they have always dreamed of living.

Unfortunately, several traditional colleges today either offer limited career counseling services or none at all to their post-grads. This leaves grads searching for employment on their own through various online search engines.

Every job hunter’s dilemma

Post-grads often find themselves sending countless resumes for job openings that might have been filled or to companies that might never respond. Post grads become confused and disgruntled, because they do not even know if the business received their resume and when they do receive a response they often do not know what company or position they even applied for.

Many online databases do not give complete information about a position. Post grads will often consult their traditional college for advice only to find out that they mostly can provide only self assessments that can be done from home. Once completed, these online self-assessments are examined by the school’s career counselor. The career counselor proceeds to detail to the student what careers would be appropriate according to the students’ character and personality traits.

Finding a competent career counselor

Post graduates need to be careful of these types of services that merely offer simple assessments and no other advice or direction, especially if the student chooses to use an outside agency that charges for their career counseling services. With the state of economy, tight job market, and high turnover, post-graduates need to find the most reputable career counselor or service for the most competitive price. A good career counselor will offer at least one complementary service to provide a few initial assessments, but not rely solely on these simple assessments. They should also be examining your past-work history, education, and work skills.

While an educated and reputable career counselor may cost more than a less educated career development professional, post-graduates need to do their research and compare the individual’s education, skills, length of experience, and costs to the post-grad for services. The difference between a career counselor and a career development professional usually pertains to the length of education and the amount they charge for their services.

A career counselor according to the National Career Development Association is defined as

“…the process of assisting individuals in the development of a life-career with focus on the definition of the worker role and how that role interacts with the life role.”

What a good career counselor should be able to do for you

Most career counselors have a liberal arts or psychology background and have gone on to masters work in a more specialized field related to career development and counseling.

Because there are so many companies and individuals capitalizing on the fact that people, especially recent graduates, are having trouble finding steady employment (related to their major), it is important to find a career counselor that charges a fair rate. It is equally important to find a career counselor that is familiar with the eleven skill sets set by the National Career Development Center.

A good career counselor will be able to listen, collaborate, respond, and provide needs based assessments and computer assisted career guidance. They are able to understand how the career search changes across the life-span and willing to work with diverse groups of people regardless of gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, etc. Before first meeting with a career counselor or even a career development professional (if money is a huge factor), it is a good idea to become familiar with some of the assessments out there. Some of these assessments, while appropriate for a starting point, merely measure personality traits.

Being a good career counselor means making sure you measure student potential through proper metrics: a combination of data and ambition.
Have you used the services of a career counselor? Would you recommend a career counselor for others who are looking for a job?

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By Kevin M

You read that first word right—RISKS—as in something to lose! Historically risk is not a word normally associated with a college education, but this isn’t history—it’s the big, bad now and the rules have changed.

Not only is the cost of a college education much higher than it’s ever been (and rising relentlessly), but the ways people are paying for it are farther out there on the danger scale. And the jobs that once reliably awaited students upon graduation don’t seem to be there in either number or compensation. To paraphrase a well worn cliché, this ain’t your father’s college education.

The college game is changing. A number of factors have developed that have turned the one time ticket to the good life into a high risk proposition. I’ve identified five and you could probably cite a few others.

Risk #1: Financial Cost

No matter what it is we’re pursuing and how noble the cause, in a world of limited resources, we always need to consider the cost/benefit ratio. That ratio is way out of balance in many college norm careers. Back in the 1980s when I was in college it was possible to obtain a college degree for about the amount of a starting salary in a typical degree field. In that environment, going to college was a risk free proposition.

Today, larger amounts of money are being paid for college while the job prospects in many degree fields are weakening. It’s now possible, even typical, for a college education to cost several times the starting salary in a typical degree program. There is a real risk that the full value of the price paid for a college education may never be recovered.

Risk #2: Debt Hangover

It’s bad enough that college has such a high price tag today, but the problem of cost is magnified by the fact that debt is increasingly being used to pay for it. That debt carries well into the working years, and even though it may have preferential rates of interest, it’s still a drag on the graduate’s financial future.

Kelli Space wrote a post over at Budgets Are Sexy titled I Went to College and All I Got Was This $200,000 Bill—that was the amount of the student loan debt she had accumulated while earning her degree. That sounds like an incredible amount of debt and perhaps it is at the upper end of the range. But with college costs rising steadily and incomes and savings levels stuck in neutral, the debt numbers are getting higher all the time.

Whether it’s $200,000, $100,000 or “just” $50,000, we’re talking about a staggering amount of unsecured debt! Liabilities of this magnitude can be life altering—it sends the graduate into an increasingly uncertain job market with one, large strike against them.

Risk #3: Time Invested

The four years it takes to get a college degree is long enough that the job prospects in a chosen field of study can change significantly in that space of time. And many students are spending more than four years to get an undergraduate degree alone.

The pace of change in the world seems to be quickening, and that includes the growth, maturation and decline phases in many companies and entire industries. There’s now a real risk that a student can spend years preparing for a career field he’ll never work in.

Risk #4: Lack of Entrepreneurial Training

With jobs in many fields degrading or disappearing the career path for graduates is increasingly pointed in the direction of some form of self employment. Sadly, college coursework preparing students for the entrepreneurial path is close to non-existent at the undergraduate level.

College curriculum is geared heavily in favor of the organizational universe of the corporate world, various levels of government and even non-profits, but not life running a small business. Part of the reason for this is that organizational training is readily teachable. Entrepreneurial training, by contrast, is so decentralized and diverse that it doesn’t lend itself to the type of comprehensive curricula that make up the vast majority of college programs.

There’s a real risk of preparing for declining organizational careers in a world where self-employment is fast becoming the new normal. College programs may eventually adjust to this change but there’s little evidence that any sort of shift is even on the horizon, let alone a work in progress.

Risk #5: Opportunity Cost

This risk starts with the question, “what else could I be doing to build a career that I might not be doing while attending college?” The job market is becoming increasingly selective—you won’t necessarily have a career by virtue of a degree.

Many college norm career fields are now in oversupply while jobs in the skilled trades and technical fields go begging. Such careers, as well as self-employment, often take an entirely different path than college norm jobs. Technical school training, apprenticeships and the good, old “school of hard knocks” are often the best (or only) way to enter these fields.

In many fields the four years that someone might spend in college would be sufficient to gain the training, experience and credentials that would enable earning a living wage with greater career security and job mobility than many college norm careers afford. In addition, many trades and technical fields are now paying salaries comparable to or even greater than college norm careers.

How can we respond to the college risk

Where ever there’s risk, we should be practicing risk mitigation; what can be done to do that in connection with a college education?

1. Don’t use college as a default when you don’t know what career to enter—the risks are too high to just “get a degree in something”. Some life experience might help more than spending time in college.

2. Set a limit for how much money you’re prepared to borrow to pay for your education—lenders and colleges aren’t putting any limits on how much a student can borrow so it’s up to the student and the student’s family. You can for example, set the upper limit on student loans to no more than the expected salary for the first year in the new career. Any metric is better than sky’s-the-limit.

3. Look for less expensive college options, such as spending the first two years at a community college or commuting to school rather than living away where room and board can more than double the cost of your education.

4. Consider the alternatives to a college education. Would you be better suited to be a plumber? If you think you’d like to be self-employed do you think college will help you get there? Or is there some other path the might be more effective?

What do you think about the cost of a college education relative to the employment opportunities that are available in today’s economy? How much money should a student be prepared to pay for a degree? Are there any other paths a would-be student might pursue that won’t leave him/her buried in debt after graduation?

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By Kevin M

Does anyone work a 40 hour work week anymore? You know, the comfortable, predictable “9 to 5” that we often complained about during more certain times? Apparently fewer employees than ever still have this luxury, and if current trends continue, fewer still will have it in the future.

An article by Seth Fiegerman on Yahoo Finance earlier this month, The End of the 40-Hour Work Week confirms these changes in work schedules and the forces behind them:

“Higher-level workers are increasingly being asked to put in 50 hours or more a week…while lower income workers are often forced to work fewer hours but at jobs with irregular schedules, according to a comprehensive report from the Center for American Progress…Driving these changes…are companies turning lower-level full-time jobs into part-time employment to cut costs, savings that come at the expense of workers — and their families — losing the traditional schedules and financial benefits that come with full-time employment.”

The typical work schedule has become more erratic and the neat, predictable 40 hour work week is fast fading into the dustbin of history.

Two camps with very different issues

As the Yahoo article outlined, there are two very distinct groups impacted by irregular work schedules, but in completely opposite directions.

40 hour PLUS workers. There was a time not long ago when this group was mainly comprised of executives and managers. They were expected to work longer hours as a result of greater pay and responsibilities. That’s still true, but today it seems that nearly anyone can fall into this category. If you want to keep your job in this economy, you need to do the work of two people and something will have to give—usually your schedule. Some people are paid for the extra time, others not.

The problem with this arrangement is that there’s little room for anything but work and that leaves festering voids. The employee spends so much time working that there’s no time to develop new skills, maintain business and networking contacts or search for a job, should that become necessary. In the event the job is lost, the worker will need to make a radical shift from an employee completely consumed with his job to an unemployed person suddenly needing to launch a job search from the ground up.

Making it worse is that an overburdened work schedule can lull the employee into thinking he’s irreplaceable—after all, since his employer needs him to work so many hours, he must be too important to fire. Not so–no matter how important you may be at any given moment you could still loose your job for no reason that’s apparent to you! That’s the paradox of the 21st Century job market.

Less than full time employees. This group has the opposite problem—they’re being marginalized. Less than full time means less than full time pay and, more often than not, no benefits. That’s the whole cost cutting angle for employers in the arrangement. It’s not a stretch to say that people in this category have probably (or are in acute danger of- ) losing their middle class status. It’s difficult to buy or maintain a home, put a child through college or fund retirement on less than full time pay.

While the 40 hour plus crowd may be laboring under the delusion of being irreplaceable, the less than full time employee faces a dilemma that’s radically opposite: he isn’t certain of anything. Not of keeping his job, having a chance at a promotion, or even how many hours he’ll work or how much money he’ll earn in any given week. That means planning for the future is a non-starter. A type of limbo is created in which the worker is locked into a less than perfect employment situation with little prospect that his circumstances will improve anytime soon.

How should we respond to this

Erratic work schedules—and all that they imply—are fast becoming the new normal. Wishing them away is pointless; finding ways to deal with them is the critical take away. Like globalization, technology and the off-shoring of jobs to areas with lower labor costs, our only constructive course of action is to adjust and find ways to move forward.

Recognize that the career you’re in may be a dead end. If working 50 or 60 hours a week, or being downgraded to less than full time status have become common in your field, it may be a sign that the industry is in a long term decline. That’s the time to begin taking steps to move into another field or industry. If you have to get out, it’s best to do it early in the cycle, rather than waiting until the exits get crowded and competition for alternative careers becomes even greater.

Work toward self-employment. Perpetually extended work schedules and reduction to part time status are signs of instability. We all need a certain amount of stability in order to make plans and get on with our lives. If the system no longer provides that stability we have to look to ourselves to find it, and that means some form of self-employment.

Get some kind of business started in an area where you have either the skills or the passion—preferably both—then prepare to dig in and advance it for as long as it takes. I’m doing that right now with freelance blog writing. I’m working it as a side venture while building it into something more substantial over time. Love it or hate it, the world wide web has become a treasure trove of opportunity—find your niche somewhere within it and then run with it.

Find ways to make the trend your friend. We all want to get back to something that looks like normal as quickly as possible, but we’re probably in a time where that won’t be practical or even desirable. For example, now might be an excellent time to move into a less than full time job that will give you the time you need to either develop new career skills or to start a business.

Also, consider what kind of opportunities are coming about as a result of current changes. For example, is the internet killing the print media? Sure, but that means that there are opportunities building in the internet—from an employment standpoint, that’s more important and productive then mourning the death of the print media. It’s important to gravitate toward the areas of growth, even if you don’t have much understanding of how those businesses work. The upside is that there are few “veterans” in new and growing industries, so most of what you need to do is to a) decide to participate, b) learn all you can about the field, and c) commit and never give up.

Or, you can continue on either the path of certain burnout (too many hours) or ongoing under-employment.

Has your work week been either seriously increased or decreased in the last few years? Has it been a problem for you in any way? What ideas do you have for dealing with it?

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And one college’s “Employment Pledge” to ease the transition

Guest Post by Philip Reed

Even at the best of times, mounting a job search can be intimidating and often, disheartening. With today’s unemployment numbers and still shaky economy, a job search can be downright terrifying.

It’s important that you don’t let the whole process of it overwhelm you by taking it one day, one resume, or one interview at a time. If you can remain focused on the individual tasks required you will present yourself to prospective employers in a far more confident and positive manner. The more confident that you appear; the higher your chances are for a successful interview and—ultimately—a job offer.

New college graduates

New graduates are facing a difficult road in getting that first job. If you’re just out of college, or will be in the next year or two, your major area of study will be a critical factor in both how quickly you land a job and how much you will earn.

If your undergraduate degree is in a field that isn’t in great demand, you may want to consider going for a masters degree in a field that is. Forbes offers a list of the best masters degrees to have in order to get a job. The top five on the list includes:

1. Physician’s assistant

2. Computer science

3. Civil engineering

4. Mathematics (statistician, actuary, high school teacher)

5. Physics

There are five others on the list, and all have mid-career earnings near the $100,000 range, and solid prospects for future employment growth. If the job prospects in the undergraduate degree you signed up for a few years ago are looking slim, a masters in any of the careers listed on the Forbes list may be advisable.

Speaking of colleges, something new is being rolled out to ease the transition from school to employment. Westwood College has a program called the “Employment Pledge”. I haven’t used the program myself, but if you were lucky enough to have obtained your training, degree, or certification at a university or college that offers it then you may have an advantage when you enter what has become a competitive and difficult job market.

An employment pledge claims that the educational institute is so confident in their training and teaching that they will pay you if you cannot find a job in your field within a predetermined amount of time. The payments aren’t enormous, but they will help you pay your bills at a critical time of your life (for up to six months) and that can take some of that job search pressure off of your shoulders. Westwood does offer degrees in some of the fields on the Forbes list.

Even without a degree in a top field—or an employment pledge—you can still conquer the job market frenzy by setting specific goals and tackling them one by one. The following list is an excellent place to start.

The resume

Make sure that yours highlights your qualifications while still giving an impression of your personality. There are many resume building tools available free online to help you structure it in the most flattering and effective way possible.

When writing a resume there’s always a temptation to overkill—don’t! No one will read a resume that’s much longer than one or two pages! Keep it as concise as possible being sure that your strongest skills and abilities are immediately obvious. An employer will sift through hundreds, perhaps thousands of resumes in an effort to fill a single job. Your resume must make the case that you are the one best suited for the job.

It will be time consuming, but it’s best to customize your resume for each job you are applying for. Highlight the skills you have that best match the job description given. If you’re skills don’t fit, it may be better to move onto the next prospect where you’ll be a better fit.

The cover letter

Separate from your resume, the cover letter should be directed to the specific person you are applying to and should outline all the additional skills, qualification or benefits that you can offer the company if hired.

The cover letter shouldn’t restate your resume so much as to highlight and supplement it. What you want to do is use the cover letter to create that “glove fit” between you and the job that’s being offered. Keep it personal, and spell out specifics on how you will be the answer to the employer’s problems.

When you approach employers, be sure to avoid the beaten path where all the heavy traffic is. Far better to make contact by unconventional means that are likely to make you stand out from the crowd.

Your personal appearance and attitude

It sounds so obvious and yet people mess it up all the time- dress appropriately for the position that you are seeking- even if you don’t have a scheduled appointment and are just dropping off a resume. If you are applying for a position in a professional office then showing up in flip flops and sweatpants is not going to get you the job.

Should you get an interview, make sure you speak clearly, make eye contact, and smile. It can be intimidating but employers want to know that you are confident in yourself and your skills because that will give them confidence in you.

No matter what job or career you are seeking, there is an employer out there that would be perfect for you. Your job now is to find them and to make sure they understand the value that you will bring to your new position.

What are you doing to find a job in this economy? Is there anything you’ve done that’s worked? Would you like to share your experience?

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All Jobs are Temporary! (And What You Can Do About It)

By Kevin M

Having a job is a good thing—the problem is complete reliance on it! That, unfortunately, is where most people are. The loss of a job can set a chain of financial catastrophes in motion, and even threaten the survival of a person or an entire household. Is there an answer to this dilemma? Is there a way to enjoy the benefits of a steady paycheck—preferably one with medical insurance—without being so totally dependent on your employer?

There is—the answer is skills, your skills. And not just any skills but two specific types that rise above all others: transferable skills and retail skills.

Everyone brings general skills to their work—management, administrative and organizational skills, typing, computer skills, “people skills”—we can think of them as the minimum requirements for employment.

But transferable and retail skills are much deeper. They’re skills that are in demand, easily recognizable, portable and have application across different industries and business types. When you have them, your ability to earn a living is never in doubt—even if your current job is.

Transferable skills—the ticket to employment security

Transferable skills are valuable throughout your industry and even beyond. They’re the type of skills that can have a direct impact on a company’s bottom line, such as sales or web design, and can easily be verified by production numbers, a portfolio of your work or some other easily recognizable form. They’re even more valuable if you have them to a greater degree than most in the field–that means being better than average.

If you have transferable skills and you’re work is known outside your company, you probably enjoy a great deal of employment security—there’s always someone willing to hire you even if your current employer doesn’t need you any more. If you’re not at that level, you need to get there.

Most employees are content to master only the minimum skill levels needed to perform their jobs and remain with their employers. Others develop skills that are so specific to their current employer that they have little value anywhere else. There’s little thought to preparing for the next layoff, the next job or the next economic cycle. Retooling, if it comes, happens only after a long periods of unemployment and often involves a costly return to school for yet another degree.

How do you develop transferable skills before a job crisis forces your hand?

• Pick a function in your company that’s crucial to the operation of the business—or any business—and take steps to gravitate into it. All functions in a business might be important, but some are more valuable than others and that’s where you need to be.

• Take a course or two at a local college to learn the basics of a desirable new skill. That may not get you a job in the field, but it could open up some opportunities that will.

• Look for a part time job where you can “apprentice” into the new skill set.

• Develop the skill as a hobby or even as a side business and then grow into it.

• Become the resident expert at what ever you do in your job. For example, if you work in an administrative capacity, learn all you can about common software applications like Word, Excel and Power Point. With software applications, there are many practitioners but few experts. But those skills are highly transferable and if you become an expert with them, your future prospects will improve significantly.

”Retail” skills—the ticket to a future without limits

Retail skills are just what the term implies–it’s the ability to sell your product, service, or trade directly to the general public. They’re the kind of skills that are not only valuable to employers, but can readily be converted to self-employment. All options are open to you if you have them.

I had this explained to me many years ago by a plumber who came to fix my dishwasher hook-up. He pointed out the difference between plumbers who work in the building trades—where layoffs run with the boom/bust cycle in housing—and repair plumbers who work on existing systems and therefore have work (and plenty of it) on a continuous basis. Building trade plumbers don’t know repair plumbing—it’s a different function entirely—they need someone to hire them and become employer dependent. But a repair plumber can work for someone else or for himself—he’s never unemployed.

Not all jobs and careers lend themselves to retail skills, but many do. Some examples include:

• A corporate accountant who has his CPA license and also prepares income taxes seasonally.

• An IT worker in a large company who also does computer repair or web design work for private clients.

• A company salesman who develops a sideline selling a product direct to the public that’s unrelated to the one he sells for his employer. He’s good enough at selling that he can sell nearly anything so self-employment is always an option.

• A manager who has worked for several companies during her career, solving significant problems at each, and developing a substantial referral network, all of which providing the ability to develop an independent consulting business if ever she chooses to do so.

Any of these people could quickly convert to full time self-employment, selling their services direct to the general public in the event they lost their jobs or decided they no longer want one. No matter what happens, they’ll always have an income. This is the optimal situation to be in because it enables you to move back and forth between a job and your own business, or even to have both at the same time.

What if you don’t have either transferable skills or retail skills?

You can develop them–and you don’t have to wait until a job loss forces your hand.

We all have some spare time for something as important as insuring your income in the future. Identify the skills that will be a good fit for you, learn them, and then put them into practice. You can do it gradually if you have a job, or fast forward it of you don’t. If you’re unemployed, or under-employed—and many millions of people are right now—you owe it to yourself to do what you need to do to retool with the right skills.

I decided that had to develop a retail skill of my own and chose freelance blog writing. I’ve never done any kind of professional writing in my life but it’s working well for me. If you decide you need to develop retail skills, make sure that what ever it is will be something you’ll enjoy doing, comes naturally to you and is something you can sustain over the long haul.

Look at what others are doing and see if you can work that into your own skill set. It doesn’t even have to relate to your current job, but can be an adventure into something completely new. As long there’s a market for what you want to do and you have the skills to fill it, go for it.

If blog writing is a retail skill you’d like to learn check out my post, The Freelance Blog Writer Side Hustle. It’s a skill that you can work into gradually, in your spare time and from your home computer.

Related Posts:

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Why Most New Businesses Fail – And How Not to Become One of Them

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The Perfect Side Hustle: Freelance Blog Writer

7 Reasons to be Self-Employed

By John Durfee

One of the last things you worry about when coming home from serving your country in a time of war is post-service employment. Unfortunately, there is still a bit of a struggle when it comes to finding a job with ease outside of our armed forces for our veterans.

Despite incentives to hire our country’s vets, there is still about a 15% unemployment rate among returning vets out of the more than two million Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. That’s unacceptable in my book. While combat training may not translate seamlessly to the civilian job market back home, there just might be more similarities than you’d think.

To begin, you will no doubt be highly suited to a career in some facet of law enforcement or security. Both physically and mentally, your training with the military has already prepared you for this and it might be something that interests you; something you can transition to quite easily. But if you’re looking to go in an entirely new direction, here are a few tips and guidelines to keep in mind:

Visit your transition office as soon as possible

Odds are, your transition office will sponsor at least one or two job fairs a year, which will give you a solid lead on real employers out there that are more than willing to hire you with your military/life experience. Transition assistance offices help in all sorts of ways; from resume writing to networking, job hunting and interviewing. Most, if not all, seem to offer 1-3 day classes for service members to hone the skills necessary to find a civilian job.

Create a flexible resume

Whether on your own or done with the help of your local transition office, this is a key component to making yourself marketable in today’s job market. This means creating a resume that you can readily change or edit to be of benefit to the specific company you are applying for employment with.

Market yourself strategically

While you know you’ve learned very valuable lessons from your career with the military, some employers still view you as having little to no actual business skills. Some may even think you’ve even fallen behind and have no relevant job skills at all! Of course, you’ve learned so many invaluable things such as teamwork and leadership in the military.

Marketing yourself in this way, pointing out all of your relevant (and seldom seen in the civilian world) job skills that may not have looked like skills at all, just good character. Dependability, punctuality and as I mentioned before, teamwork and leadership skills. These may seem like things not worth mentioning on a resume or at an interview, but they truly are since they are not qualities that everyone possesses.

Update your wardrobe

Unless you’re applying for something hands-on and physical (contractor, construction, mechanic, etc)—odds are you’ll need to do some clothes shopping. Remember that outside of showing up in a tuxedo, you’ll likely never be too dressed up. So, find something nice!

You can only make a first impression once and unless you have degrees to back up your claims of work related skills, what you wear on that first (and second) interview will reflect heavily on what sort of person you are.

Network, network, network

I can guarantee you aren’t the only one you know coming home and job hunting in the civilian world so it is important to make yourself available. Take advantage of visits to your transition office, since they likely have a message board up (either in house, online or even both) where you can get in touch with others in your same position. Employers may even prefer to hire vets, as they also served our country.

Maybe you’ll find a great website posted or a few veterans getting together somewhere to go over resumes and job opportunities that they’ve found on their own. At any rate, the more people you talk to the better off you’ll be. Networking is a vital part of finding quality employment these days, especially for veterans.

Never, never give up!

Bottom line: use your resources. The whole process of coming home and deciding to go in a different direction and apply for work outside of the military is daunting all on it’s own, not to mention actually finding a new job. The military does provide some decent resources but if it isn’t enough to get the ball rolling or land that new job: network.

As I mentioned above, you aren’t alone in your struggles to find a position. You have served your country with dedication and pushed yourself to be a better, stronger person. Keep your head up, pool your resources , work hard (as you’ve been doing) and stay dedicated – that job will be there faster than you think.

John Durfee is an Operation Freedom War veteran and markets Airsoft Guns at Airsplat, the nation’s largest seller of Airsoft Rifles.

By Kevin M

As if the poor economy, high taxes, too much regulation, advancing technology and globalization weren’t doing enough to torpedo the job market, there’s yet another obstacle to finding a job, one of a more personal nature and it’s having a bigger impact all the time.

It’s the background check.

Background checks now go farther and wider than they ever have, but it’s happening against the backdrop of a time when life is getting uglier and more complicated than ever for tens of millions of people.

It’s getting more difficult for a job seeker to pass a background check; in fact, at times it looks like a conspiracy. With computerization and the increased availability of data at progressively lower cost, more information is available about us than ever before. And unfortunately, economic, legal and social conditions are combining to make it more difficult than ever for the average person to pass employment muster.

Consider some of the information employers seek in background checks against the state of the world we now live in.

Deeper background checks

With computerization, employers can dig deeper now than they ever could when background checks were done manually. The deeper they dig, the more “dirt” they’re likely to find.

Consider that it’s fairly common for job seekers to leave temporary or short term jobs off their resume or a job application in an attempt to look more stable; if he’s held enough jobs, he might even forget to list one. Chances are those jobs will show up somewhere in a background check, opening up questions as to the candidate’s honesty or work history. An employer may conclude that the job was left off because the candidate was fired, or worse. Employment application denied, next candidate.

Now set this against the backdrop of an employment environment that’s been unstable for years now, forcing people to take a series of short term jobs in order to stay afloat. The possibility of some sort of conflict at application is substantial and growing.

Credit History

Pulling credit history is standard procedure by employers today. Yet we’re at a time when record numbers of people have experienced foreclosures, bankruptcies and other credit-impairing conditions. It’s a paradox that people with damaged credit—who probably need a job precisely to improve their credit situations—may be disqualified as a result.

Criminal background

It can be difficult to impossible to get a job if you have a criminal conviction in your past, and more companies are checking into this than ever. This comes at a time when there are more people with criminal records than ever, and it’s a much bigger issue than most people know.

Right now in America there are 65 million people who have criminal records–convictions either for misdemeanors or felonies. That’s more than one out of every four adults in the country. Most are for relatively minor offenses, often early in life, but that may be all it takes to put an end to an employment application.

Social media behavior

The social media are where technology and humanity merge, and as much as we might enjoy participating, employers are increasingly checking our public comments to get an idea as to how we think. This can work in your favor if the reviewer is partial to your interests and ways of thinking. But if the reviewer doesn’t like what he or she sees, or considers that it might be contrary to the employers interests, you candidacy could end on a few comments you thought nothing of at the time you wrote them.

How many people could potentially have their candidacy ended by comments on the social media? Anyone who’s ever made a comment on the internet!

With all of these factors added together it’s amazing any one ever gets a job, isn’t it?

Now, you may be thinking ”It’s a free country, I’m entitled to say what I want,” or, ”I have a right to privacy” but both of those notions are false assumptions when it comes to employer background checks. When you fill out a job application, the fine print gives them your permission to conduct a search on you in nearly any direction you can imagine.

Computers are only getting more powerful and consequently background checks can be expected to go even deeper. So how do we deal with that in connection with finding employment?

Improving your personal profile

Knowing that nearly every move you make is being recorded somewhere means being mindful of the records you leave behind where ever you go. Most people have something in their past that an employer might find disagreeable, but going forward make an effort to:

• Keep your credit clean, if you have derogatory information do what you need to do to clean it up. Time usually heals credit wounds, so get started today.
   

• Be more careful when driving—checking driving records has become standard. Some employers may disqualify you if you have a certain number of citations in a given time frame.
   

• Avoid behaviors and activities that could land you in front of a judge.
   

• Be careful what you put out on the web, especially on the social media.
   

• Build friends, not enemies. In any job you hold, do the best work you can and try to get along with everyone. Most important, do your best to leave on good terms.

Making an end run around background checks

Let’s say that you’ve been fired from a few jobs, your credit is less than sterling, there’s a criminal conviction in your past, or maybe you’ve been pretty, shall we say, outspoken in the content you’ve written on Facebook—any one or a combination of two or more could render you “damaged goods” to an employer. If this describes you, it might be in your best interest to make an end run around background checks entirely.

• Gravitate toward skill sets that are in such high demand that you’ll be less likely to have your candidacy destroyed by a background check.
   

• Work for smaller companies—they’re usually less likely to rely on background checks for needed employees, and might not go too deep if they do run one.
   

• Become self-employed. Except for certain business licenses, no background checks are needed. I know it’s not as easy as just hanging a shingle and working for yourself, but if your background is impaired, this might be the best long term solution.
   

• Live beneath your means. If you have difficulty getting hired, you probably want to avoid living a lifestyle that might require a high income job—and the detailed background check that usually comes with it.
   

• Build a strong professional network. Sometimes having influential people going to bat for you will be enough to overcome negative background information. It will depend on the influence of your referral, the severity of your background issue and the flexibility of the employer.

Just a few years ago, background checks were more of a formality than anything else. But back then far fewer people had credit problems or criminal convictions, the job market was much more stable, and the social media didn’t exist. Today is a new ball game entirely.

Even if you don’t fall into any of the categories above, the world is in a constant state of flux and employment background checks are becoming one of THE employment issues of the day. Our financial futures may very well rest on our ability to pass them—or to make other arrangements if we can’t.

Do you have any experiences or advice on how to deal with these or any other background check issues that might help a job seeker?

Related Posts:

8 Reasons to Work While Collecting Unemployment Benefits

Suviving Unemployment – One Woman’s Story

Pursuing Your Passion Isn’t as Risky as it Used to Be

Where Have All the GOOD Jobs Gone?

Steady Paycheck vs. Self-Employment; Which is Right for You?

No Luck on the Job Boards? You’re Not Alone

By Kevin M

The official unemployment rate has finally fallen below the 9% level (8.9% in February), but does that mean the job market is finally turning around?

Yahoo! News had a revealing—but disturbing—article on the state of the job market last week. In Jobs returning—but good ones not so much, Zachary Roth reports some of the deeper details behind the unemployment benchmark:

• 49% of the new jobs created over the past year are in low wage industries, such as retail and food processing
   

• Higher wage jobs represent only 14% of the new jobs, thought they accounted for 40% of the jobs lost during the recession
   

• 9.6% of the workforce are working part time but want full time jobs
   

• On the topic of wage levels, the article reported that “though productivity rose 5.2 percent from mid 2009 to the end of 2010, wages increased by just 0.3 percent. That means only 6 percent of productivity gains were shared with workers. In past recoveries, that figure has averaged 58 percent.”

The last point is, in my opinion, the most telling of the group because it tracks the money actually changing hands. If employers aren’t sharing productivity gains with workers, then earning a living will only be harder in the future. Flat wages are effective pay cuts in an environment of rising prices.

In taking a closer look at under-employment—a statistic that I believe is now more important than the basic unemployment rate—a Gallop poll conducted in mid-February (and linked in the post above) reported the under-employment rate–the combination of the unemployed plus under-employed workers—stands at 19.6%. That’s one out of every five workers in the economy!

Are statistics giving us a legitimate picture of reality?

OK, we can look at as many statistics as we like but the numbers often don’t reflect the reality that we’re experiencing or seeing around us. From what I’m seeing, there are two types of workers right now—those who kept their jobs through the recession and have been largely unaffected by it, and those who lost their jobs and have been unable to get much traction since.

While the first group tend to have a more optimistic view of the job market and of the economy in general, those in the second group go from job to job, often without benefits of any kind, and almost always without any permanence. Re-employment as it played out in past recessions seems to be something of a myth this time around.

The high level of under-employment, in combination with flat earnings and apparent job growth concentrated in low wage industries cries out for a personal plan of action, and I’ll give my thoughts on this in my next post. In the meantime,

What has your employment experience been, and what are you seeing in the people around you?

Did you lose your job during the recession?

If you’ve been re-employed since, are you working full time or part time? Contract/temporary or permanent? Do you have benefits (or at least health insurance coverage)?

If you’re working full time, how does your current income compare to what you had before you lost your job?

Have you started your own business? If so, did you do so because of a lack of opportunities in the job market?

We’re trying to get past statistics here in favor of real life experience, so all opinions are welcome.

Related Posts:

8 Reasons to Work While Collecting Unemployment Benefits

Suviving Unemployment – One Woman’s Story

Pursuing Your Passion Isn’t as Risky as it Used to Be

Making Work-at-Home Work For You

Steady Paycheck vs. Self-Employment; Which is Right for You?

No Luck on the Job Boards? You’re Not Alone