Wow, I don’t remember seeing anything like what I’ve seen in the last 24 hours with regard to job search bloggers. Two of my favorite job hunt bloggers have created posts that look like the cliff notes versions of what to do when you lose your job – and the comments on each post are OUTSTANDING.
Lindsey Pollak starts with A collection of the best career advice for Lehman and Merrill employees (and anyone else worried your job on Wall Street), and includes job search advice from Wall Street Journal’s Todd Gutner, in his article Dealing with a Job Search When You Least Expect It. Great stuff, I especially like two stats he cites from Right Management:
- 42% of jobs are found through networking (there are all kinds of stats thrown around, this comes from a credible source)
- 2/3rd of Right’s candidates (the job seekers) find a job within 90 days. When I hit 90 days I was still floundering.
Lindsey also got advice from LaVern Chapman, an MBA career services expert (have a Plan B, C and D for your job hunt) and Deborah Brown-Volkman (get emotional support — see my most commented post: Depression Clouds Everything). In the excellent comments on this post you’ll see advice from Kristine Wirth, Anita Bruzzese (see below), Miriam Salpeter of Keppie Careers, Marcos Salazar, Diane K. Danielson, WillyF from OneDayOneJob.com, Maggie Mistal, Marci Alboher of Shifting Careers (a New York Times career blogger), and Jane Pollak.
Really excellent advice.
Anita Bruzzese, the famous career columnist, wrote How to Survive When Your Company’s Ship Sinks, and includes such as don’t start a business now, get overy your ego, and prepare to move. One comment that jumped out at me was from Erika at Qvisory, who says to think differently than the other 20,000+ people who are in your same situation. I’d recommend Dave Perry’s Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters book or blog, which can help you figure out how to think differently.
What would I advise? I already wrote my advice for your first 30 days. Written for a friend who just got laid off, I give you ten things you need to do in the first 30 days of your job search so your search doesn’t suck as bad as mine did. You can read my 10 job search ideas in Job Search Tips: What I Should Have Done In The First 30 Days. Lest you think it sounds like all the other advice, at least read the first part to see my original, lame strategy… and if yours matches that, then you know you need to change it 🙂
If you at risk of floundering, consider joining the ETP Network’s free career management call tonight (Host: Rod Colon Tel: 712.451.6100; access code: 171305#, 9:30 to 10:30 pm EST).
So maybe we aren’t in a national recession (yet). There are tens of thousands of people, and their families, who entered a personal recession this week. What are YOU doing to prepare for your personal recession?
Thanks so much for spreading the word, Jason!
Lindsey
Round up copies of previous performance reviews and letters of recommendations. This information will prove invaluable as you begin to craft an updated resume for your search.
Great stuff!
I would add that you should call the 10 most-connected people you know and ask them how they found their last 3 jobs — you get 30 proven job-search tips that way. And you’re networking at the same time.
Ask your Top 10 friends (and anyone else) this question: “What would you do if you were in my shoes?” It invests them in your success by turning on their brains right away, as opposed to “Where should I look?” or “Know anyone who’s hiring?” which usually cause people to shut down.
One thing that I have found very successful is to remember that you are always networking. The way you treat people now will be helpful in the future. You don’t always know when your company is going to downsize, or capsize for that matter. Keeping relationship strong and healthy with people outside your organization could be the life boat you need for the unexpected storm.
Keep copies of your bookmarks, address book, training certificates, and performance evaluation at home.
Hi Jason,
Great post. Anita and Lindsey have great advice and Barbara’s comment is right on. The other suggestion I would make is to reach out for emotional support. Getting laid off is incredibly traumatic so make sure you get some help from whatever source works best for you: church, therapist, support group, or start going to job search networking groups. Just make sure you take care of your emotional health both for yourself and for the sake of your family as they too will be very stressed by the situation. And, if you don’t get your emotions under control you won’t interview as well when the time comes.
Thanks for including me in this post!
Liz
Hi Jason,
I think one other point hinted at but not really named is using a career portfolio.
https://careerservices.uvic.ca/tutorials/career-portfolio.html
https://www.quintcareers.com/job_search_portfolio.html
It is a great tool to keep everything in a presentation format.
Peter
I do have one question about the comment in Lindsey’s response. Are the figures still accurate? and applicable. I know networking is always a good way to go but with the fallout of the last week and year in financial services. I don’t know if the numbers are still relevant.
Not to go too much to the dark side but I’m a little weary of using sources and stats and possibly articles that might be dated as quickly as they appear. One problem is the bottom still hasn’t hit yet.
One area that is important trying to keep mental health and getting support.
Peter
Great post, these are tough times for candidates caught off guard by company downsizing. Candidates need to be active and aggressive in the job search. Stay positive, network, network, network, and create a plan of action to get back to work in 90 days or less. One word of caution be careful of job boards and don’t work with a bunch of recruiters who have very little experience.
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Its all about networking. Join your local chamber of commerce. Interact with people in your industry. The more influential people you know in your industry the better your chances of landing a better gig.
So much advice, so many people in need. First action any job seeker can do is join all the appropriate Alumni Groups they can…even on social networking sites.