Layoff: Final Words

1. Ageism: Some advisers offer the following advice: If you’re in you are in your 30s or 40s, finding a job will take a few months; it’s even likely you’ll get a better one. This just happened to one of my clients. If you’re in your 50s the cycle is slower. And if you’re in your 60s, it gets even tougher. In fact, I’ve recommended such experienced people start their own businesses…it’s faster and far more lucrative. Bottom line, despite what most HR people will tell you, ageism is alive.

2. Arrogance: No single characteristic gets people fired and NOT hired faster than arrogance. Even if you’re the smartest person in the room, never act like it. Let others discover you. It’s hard, slow and nerve-wracking if you do know all or most of the answers, but if employment interviewers pick up that you’re lecturing them, they turn off and you lose, not them. Jim Collins in his now famous book: Good to Great looked at the most successful CEOs ever in the history of the US. He found two characteristics of the great CEOs: Humility and Strong Will. Pretty good advice I’d say.

3. Finding a job IS your job: I’ve mentioned this before, but it bears repeating. As we used to say in the Marine Corps: The main thing is to keep the main thing…the main thing! Same here. When you’re looking for a job, if you’re not putting in at least 6 hours a day calling, writing, searching, responding, thanking, interviewing—you’re not doing your job. The good news: If you do your job, you’ll get a job.

Best of luck.

Layoff: The Value of Follow-Up

What we value on the job, we should do in search for one—follow up.When we hire someone, one of the first characteristics we look for in the first 90 days of their performance is how well they follow up to get the job done. Use that same mindset when it comes to your own job search. To demonstrate how YOU follow up. Employ the most basic winning follow-up tactic: A Thank-You Note. As always, your mother remains the best source of advice: Always thank people for a gift, their time, or in this case, an informational interview.

Here are a few tips that I recommend to executive clients of mine.Send a detailed thank-you e-mail note within 24 hours of the interview:
1. Thank the person for taking the time.
2. Express your continuing interest.
3. Recap your critical qualifications directed specifically at the job—-remember they talk to a lot of people and having your info in front of them helps.
4. If you did not answer any question well in the interview, raise it in this note and answer it.
5. Be respectful, humble and thankful. Arrogance and impatience can get a door slammed faster than you can say “No way.”
6. NOTE WELL: Most people do not send e-mails. So, by sending a thank you note, you get your resume remembered and moved toward the top of the pile.

--Follow up with a short personally written note. Snail mail is fine and reinforces the e-mail and your good manners. Keep this one note short and personal because it follows on the heels of the more direct, comprehensive e-mail mentioned above. Remember that snail mail can take 2-3 days to get to your recipient, and that’s assuming that their mail room works with any efficiency it all.

Layoff: Informational Interviewing

One technique that outshines them all is informational interviewing. We use this approach for university students who are looking at what industry might fit them best. However, it’s and equally an excellent way for those suddenly laid off to approach the job search. Instead of being new to the workforce—you’re experienced. Nonetheless, you’re new to your situation…being unemployed and wanting to explore future options in industry categories you may never have considered. Now is the time to explore what you really want to do.

I particularly like a list of job searching tips from Pepperdine University’s business school:
Lots of good info on this page. Here are just a few highlights:

1. Make a list of friends and colleagues, especially people who have access to leaders at organizations you’re interested in and who are willing to introduce you.

2. Work the list 5-7 hours a day. That’s right…note that finding a full-time job IS a full-time job. This is not for the faint of heart.

3. If you call, the primary goal is to schedule a fact-to to face meeting. Avoid merely sending your resume. Better, MUCH better, to deliver it in person.

4. Tell the truth about your departure, even if you were fired. You may relate to the circumstances, even what you got out of the difficult experience. Denial gets you nowhere except in a jam eventually when people get the word through the grapevine and they usually do.

5. Don’t ask for a job. This is not the venue for that. Doing so only makes people defensive and ends the conversation, before it actually has time to mature and grow potential fruit.

6. The Pepperdine article noted above gives many more detail. The bottom line: Engage your friends, relatives, former business associates—everyone who knows you and would connect you if eve asked