SHENA CRANE : Author of “What Do I Do Now? Making Sense of Today’s Changing Workplace”

Shena Crane, founder and president of Mentor Career Services in Irvine, is a career strategist who helps people find jobs and manage careers in an increasingly tight job market. She is the author of a new book that will be in local bookstores this week. Crane, 44, gleaned her information while getting her MBA from UC Irvine and working for 16 years in the corporate world as a marketing vice president for three companies. She recently spoke with Times correspondent Debora Vrana.

Q: There is a plethora of how-to books about job hunting. What’s special about yours, “What Do I Do Now? Making Sense of Today’s Changing Workplace”?

A: My book is different for several reasons. First of all, I have 16 years of experience in the workplace and an MBA. I have a practical background. I think there is nothing wrong with books written by counselors and psychologists, but I think they are coming at it from a different perspective.

The other thing is that my book is written to address what has happened in the workplace in the past couple of years. Basically since the 1990 recession, the workplace has changed dramatically, and it has changed permanently.

The kind of career advice people were getting before, even in 1988, really isn’t applicable anymore.

So what I tried to do is make it a pop volume in the sense of taking big academic business volumes and synthesizing the information into an every-person sort of book, a book that says everything has changed and this is what you need to do.

*

Q: What has happened in theworkplace in the past fewyears?

A: Some major things have happened. Obviously everyone knows we’ve downsized, and the different thing about it this time is we have downsized permanently. Companies are stripping back to what it is they basically do, and they are outsourcing everything else. So things like accounting, advertising, marketing and public relations are going to people whose business that is.

People have stripped companies down to just the people who really have to be there. So what you’re seeing is that a “womb to tomb” type of career is gone. Instead, your career is going to be a series of working for someone else, working for a small company, working on your own and going back and forth between all of those.”

*

Q: You mentioned that workers need to think of their careers as a business. How does a person do that?

A: I think in the past careers were something that happened to you. You got hired somewhere, then you got hired somewhere else, and we actually got used to the fact that our employers would take care of us.

These days I don’t think you need to be disloyal to your employers, but you really need to think of yourself as a business leader. Because when your employer lays off 30 people it’s not so much that it’s a personal decision, it’s a business decision.

You have to have that for yourself, too. You have to say, “OK, I’m with this company. Is it good for me to stay here? Would it be better for me to go off and do something else?”

*

Q: What are the mistakes a worker could make in managing his or her career in this radically shifting job market?

A: People who won’t recognize that things have changed. For example, if they are working for a company, and that company has sold off a division or laid off people, you can’t put your head in the sand and say, “This won’t happen to me.”

One of the mistakes is a refusal to see what is going on. You need to face up to what’s happened.

I know someone who recently got laid off in the computer industry and decided to open up a dance studio, something he had always wanted to do. You need that type of thinking.

*

Q: What about a worker who has only worked for one or two companies, let’s say an aerospace worker in his late 40s or 50s, who is laid off? How does he suddenly get the courage to open a dance studio?

A: It’s hard. Usually what happens is that people go out there and look for something in their field.

They call a couple of recruiters, do the classic things you used to do. Unfortunately, it gets to the point when they say, “This isn’t working. I don’t know why, but this isn’t working.”

Some people are very good at looking at a situation and deciding, “OK, this is what I need to do,” while others are stuck in the mud.

*

Q: We’ve been talking about older workers, but what about the 20-somethings, someone entering this workplace for the first time?

A: They are in a Catch-22 because we are telling them “you need lots of education,” which has gotten more costly. And at the same time, they are getting out of school and there are no jobs.

The thing I’ve found that helps is that you can do internships after you graduate, and you can create your own internship program.

You can send a company a letter explaining what you would do. This can lead to a full-time job.

Also you don’t have to work for the bigger companies. There are opportunities in the smaller companies.

*

Q: What are the skills workers need to survive in this new environment?

A: They need to constantly be training. You need to have the ability to learn and to communicate.

*

Q: Your book talks about cultural diversity in the workplace. Explain that.

A: A lot of companies are starting to have diversification programs, basically teaching different types of people to get along.

Often minorities are not hired for career track positions. Some companies now are having mentoring programs--like Xerox is identifying what the career track is and hiring minorities for those programs.

These are programs a worker needs to be aware of. By 2005, minorities and women will outnumber white males in the workplace.

*

On her new book. . .

“It’s not just limited to job search. It’s about career management, and the point I try to make is that people need to look at their own careers as a business--and make decisions accordingly.”

*

On staying motivated during a job search. . .

One of the problems is that you don’t know when it’s going to end. You can’t control it, so you just need to take things one day at a time.”

*

On keeping busy while job hunting. . .

“While looking, you can do interim jobs. I’ve had CEOs who have worked in sales at Kmart. People know how the economy is, and they will respect you for keeping bread on the table. It’s much better than sitting around the house in your bathrobe.”

*

On the workplace of the future. . .

“We’re going to see more of the ‘contingency work force,’ the temporary workers and independent contractors hired for certain projects.”