If you don’t embrace change, it will strangle you
➔ You’ve probably heard the phrase: the one thing in the entire world that never changes is… change. Back in the 1950s, comedian Lenny Bruce stated, “Change is happening happening happening.”
That sounds pretty drastic. Yet that was more than 60 years ago. That was when – for those of us who can remember – life was viewed as simpler, slower and more manageable. But not to Lenny Bruce.
That was then
Today, not only has the pace of life, and ergo the pace of change, quickened immeasurably, but the volume of change has exploded as well.
You don’t have to go back as far as the 1950s to recognize this. Think of when you entered the workforce: Resumes were typed, copied and mailed through the Post Office – with a stamp and everything. Why, most resumes were accompanied by a typed, individually signed cover letter. Virtually all interviews were face to face. A good many job openings could be found in the Sunday newspaper. (Yeah, newspaper, but that’s another story.)
How times have changed. Today’s resumes are rarely, if ever, mailed; rarely typed. Today’s resumes can feature different fonts, color within the document. Many of today’s resumes never land on a piece of paper; they’re electronic from start to finish. Many resumes are never viewed by a set of human eyes. Don’t blink, you might miss it. And we mean that literally with the average resume that does manage to reach a human being viewed an average of only 7.4 seconds.
Today, almost all jobs are online and not in the… what was that again? Oh, yeah, the newspaper. Average recruiters today will spend more than 90 percent of their time on a thing called LinkedIn – which first went live in 2003. In 2023 you can post and submit your resume on LinkedIn. You can apply for jobs online without ever having any genuine human contact.
If you’re lucky enough to land an interview, you may never actually meet your interviewer. You may be subjected to a phone interview; a video interview; or an online panel interview where the panelists are all in different time zones.
It’s not enough to be aware that change has taken place, and continues to take place. To cope and emerge successful, one must recognize the that volume of change has exploded as well as the pace of change. And that change has no likelihood of slowing anytime soon.