Page 186 - James Caan - Get the Job you Really Want

the business to 150 stores. It was the natural order of things in
that sector. So, there were always new opportunities for sta≠
as new stores opened. Now the business is contracting. Store
managers who used to move regularly are not leaving as often
as they used to, because finding another similar job is not easy.

And one of the key reasons for this is the rise and rise of online
retailing.
Even I have been shocked by the sale of an online company

like Net-A-Porter, valued at around £350 million. If you had asked
me ten years ago, ‘James, do you think women will be buying
clothes online?’ my answer would have been, ‘Absolutely not.’
Because I had grown up in a world where traditional sense
said that we need to feel clothes, we want to try them on,

before buying them. But in fact the answer, as we now know,
is ‘Yes, people will happily buy clothes online.’ With those kinds
of changes under way you have to re-evaluate your own job

function, and assess the extent to which your skills are compa-
rable to and compatible with other market areas.
The element of persistence that you need after a redundancy
is not about simply soldiering on, not a sti≠-upper-lip approach
of sending out 400 C Vs and taking 400 rejection letters on the

chin, but of being persistent in thinking laterally and exploring
the other industries where your skill set and your experience
are relevant.

174 get the job you really want