People in their prime years (30s and 40s) have always been considered the elite of the employment structure, positioned as they are between inexperienced workers and aging seniors. But in recent years, there have been dramatic structural changes in the employment market. Unemployment and forced career changes have become increasingly common among workers in their prime. Even more worrying is that most of these people in their 30s and 40s are the main sources of income for their families. If they experience career problems, this could affect the tranquility of their homes and even society as a whole.

The civil service has long been seen as an "iron rice bowl" （safe job）. But privatization and downsizing mean that even state employees must be prepared to move on. In recent years many railroad employees have been laid off; where are they to go? （photo by Hsueh Chi-kuang）

How can people keep their footing and not be washed away in this tide? Even better, is there a way to ride the tide?

Huang Kung-fu is 46 years old this year. Both of her parents are civil servants, and she always aspired to the safe and tranquil life of a government employee. Twenty years ago, she passed the civil service exams and became an employee at the Sungshan cigarette factory of the Taiwan provincial govern-ment's Tobacco and Wine Monopoly Bureau. Then, three years ago, the decision was made to close the factory.

"Although the company transferred some people to other provincial government agencies, this was not widespread, because this was just the time when the Taiwan Provincial Government began downsizing, and many agencies were reducing their personnel quotas. Moreover, you didn't have any idea where your superiors might assign you. They might even send you to somewhere in southern Taiwan," says Huang. Fortunately, through a former colleague, she found out that the National Kuokuang School for the Performing Arts was looking for people; she transferred there after spending nearly a year at home waiting for a job.

But in transferring, "I lost 17 years of seniority, and had to start all over again. On the other hand, I guess I should just feel lucky to have a job." Huang recalls how she felt during that transitional period: "Everyone was worried at our work unit, and was doing everything they could to find some way out. It wasn't so bad for younger people, but I'm not young anymore, yet I'm not old enough to retire. I didn't know whether any unit would want me, and I was worried sick!"

Sean Hsieh （right）, marketing director at TransAsia Telecommunications, adopted the outlook of a pioneer in agreeing three years ago to move from Taipei to Kaohsiun g to develop new markets. He also created room for development in his personal career.

The rusting of the iron rice bowl

Huang, her voice betraying the anxiety she felt at the time, says: "I never expected that civil servants would also face unemployment!" Fortunately, she feels her new job is safe. This year Kuokuang was merged with National Fuhsing Dramatic Arts Academy to form the National Taiwan Junior College of Performing Arts. Says Huang, "The school's just been founded, so I don't think there will be major changes right away."

"Not only is it virtually impossible for a modern individual to hold the same job all of her life, except for professionals like doctors and lawyers, it is even difficult for people to remain in the same field for life!" This is the verdict of Hsin Ping-lung, a research fellow at the Chunghua Institution for Economic Research, commenting on the current employment market.

Traditionally, the unemployment rate has always risen around two periods: One is when graduating students first enter the job market, between August and October of every year. The other, "flea season," is just after Chinese New Year, when many people, having collected their year-end bonuses, jump from one job to another. Such unemployment is called "seasonal."

Magnolia Hsing, president of KITE E-Commerce Training and Consulting Company, has three MAs and a PhD. She is adaptable, and has the courage to keep moving forward.

But in the last decade or so, the employment market has been hit by shifts in Taiwan's industrial structure, such as automation and outward foreign investment. In recent years, moreover, many firms large and small, affected by lower than traditional rates of economic growth, have been laying off employees and closing factories. To make matters worse, the government has also been downsizing. The result is that virtually everyone-whether from large multinational firms or small enterprises, white-collar or blue-collar workers, senior specialists or low skilled laborers, from private firms or from the civil service (long reputed to be the safest of careers)-now lives under the shadow of an unexpected change in career path. The age of uncertainty

Hsin explains: "As the economic structure changes, so does the demand for different types of skills. As far as the individual is concerned, the only way to survive is to constantly learn new skills."

The changing economic structure has, as Hsin points out, "hit the middle age cohort in the employment market hardest." Senior high ranking managers and professionals are not likely to lose their jobs because of their very high skill levels. On the other hand, young people just entering the market don't need special skills for low-level jobs, and companies prefer new workers because they are easily trained and demand lower salaries. Thus, "those in the most difficult position are those in the middle, with some level of skill and experience, whose skills are no longer in demand under new market conditions. When they look for new jobs, they lack the skills necessary for moving up, but they are too old or have too high salary expectations to be good candidates for unskilled jobs."

This problem is now being faced by many mid-level blue-collar workers, such as production line technicians, who are losing their positions as traditional industries undergo automation or relocation through outward foreign investment. It is also being faced by white-collar workers with backgrounds in administration, purchasing, and writing, whose jobs are being affected by the rapid growth of electronic commerce.

Many middle-aged workers want to find a new road. Employers should remember the contributions these workers made when they were young and strong, and lend them a sympathetic hand now. The photo shows Chiang Ta-sheng （right）, who retired from a chemical company, and, with the help of his firm, opened a bookstore, which still supplies the company with stationary.

Theresa Huang is a senior personnel consultant responsible for recruiting middle level management for Manpower Services (Taiwan). "Recently," she says, "many foreign companies have been pulling out of Taiwan, merging, or closing factories. This has caused many mid-level managers to lose their jobs. There are relatively few openings for such people in the job market, thus creating a sort of white-collar 'midlife crisis.'" She adds that every day of the year people come by to drop off their resumes. Even if they're not looking to change jobs, they feel uncertain, and want to periodically evaluate their own market value and to understand conditions in the job market. Running aground

One woman who is currently the confidential secretary to a county executive faces such a situation. She took her job following the election of the current county executive, but with the term coming to an end and an election coming up, no one is sure who the next county executive will be. Therefore she feels she should make arrangements for the future.

It's just that when she considers what her next post might be, even she is not sure how she should describe her job qualifications. Though her title is secretary, she ranks only below the county executive, and oversees the work of many people. Her work consists of handling the countless large and small matters that come up in the course of county government, so, she says, she has no concrete specialty or particular accomplishments to write on a resume. "When some people hear that I'm a secretary, they suggest I look for a job as a secretary in a private company. That's infuriating. But even then, no one wants a secretary over age 35."

She says, only half in jest, "My boss still has a year or so left in his term, so I should hurry up and make some contacts and put out the word."

Tswei Ke-min is special assistant to the president at Sintong Chemical Industrial Company. She warns that "in most companies, administrative jobs are shrinking in number, and moreover one can be easily replaced. If you have been out of school for a while, it's quite possible that you could be replaced by a recent graduate with the latest computer skills." She advises that if you want to avoid such a fate, you have to continually "plow the ground" as you work.

She takes herself as an example. She started working in the personnel office at her company, then went to the human resources department, and step-by-step has advanced to her current position. Besides simply working hard, says Tswei, "I have had to broaden my skills, moving from a narrow specialization to broad familiarity with several areas. For example, in personnel management, you don't have to limit yourself to recruitment, job assignments, and efficiency evaluation. You can also take the initiative to establish plans and policies to match the overall objectives of the company. In particular, you can strengthen your communication and coordination abilities, and this way have capabilities that are not so easily replaced." So long as you do not limit yourself, there many opportunities to learn on the job.

Five years ago Chou Chung-hsien retired from the military, leaving behind his rank of colonel, to become a warehouse clerk in a chemical company. His dedication and enthusiasm have since led to three promotions.

Tswei says that as special assistant to the president, she has a broad field of vision, and can see the overall structure of the company, sparking an interest in the art of management. "Very different skills are required for different kinds of things, and outcomes can differ enormously depending upon one's ability and knowledge." Though currently she has no plans to change her job, she's confident that if one day she has no choice but to look for a new career, because she has established good interpersonal relations and performed well at her job she will find many opportunities. Invest in yourself

The key to increasing your market value and ensuring that you are not weeded out of the employment market is to constantly upgrade your abilities. Many people who already have jobs still constantly invest in themselves.

Nine years ago, an interesting study was done overseas of the "obsolescence rates" in various professions. It concluded that an engineer or doctor could well be "obsolete" (in terms of their knowledge) five years after graduation. The same could apply to program designers after five or ten years, psychologists after ten years or so, or authors writing on physics after eight years.

The study suggested that an individual devote 20% of each day to absorbing new information so that one is not left behind by changing times. On average then, a person should spend at least one day a week learning new things or reviewing previously learned but only vaguely remembered information and skills.

Magnolia Hsing, president of KITE E-Commerce Training and Consulting in Kaohsiung, is a living example. Born in 1957, she started her life as a civil servant working in the provincial government. Today, her friends often jokingly refer to her as "Doctor Tri-master." This is because she has MA degrees in land management from National Chengchih University in Taiwan, in urban and regional planning from the University of Wisconsin (Madison), and in environmental policy and management from Duke University, and a PhD in public policy from George Mason University in the US.

"It's not that I love to study for its own sake, but rather that in my work I've come across problems and wanted to figure out the solutions. Academia is the most convenient and systematic way to find answers, so I went back to school. Then I came back to work to apply what I've learned," explains Hsing. She originally studied land management, but discovered that Taiwan lacks any comprehensive land management policy, leading to rampant overdevelopment and speculation. She decided to go study urban planning. "And then I discovered that urban planning is closely related to environmental management and public policy, so I went from program to program."

Enjoy learning, never stop growing, accept challenges, and make your own opportunities.

Her brilliant resume has given her one great advantage: she's free to choose a work environment that she likes. She took the initiative to send her resume to the Kaohsiung city government, and not only was she taken on, she became a close aide to then-Kaohsiung mayor Wu Dun-yi, mapping out policy for Kaohsiung's environmental protection and other social movements. Opportunities at your side

Last year a new mayor was elected, and Hsing was transferred. But her new post was not one in which she could apply her skills, so she quit to found her own business.

She explains: "Kaohsiung's industrial structure has long stagnated around the petrochemical and steel industries. Not only is output value low, the environmental costs are very high, and it is almost impossible to raise the quality of life for local citizens." Upgrading the local industrial structure, she believes, requires devoting more attention to technology. Therefore she hired experts in electronic commerce from Taiwan and from abroad and founded her own company, through which she hopes to improve the e-commerce capabilities of Kaohsiung companies. Little did she expect that she would collect NT$14 million from investors within only two months; the company opened for operation in August.

Chai Sung-lin is a professor of psychology at National Chengchih University who has recently been editing a series of books on psychology in daily life. She has concluded that no matter how the economy may change, society will always need people with the following characteristics: the ability to work well with colleagues; a desire to constantly grow and upgrade productivity; the ability to express oneself and communicate well; and the ability to think logically. Her advice to people is to "build up your ability to think logically and grab every opportunity to learn from the environment," adding: "Opportunities to learn could very well be all around you."

Of course, besides strengthening one's own capabilities, a person's career depends intimately on changes in the economic environment. Never has been this been more true than today, when economic ups and downs directly affect companies' personnel policies. Thus it is necessary to fully understand the employment market if one wants to maximize options.

Christina Ongg is the general manager at Career magazine, a major source of employment information for Taiwan. She says: "In selecting a career or changing jobs, you must first understand your own character and values. In addition, you must be sure that the field you choose has room for growth. Be sure you do not go into a sunset industry with limited room for development."

Be prepared

She says that, however times may change, there are four areas of expertise, experience, and ability, all directly related to the survival of a company, which will always be in demand. They are research and development; engineering and manufacturing; marketing; and accounting and finance. "Contributions you make to a company ordinarily do not fall outside these four areas." In addition, she notes: "At times, certain types of experience such as having worked abroad, or certain abilities, like particular skill at foreign languages, can make an even bigger contribution to the company than general talent. This is because, at certain times, the company will be in urgent need of talented people with such experience and abilities. The careers of such persons will ride with the tide, and they will enjoy better salaries and more power."

Sean Hsieh, director of marketing at TransAsia Telecommunications, and a driving force behind those "the old bird and the rookie" television advertisements that made such a stir on behalf of his company, is a case in point. He began his career in Taipei, where he worked for eight years in marketing for an advertising company and two years doing the same job for a sporting goods company. Though marketing is a hot field, a couple of years ago Hsieh began to feel that there was limited room for personal development, and that his career path had reached a bottleneck.

"At that time the mobile phone industry was just taking off in Taiwan, and they urgently needed skilled salespeople. TransAsia is licensed to serve southern Taiwan, and is based in Kaohsiung, where it was difficult for them to find the necessary sales planning people they needed. So they sent a head-hunting company to Taipei," recalls Hsieh. At that time most of the people contacted by the head-hunting company were unwilling to leave Taipei and go to work in Kaohsiung, which is seen as being at a relatively lower level economically and as having a more mundane cultural life. But Hsieh, who is open-minded and enjoys adjusting to new environments, saw the potential of this industry and moved to Kaohsiung.

"At that time I came with the spirit of a pioneer opening up new land. My wife also applied to be transferred from her post in Taipei to Kaohsiung, and we settled down here," says Hsieh. Added on top of his wide contacts and advertising experience from Taipei, this complete commitment and willingness to start from the ground up in the local market enabled him to leap into management, greatly increasing both his salary and the scope of his work. What do you want anyway?

Of course there are times when changing jobs may be a mistake or when the new job may not be what you expected. In particular, some industries look full of opportunity. But in fact, they are still nascent, or they may need to go through a shake-out period. People may plunge in all at the same time and get stuck, or end up having to start another career all over again.

One widely recognized example of this is Taiwan's mass media. After the lifting of the ban on new newspapers in 1988, new papers opened up one after another, absorbing a huge number of media workers. However, it turned out that market estimates were overly optimistic. Many papers experienced management problems and began to close. Large numbers of media workers became nomads. While a few famous personalities had no trouble finding new employers, middle-level managers and ordinary reporters faced hard times.

In the 1980s, with the liberalization of restrictions on cable television stations, a large number of new stations were established, absorbing many nomadic media personnel. However, "these people still jump around among stations, and very few of them settle in to develop their careers," says the assistant editor at one publishing company who has personally tried cross-media job-jumping.

She originally was employed by a magazine. Three years ago, hoping to work a different beat, she learned a second area of expertise. She thought, based on her own observations, that in the future the media would go in the direction of image representation, and that subject matter would shift from big issues like national policy to more ordinary matters of interest to people in their daily lives. She went over to the electronic media, where she did production and writing work for news and financial programming. However, because at that time the cable media was just going through a shake-out period, her station changed direction; she felt she could no longer find fulfillment in the job, and she left after about a year.

She then returned to the print media, taking a job at a weekly whose stated goals were similar to her own ideals. However, because of internal problems, these ideals proved to be out of reach, and she left after only half a year.

She has been in her current job at a publishing company for more than a year and the company's direction is "quite compatible" with her own ideals and interests. She's been enthusiastic about her work and the company's sales development has exceeded all expectations, with staff and published works constantly expanding. She concludes: "I myself find it ridiculous that I changed jobs three times in three years. Yet, in this whole process, I became more certain of what I wanted, and how to find a suitable place."

Unfortunately, she has seen many people in her industry constantly changing positions, unable to settle down. They don't know how to cope with the demands and expertise required by their new working environments, while their superiors seem not to understand how best to use their talents and what roles to assign them. "On the surface it looks like there are a lot of opportunities, so that if company A doesn't work out you can always jump to company B. But I wonder what these nomadic people will really achieve in this field in the long run."

Starting from scratch

Although the curren2t labor market has generated a number of disadvantaged employment groups whose skills do not interest buyers, there is a secret weapon to break through all difficulties, and it's the same as it has been since ancient times: hard work, diligence, constant study, and the desire to grow.

"Even in the high-tech industry, which is performing best at present, you have to work ten or more hours per day in order to earn a high salary," says Christina Ongg, who also operates a "temp" agency. The most important principle she tells those she sends out on jobs is "hard work and happy work."

"When you have to, you just have to bite the bullet and start from scratch." In 1993, Chou Chung-hsien, who had graduated from the military police department at the military academy, completed his mandatory 10 years of service. He elected to give up his position as a colonel and retire. "At that time I was working in the military police headquarters, a job which many others envied. I had a very good record, and my superiors and colleagues all tried very hard to persuade me to stay. They noted that if I stayed on for ten or so more years, I could retire at 45, and not only have a secure life for those years, but then collect a pension of NT$50,000 or 60,000 per month for life."

But he did not want to continue the military lifestyle, which kept him separated from his wife and children most of the time. He also worried that if he waited until he was over 40 it would be even more difficult for him to adapt to life in society, so he stuck with his plan to retire. He says that he knew it would be hard to find a good job outside, and that many would see his previous experience as being little more than a "watchman." "Even my wife said that I couldn't really do anything at all, and wouldn't be able to find a good job, so she hoped I wouldn't retire. Just for this reason, I really wanted to show her what I could do."

Then 32, he certainly did discover that the suitable job opportunities were limited. Most of them, moreover, were unskilled physical labor. But he was determined he would not miss any opportunity to learn, and relying on the physical fitness which he had honed in the military and his lack of concern about how much he was paid, he actively scanned the newspapers for jobs and answered many ads.

He eventually became a warehouse clerk in a chemical company, earning only NT$19,000 per month, less than half of what he was earning in the military. But having learned strict discipline in the military, he did not shirk any task, however small. Every day he swept up, brought in water, and made tea for his superiors and colleagues.

His open and sincere attitude, his work ethic, and his organizational and communications skills were quickly recognized by the personnel department. His manager says, "Not only does he do his own job well, he really looks after his colleagues. He knows how to get along with people, enthusiastically participates in union affairs, and has offered many sound suggestions for warehouse operations." As a result, he has broken all records for advancement in his company, being promoted three grades in only five years. He is currently the assistant director of the finished goods office of the materials department.

Change: some things never change

In this age of uncertain economic conditions, when people change careers rapidly, experts have been warning that in the not-too-distant future as many as half of the working-age population will be unemployed. The old job market of "one peg for each hole" will become a thing of the past, and everyone will feel threatened. Yet, from another point of view, if an individual is afraid to leave their job and lacks the courage to accept new challenges, but stays reluctantly in one boring job for life, this is a kind of torture for the individual and a waste of human potential for society as a whole.

For any group or age cohort, the only sure path is to constantly improve oneself and stay ahead of the curve, to constantly enhance one's efficiency and knowledge, to find new roles for oneself, and to create one's own job opportunities.