Work in Finding Work

For Whatever Reason

I was meant to travel on a business trip, my boss called me to come into the office. The Uber was on the way, I couldn’t immediately understand why I would need to cancel this business trip, it was important. I felt confused and started to spiral into all the possibilities. I started on my way to the office and phoned a friend. He told me, “This is it; they are going to let you go, it’s OK, be ready, be strong and it will all work out.”

Many of us have a story of transition. I can dig into how I felt, all the emotions, the confusion, the feelings of rejection but that is not the point of this post today.

Today, I am going to share with you a unique and practical approach to which you can use and modify for yourself in your journey. While I don’t have hard data other than Warn Notices NY and others NJ, etc. Seems like there has been an uptick in people being released. If you want to see warn notices in your area, just search for your state and you’ll be able to see the list.

For context, it doesn’t matter the reason you are looking for your next role. The information and process I am sharing is essentially a framework.

I Don’t Know What I Want

Let’s be real and honest with each other here, OK? Many people don’t have any idea of what they want to do. In fact, I speak to people every week who have worked for 20+ years that have no idea what they want to do next. Some people want to start a business, some want to follow their passion, some don’t care. Yes, some people DO NOT CARE. Instead of focusing on what you want, we need to be practical and focus on your story. Your story comes across starting in three documents.

• Your Resume
• A “one-pager”
• Your Tailored Resume 🙂

Depending on how much time you have before money runs out or low, you’ll be thinking about different factors for what you are willing to do and what you are willing to accept. The emotions will have the potential to wreak havoc on you but with a little mindfulness, you’ll be fine. It will be OK.

Working on your resume is important because you need to own your story. The resume is generally read in less than six seconds. Many companies use ATS (applicant tracking systems), which filter you out based on your resume. Your resume should be tailored to the role you are trying to get BUT the first thing you need to do is write it all out.

LONG RESUME — Can be as long as you want but should talk to your history up to or about the past 10 years. You can add things over 10 years if you feel it is important for people to know but it should be relevant to what you do today. This long resume is not for you to send out. This is for YOU. You should spend time writing this document and thinking about your stories. This is the secret sauce! You are going over your history and remembering what you did and framing how this applies to what you CAN DO. (If you want examples, send me an email)

One-Pager — It is what you think it is! There are many ways to do this. Here is an old one of mine..

Your “Tailored” Resume — First open your favorite music app or you tube and get some hype music going! MOTIVATE (lets go … lets go … lets go!)

This is where the work starts… get your water, get your coffee, get your orange juice!

Whatever it is to get you started.

Schedule 8-9 am- noon: Time for Research and Learning

• Where do I live?
• Where do I want to work?
• What companies are in my area?
• What are my first three targeted companies?
• What “market” do I want to work in?
  What industry?
• What stage of my life am I in?
• What kind of risk do I want to take?
• Do I want to do something different?
• Narrow down your list of companies 3-5.
• Keep everything you do as small as possible.

Let’s start with some examples:

1. Break out your library card – go to your regional library website and look for the online database section. Example : NY Public Library Hartford If you can’t get what you need from the library, you have other options. If you are a veteran, you have DoDmwrlibrary access, if you graduated from a college you may have alumni access to your school library services. Some states offer library access even if you are out of state! Newport News is an example
2. Go to Value Line, MorningStar, D&B, Hoovers and start researching the companies you are interested in.
3. Create a system for yourself to reference the material you are gathering. For me it was Industry, Market, Segment (where they are in the supply chain), company name, and business profile. I created these relationships in my brain tool and placed the data I gathered into folders.

Inventory:

1. Company Profile
2. History
3. Report with Analyst Findings
4. History of Layoffs
5. Glassdoor
6. Templates ** this will become important later. (maybe another blog post later)

Hey .. Is it noon yet?

Take a walk, get a break!

Go for a ride.

Go out and get some air. If it is raining, let some rain hit you and enjoy the moment.

Take care of yourself!

You are in the flow, and it is a good day.

Ready?

This may be sometime after noon when you are ready to go.

You can start to shift focus from targeting companies to working through your network.

The first thing I like to do is go to LinkedIn and review my connections.

LinkedIn offers us the ability to look through layers of our network. The challenge is that sometimes you connect with someone from somewhere you met but it has been a long time, or it may feel strange reaching out. Sometimes, I’ll go back to when I connected with the person and see when I met them or when I connected. I’ll go back through that time frame in the same way I review my resume.

What was I doing back then? How did we meet?

Our networks are very important, but the fact is that you can only keep up with people based on the time you have available. It is what it is. For me, if someone reaches out from a long time ago, I understand that they have lives, work and other factors which created space between us. It doesn’t mean they don’t care about me, or they only need me for some reason. However, if they thought of me, that is kind of a gift within itself. I am someone they can reach out to they know will try to help!

I don’t assume others feel the same way but, there are people that do. Here is what a note looks like to someone under this condition.

Hey Paul,

It's been a while. We connected back in Sept of 2015; I was over there at Chubb doing work as Knowledge Management VP. I remember when I started, you gave me some great advice and were open to meeting.  I really appreciated that.  I recently was released as part of an M&A at my company, and I am exploring my options. I would really love to learn from you about what you are doing at your company and possibly gain some advice or even connections from there. I am available most days between 1pm and 5pm but I'd accommodate your schedule. Looking forward to catching up! 

Best Regards,
Howie Cohen

If he is open to it, I will make the time based on his schedule.

So, there is exploring and then there is mining. Once you get a sense of what companies you really want to work with, you can start to take clear and targeted actions towards your objective.

Sitting out here writing this .. yeah I need to rest my brain a bit too

Alright, here we go .. Here is a quick review:

• I did some research
• Started thinking about companies I’d like to work with
• Gathered some data
• Started looking for conversations on LinkedIn
• Now what?

Well, take a break, ya done good kid! There is always tomorrow. Take sometime in the first few days to organize yourself, give yourself some grace and start looking through the exploration aspect of your network.

When you are ready, you will start to use the information you have gathered to target organizations and work with your network to get connected with the organization of your choice!

One More

If you are interested in more information about anything I’ve written here so far, comment, post, share, email, call, let me know and I’ll provide more to you.

I’ll continue on a few posts with more information and some other tips and tricks but to wrap up this one, I’ll share a little bit more.

From here, I would reach out to people in my network who have first, second and third connections I can find in LinkedIn and ask for help. Help in the form of an introduction, a meeting, a call, a connection. Additionally, I may ask someone to write a note or reach out for me. You know .. it doesn’t cost the candle to light another candle idea.

You can also join networks like SIM for example. https://www.simnet.org/home I am connected with them and they have helped me over the years so **SHAMELESS PLUG** but there are other networks including your college, local chambers and birdwatchers. You never know who is bird-watching, they may have a really good network.

HEY!!!!!! You OK? Don’t worry, we got this.. Next post, I’ll talk about templates and mining. In the meantime, share, hunt in packs, call friends, get up, dance, know that you will be fine.

Some people will help.

Some people will NOT.

It is OK because there are people who will act like angels everywhere.. Good people hiding in our midst!!!!! Link up, Link in … and Lets go…..