The 'Gotcha' Job Market Need Not Trip You Up
By Gary Kaplan© Wall Street Journal, Sunday. January 19, 2003.
Coping with a bearish employment market is grim work for the legions of managers, executives and professionals dislocated from the security of a steady, well-paying job. Its a "gotcha" job market that is leaving unprepared talent at a loss when their pink slip shows up.
According to recent Labor Department statistics, 101,000 jobs in the private sector were lost in December, coupled with a decline of 88,000 nonfarm jobs the month before, primarily as retailers and manufacturers cut payrolls and show a reluctance to add to their work forces.
The 6-percent jobless rate remained steady, albeit at an eight-year high. Given the macro-environment, the prospects for employment growth going forward look gloomy.
Despite the sectors that are hiring, such as in health care services, pharmaceutical and biotech, higher education, nonprofits, and financial services, many looking for jobs are spending more time than ever "in transition."
Those jobless for at least six months has increased to 21.8 percent by some estimates, indicating that companies are more focused on increasing productivity without adding workers.
With the heady days of perks, signing bonuses, and multiple offers long gone, the question for job seekers is: Now what?
For those who are fully but unhappily employed, the best bet is stay in place. Concentrate on building a track record of achievements, prepare for better, more mobile days ahead, and heed the rest of this story, for the advice for those looking for work is a guide for the employed as well.
Remedies for mistakes job seekers have made while employed
From my perspective after more than 25 years in recruiting executives through fat and lean job markets, today's unemployed continue to make the same errors in seeking their next position as before. Obviously, not having a job while seeking a new one is an immediate disadvantage, for both financial and psychological reasons. Panic can set in when savings dwindle and few have enough severance pay and unemployment checks to cover expenses over the uncertain future, let alone the human toll being out of a job takes on self esteem.
The errors and remedies in attending to their own job marketability are:
·Not being networked
An inordinate number of professionals and executives (and true for middle and line managers as well as their staffs) in their prior positions never took the time to properly lay the groundwork to initiate and maintain the all-important network of peers and associates in their industry and beyond. In some cases, this may occur by circumstance; in others, by design.
One president of a major company for 15 years never had sit-down lunches with others, partly because of the urgency of the business, but mostly because the company owners discouraged external networking. The result? No Rolodex of associates to call on, not necessarily for a direct job request, but, better, for letting others know of availability and, yes, a request for referrals.
The indirect leads to job opportunities available through a well-established network often shorten the time between positions. As old fashioned as it sounds, building and maintaining a wide network to call on in tough times proves reliable.
Having to build this network when unemployed is the worst possible time to begin. Ideally, data collection of contacts should begin in college, or at the very latest, in graduate school or from the first job. Adding to and keeping up with these contacts is an equally important part of this network maintenance.
For those late to this form of jobseeking, joining and participating in industry, civic and professional associations and organizations are tried and true methods, although not as efficient as having been a known player. Groups that represent specialized job functions, such as in the areas of finance, information technology, human resources, and marketing should not be overlooked as a resource.
Fortunately, the information avenues are much wider and more readily available than 12 years ago, the time of the last bear job market. The Internet makes job search easy, although results for the effort and risk (especially at the executive level) are open to question. Many more nonprofit organizations now cater to the newly unemployed. In short, get out there - frequently and often.
·Not befriending the recruiter
In the salad days, executives often ignored or gave short shrift to a recruiter's calls, either for themselves or requests for their referrals and leads. Neglecting to bank a relationship for potential future use by taking the call and providing the recruiter with helpful information may have seemed smart at the time.
However, this unresponsiveness to a networked opportunity often comes back to haunt the managers out of work. Missing the value of a recruiter then hinders developing that relationship when its really needed now.
·Not updating, polishing, perfecting resumes
Everyone, from staff level to senior management, ought to update their resumes at least once a year, even when the job seems secure. An ongoing record of achievements and/or accomplishments, detailed in quantifiable terms, provides tangible, written, memory-keeping evidence of contributions or leadership in meeting/exceeding sales and other goals, winning accounts, or additions to the bottom line, couched in terms of percentages gained or dollar volume added. Two to three pages max.
And no fudging on educational degrees, work experience, and the record itself. As evidenced with the recent experiences of major corporations concerning their executives, doing so will ultimately come back to the resume's author with seriously detrimental effects.
The old saw about a grammatically; spelled and punctuation perfect resume also holds true.
One typo is enough to call the entire resume and the person it represents into question, especially in a highly competitive job market.
·Not committing to the search
Most job-seekers, especially successful managers and senior executives, do not have a great deal of experience in performing job searches in good times, let alone in a severely depressed labor market. Looking for a job while unemployed becomes the job, one that requires similar focus, time and effort.
Those unused to writing their own letters, making phone calls, attending networking meetings, and setting up lunch dates need to become quick studies in the art of marketing oneself. Many books and Web sites provide all the basics, but none can provide the individual stamina, fortitude, and persistence that this job requires.
Stay the course with a laser like focus each day. Set objective goals for each week - so many calls, so many letters (and follow-up thank-yous), so many interviews in each work day. As unfamiliar and uncomfortable as it might be, being vigorously engaged in an active, consistent search is a major step in controlling one's destiny and promotes one's sense of confidence.
·Not being open to change
Job-seekers should view their new status as an opportunity for taking stock of where they have been and where they want to go (besides to the golf course and self-pity). A closed door just indicates that perhaps a previously overlooked one may need opening. A shift from a for-profit to a nonprofit organization could be appropriate. One bank's chairman was open for his placement as the CEO for a major nonprofit; a trust executive from another bank now heads up planned giving for a major medical college.
A lead executive in telecommunications became the IT chief at a large university. A former vice-president of human resources for an Internet distribution company elected employment as the executive director of a major social services agency. In making the shift to the nonprofit or higher education world, these newly employed were able to apply their well honed skills in a new setting - and thereby expand their horizons.
Similarly, the shift from corporate citizen to entrepreneur also is a viable career option. Although the mindset is different (as entrepreneurs also are their new companies' chief cooks and bottle washers), buying or starting a business or setting up a consultancy calls upon one's resources and capacity for learning. With plenty of printed and electronic advice easily accessible, successful entrepreneurship rests on passing the ultimate test of rising creatively to business challenges and, arguably, its most rewarding, personally and professionally, if not financially.
Whichever new career path is courageously chosen, each presents enormous potential for risk-reward and, as a result of taking on the challenge, enormous opportunity for growth. The intellectual assets gained through this process can only enhance one's life resume.
·Easier said than done
Many who find themselves out of a job or "in transition" may find, at some point in the hunt for their new place, that all the advice and dead-ends have a disheartening effect when nothing turns up according to one's timetable. Allow a few minutes per week for feeling rejected and discounted and then get on with the task at hand. Indeed, the true test of one's mettle comes at a time when it is least appreciated. However, the tough job market brings out the toughest in us.
Taking advantage of the lessons that are learned through the throes of unemployment will serve the job-finder well in being prepared the next time around.
