2045: The Year Man Become Immortal from Time Magazine Feb. 21, 2011:

“sin•gu•lar•i•ty n: The moment when technological change becomes so rapid and profound, it represents a rupture in the fabric of human history”

If you think it’s absurd to say that by 2045 a computer can solve some problems better than humans, do read this article. It also pictures Aburey de Grey, author of Ending Aging whose goal is to break down the ingrained belief that aging is “natural and inevitable”. He states that we can eliminate aging as a cause of death in a few decades. After my time, thought, I plan to be a centenarian!

Also read Dallas Morning News, Feb. 17 headline “IBM’s Watson Winds Jeopardy Challenge? Pitted against the two most successful human contestants. Watson IBM’s Supercomputer won $77,147 three times that of the Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter, the highest human winners.

“The Internet will change our world.” a bold statement I remember well by a college professor in 1990 at a World Future Society meeting. The audience response was “oh, come now! You’re grossly exaggerating.

My current question is --- What’s next? Who can imagine?

In 1974, a book by Frederic Flach, M.D., The Secret Strength of Depression, was important to me in understanding how to move through what was seemingly the unrelenting chaos of a “dark night of the soul”. In his later book Resilience, he is focusing on the necessity of developing resilience to deal with our world, where disarray and change is constant, and how we can learn to cope with it creatively, which is exactly what I teach my clients caught in their "dark night" of career chaos.

Flach emphasizes that: “The psychological changes that accompany stress reaction should lead to a new, more complex and adaptive structure that is qualitatively different from that which preceded it.” (p. 5) In other words, he is saying that we should have learned something valuable from the “dark night” we have been through. We should emerge better put together and more qualified to deal with life’s continuing challenges because of our experience.

He points out that these shifts when we are forced to “forfeit absolute perceptions and ways of viewing things in favor of new, more complex homeostasis more suited to our present and future survival.” Flach calls these points in life bifurcation points (from contemporary physics) representing extreme changes when we become severely destabilized, which may set the stage for regeneration into a new and more effective level of coherence (p. 14). As for complexity – “We have the potential to reorganize ourselves and our lives after a period of stress, a capacity attributable to the fact that as human beings, we are self-organizing systems” (p. 20).

Dr. Flach underscores that the law of psychobiological disruption and reintegration has serious importance during all of our lives. We must fall apart in order to learn and to experience meaningful change. We are at varying degrees of chaos and risk, since we do not know what direction our future will take (p. 7). Each period of chaotic disruption and reintegration prepares us for more that lie ahead, if we stay on an adaptive learning curve. Failure to pass successfully through any stress cycle leaves us crippled, with no strengths to meet future bifurcation points (p. 20).

Flach emphasizes that “Nowhere, perhaps, are the challenges of chaos triggered by stress and the strength to survive it more vividly exemplified than in the experiences of men and women subjected to the trauma” of a sudden job loss after a number of years in an organization with expectations of remaining there until traditional retirement. (p. 20)

The onset of middle age is a great deal more than numbers. “It’s a major bifurcation point where everything is up for grabs again” (p. 83). Health may become an issue. “The stresses of entering mid-life can be enormous. It is a time to reorient oneself to one’s work.” “The death rate among retirees during the first few years after retirement is remarkably high; this statistic must be attributed in part to being unprepared for the disruption that normally accompanies this transition, the loss of work that gave meaning and identity to one’s life” (p. 94).

Are you in a “dark night” right now? All of my career clients have a “dark night” and it’s essential to face it and move forward for success in your career. If you have had a “dark night” and came out on the other side, share with us some of your strategies for accomplishing this. If you are still in your “dark night” and fighting through it, what are you doing?

In group workshops sharing your “dark nights” and major accomplishments are essential in moving forward.

To get ready to land that new job or position, ideally you “do your homework.” This includes updating and fine-tuning your resumé, learning about the companies you’ll target and interview with, and discovering how to best present yourself in an interview. It’s also searching to find a position’s salary range before you apply for the job, and the Internet makes this task easier than ever.

You may think you’ve got everything covered, but there’s a part of this process that many people overlook, and that is How to Negotiate Your Salary!

Learning how to negotiate your salary is a very important component of job hunting, but people often make mistakes here. Just as for most subjects, this too is a “knowledge is power” issue. Take the time to become better educated on salary negotiation, and it will pay off for you – literally!

First you may have to change your thinking and understanding of “income” and value. To illustrate this, consider the salaries of actors or film stars. When they negotiate salary, they address the value they bring to the company or project. By reputation alone they will help fill theater seats and spur DVD sales. You see how this idea of value delivered goes far beyond simply covering living expenses! You must think of your own talents and job performance in the same way. Determine your strengths and be able to articulate what your skills and performance can bring to the company.

Some job hunters feel they are not allowed to discuss salary at all, or are not assertive enough when they do. However, others go too far the other way. If a person is too demanding about salary needs, they may inadvertently talk themselves out of a job.

• Note: do not post your salary information. Do not include it in your communications, including e-mail. Past salary history does not belong on your resumé.

Always remember: don’t talk salary unless you’ve got the job! Unless you’ve been offered the position, you are still an applicant. You’ll want to be seen as a team member, and that’s what you’ll be if you’ve received an offer and say “Yes!” You’ll enjoy much more clout this way.

Should an interviewer or HR person ask what salary you want before you’ve been offered a job, respond honestly that you’ll have to know more about the position before you can answer that question. If answering a so-called “blind want ad” that asks applicants to provide a salary history, simply state that your salary is “open.”

As you prepare for your interview and salary negotiations, practice stating the salary and privileges that you believe you merit, and importantly, the reasons why. You’ll use this tactic in negotiations.

Once in negotiations, it may be best to never overstate your past salary history. Despite all of our privacy laws, an exaggeration may be discovered. If you do inflate these real figures and are caught, you could lose your job.

If you’re asked to state a minimum annual starting salary, give an range slightly higher than what the job should pay according to your research. For instance, if a position runs between $52–58K per year, state that your minimum range is between $54–60K. The strategy is to spur offers towards the higher end.

If the top of the salary range is too low but you still want the job, make sure that you initially negotiate for a salary review in the near future, say at 3–6 months from hiring.

Once you have the position, salary is really a “don’t’ ask, don’t tell” issue:

• Don’t announce or discuss what you make with co-workers.
• Don’t talk about any fringe benefits or additional goodies you receive.
• If a co-worker brags about their salary, let them. Whether they make more than you or not, don’t enlighten them with the truth.



Even if you’ve never done it before, you can learn to negotiate salary! If you’d like additional help or coaching in salary negotiation or other career-related issues, contact me.

The Career Chase: Taking Creative Control in a Chaotic Age, by Helen Harkness and Negotiating Your Salary: How to Make $1000 a Minute, by Jack Chapman, other excellent sources for negotiating strategies.

Tags:
• career
• career career issues
• coaching
• helen harkness
• how to make $1000 a minute
• interview
• interviewer
• jack chapman
• job
• job hunters
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When I was rapidly barreling down the academic highway to reach the Ph.D. destination, I spent one entire semester studying Mark Twain. He was, and still is considered “the first” and most important American writer. And indeed, he’s revered throughout the world! As a sixth grader in the West Virginia mountains, I was totally connected to his stories. I was fascinated that he entered the world with Halley’s Comet and also died with it, slightly over 100 years ago!

I connect with Twain’s quotes, and I begin most speeches I present with his, “You can’t no more teach what you don’t know than come back from where you ain’t been!”

Particularly appropriate for me at this point in my life is, “Aging is an issue of mind over matter: If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter!”

Here are additional Twain quotes that connect with me:

“The most successful people are those who do all year long what they would otherwise do on their summer vacation.””

"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you can become great.”

"Always do right. This will gratify some people, and astonish the rest.”

"Habit is habit and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed down-stairs a step at a time”

"Two things seemed pretty apparent to me: One was that in order to be a Mississippi River pilot, a man had to learn more than any one man ought to be allowed to know…and the other was that he must learn it all over again a different way every 24 hours.”(This fits countless professions today!)

I also admire Twain for another reason. After a highly successful literary career followed by the death of his wife and his editor, he unfortunately made bad investments and lost his money and along with that of several friends! But he didn’t give up – late in life he picked up a new career and made became a highly successful speaker and entertainer. Thanks to his efforts, he recovered all the money he had lost.