About finding a job when you don’t have one (from: Advice Line by Bob Lewis)
http://weblog.infoworld.com/lewis/2005/06/14.html#a305 | Comments
Dear Bob …
I’m a displaced IT Director/Manager. Over 50 and (still) a person of color. My last IS employment is now three and a half years ago.
One hunter I spoke with (someone who acknowledged my resume was sent) said that the client explicitly stated they only wanted to consider candidates that had management experience within the past YEAR. Being in Silicon Valley that’s not an easy thing to come by for some of us.
So yes, I am looking beyond the immediate area … Not many seem to be willing/able to relocate at this point.
So, an easy question for you … What the heck do you need to do to find a real job these days???? Since I’m not the only one in this predicament; hasn’t anyone found a way out of this mess???
- Long time looking
Dear Looking …
Oh, that. Piece of cake. Post a resume on Monster.com and wait a few minutes. The offers will simply pour in.
Okay, so that probably won’t work. In fact, it doesn’t work. Don’t bother.
The first step might be too late, but I’m going to cover it anyway: Never be out of work on your resume. What you should have done as soon as you realized you weren’t going to be swamped with job offers was to start your own business. It almost doesn’t matter what the business is, either, although some … management consulting or providing accounting services for small businesses, for example … are better for your image than, say, selling potpourri door-to-door.
The reason for doing this is to provide a ready answer to the question, “So what have you been doing since leaving the MegaLayoff Corporation?” And in fact, the interviewer never asks this question because your most recent employment is with Potpourri Management Consultants, LLC. Instead, the interviewer asks you why you want to leave PMC. To which you answer, “I misjudged the amount of time I’d have to spend in sales and marketing. I love the work, but I find I just don’t like the S&M part.” (Don’t actually say “S&M,” by the way - someone might misunderstand.)
It isn’t too late to take this tack, by the way - really, what do you have to lose? Figure out a business that can generate revenue of any kind … it doesn’t have to make you wealthy; what you need is something credible to discuss with an interviewer when you’re asked about your business. If you decide to take this step.
Don’t like that? Here’s another step, and a hard one: Look in the mirror and ask yourself - what do you do so well that you’re in the top 10% of everyone who does it? I’m not talking about “management.” That’s a title, and one with which many people end up losing all focus.
We’re talking about something clear and definable. Can you manage large projects well? If so, you can get a job by next month with any of the large outsourcing companies, systems integrators, or IT services firms. For them, great project managers are always in short supply.
Do you know how to sell? You can get a job by next month. Heck, if you can sell really well, you can work for me. Straight commission, but if you can sell really well, that shouldn’t be a problem. Lots of companies use direct selling as their primary way of generating business, and every single one needs great sales representatives.
Are you a one-person developer? If so, contact a bunch of CIOs and offer them this: “Sometimes, people in the business bring in outsiders to build systems in Access or Excel, which end up giving you nightmares. If you’ll introduce me to them, I’ll build systems that have a decent internal architecture and integrate with the company’s ‘real’ systems the way you want them to.”
The biggest difficulty many managers face is that they can’t define what it is they do, exactly. That makes it hard for them to sell it to anyone. And make no mistake about it: A job hunt is all about selling … not in the used-car kind of way, but in the best sense of the word: Figuring out what kind of problems your product can solve, figuring out who has that problem, and creating the kind of trust that causes someone to let you solve their problems for them.
Figure those out and you’re home free. If you can’t figure those out, no job-hunting strategy in the world will help you, unless you have a relative who runs a business.
- Bob