Job Search Advice

Or how to stay sane.
Some of what I learned over the years makes sense. Some doesn't. The insanity of losing a job and losing yourself because it start to wear on you just is what it is.

Here are some random thoughts on
Surviving a Job Loss
Things to think about now

People want to help if they can and it doesn’t put them at risk.
People will say strange things.
People are not always able to help.
There is no failure, ONLY FEEDBACK --- do not take it personally.
You might have to step backwards a bit and see where you could turn a corner.
You can’t look all day, but you have to look every day.

Job Hunting in the New Old Economy

I was asked the other day if I would help a friend with her resume. If she needs it, she said. IF --- more like it WHEN.

I've decided to start blogging about job search topics --- I've gone through this too many times. This morning I read that the Fortune 500 executives are an arrogant and narcissistic breed. Well most of us, fortunately, are not that arrogant and not that focused only on ourselves. Thus, we can and will find ways to work together.

I've been exchanging emails with a Seattle PI reporter who had written something that touched my core. He's not only been writing for the PI some 20 years, but he grew up here int he PNW and recalls the PI delivery daily. Well, I do too. And I suddenly realized that with the PI closing shop, my writing competition just got a bit stiffer. Well, I can fight it or I can step up and offer help, I said. So I did.

Here's what I've done so far:
Shared a couple transition ideas: Move from journalism to technical writing, or copywriting, or perhaps be a freelance journalist.
Shared compassion about how hard the 60 day notice is.
Shared stories about how some people just don't really help, whether they know it or not.
Shared stories about why I say it's crucial to be cautious about with whom you share or try to network.
Shared links to resources online.
Shared my insight about how hard it is to deal with people who just don't know what to say --- or say hurtful things.

Friends, there is no gain in keeping things secret. We must share our coping tactics, ideas, and leads. It is what makes our world work. There is no gain in isolating or hiding.
I'm in a strange spot of having gone through this a few times -- so I know it's a self esteem destroyer, but it's also a time to redefine who we want to become.

I just heard that someone jumped off a buildling in Bellevue 2 days ago. Not even in the news.
Let's not let ourselves fall into that death trap thought process. Let's help each other.

Madoff made off ...but how many other knew

Ok, for weeks we've been reading about Madoff and his 30 year Ponzi scheme. I just don't believe that no one else knew about this. Every other Ponzi scheme out there is built on a handful of people at the top. Every one of them. So how is it that this one scheister can steal BILLIONS, bypass all the regulatory organizations, fool sharp, successful people all over the WORLD,and be acting alone?

There is NO WAY. Well, maybe. He rode on the laurels of past success. He knew how to bilk people. He was blue coat enough that people bought his bs.
But I can not believe he was acting totally alone. Someone else had to know.

But he also had something invested. His trust and his integrity were the main reason people invested with him. But why didn't they bother to do some of their own research? Why didn't they do the basic checks to review statements or review portfolios? What was stopping them? Trust?
Or was it that they just didn't want to bother?
Investing isn't magic.

Copywriting for job hunters

Copywriting for job hunters

January 12, 2009 by nancylamb | Edit

It is with a groan that I read some of the latest direct marketing pitches towards job seekers. I sent a resume out for a copywriting gig last week. Since then, I receive thrice daily email from some source called DayJobFinder.com. What a joke. The author, a Mark Jenson, has a GREAT subject line for his email. That is why I opened it. To my dismay, he enticed me with a good title and nice lead: “The 2 most important things to our users”. It’s a nice lead in to his promise to send out job resource information. He even says that what he intends to do is send out information daily. What throws me is the rest of the email. He has made a promise, but then he didn’t provide anything unique or urgent. What he did is list 4 government sources, links to government websites, that post jobs.
He says they are legitimate. They might be. But they are all government jobs, both federal and state.
So what is good about his email promotion? He reaches out to all in his contact list. That is a nice touch and many recruiters could do the same. He must be counting on the notion that providing these emails will be a win win situation. He may really be able to help others find jobs this way, but his service will bring back some customers or clients. Not bad. What he is doing is causing people to remember the name of his website for later searches. And he has an easy name to remember.
He is showing some creativity here, but the content is what bothers me. He is an agency staffing specialist. I want a recruiter to do more than sendi out links to job boards. Where is the value in that? He got my attention, but he lost it quickly. Why?
I sent a resume on Friday. In 3 days, I’ve already received emails 2 or 3 times a day, none of which say a thing I want to know about. I can opt out, fortunately. And I might. But I might save these in my “What Not To Do” file.
What this tells me is I best make sure that my newsletters or information bulletins contain unique, useful, urgent information that my readers can actually use. And I better make sure my timing is appropriate. I don’t want to do to my clients what I don’t want done to me.
There is no USEFUL in these emails. There is nothing here that I can really do anything with to help me find a job. If I was writing the email, I would offer tactical advice, specific strategy, or even motivational strategy. I would provide some links, but I would offer more than that. What good is a job board if I don’t know how to maneuver through it to get to the hiring manager?
In fact, the internet has totally changed how people look for jobs. For years, it’s always been — oh you are looking for a job: go to company C’s website and look through the job postings…
It’s not enough. People need education on how to create a marketing program for their job search. Maybe the first step is a job board, but what do you do after 300 people apply for the same job via a website link? There has to be more.
And this guy offers nothing beyond the first hello.

---

What defines me

This morning, I read with interest an article in the NY Times. Ben Stein writes with a truth that most others have completely ignored. The financial gurus claim the market will turn around. The Wall Street wizards lay low and the bankers say nothing. Mr. Stein has written in a way that enlightens, empowers, and informs. But most of all he reminds us that WE ARE NOT OUR INVESTMENTS. As he discussed the Bernard Madoff debacle, he shared how he chose to avoid that loss. As he discussed the Drexel Burnham Lambert junk bond woes of the 80's, he reminds us that history repeats itself when one does not learn from the past. As he discussed his investment past, he tells us that being 60 meant that he had a lot to remember. Mostly, he is saying to us that our net worth does not make us who we are. As I've been saying, this financial crisis is kind of leveling the playing field. Ben Stein writes:

We are more than our investments. We are more than the year-to-year or day-by-day changes in our net worth. We are what we do for charity. We are how we treat our family and friends. We are how we treat our dogs and cats. We are what we do for our community and our nation. If you had $100 million or $100,000 a year ago and now you have a lot less, you are still the same person. You are not a balance sheet, at least not one denominated in money, as was explained to me recently.

Losing and making money are not moral issues so long as you are being honest. You may have a lot less money as this year ends than you did two years ago. But you are just as good or bad a person as you were then. It is a myth that money determines who you are, and if you have gotten over that myth by now, then 2008 will have been a very good year.

Ben Stein is a lawyer, writer, actor and economist. He may as well be a philosopher. As the playing field is leveled, perhaps the power of heart shall become more valuable to us than the power of money and prestige. Perhaps.

IF

The last 6 months of Wall Street mayhem have torn us apart emotionally. On the surface, we hold tight. Underneath, our stomachs churn as we ponder5 what to do next. We wonder in silence how we will ever retire, cover various emergency costs, pay our bills, keep our jobs when everyone else seems to lose theres.

The governor in Chicago quoted a favorite poet of mine in his defense. But he left most of the poem out. His comments brought home to me my youthful passion and poise. I wanted this sense of being. Iwas deeply reminded of the goals laid forth in this poem. It's as good a reminder of how to deal with our Wall Street losses as it is how to deal with the loss of dreams or the betrayal by people whom we had held deep trust. If we can keep our heads, if we can rebuild our lifes, if we can keep our virtue, if we can keep our dreams....

If this, then that....and for me the then that is the beauty and the reason for keeping on.

[IF]

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

--Rudyard Kipling

Change becomes a way of life

On my other blog, I wrote a nice piece about quitting smoking. I spoke of the intense personal process I used to forever change the habit. It worked so well that 16 years later, I still automatically use the technique when dealing with old triggers.
I used to be a skier. I would be pushing really hard, skiing hard and fast. I'd be in the lift line, waiting to jump on a chairlift. Suddenly, I had to light up. Didn't know why, but had to have one.
Some kind soul pointed out the trigger when they said to me: You know, you didn't really want one until you smelled someone else's smoke. How right he was.
So we went to the Snoqualmie Casino the other night to check it out. Rumor was the place stank of smoke. Rumor, as it happens, is confirmed. And the one restaurant deep inside which is smoke free claimed that the casino recycles their air every 20 minutes. That leaves 20 minutes of smoker's stale, stinky smoke. It was bad. I don't really care that they recycle their air. It still stinks.
But my point is that 16 years after I gave up the habit, it is harder and harder to be around smokers. I chose to quit and I don't want to inhale the smoke of someone else. I don't want to walk past someone as they exhale into my breathing space. I chose to quit.
It is inadvertent on their part, but it happens.
One of my old techniques to remind myself how glad i am that I freed myself of this habit kicked right back in. It's a simple technique, putting little fingers and thumbs together, but immediately, instead of being mad at the smokers, I fell into a space of " boy, I'm glad I don't do that anymore" ....
That space of being grateful for my own accomplishment (with help of God) is far more beneficial than being anything else. Keeping the focus on me means that I can allow you to do what you want.
Now, I won't go back there for a long time, if at all. But that is my choice. I've no reason to go.