Career planning during a tough economy calls for logical thinking. Yet it’s easy to get caught up in a swirl of emotions. You have to deal with
rumors, fears and uncertainty. In my experience, the best course of action will not seem immediately obvious. But here’s what I recommend, based on years of living through economic cycles.

Begin by turning off the news. Stop buying newspapers that display scary headlines about jobs and sales forecasts. Be especially wary of news networks and programs. They have to come up with stories every day and they like to evoke strong emotion.

Journalists are wonderful people but they need startling headlines. They work on a case basis, highlighting extreme experiences. What’s
happening “out there” may not make any difference to you. I talk to people every day who are changing jobs, getting raises and moving up with promotions.With the time you save by not watching news programs, grow your network of positive, successful people.

This one action alone can get you on the right track. You get ideas and connections that will move you to your goals. You get inspiration to develop new goals.

Sadly, you may have to bite the bullet and release negative people from your life. Don’t be too quick to drop someone who’s having a bad day.

But every time I’ve moved away from one negative source, two positive people arrive unexpectedly.

Finally, take the most difficult step: create a second stream of income before you need one. Use your evenings and weekends to take the first step.

For example, “Karla” needs more money. She wants to enjoy life and buy a lot more, but she realizes she can’t get a raise at work.

Since Karla is still working, she cannot violate her employer’s rules on second jobs. More important, she needs to think outside the box. One city government official works in accounting and runs a lawn care business on weekends. He loves it. He gets out in the fresh air. He gets to be physical rather than cerebral. And his target market wants his services on weekends, when he has no obligations to his employer.

You might also consider developing online income. Avoid the “Get Rich Quick” schemes. To earn revenue on the Internet, you have to invest
some time and energy. Chances are you can use find a business model to fit your own talents, preferences and skills.

Finally, some advice doesn’t change in any economy. While you are still working and secure, create your Plan B. Even in a high-performing
environment, we are all vulnerable. After all, you might wake up one day and realize your job or your business is making you sick. This situation is extremely rare and I never advise anyone to quit a job without another one waiting. But it could happen.

Your Plan B includes provision for health insurance, alternative income sources and a clear idea of how you will support yourself for the next six months to two years. It’s scary to put all these components together when you’re under the gun. So if your job feels comfortable or you’ve just started a job, make creating a Plan B your first priority.

Most of the companies still use traditional methods of hiring such as, interviews, resume reviews, background screening, etc. HR professionals still follow the several, decades old pattern of personality assessments but in a quicker and efficient way, which will yield accurate results. Employee assessments tools are extremely beneficial in realizing the results are quantifiable and go a long way in ascertaining the work style and behavioral attributes of potential employees before they set foot into your company. In-fact they take out the guesswork involved in recruiting the employees who can work together.

Suppose you have shortlisted two candidates for a job. Both of them are well qualified and possess all the technical expertise needed for the job. Whom will you choose to fill up the vacancy? Personality assessment tests will help you to ascertain their non-technical qualities through a series of questions and enable you to judge the work style of a person, ability to work in a team, judgment power and goal orientation.

The major benefit of the assessment tools is not confined to the hiring process, but also used as an effective tool of employee retention. The assessment tool will identify the gap between employee work style and job needs. They provide you a road map for recruitment of prospective employees and the further development of essential traits such as, leadership ability, individual development, team communications and conflict resolution. It will also help the employees to make better, satisfying and successful career choices.

Nowadays, employee personality assessment tool is absolutely tailor made for clients to choose the types of behaviors that are most significant for their particular jobs and work culture of the organization. More and more companies are using these tests to hire skilled and reliable employees. Use Pro.file pre employment and employee personality assessment tests to improve organizational performance. Assess and align staff behavior to achieve optimal performance!

Pro.file Performance System™ is a world class behavioral assessment and development technology designed to help build high performance organizations. Through a combination of insightful executive education, proprietary assessment technology and experienced consulting input, they help organizations to more effectively and consistently recruit, retain, develop and manage their human resources. By aligning an individual’s natural thinking, behaviors and motivation to your specific positions and organizational culture, a higher level of performance, productivity and positive morale results.