Why you need to got back to school

Wow! Oil plunge sends energy workers back to business school. Interesting. Harvard Business School is receiving applications for MBA and a large number of the applicants are from the energy sector. Probably engineers? May be, may not.

Upgrading your skills is an essential part of every employee today. An employee’s ability to be versatile enough excludes them from being potential candidates for retrenchment, or let us say corporate restructuring. What criteria do employers use to lay off some staff and maintain others?

It happened where I worked and the management had to lay off some functional level staff to contain the wage bill. I survived. I wonder what criteria is used to lay off workers in cases where the organization has to restructure. This is why I am surviving.

I went back to school before someone thought of restructuring the organization

The moment I got an opportunity to register for an extra course, I did that because some opportunities are rare. The possibility of advancement is there for everyone. You have extra monies make arrangements and add value to yourself. Not necessarily for pay rise, but how valuable you become.

I learned everything about the organization and I was good at what I did.

I served in several departments and given my ability to adapt, I think, the management thought I should stay. Because I could be used elsewhere, or anywhere in the organization. The truth is you should be able to handle clients at the front office desk, or managing records in your archives. If you can prepare tea for other, members do it. I am not saying I did that.

I took a course that could help in what I was doing

Even if its data entry, there are courses on data entry that you can take to make yourself more valuable. I was doing what I am doing right now then, although I move sometimes, but my specialization is in line with what I do. I think I am valuable in that area and the management thought let some else leave.

Caution: I actually do not know what they did but that is what I think they considered though I know that I was spared because of my versatile nature and adaptability.