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November 1, 2009

2000 vs 2008 – The Job Search Saga Continues

Filed under: Job Seekers, Uncategorized — Kim B @ 9:38 pm

I was exchanging emails with my friend, Robert Betts.  He was telling me about how he was talking to a friend of his who was a Director at an Austin company.  This director spent 3 years pondering job search issues before he was finally able to find a new job.

I started to respond back to Robert with my take on why we are seeing this problem occur right now.  It’s not just Robert’s friend. It’s hundreds of people that I talk to every single day.  I decided to instead post this as a blog.  I will warn you that I make some “generalizations” in this blog. I know it won’t resonate with everyone, but I know that it will hit home for many.

Austin went through a huge round of layoffs from 2000 – 2002. At that point in time it hit the relatively new tech sector.  There were a lot of businesses that were funded that probably shouldn’t have been.   The web was pretty new and money was being thrown at anyone with an idea.  People took risks and left their jobs to be parts of these great ideas.  However, the people who were affected when these layoffs hit were people who already knew they were in a risky situation.  They were comfortable with the idea of change and were prepared to do something different if the idea did not work out. They bounced back easily.

This round that hit us in 2008 and has been affecting us through 2009 has been different because it has hit a part of the workforce that was supposed to be “Safe”. People who had the same job for 10 – 20 years were affected in this round.  This group of the population chose the positions (and companies) that they were in because they wanted some place that was safe and stable.  All they had to do was keep doing their job and they could coast easily to retirement.

During the 2000 hit,  job boards were a relatively new concept.  There weren’t that many people applying online, so the companies that were using online technology were not inundated with the number of applications.  In fact, it helped them to reach a certain part of the population that was tech savvy.

In the 2008 hit, everyone knows about job boards. The “Apply Button” is available on every single company’s website.  It appears to make the job very easy for people.  All they have to do is be qualified and they can submit their resume through electronic means and they trust that someone on the other side of the screen is going to see them and love them. (For my take on the Apply Button check out this previous blog post – http://www.bridgeatx.com/blog/?p=91)

 We are now in an environment where people have lived their lives masked behind computer screens.  They work all day and then they isolate themselves from the world when they go home.  Some people watch reality TV shows to make them feel like they are part of another person’s life.  If people have families, the family circles around computers and tvs to entertain themselves.  For the most part, our circle of friends were our coworkers.

So this leaves us with a circle of contacts between our family and our friends who we used to work with.  Old coworkers either can’t hire us back at our old jobs OR they are struggling to find a new job as well.

The people who are fairing the best in the job search right now are the ones who:

A) Kept in contact with coworkers after they left our organizations

B) Have a circle of parents they have bonded with over children’s extra cirricular activities

C) Have maintained a large circle of friends

D) Have established vendor relationships with other companies not affected by layoffs

E) Are going out there and networking and meeting new people

So, what do you do if you are not one of the groups listed above. 

You’re scared. You’re resistant to change. You have a low risk tolerance. You’re depressed because the tactics that are easy for you are not working out. You’re depressed because you feel like your lay off was a divorce from the company not just a lay off.  You don’t want to go out there and learn something new.  You just want your old job back! As crappy as that job might have been, it was familiar.

So, now what?

  1. Recognize the situation that you are in – stop hiding from it
  2. Seek professional help – don’t think you can take on your job search alone. There are lots of well qualified career coaches out there to help you.
  3. Circle the Wagons – who have you lost contact with that can help you?
  4. Build a new network – get out and meet new people
  5. Create a Plan – make a plan for what you are going to do to get that next job
  6. Act on your plan – implement strategies that will help you in this search
  7. Be realistic – set goals for yourself that are achievable
  8. Find a partner – find someone outside your family who will hold you accountable to those actions
  9. Go Easy on Yourself – stop beating yourself up
  10. Celebrate – start celebrating every little triumph along the way

This job search pattern that started in 2008 is different than any other job search that has been out there before.  Old tactics no longer work.  Get creative and figure out how to get yourself that next job!

Lucky Lotto – Apply Button

Filed under: Job Seekers — Kim B @ 9:15 pm

For those of you who LOVE to hide behind the Apply Button.. Let me take you down this path with me.

Let’s talk a little bit about that magic “Apply” button.  

First, I want you to think about how much money you are worth an hour (if you don’t know, take your old salary and divide it by 2000).   For this example, we’ll assume that you normally make 50K a year.  That means you make $25 an hour.

Now, I want you to think about how much time you spend searching for jobs online so that you can go and hit the “Apply” button.  Figure out how much you are “spending” betting on that apply button.  For this example, we’ll assume that you spend an hour every morning combing through the job boards and finding a few places that you’d like to apply. One hour a day – 5 days a week.  In this example that means you are spending $125 a week hitting the apply button.

Instead of spending this money on the apply button, I want you to imagine that you are taking this $125 and betting it on the Texas Lotto every Saturday night (I know it’s drawn on Wednesday’s too – just go with me).

According to the Texas Lotto these are your chances of winning the Lotto:

To win you must have one of the following matches against the number actually drawn:

  1. Match 6  (Jackpot Win!) Odds = 1:25,827,165
  2. Match 5 Odds = 1:89,678
  3. Match 4  Odds = 1:1,526
  4. Match 3 Odds = 1:75

Overall Odds of a win is 1:71

If you Match 3 numbers - then you get $3 back for each $1 you spend.   You have a 1 in 75 chance to triple your money.

When you are hitting the “Apply” button in your job search – you have a 1 in 95 chance to get that job.   You have a better chance of tripling your money betting on the lottery than you do betting on that “Apply” button. 

Are you out there every Saturday betting your money on the lottery and hoping to win?  (I’m guessing not).  Then why are you taking the same gamble with your job search? 

Perhaps that $125 a week that you are “spending” to hit the apply button is a fair gamble to risk in the case that you MIGHT win that 50K a year job.  However, if you think the odds are in your favor – why aren’t you out there at least trying to triple your money every week?  Because, you don’t think you’ll win!

Now, lets be honest with ourselves.   Are you spending more than an hour a day hiding behind the apply button?  Let’s say you spend 3 hours a day on that “Apply Button” search.  That means you’re spending $375 a week on the Apply Button lottery.  Maybe it’s worth it to spend that to try to get your 50K a year job back.  But remember you have a 1 in 95 chance to win that lottery.

Where are your other hours being spent?  Do you spend 3 hours in the morning on the “Apply Button” lotto and then spend an hour in the afternoon watching Oprah counting on that 3 hours paying off?  Well, then add another hour a day to your Lotto drawing bet – $100 a day or $500 a week.

Now, do not take that as my encouragement for you to go out and play the lotto instead of hitting the apply button. 

Instead, I ask you to look at the hours that you have in a day.  Where are they being spent?  Are they being spent on activities that are ultimately going to pay off in a new career for you?  Or, perhaps it’s worth it to take those hours and be able to spend more time with your family and loved ones. Or, maybe you should be gambling on ways to conduct your job search that have much better odds for you.

Plot out your day based on cost per hour. Make sure that you are comfortable with where that bet is going to pay off.

Anything you do COULD get you your next job.  You COULD get your next job from the person standing behind you at the grocery store. You COULD get a great new idea to make millions while watching Oprah.

But, is the MONEY you are spending on the actions you are taking worth the gamble?

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