Ep. 120 – You Are Not Defined by Your Job Title

Positive Solutions in a Tough Labor Market

You are in a social gathering, like church or some other social function, and the question comes up: “What do you do?” (for a living). How do you respond?

Most people answer: “I am (this role) at XYZ company”. But what is that really saying?

You have boxed yourself into a role. And you (perhaps inadvertently) declared your allegiance to your current company. It is better to say: “I am a (role), currently working at XYZ company.” This is subtle, but it leaves the door open. I have seen a person react with, “oh we have an opening at my company”, or “my relative has been looking for that role at his company”. That works for project managers and it also works for all jobs in a tight labor market.

This is also why the recommended career advice is to change your LinkedIn profile title from your role at XYZ company (which is the default) to your role built into a one-line hook (like a one-line elevator speech).

Remember – as Cyprian says, we are in an Attention Economy and “you are farming attention…”.

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The secret of job networking

In tough times, the best job leads that you can have are the ones where you know someone and can get a recommendation or an inside track. HR tries to stop that, but employers want a track record and prefer a testimonial.

Also remember that the person you worked with 2 years ago may now be at a different company (the company where you want to get hired). Utilize that contact.

And don’t burn bridges because that person may be in a hiring or recommending position at another company later on. You may not even know it.

You are greater than the sum of your parts.

Write down all of the ways you would describe yourself to a new person that you have met – if you were initiating the conversation. Most likely, you would not start with your job title.

I like to talk about my homestead, my garden, and my trees.

Unless I am at a work-related gathering I don’t talk about work at all. If I am asked “what do you do” I say “I am a project manager, currently working at XYZ company. But my real passion is trees”. And then I talk about what I like to do. Wait, do I not like my job? That’s not the point.

Part of it is knowing your audience. I belong to a church in Topeka, where, like most of NE Kansas, the jobs are mostly State government or the universities. I already have contacts at most of the State jobs. I am not at church to make leads on a job. I am not trying to find customers to sell my trees to. I just share my passion for growing trees and gardening if asked.

Not only the “what I do”, but also the “where”

“Where you are is more important than who you are.”
Wendell Berry

Are we really in a tight job market or is Adversity now built into the system?

Thousands of people in IT and white collar workers are laid off. That sounds so innocuous. Let’s be real – “laid off” only applies to union workers. These people are downsized, fired, and not coming back. That sounds much more harsh, but it’s the truth.

Why is this important? Because gone are the days of job security.

We are seeing a shift in the job market. Tough times cause downsizing, then the company just gets tighter and makes the existing employees work much harder.

I have seen many friends and family whose union jobs were negotiated away by their senior union leaders, who accepted a two-tier system where senior union members get to keep their benefits but the new or junior members have less pay, less benefits, and little to no job security. We see that in the aircraft industry in Wichita, KS, as well as the long union strikes at Kellogg’s in Michigan.

Since 2020, we have seen a bifurcation in the labor market as well. Zoomers are doom scrolling and they often believe that they don’t have (much of) a future. The “American dream” of owning a house, having kids, and working one job for a long time and retiring, has finally been revealed as a fantasy.

Many service and fast food jobs now pay the next day after working, as many Zoomers work until they get enough to live on this week/month and then don’t want to work the rest of the month and don’t show up for work.

Younger millennials and now Zoomers who are in professional roles like IT have been sold the idea that they can have work flexibility, but they have traded it for being “always online”. Sure, they have the flexibility to leave work at 3:00 PM but they are expected to get back on later in the evening. And they fall for “unlimited” vacation/PTO benefits which do not have PTO as a paid benefit. They often find out that “unlimited” PTO means that you have to still cover that customer meeting, or make up the time that you took off. Most HR studies, as well as many of my former colleagues who have this unlimited PTO find that they take much less time off overall.

Adversity is now baked into the system.

“Sooner or later, you will experience a great loss in life, when suffering reveals that the world is not the place you think it is, and that your dreams will not come true after all. What then?”
Rod Dreher – Live Not by Lies

So what does this mean? What are the positive solutions?

Positive Solutions in a Tough Job Market

Own your own career.
Get training and stay at a job that is providing opportunities. Change jobs for better opportunities.
Keep the mindset that this may be temporary. Be prepared for adversity, but don’t be ruled by the fear of it.
Prepping is necessary to offset downturns and adversity.
Your mindset is everything.

As Justin Welsh recently tweeted: “Every unsuccessful person I know believes the game is rigged. Every successful person knows the game is rigged and learns how to play. It’s cliché as hell, but your mindset is everything.”

#FreeYourMindset

The most important thing to realize – it has never been easier to outperform most of your competition – at a job, at a side hustle, and in life.
Scott Miller

Today is the best day to start your side hustle

You always need to be building additional forms of income. Let’s just stop calling it a “side hustle”.

I tweeted: I think that you need to stop calling your side business a side hustle. “Side hustle” has become meaningless, or maybe meaning: “something I’m doing on the side that I *hope* will someday make some money.”

Shudra said: “If it isn’t making money, it’s a hobby not a hustle.”

How to start your side hustle

“That stuff you think ‘everyone knows’ is mind-blowing to someone just getting started.”
Justin Welsh

You know stuff. You might not think it is all that much.

You could even lay out the steps to do it. But someone will pay you to do those steps instead of doing it themselves.

Establish your authority by doing.

Back in Ep. 118 – How to Build a Side Hustle by Buying a Mini-business or a Pre-made Website, I talked about my lessons learned from using Flippa.com to buy websites. I included my wins and losses – the good, the bad, and the (very) ugly. That was only six weeks ago. Toolman Tim asked me about it on his podcast. Other people want to talk about it. I am not seen as an authority. And all it took was six weeks of work, Building in Public, and sharing my experiences. Being honest, while not sugar coating it.

It has never been easier to outperform someone by doing. It’s Proof of Work.

Go beyond the hobby. Run it like a business.

This is my side hustle formula:

Dream, Plan, Build
Build in Public, releasing often. Measure the outcome. Pivot if necessary.
Tweak. Repeat.

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What I really liked:

The Backyard Forest Garden e-book
Agroforestry
Restoration Agriculture: Designing Your Perennial Farm presentation from Permaculture Voices by Mark Shepard
Permaculture Thorns, A Book About Trying to Build Permaculture Community, by Paul Wheaton.
Plus 2 books by Nicole Sauce.