Work Shift : Climbing the professional ladder is no longer an option for many--so some people are learning to grow their own careers.

Whatever happened to that corporate ladder our fathers climbed? It was such a rational, comfortable concept: Just start on the lowest rung at 21 or 22 years of age, work hard, be loyal, and up you go, earning more money and status each year until they give you a gold watch and set you free to enjoy your golden years.

Today, business and economic analysts seem to agree that the ladder is collapsing.

Nationally, companies with more than 1,000 employees lost 1.2 million jobs in the 1980s, according to Rosabeth Moss Kanter in her 1989 book “When Giants Learn to Dance.” In Ventura County, said a spokeswoman for the state Employment Development Department, an average of 26,500 people were unemployed last year, up from 18,800 three years ago. Employees in defense-related industries such as aerospace and computer technology have been hit particularly hard in the past few years.

And, in general, opportunities in all large companies are not keeping pace with population growth or individual expectations. Economists agree this trend will continue.

“Baby-boom workers are moving into middle management expectations six times faster than middle management spots are opening up,” said Thousand Oaks resident Ken Brousseau of Decision Dynamics Corp., a Santa Monica-based career counseling company.

“Mergers and takeovers are cutting the need for workers, companies trying to cut out fat are ripping out whole levels of management that might have been rungs of the ladder, and different management philosophies are leading to fewer levels of management and ultimately fewer employees.”

If the ladder is broken and the fast track is closed to all but a few, how do we achieve progress these days?

One way, according to business analysts, is to think of it as a vine or a tree rather than a ladder. Experts in career strategies suggest “growing a career.”

The garden for growing careers is an environment of uncertainty and opportunity.

“The very chance to invent, shape or grow a job puts career responsibility squarely in the hands of the individual,” business analyst Kanter wrote.

In Ventura County, people are being forced to face up to these new workplace realities. Perhaps they have lost their jobs or think they might lose their jobs; maybe they see no more advancement opportunities or feel severe limitations on the salaries they can command.

Whatever the reason, thousands are taking a close and sometimes painful look at their careers, their hopes and their goals. And what they seem to agree on is that while a career change can be upsetting and financially trying, it can also lead to greater satisfaction and a greater sense of control over one’s life.

In the mid-1980s, as engineering program manager for Datametrics Corp., an aerospace company in Chatsworth, Peter Wolf brought in $85,000 a year but didn’t see much of his wife and four children because his job required long hours and out-of-town travel. And there were rumblings that aerospace might not always be the most secure field.

When Wolf, then in his mid-30s, volunteered at his church in Thousand Oaks helping members find jobs, he was surprised to find he loved the work. It occurred to him that a consulting business in career and job placement would give him more stability and more time with his wife, Teresa, and their four children, Jennifer, 12, Matthew 11, Heidi, 9, and Lisa, 5.

At home in the evenings, he started a part-time job search company. It was so successful that four years later he quit his aerospace job and started his own employment agency.

Nowadays, as owner and president of Job Search in Thousand Oaks, Wolf sees a lot of his family. But they have had to make adjustments. Wolf now makes about two-thirds of his old salary, which has meant cutting back on expenses at home: no cable TV, no electricity or gas for heating (they use a wood stove), no new Nintendo.

The Wolfs spend a lot of weekends together now, stuffing envelopes for the business. They don’t seem to mind, and Wolf likes the satisfaction his new business gives him.

“I’ve figured out a way to really help people find work,” he said. “In times like these, that is especially rewarding.”

Diana Haseley quit her secretarial job at Good Shepherd Lutheran School in Simi Valley in 1988 to work on a degree in geography. Financially it was a hard decision for her and her husband, Robert, a plant manager for the Simi Valley school district. But she was uneasy about the economic squeeze affecting her family, and changing her career seemed like the best long-term solution.

“Clerical salaries are so low,” she said, “and we had dreams of traveling more. Or son is getting older; we started thinking about braces, college. I felt that each year everything was costing more than the raises we were getting.”

Haseley, now 39, is finishing her geography degree at Cal State Northridge and hoping to land a job locally in city or county planning. She hopes in another year to have a job that pays better than clerical work but knows finding that job will not be easy.

In information interviews with prospective employers, she is often reminded that the employment picture is dim. But she has confidence that she made the right move.

“I needed a chance to make a bigger difference,” she said. “I’m glad I took the chance.”

Moorpark resident Robert Vickers didn’t exactly choose to take a leap--he was more or less booted into taking one. As he packed to leave on a Friday for a weekend employees convention in Milwaukee, Vickers said, he got a phone call from his employer at Effective Management Systems West.

“He told me, ‘We’re going to have to let you go,’ ” he said. Vickers, who said he had never been fired before, said: “Let me go--what exactly does that mean?”

He found out that it meant returning his airline tickets for the convention, accepting two weeks’ severance pay, and saying goodby to his 70-hour-a-week, $57,000-a-year technical specialist engineering job. That was 15 months ago; Vickers, now 37, has yet to find full-time work in engineering.

“When I got laid off I was shattered,” Vickers said. “This has been one of the most difficult times in my life. But it’s also been a good time, because I’ve had time to think, time to spend with the kids.

“I realized that I had been dissatisfied with the corporation. . . . But I was busy before, I didn’t have time to think much about it.”

As his wife, Linda, scrambled to keep bread on the table by working several part-time jobs as a dietitian, Vickers became the homemaker. The slower pace and the involvement with his children--10-year-old Ryan and 5-year-old twins Kaitlen and Kristen--led him to think about a career in a new field. He began work on a two-year associate degree in environmental science at Moorpark College.

When he finishes in a year, he hopes to find a job as an air quality inspector or technician, collecting data and working with scientists. He will also start a four-year degree in the same field.

“I don’t know if I’d go back to a high-paced job now, unless it were in the environment,” Vickers said.

“This interests me, and recycling, and gardens. I can do my part for the Earth while I’m still alive. This helps make it a better place for my children and their children.”

Over the years, Arco senior executive Paul R. Williams earned graduate degrees in business and finance, and expects to finish a doctorate in strategic management this spring. He felt at home in academic life and hoped one day to be able to teach at night.

But opportunity knocked before he was altogether ready to open the door. In 1985, according to Arco spokesman Scott Loll, the company cut half its employees and divested itself of its entire East Coast operation.

As a result of the continued worldwide economic slowdown, in 1991 the company cut another 2,200 jobs nationwide, Loll said. Williams foresaw that restructurings and diminished opportunities “would be a larger force in everyone’s lives in the future.”

He chose to follow his dream immediately and accepted an offer from Cal Lutheran University to teach finance and strategic management. He planned to stay connected with the business world by offering consulting services to businesses in the Conejo Valley.

Following his dream meant accepting a lot less money, at least at first.

“For 20 years, there’s been a trend to equate value and self-esteem with salary,” said Williams, 42. “The paycheck, bonus and stock proves I’m a worthy individual. This is difficult to deal with. How do you rationalize your own self-worth when you know you’re going to see a lower paycheck?”

Ultimately, Williams has come to terms with the reduced income. His consulting business offers possibilities for expanded income, he said, and in the meantime, the new job offers him a way to make a significant contribution. Now, Williams said, he is in “a situation where the work environment would be exciting with continued opportunities to learn. It turns out I enjoy the academic environment.”

HELP FOR A CHANGE OF CAREER

Ventura County residents planning career changes can contact these resources:

* Moorpark College offers personal assessment and career counseling courses. To order a catalogue, which costs $2.65, or for a free schedule of classes call 378-1410.

* The state Employment Development Department maintains a “job club” for unemployed or underemployed professionals, with networking, resume writing, faxing and telephone answering services available for free. Contact coordinator Madeleine Brockwell at 522-6760, Ext. 313, or write to her at EDD, 980 Enchanted Way, Suite 105, Simi Valley 93065.

* Learning Tree University in Thousand Oaks offers a variety of classes on starting a business and programs in computers and management training. Call 497-2292.

* The Adult Education Program at Cal Lutheran University offers bachelor’s degrees in business, accounting and computer-related fields. The program also offers a handbook, “When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get a Degree,” for any adult planning to return to school. The handbook costs $3. For a copy of the catalogue or the handbook, call 493-3325.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE ‘90s

Experts urge workers to investigate the following fields, all of which promise to offer opportunities at a good rate throughout the 1990s:

* Biomedical--Products or services geared toward the medical profession.

* Telecommunications--Manufacture of cellular telephones, services and hardware, satellite transmission lines.

* Agricultural and environmental services--Governmental regulation is forcing growth in these areas. Demand for technicians, scientists, enforcers will continue to rise.

* Computer software products.