Julia Neunreiter
Just as fairy tales and fables soothed you as a child, so can they soothe you as an adult facing the prospects of layoffs, downsizing and restructuring.
It’s a hectic world out there. We often wish we were children again — enjoying the carefree days of our youth. But, alas, we’re adults trying to prove our worth, enhance our skills and pad our resumes with as much value as possible in case the knock, knock, knock of layoffs comes to our door.
But the stories of our younger days can provide us valuable guidance as we prepare for an uncertain world. How, you ask? Easy. It starts out like this: Once upon a time….
The Ant and the Grasshopper
We all know the ant worked hard to prepare for the harsh reality of winter, while the grasshopper played away his days. Like the ant, we must prepare for our potential winter — the job search. But instead of collecting food and drops of water, we’re collecting experiences and skills.
Consider offering your skills and talents to a local — or a national — organization. Write an article … design a Web page … manage a mailing list. The contacts you make could be invaluable, and you might brush up on existing skills or learn new ones that may help you later.
With luck, we won’t need to call on these reserves. We may weather the winter just fine and see ourselves sitting pretty in the spring. But what advantages our preparations will have brought us. Our skills are enhanced, our resumes are polished, and our confidence is soaring. Even if we continue happi ly in our present job for years to come, we’ll be all the wiser and more prepared.
Cinderella
C’mon, haven’t you ever felt like Cinderella at your desk? Stuck with a l l the boring projects that challenge you about as much as writing your name does, while your coworkers get all the plum projects? Cinderella scrubbed the floors and watched her stepsisters get treated like queens, yet she came out on top in the end. You can do the same.
How can you perform a mundane job but perform it in a way that enhances your skills and marketability? Rather than doing hard-copy editing, could you learn Acrobat to perform online edits? Could you learn a layout program and conver t your team’s documentation into something nicer? (If pumpkins can turn into carriages, just think what you can do to job aids!)
Don’t wait for your Prince Charming-like job — go out and make your own destiny. You’ll be surprised at what you can learn even while performing your usual tasks.
Happily Ever After
I could go on and on with my comparisons of children’s stories to everyday life, but I think you get the picture.
In the real world, we can shape our own destinies and take charge of our own futures. We don’t have to wait for a fairy godmother to change our lives. We can do it all on our own. But it never hurts to keep the child inside us alive — you never know just what you might learn.
The End.