Jill MacFadyen's Career Coach Blog » Dealing with job loss

JOB SEARCH LIKE A TENNIS RACKET

Jill — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 19:02:13 +0000

Tennis rackets have a sweet spot—the optimal place for the ball to strike for success. However, some of the most difficult shots to return are those tennis balls hit from odd places on the racket. It might have been unintended by the player but still successful. I had one tennis coach who jokingly called that getting your full money’s worth out of the racket. I suggest that if you are only looking for the sweet spot in your job search, you might not be getting “all your money’s worth” out of what you have to offer. You might need to try something different. Some suggestions:

Accountability groups—the synergy of the group drives you to action. Find one in a local job club or form one with others you know who are in search.
Boards of directors—even if only in your head. Instead of interpreting job search results by yourself, do it from the filter of a pre-chosen group of people you admire. You can even arrange for an actual board of directors to give you advice and feedback.
Use family members and friends as an accountability group by e-mailing them where you are in your search. Outline highs, lows and areas where you are trying to improve. This not only holds you accountable but it keeps their inquiries from making you uncomfortable. It puts you in charge.

QUOTE

“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” Albert Einstein

PLEASE COMMENT

Once again, I would appreciate any experiences, comments or questions that will help other readers. I would particularly enjoy some humorous experiences and success stories.

HOW TO REACH ME

jill@careercoachjill.com

www.careercoachjill.com for career coaching

www.limitlesshorizon.com for personal life coaching

www.leadercoaching.org for leadership coaching

Thanks to tech guru David Behrens (http://neptunestudios.net), and editor M. C. Pastoret.

Share and Enjoy:

VARIATIONS ON THE WEAKNESS QUESTION

Jill — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 17:49:05 +0000

Someone I just talked to was asked during an interview about his development needs. This is another variation of the “weakness” question and doesn’t mean that it is also time for true confessions. Before your next interview, it would be helpful to think of a strong answer to that question. My client responded that he hadn’t had an opportunity to directly manage others in his prior positions as a consultant but had led teams. He added that he was looking forward to having the opportunity to do so in the proposed job. He said that alternatively, he thought of beginning the answer with “Feedback I have received…” and then going on from there to show how he had listened and made the suggested changes.

I have also heard the “weakness” question being asked as:

What would your manager say is your greatest weakness?
What would your peers say is your greatest weakness?
What would your direct reports say is your greatest weakness?

Once again, we don’t have to bare our souls. If Bill Clinton, when President, could say “It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is” to the Grand Jury, then we too can choose our words carefully.

We never want to end by admitting a weakness without showing how we have made changes.

QUOTES

“Our strength grows out of our weaknesses.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

PLEASE COMMENT

Once again, I would appreciate any experiences, comments or questions that will help other readers. I would particularly enjoy some humorous experiences and success stories.

HOW TO REACH ME

jill@careercoachjill.com

www.careercoachjill.com for career coaching

www.limitlesshorizon.com for personal life coaching

www.leadercoaching.org for leadership coaching

Thanks to tech guru David Behrens (http://neptunestudios.net), and editor M. C. Pastoret.

Share and Enjoy:

Thoughts about Work

Jill — Tue, 18 May 2010 02:53:21 +0000

My blog editor, the talented MC Pastoret, asked me this week what purpose I had in mind for my blog and I couldn’t give her a satisfactory answer. I think she was disappointed that someone who had the privilege of having readers didn’t know. So when a friend, Sebastian, sent the poem below, it made me think not just of what the poem elicited but of MC’s question. What I want for you is both to have the tools to get a job, and to have that job be the kind of work that makes you look forward to getting up in the morning. Therefore, at times I want the blog to trigger ideas and thoughts, and at times the blog will be about tools. Ponder the following:

What is your motivation to work? (It might be the work itself and it might be to support yourself and your family.)
When were you most energized at work? (Since it is difficult to get what you don’t want, you need to find work that will make you happy.)
However, if you are currently employed but not finding the work fulfilling, how can you change your perspective to make this work satisfying at least in the interim? (The work might not change but you can choose to change, which can shift the dynamic. I find that many people who are not happy at work, take it out on the job by withholding some portion of their effort or themselves which then comes back to bite them in less than stellar reviews.)

POEM

To Be of Use

The people I love the best
jump into work head first
without dallying in the shallows
and swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight.
They seem to become natives of that element,
the black sleek heads of seals
bouncing like half-submerged balls.

I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart,
who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience,
who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward,
who do what has to be done, again and again.

I want to be with people who submerge
in the task, who go into the fields to harvest
and work in a row and pass the bags along,
who are not parlor generals and field deserters
but move in a common rhythm
when the food must come in or the fire be put out.

The work of the world is common as mud.
Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.
But the thing worth doing well done
has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.
Greek amphoras for wine or oil,
Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums
but you know they were made to be used.
The pitcher cries for water to carry
and a person for work that is real.

Marge Piercy

from Circles on the Water (Knopf, 1982)

PLEASE COMMENT

Once again, I would appreciate any experiences, comments or questions that will help other readers. I would particularly enjoy some humorous experiences and success stories.

HOW TO REACH ME

jill@careercoachjill.com

www.careercoachjill.com for career coaching

www.limitlesshorizon.com for personal life coaching

www.leadercoaching.org for leadership coaching

Thanks to tech guru David Behrens (http://neptunestudios.net), and editor M. C. Pastoret.

Share and Enjoy:

Transition

Jill — Sun, 02 May 2010 16:29:13 +0000

Life is difficult. Transition, job search or being stuck in an unhappy job can be very stressful. Stress is worsened by our feeling that things should be different. Things are what they are. This doesn’t mean that we can’t make efforts to change our situation but railing against ‘what is’ doesn’t help.

I have heard clients say that they feel lost or empty. For those of us who have been highly goal-oriented, job search might seem that way. However, this might not be bad. Fields that lie fallow for a time are better able to support growth. If you were burned out by your last job or succession of last jobs, what is this time period telling you that you need?

Transition or job search means that we have to bring in a whole new set of attitudes as well as skills. What made us successful in prior jobs might not be what is needed in search mode. I can remember one of my two wonderful daughters-in-law telling me about holding a payroll training class shortly after the birth of her first child, my first grandchild. She told class participants that something was a “no-no”.

So we need different mind sets, different skills, different vocabularies during transition. When you are with groups of others in transition, stop the circular negative talk about the economy, the search, the unfairness. Find someone who has successfully made the transition and ask questions about how they managed. Ask questions similar to the following:

What helped you the most?
What do you wish you had known early in the search?
If you had to do it over, what would you do differently?
What did you learn about yourself?
What advice can you share with me about my search?

QUOTE

Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you,
If you leave it you may come back again, saying Here.
No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are. You must let it find you.

~ David Wagoner

PLEASE COMMENT

Once again, I would appreciate any experiences, comments or questions that will help other readers. I would particularly enjoy some humorous experiences and success stories.

HOW TO REACH ME

jill@careercoachjill.com

www.careercoachjill.com for career coaching

www.limitlesshorizon.com for personal life coaching

www.leadercoaching.org for leadership coaching

Thanks to tech guru David Behrens (http://neptunestudios.net), and editor M. C. Pastoret.

Share and Enjoy:

MINOR BUT IMPORTANT POINTS

Jill — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 02:09:39 +0000

I’m devoting this weekend to a training program, so I thought I’d take an opportunity to post a brief reminder about an important point. So many of us in transition are unhappy that we don’t hear back from HR and that our messages seem to disappear into a black hole. There may be several reasons why HR is not returning calls, but I want to have you think about the messages that you leave. I just received a voice mail from someone who left an unintelligible phone number. I know my hearing is not the greatest, so I had a relative with superb hearing listen; he said that it seemed as if two digits were missing. We all know our phone numbers, so when we get to that part of the message, we probably take a deep sigh of relief and just rattle off the number. I suggest you write out what you are going to say, so that you don’t ramble or have to call back because you have forgotten something vital. Speak your name and phone number distinctly. It is helpful to say both name and phone number at the beginning and end of the message. This way the recipient doesn’t have to listen to a very long message twice if your name and number weren’t written down at the beginning. Don’t assume that Caller ID is available to provide your number.

Your e-mail and voice mail are important links to those who have jobs to offer. Does your e-mail system let you know when a message is undeliverable? If not, do you double check to see if you have the address correct?

Is your voice mail message professional? A least favorite is, “I am not here. You know what to do.” Is your message brief and to the point? I am sure your children are charming but not on your voice mail message if you are in search mode. Your religious holidays are not of interest to the caller. If you have a choice, make and receive calls from a land line because it can be clearer. And finally, be very aware of background noise whenever you make a call or leave a message: turn off the TV and stereo, and step out of the room if there are other people around chatting away. The only sound the other party should hear is the sound of your own voice.

QUOTE

“If e-mail had been around before the telephone was invented people would have said “hey, forget e-mail-with this new telephone invention I can actually talk to people.” www.thinkexist.com

PLEASE COMMENT

Once again, I would appreciate any experiences, comments or questions that will help other readers. I would particularly enjoy some humorous experiences and success stories. Once a month, I will choose one commenter to contact for a free coaching session.

HOW TO REACH ME

jill@careercoachjill.com

www.careercoachjill.com for career coaching

www.limitlesshorizon.com for personal life coaching

www.leadercoaching.org for leadership coaching

Thanks to tech guru David Behrens (http://neptunestudios.net), and editor M. C. Pastoret.

Share and Enjoy:

THE NETWORKING BRIEF OR HANDBILL

Jill — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 02:06:12 +0000

As promised, today’s blog is about the Networking Brief or Handbill. The emphasis is on the word brief. You might ask, “why do I need this if I have a resume.?” The resume doesn’t tell the reader what you want in a position, plus it might make the recipient feel as if he/she has to find you a job. The Networking Brief lets the recipient know exactly how you can be helped. It is a one page document that is easier for the recipient to keep on hand. If you go to job search meetings, you will probably be expected to pass out your Networking Brief.

When you are networking or just out and about, you want to tell people what you are looking for in your next step. Don’t expect them to take out a piece of paper and jot down salient points. It is your job to let them know with your personal commercial and with your Networking Brief. This leaves the guess work out of the game.

A Networking Brief is a one page document. It includes:

your contact information,
short summary (similar to your resume),
several bullet points about why you are good,
types of positions and industries you are interested in,
contacts that would be helpful,
and names of target companies if relevant.

It does not include names of companies you have worked for or the names of your schools. I would like you to use a filter when writing it. That filter is: does the recipient need this information to connect me with the people who can be most helpful to me?

Please use the links to see the two samples. network_brief_bank network brief Technical

QUOTE

“You cannot get to the top by sitting on your bottom.” Proverb

PLEASE COMMENT

HOW TO REACH ME

jill@careercoachjill.com

www.careercoachjill.com for career coaching

www.limitlesshorizon.com for personal life coaching

www.leadercoaching.org for leadership coaching

Thanks to tech guru David Behrens (http://neptunestudios.net), and editor M. C. Pastoret.

Share and Enjoy:

OTHER NETWORKING TOOLS

Jill — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 19:20:47 +0000

Here are two useful tools for networking and job search.

Get a business card. Early in my career search, I found myself in the embarrassing position of writing my name and contact information on a yellow sticky note to hand to a potential contact. Your business card can be a simple one with your name and contact information on it. You do not have to include your address. Instead of a title, you put your function under your name. For example, Human Resources Professional, CPA, Engineer, IT Professional, Administrative Professional, Electrician. This correlates to the function you used in the summary of your resume and in your personal commercial. You can get them professionally printed relatively inexpensively or even do them on your home printer.
If you haven’t joined LinkedIn, do so. LinkedIn is free, and I have seen it be very helpful to clients. It helps you develop and manage your network of professional connections—people you know or should know in your field of interest. Just as important, LinkedIn lets you create a profile for yourself that communicates your value to those contacts. Your profile is one more way to let the world know what you do uniquely well. It is worth spending some time writing it. Then, when you start to build your network, you can ask friends and co-workers to write a recommendation for you. You might also then do the same for them.

I will write about the Networking Brief next week and include a sample.

QUOTE

“More business decisions occur over lunch and dinner than at any other time, yet no MBA courses are given on the subject.” Peter Drucker

PLEASE COMMENT

HOW TO REACH ME

jill@careercoachjill.com

www.careercoachjill.com for career coaching

www.limitlesshorizon.com for personal life coaching

www.leadercoaching.org for leadership coaching

Thanks to tech guru David Behrens (http://neptunestudios.net), and editor M. C. Pastoret.

Share and Enjoy:

HOW TO WRITE YOUR PERSONAL COMMERCIAL OR ELEVATOR SPEECH

Jill — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 16:56:52 +0000

The format is simple. I suggest you write out your personal commercial, using the following points:

You introduce yourself. Hello, my name is….
Tell the person who you are by function, not by title. Perhaps use an adjective to describe yourself in this function. For example, “I am a trend-setting web designer…” So begin by using the words, I am….
If relevant, say why you are no longer working for your prior firm or why you are thinking of leaving your current firm. (You will be asked this at some point by friends or during an interview, so get comfortable with stating this.) Make it brief and non-judgmental. You might refer to my earlier blog on the Leaving Statement to see how this works
Say something interesting about your experience or successes that will hook the listener.
Say what you are looking for in a new job and how the listener can help. This can include where you want to work.

Once you have written the words, it’s time to practice the commercial. Call your voice mail to record it and then play it back to see how it sounds to you. Try it out on family members and friends and ask for feedback. When you are happy with your personal commercial, practice it until you can give it gracefully whenever needed. Practice in front of a mirror. Record it without your notes and listen to how it sounds. Re-record until you can deliver it smoothly.

As a side note, you might find that you will also use portions of the personal commercial in e-mails to contacts to let them know how they can help you.

SOME NOTES:

Express your value.
Speak with confidence. If you are sure of your value, your listener will believe in that value.
Make it short. This is not a history of your life.
Do not improvise. If you do, you will talk too much.
Be professional and upbeat. Don’t let this be about the sadness of what you may have lost.
Once again: practice, practice, practice.

AN OFFER

I will help polish, at no charge, the personal commercials of the first three readers who contact me at jill@careercoachjill.com. This would be for a session of no longer than 55 minutes. To be considered, you must include in your e-mail a copy of your rough draft and your contact information.

MY PERSONAL COMMERCIAL

My personal commercial follows and I would be remiss if I didn’t ask you for help in achieving my goals:

Hello, my name is Jill MacFadyen. I am a certified life coach who specializes in helping my clients find satisfying careers, jobs and lives. My clients are given support in all aspects of career search from “what do I want to do when I grow up” to how to be successful in their next position. One client even reported an improved golf game, a surprise. I would appreciate your referring to me those who might be less than satisfied with their job, work or life.

PLEASE COMMENT

HOW TO REACH ME

jill@careercoachjill.com

www.careercoachjill.com for career coaching

www.limitlesshorizon.com for personal life coaching

www.leadercoaching.org for leadership coaching

QUOTE

“Practice means to perform, over and over again in the face of all obstacles, some act of vision, of faith, of desire. Practice is a means of inviting the perfection desired.” Martha Graham

Thanks to tech guru David Behrens (http://neptunestudios.net), and editor M. C. Pastoret.

Share and Enjoy:

Are You Sure I Have to Network?

Jill — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 00:25:00 +0000

“…the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too.”

–Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I am reusing last week’s quote because it is so powerful and because it is also apt for this week’s topic about networking. If one is committed to something—like finding a job—one tells others about it.

To put it simply, networking works. It doesn’t have to be complicated. It can be conversational. It doesn’t have to be scary. It can run the gamut from telling the local butcher that you are looking for a job to conducting informational interviews and everything in between. I think it is especially important after you have applied for a position you would really like. Then certainly ask contacts if they know anyone at that firm who can help you.

The days when people were embarrassed about looking for work are long over. I had one wonderful client who used as a tag line after her signature line on e-mails, “Looking for a Project Manager Position.” That certainly is networking and you will have to decide if it works for you or not.

In next week’s post, I will outline the steps to writing a 30 second personal commercial—also referred to as an elevator speech—which is the first step. For right now, I would like to give you two examples:

Friend A told me of her dream job. Shortly thereafter, I called Friend B about a different topic and Friend B mentioned that her firm had a need for skills that fit Friend A’s dream job and for help in finding a project management employee. I called Friend C to see if his wife might be interested in the project management position and he said that he was having trouble filling positions for his firm and he needed someone who would fit Friend A’s dream job skills. So in two serendipitous phone calls, I had two possible leads for Friend A.
A client in another state had been a bookkeeper for an automotive credit company for decades. She is a quiet woman who didn’t think she would like to network. However, we prepared her 30 second personal commercial and had her practice it until it just flowed. She went to the local grocery store where the deli manager while slicing ham asked why she was there in the middle of the day. She replied with her personal commercial which ended with the words, “at this point, my ideal job would be as a bookkeeper for a local car dealer within five miles of my home.” He responded, “You want I should have the VP of Sales from the Caddie dealer down the street call you?”

You never know who knows the right contact. So you help yourself by spreading the word. However, “the word” has to be sincere, positive and upbeat. It cannot ramble. If you are still feeling negative or down about your situation, go back and read some of the earlier posts.

PLEASE COMMENT

HOW TO REACH ME

jill@careercoachjill.com

www.careercoachjill.com for career coaching

www.limitlesshorizon.com for personal life coaching

www.leadercoaching.org for leadership coaching

QUOTE

"... the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too."  Goethe

Thanks to tech guru David Behrens (http://neptunestudios.net), and editor M. C. Pastoret.

Share and Enjoy:

THE NEW YEAR HAS ARRIVED

Jill — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 23:22:18 +0000

“…the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too.” –Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

This is a powerful quote. We’ve all had the experience that when we truly set our minds to do something, to make a commitment to an achievement, that things suddenly seem to fall into place for us, to help us along the way—what Goethe calls “Providence.”

In looking back on my many years and many friends, and all my reading, I am not sure that any of us really commits to New Year’s goals. We only say “I am going to be kinder to my kids,” or “I am going to quit smoking, or do better at work.” But have we made a commitment to these goals? Until we do, Providence will not help us, and our goals will go by the wayside.

So how do you commit to a goal, to something in the future, yet-to-happen? I think our usual methods are inside-out: we want the behavior to happen, but we have not readied ourselves. That means that it is more likely we will fail to achieve our goals, which sets us up for disappointment in ourselves and puts more stress on an already pressurized cauldron. But there is a way to prepare for pressure-free success. And it starts by striving to appreciate ourselves. The first step is stopping the “monkey chatter” of self-negative talk. That means looking out for it even in the way we set our goals.

We tend to frame our goals in ways that presuppose we are imperfect and need to change. What if, instead, we liked ourselves so much that we wanted to responsibly take care of ourselves? That’s the meaning of “appreciate ourselves.” If we can make that commitment to ourselves, then “I am going to lose weight” becomes “I’m choosing now to eat nutritiously,” and “I am going to quite smoking” is now “Smoking hurts me and my family, and it’s time to stop doing that.” With our commitment in place, we may just find that Providence is at hand to supply the help we need to reach our goals.

PLEASE COMMENT

HOW TO REACH ME

jill@careercoachjill.com

www.careercoachjill.com for career coaching

www.limitlesshorizon.com for personal life coaching

www.leadercoaching.org for leadership coaching

QUOTE

"... the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too."  Goethe

Thanks to tech guru David Behrens (http://neptunestudios.net), and editor M. C. Pastoret.

Share and Enjoy: