Module 5 Discussion Fall 2022
Chapter 14 Facilitating the Global Job Search in a Digital Age
Things to Remember
The numerous uses of the Internet in the job search process
The skills needed by the job hunter
Types of job-placement services available to the job hunter
The approaches to job placement used by educational institutions
Twenty-two million workers were unemployed or underemployed in November, 2013. Underemployed workers are those workers who are employed part-time and are seeking full-time employment. There are also likely to be millions of workers who are employed full time and want to change jobs. The result: Job seekers are facing one of the most difficult employment climates since the Great Depression, when the unemployment rate ranged from approximately 16 percent in 1932 to about 14.5 percent in 1940 (History.com, 2013). Fortunately, today’s job hunter has a variety of resources available that were undreamed of until the 1930s. For example, the United States Employment Security Agency was not initiated until 1933 (Guzda, 1983).
Unfortunately, job creation in the United States has not kept pace with the demand for jobs. It also seems clear that job growth in some other countries, particularly China and India, may outpace job growth in the United States, partially because lower labor costs allow them to compete successfully with the United States and the Eurozone. It seems certain that serious job hunters will consider international jobs with increasing frequency now and in the future. However, job hunters—including dropouts, high school and college graduates, veterans, displaced adults, and others—should look first at the American workplace. Regardless of the geographic region targeted, individuals need a variety of traditional and contemporary job hunting skills, including identifying job openings with websites such as CareerOneStop and Monster, using software packages and websites, posting resumes and filing job applications on the Internet, and engaging in virtual job interviews with Skype and other software programs if they are to find suitable employment. It also means that cultural competency and understanding must take center stage for workers who hope to be successful in securing employment in other countries. This chapter begins by addressing the job search and then focuses on using placement services and other agencies in the job search.
The Job Search
The job-search process is fraught with anxiety for job seekers, whether they are seeking their first jobs or looking for new ones. Gaining employment not only ensures economic stability but also validates the worth of an individual to some degree. Those who have lost their jobs as a result of economic downturns, technological advances, or other reasons may have already suffered blows to their self-esteem; success in the job-search process may become even more important for them. Social support may offset some of the anxiety experienced by job seekers and in doing so increase their potential for success. The point is that career development specialists engaged in facilitating the job search must attend to psychological issues and the emotional state of the job seeker (Brewington, Nassar-McMillan, Flowers, & Furr, 2004; Subich, 1994).
Employability Skills
The task of developing the job-hunting skills needed in today’s labor market is daunting. It often requires the use of various types of technologies and therefore may be particularly scary for older workers who have not kept abreast of technological developments. Historically, job seekers have relied on self-help books and attended group meetings in high schools, colleges, and as a part of the career development programs in their workplaces to develop these skills. Fortunately, the One-Stop Career Center’s website, state-level Department of Labor sites such as Virginia Career View, and a number of proprietary sites offer instruction and advice that can help job seekers gain the skills they need. The Riley Guide, a website by Margaret Riley Dikel, lists more than a dozen sections devoted to improving job search skills, ranging from using the Internet to avoiding the scams that promise job seekers more than they intend to deliver for a “small fee.” Some sites (boards) also contain job postings for North and South America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, the British Isles, Scandinavia, and Asia and the Pacific Rim countries, including Australia. Monster also offers many of the same types of tips and publications found on Riley and instead of offering job listings by region provides job listings for over 50 countries.
The questions for each job seeker are these: What is the best means of developing the skills I need to be successful in the job hunt? Should I use self-help guides? Internet publications and tips? Classes or small groups? A 20-year-old study by Eden and Avarim (1993) provides a partial answer for today; some job seekers need more than self-directed activities. They designed an eight-week workshop that employed cognitive strategies to increase job hunters’ self-efficacy and job-search activities. They found that their intervention was more helpful for people who had low self-efficacy at the outset and that reemployment increased dramatically for this group. Platt, Husband, Hermalin, Cater, and Metzger (1993) also used cognitive behavioral approaches in an attempt to increase the reemployment of drug abusers on methadone maintenance. They found that African American clients in the treatment groups were far more likely to be employed than their counterparts in the control groups, but they found no significant difference in the employment of white clients in the experimental and control groups.
What these two studies illustrate is that group interventions can be useful in the development of employability skills. Two other observations can be made on the basis of the results of these studies. First, the treatments did not work equally well for all groups involved, suggesting the need to tailor the types of interventions used to the needs of the clients. Second, in the study conducted by Platt and colleagues (1993), only 15 percent of the people in the experimental groups had jobs after one year. This suggests that employability skills training cannot overcome other obstacles to employment, such as substance abuse or inadequate preparation for the job. Not surprisingly, Eck (1993) found a direct link between the ability of job hunters to secure jobs and the extent to which their education prepared them to perform the job. The implication of this finding is clear. Today’s job hunters need to locate jobs and prequalify themselves before submitting applications or resumes.
Finally, employability skills training and initial employment and reemployment may be tempered by another variable: social support. Rife and Belcher (1993) found that workers who had the greatest degree of social support for their job-hunting activities spent more hours searching for jobs and made more employer contacts than those who did not have this support. Unemployed friends were judged to be better sources of support than employed friends and relatives in this study. This research provides direct support for many of the group-oriented activities, such as job clubs, described later in this section. Facebook, Twitter, and other types of social media can play a key role in the job search if they are used to provide social support and tips about job openings and employability skills.
Legislation, including the School-to-Work Opportunities Act, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA), includes provisions for supplying transitional activities—a term that includes teaching and helping individuals locate and obtain jobs. JTPA programs are in a position to provide this type of group help to disadvantaged individuals, including school dropouts, displaced homemakers, dislocated workers, and some others. Career counselors in secondary and postsecondary institutions are also positioned to provide assistance to students who are about to complete their educational programs. Community agencies often sponsor support groups or directly operate programs that provide this assistance to other members of the community who need and want help.
At the high school level, units on job-search techniques can be incorporated into several courses or established as electives. Special activities such as career days or job fairs during or outside regular school hours are also useful. The content is usually based either on a brief textbook or, more often, on a workbook or manual. Examples of materials available for this purpose include those by Bloch (2000), Wegman, Chapman, and Johnson (1989), and Farr (2011). It is worth noting that state informational websites, such as Texas Workforce: Youth Information and Services or the North Carolina Career Resource Network, include material that can be used with high school students. A wide range of materials that can be used in classes and small groups of college-level students and adults is available. Most of these materials are designed for self-help but can easily be adapted for group activities.
One approach that is being used in JTPA and community groups to help those actually engaged in the job-search process is job clubs (Azrin & Besadel, 1979; Hansen, 2010; Murray, 1993). These authors propose the formation of groups that not only provide support and encouragement but also help members improve their interview skills through role playing; clarify and sharpen their goals through group efforts; share tips with other members as possible leads appear; and seek group solutions to problems such as child care, transportation, and others. Again, social media such as Twitter and Facebook can serve as a valuable aid in these types of activities.
When job clubs include a support group whose members face common problems, the advantages of this approach are obvious. Members work together to resolve problems that frequently cause failure in the job search, to improve access to information about possible openings through networking, and to build skills in job-seeking techniques. The approach is clearly