Breakthrough Career Solutions


July 29, 2007

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Unemployment Iraqi Style<
> Careers, The Correct Qualifications

Knowing what those at the top of your chosen industry have accomplished in order to reach their positions will be one of the most helpful things you can do for your career. Getting these correct qualifications for yourself should be your first priority as far as achieving your goals.

Go online and look at resumes that are posted. Check out the bios of top CEOs. Read articles on the business and as many books as you can find on the industry in which you are interested. Because few people will follow the same path to the top, make a list of entry level, mid level, and upper level positions that different people in the business have acquired. You may find that it is easier to make your way into a related industry and then transfer over to your career of choice. By looking at what those who have come before have done, you can shape your path accordingly.

Education is the logical first step when training for a career. Online classes and night school have made it possible to train for a new career while maintaining your day job. In the event that you need a higher degree that you can’t get through the Internet, there are a variety of grants and loans available to fund your education. If you are confident that the career you are training for is really what you want and that this career will give you the funds to repay the steep fees for a higher degree, this may be the best choice. Networking in grad school may do more for your career than the classes you take.

On the other hand, hands on experience is a great teacher as well. Look for assistantships, internships, and volunteer work in the industry of your choice. You may find that another career is more to your liking. The process of acquiring the correct qualifications for a given career may show you a totally different career that you didn’t even know existed.
Starting a New Career

Starting a new career can be a daunting venture, especially when you have acquired a lifetime’s worth of financial responsibilities and obligations. Nothing, however, is impossible, no matter how strapped for time and money you are currently. All it takes is a well thought out plan and diligence and you can soon be starting a new career.

First, think very seriously about what you want to do. Why have you chosen this new career? Is it completely different from what you are doing now? Are there aspects of your current job that apply to your new career as far as contacts, experience, or education? Does this new career require learning a whole new skill set and industry or is it a matter of upgrading your education to the next level? Make a list of all the assets you already possess that you can bring to a new career. Include personal skills and qualifications as well as natural instincts and inclinations. Some things can’t be taught and if you have a natural predilection for the skills needed for your new career, this may take you further than you think.

Next, determine the steps you will need to take in order to arrive at a position in your new career. To help you do this, talk to people currently working the job you have chosen. How did they get where they are? Would they have done anything differently? Do they have any recommendations? Do you need a degree? Online classes and schools are all over the internet and will allow you to study while keeping your job. Do you need an apprenticeship to establish yourself? Try and find one that pays you. Even a small stipend can help you offset financial costs at home.

With planning and patience, you can start a new career without putting your current home situation at risk. Take one step at a time and allow yourself as long as it takes to complete it before going on to the next one. Your new career isn’t going to disappear while you spend time properly preparing for it.
DLet’s put it all into perspective: the U.S. has an unemployment rate hovering at just above the 5% level (although much higher in ethnic populations). Iraq has an unemployment rate in the 75% range.

How on earth do they live?

We are all aware of the difficulties of being out of work -the financial pressures, the emotional trauma, the ruin of so many marriages and families, and the overall cost to society. The effects of unemployment on personal dreams of success wreak havoc with the self-esteem and self-confidence of those without work. In a society that glorifies money, power, and celebrity above all else, the have-nots carry the taint of failure and view themselves as losers. They can no longer compete with their peers, keep up with the Joneses, or live the lifestyle to which they have aspired for so long.

But if 3 out of 4 of your neighbors, family, and friends are jobless, the equation changes. You may live in poverty, unsure of when the next meal will materialize, but just about everyone else is in the same boat. Begging, bartering, and haggling over the exchange of meager basics becomes the standard lifestyle. Aspirations of success are tossed aside for the more immediate goal of survival. It is the few individuals who actually have work and a regular income who are the aliens in the crowd.

In an economy devastated by war, magnified by an ongoing insurgency, what does the much-touted western world’s democracy mean: the freedom to starve?

A culture in disarray yearns for “the man on horseback.” The inequities and internal struggles of the Roman Republic gave birth to a long line of debauched, despotic Emperors. The mass poverty of Russian serfs opened the door to Lenin and his monstrous descendant, Stalin. The ruined economy of the Weimar Republic brought us the order and security, as well as the total evil, of Adolf Hitler. The hedonistic excesses and widespread corruption of Havana produced Fidel Castro. The war-ravaged landscape of Cambodia hatched the Khmer Rouge.

Consider the average Iraqi. Three years ago, there may have been a muzzled press and sinister whispers of secret executions and atrocities against minorities, but the electricity and water systems worked, there was order in the streets, there were uplifting parades or uniformed troops, a leader standing up to the might of the western world, and a deep pride in being a citizen of the arguably strongest Muslin country in the world.

Three years later, men stand in line for the few paltry jobs available with the security forces, well aware of the possibility of being blown to bits for the only sin of standing in that line.

President Bush is on a crusade (that was his word) to rid the world of terrorism and convert the entire planet to Western Democracy and his version of freedom (his favorite word).

America will save the world. And if there is nothing left when the saving is over, can we wring some sense of self-satisfaction from the fact that no despots are left standing on the windswept, barren plateau that remains?

How on earth do they live?

We are all aware of the difficulties of being out of work -the financial pressures, the emotional trauma, the ruin of so many marriages and families, and the overall cost to society. The effects of unemployment on personal dreams of success wreak havoc with the self-esteem and self-confidence of those without work. In a society that glorifies money, power, and celebrity above all else, the have-nots carry the taint of failure and view themselves as losers. They can no longer compete with their peers, keep up with the Joneses, or live the lifestyle to which they have aspired for so long.

But if 3 out of 4 of your neighbors, family, and friends are jobless, the equation changes. You may live in poverty, unsure of when the next meal will materialize, but just about everyone else is in the same boat. Begging, bartering, and haggling over the exchange of meager basics becomes the standard lifestyle. Aspirations of success are tossed aside for the more immediate goal of survival. It is the few individuals who actually have work and a regular income who are the aliens in the crowd.

In an economy devastated by war, magnified by an ongoing insurgency, what does the much-touted western world’s democracy mean: the freedom to starve?

A culture in disarray yearns for “the man on horseback.” The inequities and internal struggles of the Roman Republic gave birth to a long line of debauched, despotic Emperors. The mass poverty of Russian serfs opened the door to Lenin and his monstrous descendant, Stalin. The ruined economy of the Weimar Republic brought us the order and security, as well as the total evil, of Adolf Hitler. The hedonistic excesses and widespread corruption of Havana produced Fidel Castro. The war-ravaged landscape of Cambodia hatched the Khmer Rouge.

Consider the average Iraqi. Three years ago, there may have been a muzzled press and sinister whispers of secret executions and atrocities against minorities, but the electricity and water systems worked, there was order in the streets, there were uplifting parades or uniformed troops, a leader standing up to the might of the western world, and a deep pride in being a citizen of the arguably strongest Muslin country in the world.

Three years later, men stand in line for the few paltry jobs available with the security forces, well aware of the possibility of being blown to bits for the only sin of standing in that line.

President Bush is on a crusade (that was his word) to rid the world of terrorism and convert the entire planet to Western Democracy and his version of freedom (his favorite word).

America will save the world. And if there is nothing left when the saving is over, can we wring some sense of self-satisfaction from the fact that no despots are left standing on the windswept, barren plateau that remains?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Virginia Bola operated a rehabilitation company for 20 years, developing innovative job search techniques for disabled workers, while serving as a Vocational Expert in Administrative, Civil and Workers’ Compensation Courts. Author of an interactive and supportive workbook, The Wolf at the Door: An Unemployment Survival Manual, and a monthly ezine, The Worker’s Edge, she can be reached at http://www.unemploymentblues.com

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