10 Signs That Your Career Is At Risk

The most successful people in life consistently transform their economic fortunes

by strategic positioning, the acquisition of relevant knowledge and speedy response

to opportunities. However, some individuals significantly disable themselves from

this process through their career choices and economic positioning. These are

people with limited options who run the risk of being marginalized by the dynamic

and evolving knowledge economy.  Believe it or not, you are under threat of career

stagnation or extinction if: 

1. Your career prospects are only tied to your current job. Some people are

only suitable for a particular job in a particular company. They have a

narrow set of skills and abilities that make it impossible for them to be

employed elsewhere. They therefore hang on to their jobs as if their very

lives depend on them. You must be good enough to be employed at the same

or even a higher level if you had to leave your current job or if your

organisation closed down.  You are at risk if you lack the capacity to rebuild

your career outside your current job. I have seen people who have been in

management before find themselves unemployed for long periods because

they failed to broaden their scope of relevance.  

2. Your career success is dependent on a person. Some people are surviving

in organizations not on merit but by virtue of the fact that they are in the

good books or related to someone in a position of authority. That is not the

right way to build one’s career. Should that person suddenly leave the

business or change their opinion of you, it could mark a certain decline or

demise for you.

3. You only have the minimum qualification for your job. Sometime ago,

certain positions in corporate organisations were filled by people with O-

Level and A-Level qualifications. Things have since changed and today,

many of those hitherto-mundane roles are occupied by university graduates.

Similarly, some positions previously held by graduates are now being

offered to post-graduate applicants. You may still hold such a position by

dint of hard work and long service even though you have a lower

qualification. However, you must not be comfortable there: you are at risk

because you will most likely be the first to go if the company ever needs to

cut its staff numbers. In that case, your options will be very limited because

after leaving the organisation, you are not likely to find the same job or level

elsewhere.

4. You have only one dimension of one skill. Our dynamic world keeps

changing every day and the knowledge and skills we have and work with are

continuously becoming obsolete. If you have only one dimension of the

critical skill you require for your work you are in trouble. Imagine someone

who types excellently on the typewriter but cannot use a computer. That is a

limited dimension of the typing skill that could easily render the person

redundant. The same thing applies to people who get stuck on one machine

or only one model of the key machine used in their work. The rapid rate of

change in technology implies that you must update yourself and consistently

keep abreast in order to retain the same position. If you refuse to upgrade

yourself or migrate to newer models of the machines you work with, you

reduce your chances of earning more and growing in your organisation. Do

not leave things to chance. Start improving your skills today. 

5. You can be replaced by someone more competent at a lower cost. What

would you do as an employer if someone with a low competence level wants

to get paid more and you are aware of better and cheaper alternatives? That

is the challenge facing many people today. They are not at the cutting edge

of their fields but are sadly unaware or unconcerned about it. There has been

a lot of lobbying in the USA because competent Information Technology

(IT) professionals from India are available for half the price of their

American counterparts and are thus knocking them out of business.

Incidentally, the hue and cry that led to the unfortunate xenophobic attacks

in South Africa in 2008 were partly because migrant workers from other

African countries were alleged to be offering better service at lower cost to

employers and thus marginalising the locals. You are at risk if your potential

employer can find more competent and cheaper alternatives not just from

your country but from any part of the world. Globalisation has made it

possible for organisations to look anywhere in the world for the skills they

need. Your competition is therefore no longer restricted to your geographical

jurisdiction.

6. You can easily be replaced by a machine. With rising costs of labour

especially in more advanced economies, technologies and machines are

consistently being designed to significantly reduce the number of people

who operate them. This trend means that future production processes will

become more integrated and require significantly less hands. As a result,

unskilled workers in many fields will find themselves competing with

machines for their jobs. And considering that machines do not come with all

the human resource costs and uncertainties that come with employing

people, the natural consequence is marginalisation and removal of such

people.

7. You are functionally illiterate. Formal education opens one up to the world

and lays a foundation on which other educational structures must be built.

One cannot possibly acquire all the knowledge one needs for career success

from the classroom. Indeed, people often study subjects in school that have

little or no direct relevance to the industries in which they operate. One

could therefore conclude that the primary role of educational qualification is

to open the career door. After entry, there is no point flaunting the degree

because qualifications by themselves do not solve the problems that plague

organisations on a daily basis. What really makes a difference is the

industry-specific or relevant knowledge that you acquire along the way

either at school, through courses and seminars or by careful observation,

reading and personal study. If you are not appropriately informed or

educated about the work you do and the industry in which you operate, you

are likely to be marginalised as your company continues to grow and the

marketplace becomes more competitive.

8. You cannot survive six months without working. One of the easiest ways

to measure financial independence is the ability of the individual to live a

normal life for six months if for some reason they find themselves out of

work or unable to earn an income. If you have not invested to the point

where your stocks or assets can tide you over a six-month period, your

career progress could easily be derailed by circumstances. While speaking in

a conference in the United States, we met a young man who had lost

everything because he suffered a domestic accident that left him bedridden

for three months and unable to work. His first challenge was that he was

uninsured: that meant he got no compensation for his injuries. Subsequently,

he also lost his job and ended up at home for the most part of that year. He

suddenly found himself unable to pay his mortgage and bills. At the time we

met him, his home was being foreclosed while his cars had been

repossessed. From a well-paying job and comfortable conditions, the guy

found himself unemployed and almost homeless within a short space of

time.

9. You do not have what it takes to make it in another country. If you lack

the talent, language or skills to earn a living in any other country than the

one you are living and working in, you could also be at risk. In today’s

globalised economy, you could find yourself having to live in another

country when you did not plan for it. Political instability in parts of the

world has made this a reality for many. Alternatively, opportunities related

to your field could open so wide in another country that it would be

imperative for you to work there for a while to advance your career. If your

knowledge, skills and experience are so local that they are not relevant

abroad, you deny yourself the chance to participate.  Moreover, if you are

only a vernacular speaker and cannot communicate in any international

language, you are likely to further reduce your options.

10.You are forgetful, careless and lack attention to detail. Information is an

important currency for personal and organisational development. In most job

assignments, one of the most critical requirements for success is the ability

to observe, assimilate, store or retrieve relevant information when needed. If

you are forgetful or careless, you could easily ignore or mishandle important

data and thus restrict your career progress. Information is about fine details.

Sometimes one misplaced dot or comma can totally distort the value or

meaning of an important business transaction. If you are not detail-oriented

and are in the habit of making careless mistakes, you will never be a

favourite with any boss and are likely to suffer career stagnation 

 We live in a constantly changing world. 31 billion questions are asked on Google

every month. With over 750 subscribers Facebook would have been the world’s

third most populous country if it were one. Social networks are the most dominant

activity on the internet and have redefined the face of communication and business

the world over. In the face of rapid changes, globalisation and increased

competition, individuals who are not equipped with requisite knowledge, skills,

competence and versatility will find themselves becoming dinosaurs in the 21st

Century.