4 Scenarios That Have You Asking, "Am I Still Relevant in the Job Market?"
Jun 22, 2021
What do you think is the biggest fear that job seekers have (and I mean all of them, every single one)?
I'm not going to keep you in suspense. The biggest fear is relevancy. How relevant are you to the marketplace? Most people will actually say, “well, I'm just not that relevant,” in fact, relevancy comes up in many forms.
I remember feeling this way myself, asking (to no one in particular):
"Am I going to stay relevant in my career?"
"Am I going to always be marketable in some way shape or form?"
The definition of relevance is the quality of being closely connected or appropriate.
Well, that puts me into a little bit of a shame spiral. In Brene Brown’s book “Dare to Lead”, she mentions that feeling relevant at work is the number 1 shaming feeling people have around their jobs. I couldn’t agree more as people share this same feeling with me daily. In fact, it shows up in 4 distinct ways.
Before we dive in I need you to understand one thing: Every relevancy argument below is NOT A FACT. You have the choice to decide if something is a fact and by believing any of these things as fact you keep yourself small, disengaged, and in pain and unhappiness.
Please understand that these things are THOUGHTS, they are not reality.
I am irrelevant because: I've been out of the work for (fill in the blank), therefore no one will hire me.
There's this great thing that has happened known as a pandemic, people got kicked out of the workforce. Whether it be for 1 month, 6 months, or an entire year, they have been out of work and therefore they don't feel relevant.
I am irrelevant because: I'm older and no one wants to hire older workers.
When you lead with your age you are not relevant. That's what the marketplace is going to think, don't shoot the messenger on this one. Age shares nothing about your abilities. It's how you tell your story so as to lead with your relevance.
If I told you I was 12, you would most likely assume I have zero experience in managing people. If I told you I was 105 you're probably going to think, “she probably doesn't even know how to even use a CRM.”
Rather than leading with your age, why not lead with your value? Tell me about how you saved the organization money or time. Tell me about a technical integration that you were a part of, teams you led into an unknown by bringing structure to an environment. Share these things and you share your relevance.
Another way this can happen is they left the workforce to take care of a sick family member or to raise children for 1 to 10 years.
I think caregiving is a beautiful thing and should not hold you back or make you feel irrelevant. Nor do I believe that a downturn in the economy due to an unprecedented event known as COVID-19 makes you irrelevant. When you’re faced with a task that is unknown it forces you to get comfortable with the uncomfortable and incredibly resourceful to create a structure for your environment that did not exist previously. If you can create a structure where there previously was none, utilize resources that don't seem readily available to you, every company needs you. Employers need somebody that will walk into the unknown and use the resources they have to solve issues. You are relevant!
I am irrelevant because: I haven’t been in the (fill in the blank) industry in a long time (or ever).
Here’s a little secret, it’s not about the industry, it’s about how your specific skills fit the task needed in the industry that you want to be a part of. Write a resume for that, create a LinkedIn profile for that! When you speak to your skills they transcend any environment. In fact, I hate that LinkedIn has you choose an industry on your profile. I call BS on that LinkedIn, please change this! The industry does not matter to me, it's the skills that you gather along the way and how they affect whatever business or industry you’re a part of that matters much much more. (If you're a doctor, stay in healthcare, but pretty much everything else you can move around).
I am irrelevant because: I’ve only worked for 1 company OR I’ve worked for the same company for 10/25/35 years.
If you’ve been in the same environment for a long time, there’s a good chance it’s eating away at your confidence. It’s blinding you to your gifts because 1) you’ve been doing the same type of role for so long you don’t think you’re doing anything special and 2) you’re underappreciated because you work in a toxic environment. This environment is similar to being in a bad relationship where somebody constantly says to you nobody else is ever going to love you as much as I do. That’s a scarcity mentality and it makes you think that you're not valuable.
First and foremost if you’ve been with a company more than a few years you’ve typically had at least 1 job change up the corporate ladder. This shows you’ve grown with the company and that you’re loyal. Loyalty still matters. And if the company you’ve been with has gone through a lot of turmoil there's a good chance that you're more comfortable in the unknown and you’ve had to get resourceful. Relevance, party of 1, your table is now available.
I truly hope that if you are saying any of these things to yourself that you now see your value, relevancy, and the spectacular gifts you have that you can provide to your next organization. Promise me today that you will go out in the marketplace and you will share your gifts. If you're still curious about how to do that and want a step-by-step guide to exactly how to do this I want you to join my course waitlist because you, my friend, are relevant.
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