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Job security has joined the pay phone and carbon paper. It's no longer a part of the world of work. Employers may promise it, but they can't deliver it. The global marketplace is just too dynamic, too unpredictable.

Does that mean there is no security in the workplace? Absolutely not. The kind of security you can achieve, however, is unlike that historically promised by your employers. If you want to be secure at work -- and who doesn't -- you need "career security." It's the ability to stay employed in a job of your choice, regardless of the state of the economy.

As many of us have painfully learned in today's recession, job security is controlled by employers. It is provided at their discretion and only when it serves their bottom line. Career security, in contrast, is something you create. It is a protective shield that you erect by taking two important steps.

First, you must become a career activist. That's a person who throws off their passivity and takes charge of their career. They don't wait around for their employer, their boss or their mentor to do it. They don't hunker down and hang on, hoping that someone will sprinkle pixie dust on them. A career activist decides that they would rather be the master of their career than its victim, so they climb in the driver's seat and set its course.

Second, you must keep your career moving. You are a living organism which means either you're growing or you're dead. The same is true of your career. Either you're extending the strength, reach and endurance of your career or you're in the throes of career cardiac arrest ... or what we all know as unemployment.

How do you keep your career in motion? By setting and working continuously toward 3 goals:

Your Achievement Goal is something you can accomplish in the next six-to-twelve months. It identifies an outcome you can achieve in your current job, such as a step-up in your performance, the completion of a special project, the solution to an especially tough problem or the resolution of an issue that has degraded your work. It enables you to give your employer a fulsome return on its investment in you and to give yourself a "career victory" that is meaningful and useful for you.

Your Advancement Goal is an objective you can reach in the next three-to-five years. It identifies the next job you want to hold or the next level of work you want to be able to perform. It may involve your current employer or it may require that you move to another work situation, but it will always represent a major leap forward in your capability and contribution in the workplace. Your advancement goal should stretch you beyond your current level of performance, but also be a realistic challenge. It is a brass ring, but one that you have a reasonable chance of grabbing.

Your Development Goal is the bridge between your achievement goal and your advancement goal. It enables you to build on the success you accomplish in the near term by adding the supplemental skills and knowledge that prepare you to conquer each of the challenges you identify for the longer term in your career. Your development goal transforms you from a stationary state to one in motion, from operating as a worker-in-place to the continual growth of a worker-in-progress.

A career activist doesn't have crystal ball. They have no better insight than others about which path the economy will take. They are certain, however, of one thing: a stationary target is much easier to hit than a moving one. That's why they actively manage their careers and keep them moving forward all of the time.

Thanks for reading,
Peter

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