Thomas Friedman: In today's market, job seekers must adapt or die

THE RISE in the unemployment rate last month to 9.2 percent hasDemocrats and Republicans reliably falling back on their respectivecure-alls. It is evidence for liberals that we need more stimulusand for conservatives that we need more tax cuts to increase demand.

I am sure there is truth in both, but I do not believe they arethe whole story. I think something else, something new -- somethingthat will require our kids not so much to find their next job as toinvent their next job -- is also influencing today's job market morethan people realize.

Look at the news these days from the most dynamic sector of theU.S. economy -- Silicon Valley. Facebook is now valued near $100billion, Twitter at $8 billion, Groupon at $30 billion, Zynga at $20billion and LinkedIn at $8 billion. These are the fastest-growingInternet/social networking companies in the world, and here's what'sscary: You could easily fit all their employees together into the20,000 seats in Madison Square Garden, and still have room forgrandma. They just don't employ a lot of people relative to theirvaluations, and while they're all hiring today, they are largelylooking for talented engineers.

Indeed, what is most striking when you talk to employers today ishow many of them have used the pressure of the recession to becomeeven more productive by deploying more automation technologies,software, outsourcing, robotics -- anything they can use to makebetter products with reduced head count and health care and pensionliabilities.

That is not going to change. And while many of them are hiring,they are increasingly picky. They are all looking for the same kindof people -- people who not only have the critical thinking skillsto do the value-adding jobs that technology can't, but also peoplewho can invent, adapt and reinvent their jobs every day, in a marketthat changes faster than ever.

Today's college grads need to be aware that the rising trend inSilicon Valley is to evaluate employees every quarter, not annually.Because the merger of globalization and the IT revolution means newproducts are being phased in and out so fast that companies cannotafford to wait until the end of the year to figure out whether ateam leader is doing a good job.

Whatever you may be thinking when you apply for a job today, youcan be sure the employer is asking this: Can this person add valueevery hour, every day -- more than a worker in India, a robot or acomputer? Can he or she help my company adapt by not only doing thejob today but also reinventing the job for tomorrow? And can he orshe adapt with all the change, so my company can adapt and exportmore into the fastest-growing global markets? In today'shyperconnected world, more and more companies cannot and will nothire people who don't fulfill those criteria.

But you would never know that from listening to the debate inWashington, where some Democrats still tend to talk about jobcreation as if it's the 1960s and some Republicans as if it's the1980s. But this is not your parents' job market.

This is precisely why LinkedIn's founder, Reid Garrett Hoffman,one of the premier starter-uppers in Silicon Valley -- besidescofounding LinkedIn, he is on the board of Zynga, was an earlyinvestor in Facebook and sits on the board of Mozilla -- has a bookcoming out after the new year called "The Start-Up of You,"cowritten with Ben Casnocha. Its subtitle could easily be: "Hey,recent graduates! Hey, 35-year-old midcareer professional! Here'show you build your career today."

Hoffman argues that professionals need an entirely new mindsetand skill set to compete. "The old paradigm of climb up a stablecareer ladder is dead and gone," he said to me. "No career is a surething anymore. The uncertain, rapidly changing conditions in whichentrepreneurs start companies is what it's now like for all of usfashioning a career. Therefore you should approach career strategythe same way an entrepreneur approaches starting a business."

To begin with, Hoffman says, that means ditching a grand lifeplan. Entrepreneurs don't write a 100-page business plan and executeit one time; they're always experimenting and adapting based on whatthey learn.

It also means using your network to pull in information andintelligence about where the growth opportunities are -- and theninvesting in yourself to build skills that will allow you to takeadvantage of those opportunities. Hoffman adds: "You can't just say,'I have a college degree, I have a right to a job, now someone elseshould figure out how to hire and train me.'" You have to know whichindustries are working and what is happening inside them and then"find a way to add value in a way no one else can. For entrepreneursit's differentiate or die -- that now goes for all of us."

Finally, you have to strengthen the muscles of resilience. "Youmay have seen the news that the online radio service Pandora wentpublic the other week," Hoffman said. "What's lesser known is thatin the early days the founder pitched his idea more than 300 timesto VCs (venture capitalists) with no luck."

Thomas Friedman is a syndicated columnist who writes for the NewYork Times.