7 Survival Skills for Job Seekers

Survival of the fittest is an appropriate term in the climate of our global culture today. Not just America, but overseas – only the strong survive. Phil Gerbyshak from Slacker Manager features an article written by Tony Wagner author of The Global Achievement Gap, called Hiring the Right Skill Set and Motivating the Millennials. The article is excellent, whether you are a millennial, a baby boomer, or any other generational job seeker. It doesn’t matter where you are on the life line of employment. If you are a job seeker and you want to survive these challenging times, you need to develop these 7 Survival Skills. Take a look at the 7 Survival Skills with my spin on them!

7 Must-Have Survival Skills

1. Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving – Can you look at a series of issues or problems facing an organization and process solutions when there is no obvious answer available? Your ability to bring solutions to the table in an organization will keep you employed long past your "expiration date". In other words people who can articulate solutions that move organizations to new levels are employable. If you are the problem, you will find yourself in the unemployment line often.

2. Collaboration Across Networks and Leading by Influence – Influence moves people, "big sticks" hurt people. If you can influence people and maintain authority at the same time, that is a valuable commodity and organizations will pay you well for that skill set. Your ability to influence unmotivated employees, or clients that don’t want to yield to what your organization is or is not capable of doing, will keep you sitting in the board room, rather than home in the den scanning the internet looking for employment.

3. Agility and Adaptability – CHANGE is the word of the day. Your willingness to be "amebic" will keep you employed or you will break in the midst of your resistance. Amebic by my definition means you are moldable. You are like putty and can shift in the hand of those reshaping and rebuilding the organization. Your inability to change will send you home in pieces that glue won’t fix.

4. Initiative and Entrepreneurship – Initiative takes RISK. You have to be willing to go new places, share ideas, and risk being wrong or not heard. People with initiative will bring a fresh approach to the job they are doing with no prodding. They see opportunities for continuous improvement and they RISK by actually making it happen. They see the job opportunity through the lens of being an owner of the business, not just a "worker bee". Worker bees go home after the work of the day is over. Those operating with initiative will find themselves employable anywhere even when the work is over in an organization. They will take the next opportunity as a new challenge, another opportunity to take stock or ownership in a new organization rather than seeing themselves victimized by the economic swings.

5. Effective Oral and Written Communication Skills – This survival skill doesn’t need a whole lot of explanation. Either you are an effective communicator or you are not. Either way, without effective oral and written communication skills you are limited in how far you will go in an organization. Your ability to articulate your thoughts will determine the level you will attain in any organization.

6. Access and Analyzing Information – Learning how to effectively use the resources available to you as well as getting creative about finding resources will make you invaluable to any organization. So many people get lost in the wealth of information available to us today. Rather being challenged to dig to find information, people want someone else to give them the answer. It comes down to your willingness to learn to fish so you will eat for a lifetime or allowing someone to feed you for the moment. Those who can dig for answers and evaluate the information they have to come to solution will be employable. Those who can’t or won’t will "die"waiting for someone to feed them.

7. Curiosity and Imagination – CREATIVITY! This is big. Whether you are a right-sided thinker or a left-sided thinker, creativity will move you in organizations. Creativity encompasses the previous 6 Survival Skills needed in any organization. Go back and read them again. In order to effectively problem solve, lead by influence, CHANGE, or even take RISK, you must be willing to be creative. Here are some definitions of Curiosity that may help you tie all of this together:

• Curiosity is an emotion that causes natural inquisitive behavior such as exploration, investigation, and learning
• Curiosity or inquisitiveness; the tendency to ask questions, investigate, or explore
• Curiosity is an open-ness to having a new opinion

My point is that when you operate from creativity, there are no limits to your ability to problem-solve issues, work with and communicate with people. Creativity allows you be fluid rather than stagnant in any organization and that will also keep you employed.

There is so much more I want to share on these 7 Survival Skills for Job Seekers. But I will save those thoughts for another day. I believe we are in a unique season for employment. It is hard to get a job out there today, but it is not impossible. "Survival of the fittest", fits the employment climate we live in today. Our modern translation of this term, "Survival of the Fittest" refers to the those who are highly trained, physically energetic, able to withstand organizational storms and be standing when the storm is over. The word "fittest" is referred to those animals which are the most suited to their environment. They are the ones who will survive. If you have all of these Survival Skills, you are more likely to survive in these challenging times than those without them. Does it mean you won’t get laid off? Absolutely not! It may happen to you too, but your ability to turn it around and into employment goes up exponentially with these Survival Skills. If you don’t have these Survival Skills, than it becomes imperative that you develop them. They will keep your boat floating on the turbulent waves of high unemployment and major lay offs.

Photo Credit: Newscom

Tags: Interview Chatter, Phil Gerbyshak, Slacker Manager, The Global Achievement Gap, Tony Wagner, 7 Survival Skills for Job Seekers, Lead by Influence, Collaboration, Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, RISK, CREATIVITY, Influence, Economy, Only the strong survive, Curiosity

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