Making the most of the economic downturn

In the current global economic environment, Australian businesses are more cautious and many are tightening their belts. Although the volume of opportunities may be less, there are still a lot of attractive executive roles coming onto the market and there continues to be a shortage of qualified high calibre senior professionals.

Major blue chip companies will continue with relative normality and some companies and industries such as pharmaceutical, healthcare, and IT&T are actually developing and growing.

At the same time, some organisations are restructuring and up-skilling their workforce to ensure they have the best people in place to take them forward, creating opportunities for high calibre senior talent.

Here are some tips and observations on how you can make the most of this challenging economic climate to ensure you stand out from the crowd:

Upgrade your skills
An economic downturn is a great time to upgrade your skills and can open up additional career opportunities. It can be anything from getting an additional degree in your area of expertise or getting a degree in a field adjacent to yours to taking on additional responsibilities and getting involved in high profile projects which impact the bottom line or support business growth. 

Refresh your CV
Take a look at your CV and spend some time refining it so that it reflects your key strengths and achievements. Provide tangible examples of how you have contributed to improving the bottom line or how you have streamlined business operations. For example, you may have implemented a new system which saved the company AUD $1 million.

Remain visible
At the executive level, 80 per cent of jobs are found through networking. Attend professional events, conferences and business networking drinks to ensure you keep your name in front of prospective companies. Now is also a perfect time to register with Michael Page and discuss your options. It could be that there is an exciting opportunity just around the corner.

Be flexible
As the job market becomes more fluid it helps if you are prepared to be flexible about your terms of employment. Where a role may have once been permanent, you may find that the same position is now offered on a contract or temporary basis. 

Relaxing your job search criteria in terms of remuneration or industry sector will offer you even greater flexibility and open up additional career opportunities.

Economic cycles are called cycles for a reason, and there will be light at the end of the tunnel, so go about your job search with confidence, focus and an open mind and you will be rewarded, whatever the economic climate.