With the Great Resignation, Great Reshuffle, or whatever the name-de Jour is this week, people have been changing jobs mostly to make more money. Some left to reset stress levels or find work-life balance. Sure, some are changing to go remote, or go to their perfect place and be remote. Most industry professionals, changing jobs or not, are staying within the industry, building their career.
Back in the 2000s, before the Great Recession, people changed for money, or to be in a better place. Some changed for a promotion, with more responsibility and money. Most all changes required relocation. Candidates moved to the West Coast, Southwest, or South from up North, fleeing colder climates and riding a sunshine wave of year-round construction. As we got closer to 2007, compensation hit the ceiling and job changing slowed dramatically. Then came the Great Recession...
When the Great Recession hit, it was a bloodbath. People were either demoted, had their salary cut, had hours cut, or got cut, especially if you were low on the tenure totem pole or not very productive. After trying to find jobs for months, many left the component manufacturing industry and started over in another industry. I remember trying to place people as fast as they came in, with some luck as the Great Recession was not a light switch in all areas of the country. Some areas were still hot, and some cooling but still hiring. Relocation became the primary decision maker, with those who were stuck with homes and families that could not relocate finding few or no local or remote options. Remote Designer jobs hadn’t become mainstream, and most jobs were in-office. If it wasn’t for Mega-Multifamily and Western Canada clients, JobLine’s designer placements would have died.
For 5 years, we limped along filling US Mega-Multifamily and Canadian jobs, and the few-and-far-between US management or design openings. We maintained our focus on getting candidate profiles as near-perfect as possible. We recorded video interviews, (before Zoom or Teams went viral, like during the COVID pandemic), and anything else we thought of to make our candidates shine. It paid off when in mid-to-late 2011 hiring came back. We had candidates and finally had jobs. From mid-2011 to the end of 2012, we cleaned house, placing almost all of the available candidates.
By 2015, employers started to raise compensation back to pre-Great Recession levels as candidates became scarce once again. Just a few years later and still today, compensation has been climbing. The Great Resignation, in our industry, once again is driven by stealing from one employer until stolen by another. Are we approaching another 2007 moment? Compensation, also exceptionally high to combat inflation, is adding to inflation. Something has to give and, if history teaches us anything, “hold on to your hats,” as one of my clients says.
So, the title of this article is “Career or Job?”. One of the lessons learned during the Great Recession and prior downturns involves how you decide if changing jobs now is safe. Changing jobs to make more money, even a lot more, can put you in peril when the economy is signaling trouble ahead. Consider how your move will affect your career. Will it make you more valuable or make you more vulnerable? If you are moving to do the same job for more money, you are adding to inflation. From an industry perspective, what cost x at your old job costs more at your new job, inflation. If you are changing jobs from an in-office job to a remote job, even at the same pay you could be vulnerable to a downturn as being the last hired and first to go. But if you are adding value and getting paid for your increased responsibility or value to the employer, that is not inflation, that is a positive a career move. Still, timing is everything.
The biggest Great Resignation move in our industry is going from in-house designer to remote designer. It is the same skill set and industry, but it changes your position and outcome when the economy corrects. I have heard from many hiring managers that, skills and output being equal, remote positions will likely go first. Why? Because it is hard to develop people for advancement or have them cover multiple hats if they are remote. “In-house is where our next managers come from,” many of my clients say. Out of sight is out of mind unless you are a design-producing superstar.
“Life is full of choices and choices have consequences” my mom would say. When you become part of the Great Resignation, Great Re-Shuffle, or Great ??, be sure you are increasing your value and not becoming the next in line for unemployment. Take heed that the Great Recession led to the largest designer vacuum in the industry between 2012–2015. From 2007 to 2011, few designers were made. The designers who left to find work anywhere outside of the industry started over, made much less, made new careers, and most never came back. Your career is more valuable than your job. Protect what you have created, not just your paycheck.