Little optimism goes long way

While Canadians, and particularly newsmakers, have always had a pessimistic habit of believing that when the United States economy catches a cold, Canada will also automatically suffer, this has not proven to be totally true during these past few years. Yes, Ontario, especially the auto-heavy industrial areas have suffered, the oil patch has slowed down and manufacturing businesses in Manitoba have felt the squeeze, but if we are honest with ourselves, we would recognize that Canada as a whole hasn't fared too badly.

So, as you move gently into 2010, I implore you to ignore the continuing controversy and conflicting opinions between our banking leaders and the federal finance minister. Throw out and ignore those overused negative words such as pessimism and recession and concentrate instead on optimism. Optimism is not just a "Pollyanna -- everything is wonderful" attitude; it's a powerful and proven success tool for everything we do in our careers, our business and our lives. But at the same time, optimism is indeed a choice; it is a choice of how you wish to respond to the things that happen around you.

Chances are that if you could find just one shred of light in spite of overwhelming challenge, if you could focus on and anticipate just one positive outcome from your stressful event, then what you are doing is creating a sense of personal power that will help success come true.

Optimism isn't about denying problems, it's about understanding what is within your realm of control, always looking for opportunity and finding creative solutions that can create career and life satisfaction.

If that's the case, it should be easy to be optimistic as we look at the changing career paradigms and the 2010 career and life trend opportunities. First and foremost, there is a profound change in general career philosophy that has been brewing for some time and is now a reality. This is that people can't expect to have one single, longitudinal career path over their lifetime. Rather, they will experience several alternative jobs and sometimes very different career paths.

Believe it or not, it wasn't long ago that people felt guilty and were frankly judged quite harshly if they didn't follow that longitudinal career path up the corporate ladder. So the message from the new generation career philosophy is that there is no need to "feel bad" because you wish to change careers and/or because you had to retrain because your profession or trade is declining.

As well, the new career paradigm is all about life/work balance and continuous learning, it's more about developing personal competencies than focusing on job titles and it's about integrating creative and innovative ways to retain employees of all ages in order to create a diverse workforce. With this in mind, let's look at the industry sectors that are predicted to provide multiple opportunities in 2010 and beyond.

While we don't expect any Y2K computer crises, the field of information technology is predicted to continue dominating job creation in the economy with as much as a 100 per cent growth in the field. Software engineers, network administrators, data analysts and database administrators, systems analysts and computer support specialists are jobs to look at. At the same time, with information technology becoming such a big part of how we do business every day, employees will need to ensure they continually upgrade and keep their skills current.

Everyone knows that the baby boomer employees have started their march toward retirement and this will only increase as time goes on. So what does this mean for the job market? First of all, in the technology sector, it will mean more career opportunities in e-health or health information systems and medical records. And as the aging population creates more stress for the health system as a whole, more job creation will occur at all levels of the health-care career spectrum. This includes physicians, nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech and language pathologists. Another spinoff growth area will be those in medical assistant jobs such as health-care aides, home health-care aides and therapy assistants as well as job roles such as fitness instructors and nutrition consultants.

The business service industry is also predicted to continue growing as it is now well known that the service sector has replaced the production of goods as our principal form of economic activity. Traditionally, we think of the service industry as accountants, lawyers, management consultants, financial advisory, insurance, real estate, education, restaurants and retail outlets for clothing, books, shoes, home accessories, furniture and equipment of all kinds. Yet one only has to look around to see the spectacular growth in personal care spas, yoga and martial-arts studios, diet centres, scrapbooking outlets and golf courses to know that these too are becoming economic engines on their own.

Two additional service areas that support the day-to-day operation and management of businesses are also creating significant job opportunities. For instance, Human Resources and Social Development Canada predicts that by 2014, the building services field will represent 50 per cent of all service sector jobs. These jobs include janitorial, landscaping, carpet, window and chimney cleaning and will be found in both private homes as well as businesses.

Another area of promising career growth is the security service area. Where security of physical and intellectual previously took a back seat, the escalation of both local and global fraud, identity and intellectual property theft, and vandalism has increased the interest and demand for all kinds of protection. This has created a whole new area of practice for lawyers as well as security practitioners who work in the area of remote monitoring and electronic security systems, or provide armoured cars, locksmithing and investigation services.

Closely related to security are the issues of risk management, which has blossomed into multiple careers in finance, engineering and workplace health and safety. In fact, entirely new professions have now been created within this field.

So, as you move into the year 2010, throw out those pessimistic words in your vocabulary and look at the phenomenal opportunities ahead of you. If you intend to stay in the workforce, there will be plenty of careers and jobs available for you. If you intend to ease into retirement, there are plenty of service industries that will literally keep you busy all day as well as wait on and pamper you at night.

Source: Why Optimism Fuels success, Dr. Jill Ammon Wexler, 2006. Source: Human Resources and Social Development Canada, Canadian Occupational Projection System forecast (2014)

Barbara J. Bowes, is president of Legacy Bowes Group a leading human resource and executive search firm. She is also author of three books and host of the weekly BowesKnows radio show. She can be reached at barb@legacybowes.com

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition January 9, 2010 I1