Are you employable ? Consider changing the fit !

The last thing that an unemployed person wants to hear is that he is unemployable. It is an experience most of us, including me can relate to. I recollect how much I and my friends and colleagues used to get angry at the "experience" column of job adverts. The simple logic was that, " how does anybody expect us to gain the cited years of experience when we do not get the employment in the first instance " .

There is another angle to this , however. We very often forget that a job is in its own way, an object of exchange, a commodity. It is to be offered and accepted , based on an agreement of both parties. As I often like to put it, the workplace is a meting point between the wants of the employer and that of the employee. The employer does not exist to employ you ; he is doing it because he expects that such an act will contribute to his overall aim of setting up the workplace. Conversely, you the employer were not made or trained because the employer needed an employee ; you were made, trained and you applied because he is supposedly offering you a job and salary that fits into your expectations of salary or job satisfaction or both. If either party is not satisfied with the offer, there will be no deal.

So, which are the crucial considerations to ensure the two-way fit ? 1. Your job must be offered in the right workplace 2. The salary and other emoluments must fit your desired life 3. You must be ready to agree with the offer terms from the employer who , on his part, is likely to have the following considerations. 1. Do you have the qualities that will contribute to the development of his enterprise in the direction he desires? 2. Do you have the willingness to so do ? 3. Can he afford the financial and other terms of emolument you desire especially judged against the value he project you will be bringing to his enterprise.

Knowing thus far that job hunting is a matter of fitting our capability offer to a capability need somewhere, it becomes clear that the concept of unemployability , if it exists at all, is only circumstantial. The employee and his capabilities may just be being offered at the wrong place, to the wrong employer or both.

If, for any reason,this be the case and either party still desires the relationship, then it is time to consider adjusting one to fit the other. The two options of either job redefinition or retraining therefore become imperative. Consider therefore that the reason for your remaining unemployed and risking being labelled unemployable may just be 1. you are in the wrong sector judged by your established capabilties OR 2. You need retraining to make your capabilities fit the established job vacancied