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Obstinacy in the face of change is never productive. The business world of today is in a constant state of change as new ways of doing things are always being developed. When one career seems to be rapidly reaching the end of its profitable life, a new career can breathe new life into anyone's existence. Preparing for a new career is challenging, rewarding and, sometimes, doesn't even mean seeking a new employer.
While working at the same job for the entirety of one's working life was once a goal of most people, that security has been replaced by a world where being flexible is one of the most important things an employee can offer their company. Employers need a workforce that is ready, and willing, to adapt to new challenges as they come along. For the company, this sort of a mindset can spell the difference between success and failure. Starting a new career often means training, something toward which some employees may have varying degrees of resistance.
It's always frightening to face the premise of one's job becoming obsolete but it is a fact of life for almost every worker. The auto assembly lines of the mid-twentieth century moved from human power to mechanized power within the span of a few decades. Employees today face similar threats to their livelihood. Many jobs that once took two or three people to staff can now be done by a single employee with one piece of equipment. When an employee is faced with a new career, that career is often tending to the machine that performs much of their former workload.
Even within the technology sector itself, skills that were once vital can soon become outdated. Consider how important individuals capable of designing, installing and maintaining Ethernet networks once were. Today, many of those individuals may still work in the same sector, but their new career is one that involves performing the same tasks for the wireless networks that have become the standard for business and home users. With the right training, such changes are not only manageable, they can be enormously profitable.
Most new careers, especially for individuals who already have enjoyed success in one career or another, actually involve offshoots of their former career. A skilled marketer, for instance, may find that they need to become a skilled Internet marketer to compete for work. A skilled newspaper writer may take up a career as a writer for Internet sites. The trepidation felt by workers about all of their skills becoming outdated is oftentimes misplaced. More often than not, those skills are needed, simply in a new form.
Informing employees that their skills are still vital, but that they need updating, can greatly assuage their fears of being laid off or let go altogether. It can make them eager to embrace new ways of doing their work instead of resistant to change. Helping employees find a new career within an existing company can engender great loyalty.