5 Strategies for Surviving the 'New Normal' Job Market

In a slow-growth economy, companies have different priorities

August 26, 2010 RSS Feed Print

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[View more career and job-search advice at U.S. News Careers.]

Look to add value constantly. As an employee, whether you're bringing in new money or you're saving money, you need to be adding value monetarily, Karsh says. "If you work in sales and you can say, 'I increased my client list by 25 percent, I increased my sales by 50 percent,' that's the sort of thing that employers are looking for right now—anything that can affect the bottom line," Karsh says. "If you're not in sales, you can affect it by saving the company money." Find savings opportunities by refining a process, or even suggesting a cheaper way to, say, buy or use office supplies. One tip: Put your suggestions in an E-mail so you are sure to get credit for them.

Find fresh advice. There are a lot of people in the world offering career advice better suited for the job market of the previous decade. In this markedly different economy, old advice may very well cause damage. Sometimes the changes are minor, but they can make you look out of touch. For example, adding the line "References available upon request" can make your resume or cover letter look out of date. "It goes without saying that your references are available upon request," says management consultant and U.S. News contributor Alison Green. "It would be really odd if they were not."

Tags:: recession,; employment,; economy

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You and your colleagues sound like the slimiest "team" I have ever heard about.
I hope you made this up, otherwise I fear for your future. Someone slimier than you is bound to come along and crucify you.

raqueltio of IL 10:35PM November 27, 2010

Sounds like a real solid management team and done with such integrity - good luck!

yellowpress of NJ 11:49PM November 16, 2010

I made a drastic mistake by hiring a guy to my team without consulting my best friend Stephen while he was on a business trip to China. I also hired another friend named Wendy to the same department who was in the job market after getting laid off from another company in town. I learnt many things about the guy I hired from Wendy. After Stephen returned to town I had a private meeting with Stephen and Wendy to find information about the guy I mistakenly hired. After speaking with Stephen and Wendy I realized that I made a mistake by hiring a wrong individual to my team as he did not fit. We tried to convince the guy to leave the company but he never received the message. Then we created an atmosphere for the guy to feel that he does not fit in to our company and forced him out. That worked out for the Dumb Ass to leave my group, but not the company. After leaving my group the Dumb Ass stayed in another group. We still did not like that Dumb Ass as he did not fit to our company. Since I am a fighter, I decided to step in and convince the management to get rid of him once in for all. We planned and fed wrong information to the department’s governing body and the human resources to force the Dumb Ass out of the company tangling him on false charges. The guy was harassed few times by everybody in the management. Management was careful when they were kicking him out. Management created false documents and retained them in his personnel file to justify the guy’s termination. I cannot believe that this strategy to get rid of a guy that I mistakenly hired was really worked but at the end I won.
Roberta Santos-Constantino
Director Casino Solutions
LVSC Information Technology
One Team - Global

Roberta Santos-Constantino of NV 5:23PM September 27, 2010