Jobshift: How to Prosper in a Workplace without Jobs [Paperback]

I strongly recommend this book for those feeling overwhelmed by the current challenges in the job market. Bridges wrote the best-sellers "Transitions" and "Managing Transitions," and when not authoring has been a management guru for a couple decades. "Job Shift" serves as a primer for managing your own career in what he views as a fundamentally new career marketplace.

The main thesis of his latest book is that our country, and indeed our
world, is currently in the midst of the Second Great Job Shift. The first
was caused by the Industrial Revolution, when people transitioned from
village life to urbania. Along with this shift came a redefinition of the
very meaning of the word, "job." In the village, it meant a task or
project, generally of finite duration and paid fee-for-service if paid at
all. (The etymology of the word "job" apparently goes back to "hauling
dung.") In the Industrial Age, a "job" was actually a position in the hierarchy of a company, with a clearly-defined set of responsibilities and paid a salary. As long as one stayed properly within the confines of the job description, one could count on advancement up the organizational ladder.

The current Second Great Job Shift, according to Bridges, is the Death of the Job, at least as it has been defined for the past two hundred years.
The Information Age is forcing companies to move and respond more quickly to shifts in markets while at the same time allowing increased automation of information processing. Companies are replacing the traditional corporate structure with project-oriented organization. People are assigned to projects, and performance is evaluated based on the project's outcome, not on how well one fits into some job description.

Bridges has recommendations for individuals, companies, and even
governments for addressing and dealing with this Job Shift. While I'm not entirely convinced that I agree with all of Bridges' vision, his argument is extremely powerful and thought-provoking. It is certainly a different approach than I've encountered in other job
search books, and has a certain appeal just on that basis. I highly recommend
it as a well-written source of ideas for anyone in the job market, even those who are happily employed. Instead of telling you how to write a resume or shine in an interview, Bridges looks at the overall job environment, and offers general advice on the mentality and approach needed to advance yourself. Reading this book in close conjunction with Bolles' classic "What Color is Your Parachute?" is a frightening, exciting, and empowering experience. Whether you end up agreeing and taking Bridges' advice or not, I think it is always helpful to get exposed to another way of viewing a problem.

[Longer versions of this review have been previously submitted by the author to the Young Scientists' Network and Network for Emerging Scientists' online discussion forums.]

Here in Northern New Jersey everyone knew, and still knows, all about downsizing and organizational flattening and outsourcing. Since the collapse of the tech-bubble, many of those independent contractors are now looking for work and escaping the computer field alltogether in the face of falling wage rates, excess supply and new entrants from college who expect a lot less!

Revisiting this book gives one the opportunity to rexamine it's claims and, not surprisingly, finds them lacking. To be fair, much of what the originator describes has come to pass but not in the way that he suggests.

The main lesson that I come away with from this book is that markets are so powerful that the competitive environment determines the shape of the organization. Obviously, some would say but this is only half of the story. Combine the power of markets which is, after all, only the result of individuals exercising choices, with a proactive government and you get a pretty unstoppable force. If the dollar is high then imports are [inexpensive] as compared to domestic goods which puts intense competitive pressure on companies who then must cut costs. Add to the mix a policy of a free trade area as NAFTA and a competitive labor market and there is even more pressure on costs. Finally have a boyant stock market and increased wealth and you have lots of venture capital looking for profit. The result, falling unemployment with little inflation and downward intense pressure on costs leading to more business. The picture is muddied somewhat by rising benefits costs but they become a force against rising costs too,

What I am describing is the pressure on business to focus on their core activities and float off internal activities which can be done by service companies contracted for the purpose. Wage bill too high - make workers contractors who then have to pay for their own benefits or better still get the states to introduce basic minimum health care schemes.

This nirvana of the dejobbed economy never really existed. Sure there are more small businesses and self-employed, sure there is more flexibility among the workforce but there is also compulsion, workfare, for the unemployed as well as the requirement for many families to work two, three or more jobs to make ends meet.

Hayek the Nobel prizewinner foresaw the person described in this book many years ago as did his mentor Mises. To be successful they argued the individual must market themselves as a self-entrepreneur. Very true.

This book is an excellent description of a possible future in the light of developments in business at the time. The author is to be commended for the clarity of his thought and exposition. However, he ignores the bigger picture and the implications of a global economy and powerful, interventionist governments. Perhaps he would like to write an update to this book in the light of the events of the last seven years.