Unless you have a clear and straightforward career path, you are likely to run into potential employers of a brand new industry. I have plenty of experience in this area. In my career life I have almost never repeated industries in my job moves, and I covered that on my About Me page. Aside from obvious assessments of a potential new employer’s standing within my particular professional domain, I often need to run some “background checks” of my own. What is this industry? How do they rank relative to their competitors in the industry? Are they performing well? With help from the internet, while many employers are now Googling their candidates, it is just stupid if I am not doing my share in return.
Regardless of the actual likelihood of staying with any one employer for good, it is still prudent to presume that your next employer is a life-long dependable partner, very much like in the world of relationships. Hence I also try to validate the long-term viability of the company’s business. Do they stand a chance in the upcoming one to two decades? I generally prefer not to take risky odds unless I know full well that my role is going to be consultative and transitional based.
So when IBISWorld identified 10 key industries that will for sure decline even after the economy revives, I was captivated by the title. According to IBISWorld, “Of these 10 chosen industries, they all generally exhibit one or more of the following detrimental factors…
- Damaging external competition
- Advancements in technology
- Industry stagnation”
For the full March 2011 IBISWorld special report by Toon Van Beeck, click here.
It’s no rocket science really, but I still feel it’s valuable enough to pass it on. Thanks to Vault.com, who has put together a nice little Top 10 Dying Industries slide show accordingly.
Confessions of a Corporate Shopaholic 
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