Becoming Obsolete at Work: "Old dog, new tricks"

PART OF THE WEEKEND UPDATE SERIES: Celebrity recruiter Brian Daniel shares insights about why job seekers need to engage in more professional development so that they don't become outdated and obsolete at work. 

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VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

I want to talk about "Old dog, new tricks." Something I've seen over the years, the past 10 years, that has really broken my heart, a bit, is... I've seen this trend on resumes where people used to work for some really important people. I'm talking Forbes top-10 billionaires, major International A-list celebrities... and oh, by the way, that's the DaVinci horse. There are only two of those in the world. And one is in Grand Rapids, Michigan, which was voted number-one city by Forbes to raise a family in....

So on the resumes, people working for really important people, and then... time goes by... and I'm seeing these big gaps on the resume, and then I'm only seeing one year, one year, one year, one year, tenure at these jobs. And people kind of... "fell" so to speak. And there is one common denominator with all of those resumes... And that is no professional development.

I talked to one candidate once who was in an interview and she was able to get that interview because she had work for some very important people, but that was ten years before, so the guy is holding her resume and he says, "Hey, you know, you graduated 15 years ago and you have no professional development.

And she sat there in the interview and she was choked. She choked up. She... she couldn't speak. She was so "caught off guard" by that. Professional development is critical. It is absolutely critical for your career. If employers don't see that you take your professional development seriously... if you're not getting certified in Microsoft...

You're not taking leadership courses, you might even try Six Sigma, If you'd like... you have to show that you are serious about your craft. If you don't do professional development, it's going to be "Old dog, new tricks" You're going to fall behind, and the people who are more ambitious and, frankly, younger who will work for less money, are going to snatch your job right out from underneath you. Knock Em Dead.

THE TAKEAWAY 

Executive Personal Assistants needs to always be honing their craft and becoming better at their jobs. If you don't, then the candidates who go the extra mile and are more ambitious are going to outshine and outperform you. 

By Brian Daniel