Billie Sucher Blog

When You Are Not The One

Are you watching The Voice this season? I love that show! If you watch it, you know that some contestants do not get picked. Just like in your job search, sometimes, the other candidate gets picked instead of you. So where does that leave you, then, when you are not the one that gets chosen?  In the middle of nowhere? Close to somewhere? Anywhere at all? 

Where it leaves you is with a chance to start anew in your quest for employment.

A chance to compete again.

To give it another shot.

To give it another go.

To try, try again.

To not stop.

To be relentless in your pursuit of a new opportunity.

To get another chance to sit in the hot seat once more.

To understand that being rejected is something that happens more than you realize to very talented candidates.

To know that not being picked doesn’t mean that you don’t have skills, experience, knowledge, gifts, abilities or talent.

It just means that someone did not pick you on that particular day, that moment, that hour.

It just means that in a stranger’s eyes, you were not the right one for them at that time.

And yes, while it does hurt and it is not easy and it is not what you thought or wanted or needed or hoped would happen when you did not get picked, do not let up. And do not give up – on yourself or others.

Get up.

Dust off.

Press on.

Stand tall.

Chin up.

Shoulders back.

Onward.

Straight ahead.

Looking forward, not back.

Keep moving.

Keep going.

Keep competing.

Until someone picks you.

 

How To Find a Job When There Are No Jobs, According to Someone Who Found One

For nearly six years, I have been a contributing blogger over at Career Hub, and more recently, here at my own blog. During this time, I have shared oodles of “free advice” to help job seekers. Today, though, I wanted to share a job search success story in the words of one of my clients. “Ben” was kind enough to accommodate my request for his thoughts on “How Did You Land Your Dream Job When There Are No Jobs?”  Ben has an inspiring story to tell and I found his words worth sharing. I hope they will make a little dent in your life as a job seeker.

Snapshot of Ben:  Male, Gen X, Supervisor / Team Lead level; resigned his job after 20+ years of employment with a market leader.

How did you find the courage to “quit” your job after so many years of employment in a supervisory / team leadership role? 

After my mother’s death, family became especially important to me. I wanted to see my son play baseball and football. I wanted to have weekends off and be with my family on holidays. In retail, you work when everyone else is off. I did not feel appreciated at work. Every year, you worked harder and you received less. 

How long did it take you to find another job in a job market where there are no jobs?

I started looking for a new job at the end of September 2011. By mid-October 2011, I found a new job and gave notice. By mid-November 2011, I knew I had made a big mistake with the new job I started. I came to the reality that for the last two years, I hated my job. On December 23, 2011, I decided I would put myself first before everyone else. This was the first time in my life that I was going to quit a job without having another. On 01/26/12 I found my dream job, Monday – Friday 7am. to 4pm.  

What job search strategies worked best for you?

Your résumé is an investment. Invest in yourself and your future. Spend the money on your résumé to display the real you. The way the résumé is written in 2012 is totally different than in 2000.  Have four great professional references. You need to network with your friends and family. The last two jobs I found, I sent my résumé to someone who knew someone. In my new job, I let my present employer know that I just dropped my wife off at the airport. My new employer noticed that my wife worked for the same company and asked what she did.  

What is the single-best-piece of advice you would offer today’s job seeker to do?

I have a super résumé. I have a personnel endorsement on page one and two of my résumé.  I had my second interview on a Monday and on a Tuesday, I received two emails that my personal references were contacted by my new boss. My personnel reference knew I was looking for a job but I never contacted them to let them know that my second interview was a homerun.   

What was the defining moment of your job search?

The position I applied for had a reference number. For this position, I noticed there were four different references numbers. I applied for each position, even though the only difference was the reference number. In my last interview, I had asked why all the different reference numbers for this position.   

What did you do on the days if and when you felt like giving up on the search, got discouraged and/or lacked motivation to look for work?

Call a great friend, pray, cook, take a walk, clean and re-clean house or car.   

What do you think today’s job seeker could do to enhance their chances of standing out from the crowd?

Take the time to research the company you want to work at. If you get a phone interview or an in-person interview, make sure you have six great questions to ask the interviewers. Wear your best business suit. Get a business card so that you can send a thank you email. Make sure you have copies of your résumé on quality paper. Wow your interviewers. Interviews are hard to get. First impressions are huge.   

What other words of wisdom might you offer to job seekers today?

Don’t give up. On a daily basis, keep track of who you sent a résumé to and rate yourself from 1-10 on your job search performance.

Anything else you learned about finding a job in a competitive market that would be of value to job seekers?

It is not fun not having a job. Make sure you do not take it out on your family. I sent out over 40 résumés.  I had three phone interviews and three in-person interviews. I received 15+ decline letters and the rest of the résumés I did not hear back from. Keep your chin up. Some résumé and application forms took four hours to complete. After you fill out the application, some companies have you take timed tests and ask how you would handle a certain situation, math and computer skills. Many companies you send résumés to go to a third party to sort. I would call the local HR office and they did not hear of the position that was open. HR is a 24 hour operation. Many times I would receive decline letters in the middle of the night.•

Eight Things To Do Today If You Lost Your Job This Morning

The caller led with:  “I just lost my job and I don’t know what to do. I turned to Google and that’s how I got your name – can you help me?”

If you lost your job when you went to work this morning, here are some very specific things you can do within the next 24 hours.

1. Call, email, text, or DM at least 10 of your closest friends/confidantes in the next few hours and tell them what happened. It will give you something to do and telling your story 10 times will help.
2. Have a conversation with your immediate family this evening and share with them as much as they need to know right now about your job loss. Know that they will worry about you and wonder how you're doing. They may be afraid to ask, so voluntarily tell them and keep them in the loop.
3. If you were given legal papers to review and sign, call your attorney and enlist his/her professional opinion.  
4. Hire the best career coach, career counselor, and or professional resume writer you can find if you weren't offered career transition services. It is much too competitive in today's market to try and go it alone, so seriously consider enlisting professional help, guidance, and support.
5. Stay calm. Breathe. Stay calm. Breathe. Stay calm. Breathe.
6. If you need to cry, cry. Crying won’t change the situation, but it will help release some of the emotion surrounding the event.
7. Browse around on the Internet if you can't sleep tonight. You will soon realize that you are not alone, even though you might feel like it right now. The Career Hub blog has hundreds of educational, inspirational and insightful posts, for starters.
8. Go to the library, bookstore or online and get at least one career transition book and start reading and learning more about the job search process.

There are many, many things to think about, contemplate, and do as you deal with this news. Today, tomorrow, this week-end...one foot ahead of the other. You can do this -- just keep telling yourself that you can.

(photo by billiesucher)

Generations and The Job Search

Remember that interview you just conducted where you told the candidate I have tee-shirts older than you are.

Remember when you called the job seeker sitting before you a whippersnapper?

Remember when you said to the head of the department that he was about your Grandpa’s age?

Remember going to the interview and describing one of your biggest achievements as taking place back in the day.

Remember when you told your HR buddy that the person you just interviewed was still wet behind the ears?

Remember when you went to the interview about a month ago and said the following words to the Gen Y Hiring Manager: Youngsters of today just don’t get it.

Remember when one of your colleagues inquired if you were on LinkedIn and you replied with can’t say that I’ve heard of it.

Remember when you went to that networking event and asked someone about a twit when what you really meant was a tweet?

Remember when the recruiter asked you if you had a blog and you responded with: so what’s a blog?

Remember when the 20-something manager said to you, a Baby Boomer,  I don’t care about your age, I care about commitment and will you show up and do the job.

Past. Present. Future. Generations Global.

Takeoff to Touchdown: Your Job Search

Taxiing out of Reagan National last night, the flight attendant announced that it would be two hours and 15 minutes from takeoff to touchdown.

Takeoff to touchdown.

A few minutes later, the captain announced that it would be a smooth ride.

A smooth ride.

Wouldn’t it be spectacular if someone would assure you that your job hunt was going to be a smooth ride from takeoff to touchdown?

In the event you are just now boarding the job search flight this first Monday of November, 2011, here are a few tips to support your safe travel en route to your final destination.

Job Search Boarding Pass Checklist:

Financial – Scrutinize and review your current financial condition. Where can you trim, cut and reduce expenses during this period of career transition?

Emotional – Evaluate and examine your mental toughness. What strategies have worked well for you in the past when confronted with some of life’s toughest challenges? What can you do now to keep yourself motivated and inspired to effectively compete for a job in today’s saturated market place?

Physical – Analyze your present fitness plan. If you have a physical fitness program in place, you are already in motion. If not, what can you do starting today to enhance your commitment to your health and physical wellness?

Spiritual – Critique your spiritual well-being and reassess what works best for you, whether it’s taking a walk and communing with nature, conversing with a member of the clergy or some other activity that holds meaning for you.

Occupational – Assess and audit your brand, from top to toe. Reflect upon where you have been and give yourself a chance to recover, rethink and rebuild. Or, what about a rebrand?  Then, thoughtfully and carefully consider where you hope to go prior to walking across that jet bridge.

Wheels up. 

"You have such a chance! Oh, how I wish I were you!!!" ~ Robert Sargent Shriver, Jr. ~ Yale University Class Day, May 1994

 

 

Swing Batta Batta Swing: Resilience and the Job Hunt Game

Maybe you stayed up late last night watching the Cards and the Rangers. I had planned on the game being over around 10 – um, not so fast – to be continued this evening. As I watched that World Series game, I thought about this word: resilience. For me, resilience as it relates to job seekers, seems to be a whole lot like the game of baseball:

To fight your way back.

To charge your way through.

To find your way forward.

To give more than you ever knew you had.

To keep the faith even when the facts aren’t in your favor.

To see possibilities when many would pack it up and go home.

To not let distractions distract you.

To rely on your team to see you through.

To keep your eye on the ball when you rip it or you don’t.

To not think you’ve won when you’re but one strike away.

To want it more than the opposition does.

To be in the moment en route to the goal.

To keep your cool when you don’t like the call.

To view rejection as a reason to keep going, not an end result.

To do whatever it takes to stay in the game:  walk, run, slide, sprint, dive, drive and maybe even play hurt.

To get up faster than you fell down.

To not let up in good times or bad.

To not be deterred by bad calls or low balls.

To add excellence into each and every move you make.

To keep your head in the game, no matter how loud the noise.

To keep on trying when quitting would be easier.

To swing hard when it’s your turn to shine.

To step up to the challenge with confidence and courage.

To sustain a winning spirit when nothing is going your way.

To convince yourself that you can’t win if you don’t play.

To carry on with confidence when you screw up, or when someone screws it up for you.

To sustain a respectful demeanor no matter the stats on the scoreboard.

To be ready for what’s coming at you, be it curve balls, back door sliders or change-ups.

To keep on playing, even if you have to go for extra innings.

It ain’t over till it’s over ~ Yogi Berra

We Can Work It Out

You can get it wrong and still you think that it’s all right.

~ John Lennon, Paul McCartney

Are you looking for a job? Are you holding on to the job you have, yet can’t stand going to work? Did you get fired from your job recently? Have you been unemployed for two months or maybe even two years? 

When I listen to people, be it my clients, a speaker, a colleague, a friend, or one of our children, I am always listening for the essence, the takeaway, the nugget of what they are saying. The other day, I was listening to a speaker talk about working things out, whatever it might be in life. And the main message I took away from his presentation: “We can work it out.”

What in your job search would be well, wise and worth it for you to work out?

Do you need to work out how you are going to pay your bills to keep things afloat until you can find new employment?

Do you need to work out how you are going to start that business you’ve always talked about doing?

Do you need to work out how you are going to interact with a boss or co-worker you do not like until you can find a new job elsewhere?

Do you need to work out how you are going to write a résumé when you have held seven different jobs in the past five years?

Do you need to work out how to speak about yourself and your brand before you go to market and explore new opportunities?

Do you need to work out how to stay motivated and energized, up and on after being rejected 15, 20, or more times?  

Do you need to work out how to learn more about social media and how it could be another valuable tool for you?

Do you need to work out how to juggle unemployment and part-time work and who will watch the kids?

Do you need to work out how to talk to your spouse, partner or loved one how you’re going to ‘get through this’ together instead of apart?

Do you need to work out how you are going to explain to a Hiring Manager why you are between jobs?

Do you need to work out how you are going to tell your family that you are really struggling with being out of work?

Do you need to work out how to renew, rebuild and repair relationships with the people in your life who really matter?

Do you need to work out a way to forgive yourself, stop blaming yourself and resist the temptation of seeing yourself as a failure?

Do you need to work out a way to let someone know that you are sorry for what you said?

Do you need to promise yourself that you will do whatever it takes to hustle, to stay focused and to leave no stone unturned in making changes that need to be made to work out your life?

Do you need to work out in your mind and heart that you buy-in to the concept of we can work it out?

Life is very short, and there’s no time

For fussing and fighting, my friend.

~ John Lennon, Paul McCartney 

Life After Getting the Boot

I remember when I lost my job.

While at the time I was shocked and devastated and overwhelmed and confused and _______________ (fill-in-the-blank), I was also immensely relieved. Immensely! I could breathe again!

I was relieved because I did not have to go to that place anymore. I did not have to do that job anymore. I did not have to encounter any personal brands that started with the first letter of the alphabet and ended with its fifth. I did not have to worry about Sunday night rolling around when I would feel myself getting stressed. I did not have to respond to the president of the company’s buzzer anymore. I cannot tell you how happy all of these things I did not have to do anymore made me. Relieved. Immensely!

As a Baby Boomer, I was taught over and over again, get a job, keep your nose clean, and you will always be taken care of.

Fortunately, that particular line of thinking was challenged when I was canned early in my career. The insubordination kind of canned, mind you.

All over one silly dime. My immediate supervisor (the president of the company) gave me a nickel an hour raise. Five cents.  (All the while he told me repeatedly that I was the most competent individual who had ever worked for him in 50+ years – go figure!) After working up much courage, I asked for a dime and that is the single, simple reason I got the boot.

One thin dime did me in. Asking for what I thought was fair and reasonable did me in.

I found out later when the same guy that gave me the boot wanted to rehire me that the reason for my demise was “crossing the line” (his exact words) hence my “‘insubordination.” I crossed-the-line by asking for more money and it cost me my job. That is the reason I was given, straight from the horse’s mouth. And the reality is, had I not been terminated from that job, I don’t think I would have ever found the courage, at that time, to leave. Someone did me a favor and set my life on a better, truer path.

When I lost my job, I had no idea how I would pay the rent, buy groceries, live, pay a very large student loan, forget going out – I just knew that it would all work out. I don’t know how I knew it, I just knew it.

IT WILL ALL WORK OUT.

That’s what I’d been told throughout my ‘growing up’ years by my parents, grandparents, friends, teachers, and other people I respected and trusted.

IT WILL ALL WORK OUT.

And here, these many years later as a career transition consultant, what do I find myself saying to job seekers when I can find no other words that seem right at the moment…I say what many someone’s said to me a long while ago,

IT WILL ALL WORK OUT.

Maybe not the way you thought. Maybe not the way you intended. Maybe not the way you planned. Maybe not with the strategy you so perfectly designed and executed. Maybe not with the people you thought. Maybe not in the city or state you thought. Maybe not doing the thing you ever thought you would do. Maybe not as fast as you thought. Maybe not with the outcome you had hoped for. And maybe better than you could ever imagine. And maybe more incredible than you could ever dream. And maybe the best thing that ever happened to you. Maybe, maybe, maybe…

IT WILL ALL WORK OUT!

 

Job Loss Don'ts

Just in case you lost your job today, yesterday, or recently, here are some job search don'ts for you to consider:

~ Don't do something today that you will most certainly regret tomorrow.

~ Don't refuse to tell those you love (and like) the most that you no longer have a job.

~ Don't expect that the employer will realize 'they made a mistake' and will want to 'take you back.' In my 26 years in the business, I recall a mere three instances where a terminated employee was rehired.

~ Don't blame yourself for decisions made over which you had no control.

~ Don't think that there 'must be something wrong with me' or I would still be there.

~ Don't put yourself down, blame yourself, or view yourself as a 'failure' or a 'loser.' Change happens. It's constant in 2011.

~ Don't stay in bed until noon tomorrow and the next day and the day after that if you lost your job today. Stay in a routine. Your new job is to find a job and it will require and demand your full-time attention.

~ Don't shy away from gatherings of friends and family. Talking about 'the situation' will help you see that you are not alone and the support of others can make a difference, as long as the support is of the positive variety.

~ Don't badmouth your former employer, boss or co-workers who 'still have a job.'

~ Don't accept job interviews until you know you are ready to speak with confidence, clarity and calmness about yourself and your brand.

~ Don't think of yourself as unemployed. Right now and in the coming days and weeks, you will be the driver behind one of the most important and influential projects you've ever managed -- yourself! Move forward with grace, style, confidence and success! You can do this!

~ Don't give up on yourself and the search -- even on your worst day -- even when the cat or dog or roommate or partner or spouse or friend want nothing to do with you and your brand! Remember that old saying: this too shall pass!

~ Don't expect someone 'out there' to find you a J O B! You are in charge of finding the next opportunity. You are the captain of your ship. You are the driver of the cart! Stay focused and relentless in pursuit of new work opportunities.

~ Don't be reluctant (or afraid) to invite others to help you as you move forward in the transition process. If certain people are not interested in supporting you or helping you, or are too busy, let them tell you and show you that they are...don't make the decision for them.

~ Don't let rejection stand in the way of getting on down the road to your new tomorrow which is waiting for you to take action and do something productive today! Rejection is a word, not a way of life.

~ Don't be too hard on yourself. Life is tough. The market is tough. The competition is tough. Just keep telling yourself that you are made of 'mental toughness' and that you can and you will get through this period of career transition.

~ Don't try to 'go it alone' -- get help immediately from a competent professional with expertise in career transitions. Help is everywhere. You can also do a Google search such as this: Career Transition Services + Chicago, Illinois (your local area) if you wish to work with a pro in person. Talk to three providers and listen to their program offerings before pulling out the plastic or forking over the green stuff.

~ Don't be too hard on yourself. Every now and then, remind yourself that you are one of the best!

~ Don't forget to say 'thank you' to anyone and everyone who helps you along the way.

 

 

 

 

Tend To Your Own Knittin'

As a job seeker, do you find yourself caught up in the comparison game? You know how it goes because you have heard it all before…

~ he has a VP title now

~ she has her MBA

~ he’s an industry leader

~ she has charisma

~ he has youth on his side

~ she has such wisdom

~ he has good looks

~ she’s got brains

~ he drives a Range Rover

~ he has a degree

~ she knows technology

~ he got another promotion

~ she got a big raise

~ he’s really connected

~ she’s knows the right people

~ he travels the world

~ she found a job 

And on and on and on it goes. Do you ever find yourself in a comparison game with other job seekers? If you do, I would invite you at this very moment to stop -- stop comparing yourself to other people. And do yourself a big favor and do so now instead of later. Why? Because it is exhausting. It is overwhelming. It is mind-boggling. And, as my client so succinctly put it:

“The comparison thing is one of life’s absolute energy sucks.” 

You are you. You are not Ben or Tom or Jessica or Denise. You have gifts. You have talents. Many of them. You have your own wonderful qualities. You have your own assets. And as it goes in the job hunt world, along with your assets, you no doubt have some liabilities. I’ve met but a handful of people in my years as a career management professional who described themselves as a perfect 10.  As a job seeker in today's intensely competitive market, it is vitally important to identify both your brand's pluses -- and minuses -- so you know exactly what you are dealing with as you embark upon the career transition process.

The next time you find yourself wandering over into the comparison pasture, simply stop in your tracks and repeat: I will take this comparison energy and invest it fully into my own life and continued career success. I will not dwell on matters that serve no useful purpose for me, my family and my future. 

The next time you find yourself caught up in the comparison game, perhaps you will reflect upon the following words from one of the best teachers I ever had:

Tend to your own knitting. 

Five simple words.

27 characters.

For you. 

Today.

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