When the reality of finding a new job (whether or not you have one or not) hits…we all look for help and support. We don’t do ‘it’ often enough…this job searching program…so we look for experts to help and guide us.
Many of us hope to locate a headhunter who will fall for our natural talents and charisma, and then go to work for us in finding us a new job. This seldom happens, of course.
But there are lots of experts who can help us when we need it. They are not headhunters but coaches…executive coaches, career coaches, and job hunting coaches. Every city has ‘em.
Many of them read this blog and I am hoping they can take a few minutes and leave some comments for you, on what they can do for you during these tough times. So, Career and Executive Coaches, how can you help?
Talk amongst yourselves.
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Here are some of the ways in which I have helped and can help clients navigating the job transition and/or search process:
- Offer a complimentary consultation to learn about your background, strengths, concerns about the job search process and new job requirements. Listen to your experience and feelings about the lay off and help you to work though any negative feelings. Then create a plan to help you identify and create leads; and manage the process.
- Take an objective view of your resume, listen to your career story thus far and then work with you to refine your story so it is compelling.
- Help you to identify and articulate what makes you stand out.
- Review and refine your resume.
- Assess your interview skills and then prepare you to interview so that you can articulate your story succinctly.
- Share my expertise in recruiting and interviewing, as well as information on job opportunities, resume trends and interview tips, etc.
- An established coach will also connect you to their network where it makes sense.
- Coach you through the negotiation process.
- And then when you land the job, a coach can help you to develop a career development plan.
All of this assumes that you are on the right track, if you are not, then a coach can help you to reinvent yourself. During times like this, partner with a coach who will motivate you, keep your spirits up when the going gets tough, push you and keep you focused on landing a great position as quickly as possible.
G.L. – Thanks for opening up the floor to career strategists. If you’ve recently been downsized, fired, or just feel like you are at the breaking point, I offer these tips:
1) Let it all out…but to only one person (maybe two at the most). It’s important that you talk about your feelings in an open and honest manner – just be careful to choose a trusted friend or mentor who understands that you need to voice what is going through your head in order to move past it and get to a better place. In times like these, many people make the mistake of sharing their thoughts with too many and/or the wrong people. While it important to get what you are feeling off your chest – please be careful which ears you choose to vent to.
2) Come to terms with your situation as quickly as possible. The sooner you can take the emotion out of how you view what’s happened – the better. Anger and loss of confidence are common, but you absolutely must get past this. The sooner you can accept that bad things happen to good people, the sooner you can start to move forward and focus on what you can do to make things better.
3) Remember: 93% of communication is non-verbal. That means, if you don’t feel confident or excited about the future, it shows. Your energy and attitude shines through, so recognize how important being positive has on your ability to get hired.
4) Seek guidance. Just like an accountant, lawyer, doctor, dentist, personal trainer, etc. – career strategists are professionals who can provide you with insight and resources that you can’t get on your own. In my experience, using a professional not only helps the client, but their families as well. For example, spouses are trusted companions, but not experienced/qualified career strategists. By taking the burden off a loved one and working with a professional, you can not only help your career, you can help your relationship too.
In summary, these days, the need to keep your job searching and professional development skills up-to-date is more important that ever. Gone are the days where you stayed with a firm for your entire career. Keeping yourself employable is the name of the game and only those who stay on top of the latest tools and strategies get the best opportunities. It’s definitely worth considering investing in yourself by working with a professional to ensure you are capable of maintaining the level of career success and satisfaction you desire.
I hope this helps!
Michelle,
thanks. I especially like the part where you listen to their career story and then help them refine it to make it more compelling. We all need ideas on how to make our own stories more relevant and compelling.
I hope some job seekers take your advice to heart AND the bank.
JT…great advice. It is nice that you recognize the grieving process that happens after a job loss. It is an important step and one that they can get past…some take longer than others. It is painful, and must be acknowledged. Nice comment and helpful, as always.
GL,
For sure it is a process and we each manage our way through it differently but no matter how one loses a job, make no mistake, the The Kübler-Ross grief cycle comes into play.
I read somewhere that next to death of a spouse and divorce, job loss is next on the list of emotional trauma. Faced with that level of upset, having the opportunity to work with someone to help you manage your way forward makes sense for many of us.
One could fill volumes with advice in this area, and indeed, many volumes have been.
I guess if I had to start with one piece of advice however it would be to warn people against going at the process with a ready, fire, aim approach.
Many people jump into the game before they are really ready either from an emotional perspective and/or before they have really thought through the strategy, and in the age of point and click it is an even easier trap in which to get caught.
There is an old saying: Failing to plan is planning to fail.
Well said Dave, as usual. I am also impressed that you know the NAME of that cycle, never knew that one.
So right about the point and click ease today…although easy does not always lead to success as you say.
Hey GL,
I’m actually in the middle of writing a blog post on this very issue.
Job loss can be viewed as a huge loss, and it can also be viewed as an opportunity to reevaluate our previous career decisions. I typically work with clients who are actually trying to move away from a job or career they’ve been engaged in for a while toward something that feels more authentic, meaningful, and genuinely fulfilling – something that allows them to make a life, not just a living.
If you haven’t been happy in your job or career for a while and have just been laid-off, you may actually choose to view this as your chance to finally pursue something else – even if you don’t yet know what it is. Here are some things to consider:
1. Don’t panic. Your job has ended, but your life hasn’t. You’ll find another way to make money, and you’ll survive – and it’s quite likely that you’ll get much happier in the process. But to do that, you need to be calm, confident and collected. Don’t let fear drive your decisions. Get to a positive place, where you can tune out the fear and despair, and start from there. (Caution: to do that, you may need to turn off the TV and hang up on aunt Sallie who’s freaking out about how horrible the economy is and how we all need to chain ourselves to our current jobs and never let go.)
2. Reevaluate your life’s vision. Stephen Covey called it “beginning with the end in mind.” Where do you want to be at the end of your life? Are you in a career that will allow you to say, at the end of your life, that you lived a life of few or no regrets? What kind of an impact would you like your life to have? How would you like to be remembered to people around you? Now ask yourself what work path might lead to that.
3. Reevaluate your core gifts. Your strengths are an expression of your core gifts. They go beyond your skills and abilities. They are the gifts that make you who you are, and they are ones you often use without even realizing you’re doing it, because you simply can’t help yourself. Which are yours? Which of these would you like to share with the world now? What work paths may enable you to do that?
4. Reevaluate the environment in which you want to work. A cactus is unlikely to prosper in Siberia, and a rose won’t grow in a desert. Different plants require different conditions to blossom. If you feel deadened by an all-day-at-the-computer types of environment, it’s unlikely that a career path that requires that is optimal for you. If you are a people person but have to spend most of your time alone, you are unable to share one of the main gifts you have. Determine the environment that will help you grow and blossom.
5. Well… there are other steps as well, but if you just start out with those, and if you are honest with yourself, you’ll already get pretty far. If you still need help from here, shoot me an email. We can set up a free session to see if I can offer you something to help you get on a career path that will prosper you, while making you feel more happy and fulfilled in the process.
Thanks again, GL, for creating this forum!
Talk soon…
Izabella
Izabella…great tips and thanks so much for your kind offer of a free session. I am pleased that several of you are willing to help out in this way. thanks again.
GL,
I challenge my recruiter collagues to get involved in their local area and do presentations on finding a job. We have a good perspective call it “Inside Baseball” on how the process works.
This means my recruiter friends need to put the phone down, step away from the desk, and leave the office but it is so worth it.
If anyone in the Minneapolis/St.Paul area is reading this and has a group seeking a speaker on the topic of job search and/or networking send me an email, paul@mnheadhunter.com
Paul…what a great offer, thanks.
Great topic, and lots of great advice so far. Here’s my 2 cents…
Before you go blasting out resumes trumpeting how shiny and loud your bells and whistles are, remember that a company isn’t going to hire you just because you’re so great. They’re going to hire you because of how well the ways in which you’re great meet a need that they have.
Think of your job search as a marketing campaign. You have a product (your services as an employee) that you are trying to sell to a buyer (the potential employer). Your goal is to get the buyer to purchase your product.
In my Marketing 101 class in college, they drummed in one phrase over and over: Benefits. Benefits. Benefits. That’s important here as well. You have to convey how they will benefit from buying what you have to offer. You have to put it in terms of what’s important to them.
And to put it in terms of what’s important to them, you have to *know* what’s important to them.
Too many people waste energy singing their own praises without stopping to look at it from the potential employer’s perspective. They end up missing the potential employer’s hot buttons completely. To avoid that, spend some time doing a little “marketing research.”
Let’s say you’re looking for a specific position. You can build an overall picture of the needs being met with that position by collecting job descriptions and looking for the common themes.
From there, start contacting people who would be in the position to be hiring managers for the kind of job you’re looking for. It doesn’t matter if there is an actual position open or not – you’re simply looking for insight and information.
Contact them and say something along the lines of, “I’m in the job search, and I recognize that what’s really important is understanding the needs of companies hiring for this kind of position. To build a real-world picture of what those needs really are, I’m interviewing multiple people who would hire for this position. Can I take fifteen minutes and pick your brain?”
This has the added benefit of planting the seed of connection in a way that communicates “I am focused on how I can benefit the company.” It also opens up a door and gives them an easy, non-threatening way to help you.
Once you have a good picture of the specific needs, *then* you can start saying, “OK, now how does what I have to offer meet those needs.” When you can clearly, convincingly communicate that, you’re well ahead of the game.
And don’t forget to keep the research process in mind while you interview. Ask them questions to really uncover what needs they are hoping to meet by hiring someone for this position.
Good luck!
Curt. Your advice is simple, yet right on point. Thanks for taking the time to share your years of experience. If you help one job seeker stay focused on his own benefits that he brings to a company, I am sure you will agree that your few minutes was worth it this morning. You live your passion. thanks for helping.
I coach executives, managers, and employees on specific leadership and career issues [www.swrci.com]. The single greatest thing I do is to help them to stop sabotaging themselves. Most of my cients are extremely capable individuals and yet many of them fall into habits that can be – and often have been – professionally lethal. An effective coach will identify that behavior and work with the client to develop an action plan to overcome it. The coach should also be blunt enough to catch the client when rationalizations begin to emerge. One quick bit of advice to your readers who sense they need a coach: Don’t just consider what you need to do. Consider what you need to stop doing. Odds are, some of those negative actions are hidden inside your virtues.
Michael…isn’t it the truth. Often it is not what we need to start doing that counts, it what we need to stop doing. One guy asked me to review his resume, saying he could not get a single interview. Under ACCOMPLISHMENTS, he highlighted that he had been a successful whistleblower at his last company. Yeah, let me hire you….
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I find the advice very helpful given a situation that I find myself in. A jobloss could happen to anyone at anytime.Here is a case study of me.
I had worked hard to get into a competitive graduate program in accounting. As a result, early this year,landed an internship with a premier accounting firm. At the end of the internship I received very negative reviews. Because of my background, my computer skills eg excel were poor as compared to my colleagues. The sad part is that I was the only one in my class who did not get hired at the end of the internship. Additionally, because it took me longer to finish assignments, my supervisors really doubted my capability.
I do not have much experience in my field and the one thing that stands out is my internship with the accounting firm. Every interviewer is quick to ask why I left, or why I was not hired, most of them are clearly cynical. I have to admit, I never known the best approach to answering this question. Perhaps this explains why I have interviewed with different well known companies, made it to the final round and yet some other person was hired.
I have since graduating enrolled for computer accounting classes and I am almost done. I feel good about my computer skills. I have also been studying for the CPA exam, already took took two and have two to go.
I am still jobless and more than once I feel like a loser, but I am a non quiter. That is why I really need your advise.I also invite constructive criticism.