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| 12/05/09, CEO Blog: Why Try So Hard Now? Accelerating Your Career In A Down Time |
| By Larry Wang
New Experience For Many In China
What do you think is going to happen next? Do you think it’s going to get any worse before it gets any better? How much longer do you think this downturn is going to last? These are questions that are part of many conversations taking place in China right now, whether among colleagues at the office, friends who are out together, or just about any gathering of people. Although we’d all like to know what the future holds, do the answers to these questions make much of a difference to your basic situation and fundamental ability to pursue your career success during this tough economic period that we’re experiencing? For most, I would say that they don’t. Rather, your ability to manage your career development and success still mainly lies in your own hands, even during these tougher times.
For most mainland professionals, the global financial crisis is the first time they’ve ever faced such a down period in their career. They’ve never seen such slow business activity in their industry, or been part of a company that needed to significantly control cost and reduce expenses. For many, it’s having a big impact on their overall outlook, mood, and job performance.
Your Career Last A Long Time
Of course, during this less-than-ideal time, it’s natural to be more nervous and worried about your situation. It’s easy to get caught up in thinking and talking about all sorts of future scenarios. As business activity slows, the tendency is to slow down as well and take a wait and see approach. For many, they wonder whether it is worth it to put so much effort into such an uncertain situation, or if it will just end up being a waste of their time.
During your professional career, however, economic cycles and downturns will come and go. These are situations that you have little control over (if any) and that cannot be avoided. They are just unpleasant realities that occur at certain times in your career. What you want to keep in mind during these down times is the bigger, long-term picture. And that is that the capabilities and achievements that you build throughout your career are accumulated during both the up and down, good and bad times. Eventually, things turn around and opportunities once again present themselves. When they do, you need to ask yourself if you are in any better position to capture them. Much of what determines that comes down to the capabilities and achievements you’re able to deliver during the down times that you’re a part of.
You Take It All With You
There’s a saying that you can’t take it with you. It’s refers to the end of your life, when you leave everything behind. However, when it comes to all the experience that you accumulate in your career, it’s the opposite. You can take it with you. Meaning, whatever capabilities and achievements you develop you carry them forward and benefit from them, regardless of the situations that they occurred in.
Our company makes a living at interviewing top candidates for attractive opportunities with leading global companies. What I can tell you is that in these job interview situations, it matters little what happened to your previous companies or products you worked on. What you are assessed on is how outstanding your capabilities and achievements are. The quality of those is defined by the contributions you make and all of the things you’ve done. I’ve seen many candidates distinguish themselves in highly competitive interview situations, not because they worked before in a highly successful company, but because they showed they could make something happen in a very difficult, challenging situation.
Easier To Stand Out In Down Times
Although it may not be so intuitive, in fact, it is often easier to differentiate yourself in a down time than in an up time. That’s because in up times, more people are able to be successful. With companies spending, the market more active, and overall business activity high, it’s easier for everyone to get results. When things slow down, however, it becomes much more difficult to deliver the same results.
During these tough periods, it’s not a business as usual situation. As a result, not everyone is able to continue to perform well. In down times, it takes the more mature, more capable, more reliable, and ones with more value to produce results. These are the people who often emerge from the crowd and in the eyes of top management.
“Although business may be off, most companies use down times to improve their efficiency and productivity, and upgrade their capabilities and resources,” describes the HRD of a global electronics products company. “Management is more active about trying new things and needs to be more aggressive to maintain the business. In such difficult situations, they really look for the people who can still make things happen. That makes it a very good time to stand out and be a “hero” in your company and to those around you.”
The Best Thing I Ever Did For My Career
In my own case, my biggest career break actually happened during a severe downturn in the IT industry. This was about 20 years ago, when I had just finished my MBA and joined Wang Laboratories as a management trainee. The IT industry was undergoing a major transformation from a product-selling to solutions-selling emphasis, which created huge challenges for big hardware companies like IBM, DEC, and Wang that needed to suddenly deliver greater value through IT, business solutions and applications.
Despite the critical, uncertain time for the company, I managed to develop a very helpful resource document that supported the company’s key technology at the time. Especially because of the challenges being faced, the contribution caught the attention of many people in the company, including that of my boss.
I always refer to this story as the best thing that I ever did for my career because the achievement directly led to the company bringing me to Asia, even though Wang was undergoing a severe reduction in headcount from 30,000 to 6,000 employees. I provide this example to highlight an instance of a great opportunity coming during a virtual crisis.
It’s also worth noting that in the end, Wang Laboratories eventually failed as a company and the key technology that I supported did not amount to much. But the capabilities I developed and contributions I made then have continued to benefit me throughout my career. Since then, I’ve rarely been asked about the success of Wang Laboratories or product that I worked on. People just want to know about what I can do? To find out, I’m asked to describe the things that I’ve done and how I went about doing them.
Don’t Lose Sight Of Simple Truths
For your own situation, there are several high value-added areas that always contribute to the success of any team or situation if you’re able to successfully deliver them. These include resolving problems and delivering solutions, helping others be more successful, building a team and the ability to lead others, developing resources, or demonstrating and representing company standards. All of these can be delivered in many simple, practical ways, such a by developing or pulling together information that that saves others time or makes their job easier, making resources more available to others, sharing your knowledge and expertise, or pursuing a solution that responds to a problem or need of your company.
In a difficult economic environment like what we’re seeing today, try not to lose sight of simple truths about your career success. And instead of over-thinking things and trying to figure out things that you can’t control, like to how well or poorly your company will manage through this financial crisis, put your time and energy into those things that you can control about your situation. Ultimately, the more achievements you have and the stronger your capabilities, the better your ability to compete for attractive opportunities in the future. And the more attractive the opportunities you can attain, the more successful you will be professionally and financially. These are not exactly new concepts, but ones that you don’t want to forget about during this global economic downturn.
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| Show top 100 comments: |
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Add time:
2009-05-15 11:46:04
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Excellent , it is very inspiring especially at the downturn time.
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Add time:
2009-05-16 10:53:10
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Enlightening!!! Thanks!!!
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Add time:
2009-05-14 13:02:50
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This is one of the most important article i've read in a long time. Almost lost sight regained it after reading. Thanks!
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Add time:
2009-05-20 12:29:26
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I really liked the two lines “you take it all with you" and "easier to stand out in down times".
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Add time:
2009-07-27 19:53:09
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Very good article. It is easy to become myopic as the global economy struggles. This is key "they showed they could make something happen in a very difficult, challenging situation." This is a time for action.
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Add time:
2009-09-20 02:52:22
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