One thing we continue to emphasize at RBG is following opportunity. This is key because by smartly pursuing it, you can make the most of your productivity and hopefully that of both your professional and career growth, too.
Here are some tools to help you better examine opportunity. These tools come in the form of questions you need to ask in order to find out of if the prospective industry or line of work is a viable one to enter.
- How many positions are available within the given company (or within its industry)?
- How often do they hire within the company or industry? Conversely, how long do employees stay at the company (or within the industry)?
- How competitive is the job market for this line of work? In other words, are there few openings and lots of applicants, or vice-versa?
Now for some examples to apply these questions.
Start with, say, graphic design. On the surface, it seems like a dream for us visual thinkers with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The problem is, it’s a difficult industry to break into. There are few openings for such jobs, with lots of applicants for each position. Why? Is it not self-explanatory? It’s a fun job. You get to make cool images and graphics all day long, and would get paid to do it. What’s not to love? Answer: the lack of opportunity to do such a thing professionally, that’s what.
Theoretically, you could do freelance graphic design, but you’d have to spend a good bulk of your time trying to find customers, building a client base, and scrounging for the next design gig. All that said, it still merits further exploration, but for now, if you’re up to those difficulties, good luck. You’ll need it.
Now look at, say, school counselor. Granted, not exactly the kind of job for those of us with ASD, but it nevertheless is a good exercise. Ask yourself the following questions: how many elementary, junior high, and high schools are there in (choose the following: your city; your county, your state, even nationwide)? How many school counselors are there per school? The answer there is usually only one, maybe two. Now go further and ask yourself, what is the turnover rate in that position? Most counselors I have seen keep that job until a better one comes along elsewhere (or they have to move because of the spouse’s job), which does not happen too often. Usually, they hang out there until they retire. That’s a long time to wait for such a new opening. Once you do that math, it’s pretty obvious that there is not much opportunity in that sort of position.
Back to a graphic design tangent: what about a job in the printing industry? You get to operate machinery; you get to print interesting batches of all sorts for and many different purposes (marketing/advertising, personal, political, etc.). Occasionally you might be called upon to put your design skills to use. So, is that a good opportunity?
Again, ask the key questions. How often do they hire in this industry? Is there much industry turnover? The answers to the respective questions are, not very often (unless it’s sales), and no. I once asked a printing industry insider about the latter concern. She told me that it’s a job/industry that “gets under your skin”. That is to say, folks who get into this industry quickly develop a liking to it, and they don’t want to leave it.
This leads us to another question to ask:
- Are companies/organizations within this industry growth-oriented?
Sometimes opportunity can manifest itself by a company growing, whereby new positions are created – positions that need people to be hired to fill them. In the case of the printing industry, that is rarely the case. We would thus be wise to look elsewhere.
One needs not to answer every one of these questions in the affirmative. For example, if the company has lots of turnover due to the nature of work, that still creates opportunity for a new applicant to shine: an applicant who can handle the job’s rigors. Granted, the turnover could also be due to a toxic organizational culture, in which case, avoid that company. On the other hand, if there is not much turnover in a company but it is growth-oriented, new positions for hire shall arise as a necessary result.
Meanwhile, employee turnover rates are nothing to overlook. Go online to job-posting sites (CareerBuilder, ZipRecruiter, Indeed, etc.). Notice all the jobs for: welder; nurse; truck driver. Again, organizations are always looking to hire them, in part because of the turnover rate.
But by that token, such turnover creates opportunity for those are who are determined to be productive and determined to prove that they can do as good a job as anybody. In case you, the dear reader, did not pick up on that clue, that includes you (and if not, it had better!).
All that said, opportunity is elsewhere, too. Yes, the three types of high-turnover jobs mentioned above are potentially viable opportunities under certain conditions, and they all merit further exploration. But it is very important to note that the aforementioned jobs we have already covered are those where one can answer these questions in the affirmative to certain extents. Simply put, many companies need engineers. All companies and organizations need accountants and IT professionals. All those jobs involve in-demand skills. This applies to many other places: dealerships and garages need skilled mechanics. Certain service companies need plumbers. You get the idea.
The bottom is line is, this article is intended as a tool to help us all be smarter about where to apply our productivity, and to guide the development of our skills to allow for optimal productivity and growth. By being smart about what lines of work to enter, we shall all be in better positions to learn and grow together.