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Recently a dear friend of mine asked for some resume advice. She’s in a career transition and wants to open herself up for a related, but a little bit of a stretch move. I’m no resume-writing expert (or more preferred, no online profile writing expert), but I do understand the importance of making your business case in keyword rich storytelling.
One could easily take the downgrade, the downs of the market and the riots around the world and get pretty darned depressed. One cannot be challenged without obstacles to overcome whether it is a person, a company or a country. The road ahead offers plenty of bumps and how we react will affect our work, life and those around us.
We’ve all dealt with the ups and downs of life, whether they be BIG global issues that affect us or just a bad hair day. Whatever the circumstance it’s how we deal with issues that really formulates our attitude and success. Here are four points to remember first when dealing with the obstacles life hands us.
Today marks another milestone for unemployed Americans – no longer will the more than 2 million who have been receiving benefits since the beginning of the recession (99 weeks) be receiving government assistance. This news comes right before the holidays and while the economy is slowly recovering and jobs are being added to the private sector, there are many who are losing hope in finding a job in the near future. According to the most recent Glassdoor Employment Confidence Survey, among those unemployed but looking, more than one-third say it is “unlikely” they will find a job in the next six months.
There have also been increasing stories about layoffs across the country, and Bloomberg reports that employers have announced the most job cuts in eight months.
With all this troubling economic news, we want to offer some advice from Glassdoor’s career experts for those who are unemployed whether it’s been one day or 99 weeks:
Unless one has ‘walked in the shoes’ of the terminally unemployed it is hard to give advice on coping with the situation. I have not faced the situation directly, but have spent two decades of my career working on straight commission. Working on commission is about looking in the mirror each day knowing the person looking back at you is responsible for all failure and success – certainly a motivator. There have been bleak times that required a change in mind set and daily activity to move forward successfully so I’ll share a few lessons I’ve learned and hope there may be some value to others.
If I could change one thing in the typical job seeker’s mind, I’d get a crowbar and pry out (and incinerate) the goofy idea that a job seeker has to grovel and beg to get a job. There’s no question that the economy is struggling. There aren’t as many jobs around. But if we focus on the idea “Too few jobs! Too many people!” we lose sight of the other side of the equation. When employers are in trouble, they need brilliant people who can solve their problems. It used to be possible and even easy to get a job just by fogging a mirror. That isn’t true today, but people who show up to an interview ready to talk about business pain and its remedies are more in demand than ever.
One of the flavors of dangerous job search Kool-Aid making the rounds has to do with career change. This Kool-Aid gets people to believe that they have to give up massive amounts of salary by changing careers. Now, in some cases this can be true. If I’ve been working as the head of Obstetrics and Gynecology at a major research hospital and I decide to buy a pushcart and sell gourmet popcorn, I’m going to take a salary hit. There’s no question about it. For most people, though, changing careers is not an automatic ticket to the end of the salary ski-lift line. Here’s the thing to keep in mind: you’re going to send a resume, and the employer is either going to interview you or not.
In the children’s book story classic, the B’rer Rabbit, the smart and cunning rabbit gets himself unstuck from a tar pit by getting the fox to throw him into a briar patch where the rabbit feels most comfortable and the fox wouldn’t dare go. In the end the fox is outsmarted by the rabbit and the rabbit gets away. Few animals, or any of us, know what to do when caught in the thorns and the density of a thicket. But, like the rabbit, some love to be in the place of the prickly briars as they navigate better there and find safety and security in doing so. The same can be said in our careers.
Recently, I have been helping to recruit a CEO out of a position that from my vantage point is a briar patch where I certainly wouldn’t go. This CEO is in a very tough job in a small town that doesn’t add anything special on the home front. The CEO has issues with the Board, co-workers and the overall business model. Yet, when presented with an opportunity to address all of the downsides of the current job, this executive says, “I have only been here a few years and as tough as it is, I know I am here to grow and learn through this stage of my career.”
Act II in stories we are used to hearing is the part where we hear and read about the barriers and challenges that the hero (the protagonist) faces and overcomes. In the stories that we read or watch, the more great barriers and challenges that build up the suspense and give the protagonist the chance to show how she/he overcomes them, the better. Each of the challenges get bigger and bigger until only a superhero using every power bestowed, or so it seems, could surmount them. This makes for a great story and one that we will listen, watch and read intently. The same can be done with your career story during an interview.
Last week we established you as the protagonist and the interesting and compelling character that has caught the interest and intrigue of the interviewer. They now know just enough about you to want to hear more about where you are going and how you have gotten to where you are now. This is when you begin to introduce the barriers and challenges of Act II that you have been able to overcome and beat back when they were put in front of you.
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