Job Search Paradigm Shifts are Fun

Ever since my Honors “Philosophy of Science” class back in 1994, I’ve been a huge fan of the “paradigm shift”, if for no other reason than I love that word…paradigm. In that class we were studying the outdated theory of “phologiston” and the scientist - Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier - who debunked it after fighting a long hard fight against the “intellectual” powers that be/were.

Now, Jason Alba over at JibberJobber suggests a new paradigm shift, and one that’s easier to grasp than that crazy phologiston. Jason, you see, claims that job search is “out” and career management is “in”. What’s that mean exactly? Basically, it’s Jason’s own approach to the “job hunt”. Of course, it’s not really the “job hunt” for Jason because a) he’s not searching for a job any more and b) he wouldn’t refer to it as a job hunt so much as, perhaps, a “career development safari”.

Jason says specifically:

Before I get to some differences that I have brainstormed, I have to admit one of my personal characteristics. As a trained computer programmer I tend to try and figure out how to create a process that can be duplicated. So, if I’m going to change jobs “nine more times” what can I do that I can reuse during any of those nine job changes?

I’ve worked with programmers quite a bit. In fact, it’s one of the primary things I do in my “job”. And there is nothing I like more than the concept of creating a great process that can be replicated. This approach is efficient, sleek and, well, it’s right. Of course, I’ve never actually applied Jason’s concepts to my career, only to application and site development, but I think Jason’s onto something, which is why I also think that JibberJobber, which is based on the concept of “career management”, is a good tool.

There is one thing that I would add to Jason’s concept. Rather than a paradigm shift, I think the “career management” approach actually represents an evolutionary step, and one that is all-inclusive. In short, job search isn’t really “out”, as I suggested of Jason’s model, it’s just that it’s not the entire focus. Job search is simply a smaller part of a larger approach, that being “career management”. Put another way, job search and career management are not mutually exclusive and, in truth, everyone engaging in career management must still conduct a job search, even if that search involves steps that don’t actually appear to be a “search”. Those engaged only in a job search, however, don’t necessarily engage in career management. In fact, they’ll be perfectly capable of finding a job by conducting a job search and not working on the career management aspect - as Jason would likely note, however, they wouldn’t be maximizing their career potential by doing so.

Tags: career management, Jason Alba, Jibber Jobber, job search

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