Job stability has given way to marketing own strengths

‘Your career is your business,” said Carleen MacKay to a workshop at Chaminade University’s Hogan Entrepreneurial program a few weeks ago.

Here’s the message: “Given the rapid structural shifts we’ve seen across the economic spectrum, why would you look at it any other way?” she said. “Today, soon, no company will take care of you.”

The solution, says MacKay, is that you are on your own and must create your unique brand and are responsible for the future of your work.

McKay, a nationally recognized author, keynote speaker and expert on the emergent, 21st-century workforce, is the co-founder of NewWorkforceHawaii.com, which builds personal, organizational and community economic resilience in an age of hypershift.

I’m convinced she’s on the right track.

There are a number of trends that support Mac­Kay’s comments. Wage income and social benefits have collapsed while deficits have escalated. Global trade has decimated once rock-solid jobs as American companies outsource jobs offshore and do everything necessary to avoid labor costs and taxes. In the past, says McKay, baby boomers might have up to three jobs over their careers. Today the average millennial might have more than 14 jobs by the time she/he is 38 years old. She tells students that “the reality is we’re all living longer, pensions are the exception and many boomers do not have sufficient savings to retire. They will continue to work because they cannot retire.”

Rob Kinslow, a former aerospace engineer and, along with MacKay, co-founder of NewWorkforceHawaii.com, said that the employee-employer relationship has radically transformed in just a few generations. He expresses to Chaminade students that young people in today’s world have zero-to-low loyalty in the workforce.

“Why shouldn’t your greatest investment be in you?” he said. “You are the navigator, the crew, and there is only one person who can know your own special gifts and needs.”

His message echoes MacKay’s dictum that young people need to “plan, strategize and act as if your career is your business.”

If current workforce trends hold steady, Kinslow said that there are and will be as many as five generations in the workforce. This, he said, does not bode well for the already underemployed.

“If you are not needed full time, you will not be hired full time,” Kinslow said.

Big data shows that the flexible workforce is the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. workplace today. Trends indicate that 40 percent of the workforce may be part of the flexible workforce by 2020, up from 25 percent today.

Watchwords for workers today are continuous change, volatility and disruption. And so, in a world of volatility, the meaning of work itself has changed. Work today is as different from the past as toiling in pineapple and sugar cane fields are to today’s island careers. While “jobs” once dominated the U.S. workforce, “work” now rules the future.

The lesson to students is, “You must be lifelong learners because the world of ‘lifetime jobs’ is gone.”

MacKay and Kinslow offered these tips to students:

>> Follow your dreams, but try to connect them with market needs. Purpose-­driven work is the fastest-­growing type of work today.

>> Explore options to learn competitive skills (competencies) that are growing — not fading.

>> Adapt to change and strengthen your ability to bounce back from adversity.

>> Strive for multiple streams of income.

I concur with MacKay and Kinslow. Jobs, as we once thought of them, are going away. Work, as we are beginning to know it, is more important than ever. Yet how to work, when to work, where to work are today’s questions. You can download their guidebook at NewWorkforceHawaii.com.

Mike Meyer, former internet general manager at Oceanic Time Warner Cable, now manages IT for Honolulu Community College. Reach him at mmeyer@hawaii.edu.