Glass Half-Empty/Glass Half-Full Preparedness

Like so many people, I've been reading (at least as much as my stomach can take anyway as my capacity for 'bad news' is easily overwhelmed these days) about what it might take to get us out of this economic mudslide...and specifically what the 'new world' after this will look like. Luckily, I am (and hopefully will continue to be) employed; however, it's beyond stupid from a consumer view, as well as a forward-thinking employee view, to not try and prepare for the path ahead. So these are the kinds of questions I've been asking:

• What industries do we know for certain are gone (or at least on life support)?

• What careers and employees will still be around looking for jobs, but the jobs have been permanently downsized, sent overseas, etc?

• What fields and/or jobs will be in demand once this recovery really takes hold?

• What can towns and cities start doing now to attract those new careers and technologies of the future?

These are the kind of questions I've asked at some recent professional development/networking meetings as of late...and sadly, no one seems to know the answers. Not in my professional online forums, not in meeting with some local university career counselors, not even at my local Chamber of Commerce networking functions. I'm not exaggerating to say that the majority of what I've read/heard has a good deal of 'mental panic' associated with it...i.e., that no one is looking forward to what the future holds because the present situation is so damn scary. That's a perfectly legitimate response to a point...the point when one realizes that a lack of strategic planning for the future back then is a good chunk of how we got in the quagmire we are in now.

I'm still looking for some answers (and am always open to suggestions from others, so please don't hesitate to let me know yours), but I'll bring you a couple of two differing views I've found:

• Tuesday's (January 12, 2010) very sobering article from the Wall Street Journal: "Even in a Recovery, Some Jobs Won't Return"
• James Fallows' optimistic, but still slightly guarded piece, from the January/February 2010 issue of The Atlantic: "How America Can Rise Again"
  
  

Reality bites, even if we sugar-coat it, sell it en mass on late night television, and put it on the 30-year installment pay plan. Call me a sadist if you will, but I'd rather like to take my dose of medicine now and start the healing process so hopefully I won't have to suffer through this affliction again. The world of yesterday we knew so well has forever been changed...let us learn from those lessons as we try to navigate toward the world of tomorrow.

And let us all learn to be a bit more pro-active, and less like sheep, as we move forward, too.