Knight Kiplinger of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance was queried in the October issue about the decision of a guy who accepted a job offer, was trained and became part of his team, only to quit when he received a better, higher paying job offer a month into his new job. Kiplinger said this was unethical and that the fellow should have told the company who offered him the higher paying ‘dream job’ that he was honored but unable to accept the position because he had started in his new job already. I’m curious what readers, both job seekers and those who have or do hire candidates, would think and do in this situation given the economic situation of the day.

Hiring is a tricky business. Sometimes hiring managers aren’t able to move as quickly as they want to and a candidate ‘gets away’ before they can make their offer. This leaves both the candidate and the hiring manager in a difficult position. Candidates may end up going with an offer that’s a sure thing vs. holding out for what they really want. Have you ever dealt with this situation, or know of anyone who has? What do you think?

I’m a pretty good worrier. Being a parent, I can muster up a lot of things to worry about. Once I get started I can worry about all sorts of things. When I was 16 I started thinking about peace of mind. I decided that that was something I was seeking; that was larger goal of mine. And that’s when I started meditating. I don’t meditate as regularly as I used to, and I know it would help me with my worrying. I have other grounding techniques that help me center myself so that I can be more available for the situations I find myself in. Being grounded helps me to be effective and counterbalance the challenges that inevitably arise. Especially these days.
How about you? Are you effective when you’re worrying? A lot of people lose confidence when they’re worrying and they do things that move them farther away from where they want to be. As a career coach and strategist I, and the associates I work with, help clients to find their ground again to make sound decisions and take actions that move them forward — sometimes in directions they hadn’t considered before. Having someone to discuss your specific career situation without an agenda or judgement, who knows the terrain and can help you look beyond your worst fears, is very enriching. This is the kind of fortification that can enable you to make the next phone call or shoot for the higher goal, find the right fit that you didn’t realize was there. We aren’t going to read your aura or go digging through your dirty laundry. We’re going to help you see through the smoke of fear, worry and doubt so you can breathe some clean fresh air and take the kind of actions that help you make the progress you want. And find a way to stop the worry even without meditation. Although we may encourage that, too.

By DANA MATTIOLI
Originally posted in Wall Street Journal Online, 8/31/09

Recruiters say more job seekers are taking unusual steps to be noticed—almost always without success. Instead, the recruiters say candidates often hurt their chances by appearing brazen, overly persistent or rude.

In April, a job candidate scheduled an hourlong interview for himself by sending a meeting-request invite via Microsoft Outlook to New York executive recruiter Kim Bishop, who ignored the request. Ms. Bishop canceled the meeting and won’t speak with the job hunter. “I just thought it was inappropriate and too aggressive,” she says. “It would be like walking into someone’s office without an invite.”

In order to stand apart from the competition, Jim Winninger has sent packages to hiring managers with an embroidered shirt and a catchy gift tag.

Recruiters at Philips Electronics NV say a growing number of job candidates with scheduled phone interviews are instead appearing at the office uninvited. Russell Schramm, senior manager of recruiting for Philips Electronics North America, says candidates hope to meet and impress hiring managers. He says hiring managers generally interview the candidate in the lobby, but make a note of the incident. When people who have had no contact with the firm appear without warning, they’re told that staffers are unavailable.

Angela Mellow says she has twice shown up unannounced at the offices of hiring managers at two companies. Ms. Mellow was laid off from a San Diego accounting job in November and has since applied to more than 100 jobs, without luck. The unscheduled appearances didn’t help either. Ms. Mellow says one manager met her at the front desk and spoke to her for 10 minutes. In the other case, a staffer said the position had been filled. She hopes the visits helped create a connection, but admits recruiters “may be turned off if you’re not following protocol.”

Health insurer Cigna Corp. says some job seekers send resumes directly to Chief Executive H. Edward Hanway or top lieutenants, trying to appear as a friend to improve their chances. Hiring manager Eric Kaulfuss says such stunts will hurt a candidate. “We’re evaluating how they interact, and if there’s behavior we don’t want in our organization, we will filter that out,” he says.

Tory Johnson, chief executive of Women For Hire, which arranges job fairs and recruitment services for women, says two mothers of candidates recently called her on their children’s behalf. Ms. Johnson says she thinks neither candidate knew about the calls.

Career experts say patience is important, even in a tough job market. Lynn Berger, a New York career coach, says repeat phone calls to recruiters can seem burdensome. With caller ID, she notes, recruiters can know who is calling without answering. Ms. Bishop says candidates should be assertive when following up, but not aggressive.

Recruiters say candidates should understand that they are swamped with applications. If a recruiter offers a phone conversation rather than an in-person meeting, graciously accept it, says Eileen Finn, president of Eileen Finn & Associates, an executive-search firm in New York.

Recruiters say the best ways to stand out don’t change with the unemployment rate: network, craft a well-written resume and cover letter, and be prepared during interviews.

But Jim Winninger suspects his unusual tactic helped win an interview. Mr. Winninger, 60, has sent dress shirts to two hiring managers embroidered with his contact information, along with a note reading, “If you want a training manager willing to give you the shirt off his back to work for you, look inside.”

He says one hiring manager called, but didn’t mention the shirt. Mr. Winninger concedes that “I”m not going to get a job as a result of sending someone a shirt. All I’m trying to do with that is get an interview.”

Many people today enjoy playing various casino games at both land based and online casinos. It’s always exciting to play these games and the ability to win cash is an added bonus. Depending upon your skills and what kind of stakes you play for, it is possible to win significant amounts of money at a site like www.jackpotcity.co.uk/online-roulette. Players that have been able to do this ponder if this luck signifies the potential for a career change. Many wonder if it is possible to make gambling their full time career. It can be possible so long as you keep certain things in mind.

When pursuing a career as a professional gambler, you have to realize that you won’t have a steady and regular income that you would with a regular job. This doesn’t mean money can’t be made but you may have to adjust to this irregular schedule of payments. Therefore patience is important when you’re having a difficult time at the tables. Remember that your luck will turn around eventually. Be sensible when making wagers and don’t get desperate but instead be patient. This will help make continuing gambling as a career possible.

As with many careers, professionals pursue continuing professional development. This is also key for professional gamblers. The internet makes this easy with numerous materials. Also, man pro gamblers have written books providing advice they have learned over the years. Take advantage of their experiences to help improve upon your game. Never be too proud to learn more about your game. This information can only help your overall results and when depending upon the game as your income, this is crucial. You may learn new strategies to try within your chosen game. If you’re trying it out for the first time, stick to games with small limits so you’re not practicing with a large bet.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times
By MICKEY MEECE
August 22, 2009

CALL them accidental entrepreneurs, unintended entrepreneurs or forced entrepreneurs. A year and a half into the Great Recession, with the jobless rate hovering near double digits, corporate refugees like Lisa Marie Grillos of San Francisco are trying to fend for themselves.

Along with her brother Hernan Barangan, Mrs. Grillos started Hambone Designs, after her full-time contract position with Williams-Sonoma as a production manager wasn’t renewed in January. The new company makes bicycle bags that hold things like keys, wallets and cellphones.

“You have the time — why not focus your energy on something, rather than just trolling Craigslist and sitting and watching TV?” Mrs. Grillos says. “It’s really taking matters in my own hands.”

Mrs. Grillos, 34, built a Web site called hambonedesigns.com, opened a virtual shop on Etsy.com, an online marketplace, and hit San Francisco street fairs. So far, between the online marketing and the street fairs, she and her brother have sold 70 bags, which retail for $20 to $40. Each sale results in a profit.

“We have been talking about mass producing, but we’re not there yet,” Mrs. Grillos says. “It is a whole other thing, approaching stores and having the inventory.”

To help make ends meet, Mrs. Grillos also does textile design and photography projects, and it helps that her husband has a full-time job.

Others among the unemployed are taking the entrepreneurial route. The most recent Index of Entrepreneurial Activity by the Kauffman Foundation showed a slight uptick of new businesses in 2008 — a full recessionary year — over 2007. An average of 320 Americans out of 100,000 formed a business each month, Kauffman said. What’s more, it found, the patterns “provide some early evidence that ‘necessity’ entrepreneurship is increasing and ‘opportunity’ entrepreneurship is decreasing.”

Accidental or by design, entrepreneurship is on the rise again this year. LegalZoom.com, the online legal document service, says the number of new businesses it helped to form was up 10 percent in the first half of the year, compared with the period a year earlier.

“We were surprised,” says Brian Liu, co-founder and chairman of LegalZoom. “We expected there to be a drastic downtick.”

LegalZoom’s top five areas of incorporation, he says, are real estate, consulting, Internet (including electronic commerce), retail, and construction and contractors.

To be sure, a vast majority of corporate workers who have been laid off since December 2007 have sought another corporate job. After all, starting a business in the worst downturn in decades seems especially risky. Only two-thirds of new small businesses survive at least two years, according to the Small Business Administration. That survival rate falls to 44 percent at four years, and to 31 percent at seven.

The silver lining may be that the survival rate is about the same in expansions and recessions, says Dane Stangler, senior analyst at Kauffman.

WHILE the Internet has made the formation process quick and inexpensive — papers can be filed with LegalZoom, for example, for $149 in addition to state filing fees — the costs of owning a business add up quickly. There are state and local taxes and fees, insurance, salaries and contract pay, overhead, inventory and the like. And these days, lenders are none too generous when it comes to forking over money to new businesses.

These factors, combined with the lack of a steady paycheck, often-inadequate health insurance and the sheer emotional stress of being unemployed, may prevent many people from setting out on their own.

But research on what is known as post-traumatic growth has found that some people become more resilient when faced with adversity, says Shawn Achor, a Harvard researcher. Creativity surges, he says, as they adapt to a new situation.

“Their brain is actually learning at a faster pace than when they are not challenged,” Mr. Achor says. “As a result of this, some individuals, the accidental entrepreneurs, they are the ones who in the midst of crisis actually respond with growth.”

In a report this summer on innovation, Ernst & Young wrote, “Experience shows that entrepreneurs should not give up on start-ups in a down economy.”

Many companies with billion-dollar market capitalizations were started during a recession, the report said, including Starbucks, Intuit and PetSmart.

Research from Kauffman in June found that more than half of the companies on the Fortune 500 list in 2009 and nearly half of the companies on the Inc. magazine 2008 list were founded during a recession or bear market.

Lynn Zuckerman Gray, 60, hopes to be one of the success stories of this recession. She lost her job at Lehman Brothers almost a year ago, when the firm collapsed. A former chief administrative officer of its global real estate group, she found herself competing with a rising number of job seekers for a dwindling pool of jobs.

Ms. Gray ended up participating in a New York City program, offered in conjunction with the Kauffman Foundation, called FastTrac NewVenture. The program, for employees displaced by the financial crisis, sent Ms. Gray in a direction she never thought she would go: starting an on-campus recruiting company called Campus Scout.

“I guess I had an entrepreneur simmering inside me because I’ve always been very creative,” she says.

The cost has been hundreds of dollars here and there, she says. Still, the reality of her financial situation is daunting. Her severance pay from Lehman ended this month, and she is now eating into her savings. So far, her new venture, Campus Scout, is in start-up mode and does not have any clients.

She says she is going to try to get part-time work, teach university classes and do some freelance writing to generate cash flow so she can keep her business going for at least two years.

IT’S not just ex-corporate workers who have started businesses out of necessity. In February, Jackie Burke, 68, a retired schoolteacher, and her daughter, Jackie McAlister, 38, a schoolteacher on maternity leave, formed the Cup and Saucer Cookie Company in Ocean City, N.J.

“I never in my lifetime thought of owning a business,” Ms. McAlister said, “the economy has forced us to be creative.” And fast-acting. Stocks nosedived in the fall, and so did her mother’s retirement account.

“Mom was crying, and she said, ‘Maybe I can go to Borders to see if they are hiring.’ I said, I’m not going to watch my retired 68-year-old mom, with two knee replacements, go work at Borders. This is not going to happen.”

Instead, Ms. McAlister and her mother brainstormed about starting an Internet business. A claim to fame they both had was making cookies, she said. She did research in January, filed incorporation papers on LegalZoom in February, started a Web site using GoDaddy.com, and by March sold their first cookies.

“It sounds like a crazy idea, but it was out of total necessity,” Ms. McAlister said. “We had to do something.”

Their Internet business is slow, helped mainly through her Facebook friends and local news coverage, she said. They sell about $200 worth on the Internet each month and about $100 at a local cafe each month. They are near to breaking even, Ms. McAlister said.

Even when she returns to school in the fall, she said, they will keep it going. “The experience has been totally worth it,” she said, and has had the added benefit of distracting them from things out of their control, like the stock market.

Entrepreneurs like the McAlisters, Ms. Gray and Mrs. Grillos have been helped by a growing number of companies that cater to the needs of new businesses.

Recently, Mrs. Grillos attended a networking event in San Francisco organized by Outright.com, which offers bookkeeping software, and Network Solutions, a company that helps small businesses start and market on the Web. The companies had specialists on hand to talk about accounting, tax, legal and other issues facing new business owners.

Kevin Reeth, chief executive of Outright, says, “We realized these people, who have had careers and worked for other people most of their professional life, are not at all prepared to go out and become a business owner.”

The companies jointly started a Web site, unintentionalentrepreneur.com, as a resource and embarked on a five-city tour in partnership with local chambers of commerce and Score, the national group of volunteer mentors. Last week, the tour ended in Manhattan, but the hope is that the networking will continue, Mr. Reeth says.

ANOTHER company that is tailoring its services to very small and new businesses is InfoStreet, a maker of Web-based small-business management software. Michael Hart, 53, of Nashville, says InfoStreet recently had the backbone of NewTerraLiving.com, his new online marketplace for eco-friendly goods, up and running very quickly, and at a very affordable cost.

Mr. Hart started his business after he left an electronic publishing company a year ago. He has been living off his savings and now has booked sales on his site. “The significantly lower costs associated with building the technology infrastructure as well as the phenomenon of social network marketing allowed me to jump in,” he says.

So, will all of these new ventures become viable entities, or are they simply résumé builders and time fillers for people temporarily out of work? For Mr. Hart, it is definitely not a path to a cubicle. “If successful, I don’t see myself returning to corporate America,” he says. “If I’m not successful, I would definitely start another company — if my wife doesn’t kill me.”

Mrs. Grillos acknowledges that she is still job-hunting. “It would be great if this became my full-time job and grew that big,” she says of Hambone Designs. “Even if I found one, I would still have this on the side.”

Martha E. Mangelsdorf, author of “Strategies for Successful Career Change,” says job seekers should be careful about spreading their energy too thinly. “Starting an ambitious business is such a consuming endeavor, I think it would be hard to do that and look for a job at the same time,” Ms. Mangelsdorf says.

“You should try to be clear if you’re starting a business that that’s really what you want to do, as opposed to you’re only doing it because you can’t find work elsewhere,” she says.

No matter what, those who become accidental entrepreneurs have a leg up on the competition, according to Mr. Reeth of Outright. “The process of going into business is going to make anybody who tried it better, smarter and more capable,” he says.

“Whether it ultimately ends a successful journey in terms of staying in business and this is what you do or you go back and get another job,” he adds, “the skills they will have to develop are going to serve them very well.”

More than one of my clients needs to be fired. OK, maybe just laid off. That would be ideal. One of my clients has been wanting to make a change in his life for years actually, but he’s so loyal to his employer that he just can’t seem to leave. We haven’t been working together on this for years — he’s come back to me a few times almost ready. Now there are so many good reasons to leave; he’s ready for more challenge, ready to develop new colleagues, get a different perspective on the world, more money would be fine but not necessary. Sometimes it’s just time to grow and learn more about everything. Now we’re laughing because there’s the possibility that he’ll be let go. And the fire under him would be lit and the energy ignited for change.

I’m reading Po Bronson’s book, What Should I Do with My Life. Why? I discuss this question with people of all ages every day, several times a day. Why read a book about it? I love it. Because it’s comforting to read stories about strife leading to clarity. It does happen. I see it all the time with clients and it brings the satisfaction and reward we both want. Troubled times wrench us into clarity by squeezing the important stuff to the surface. Change and growth and new work does happen. Listen to yourself and know that things do work out. We are a Nation of survivors and inventors — thrivers. Let go and know there’s something fresh and important ahead.

Take a look at this and notice the valuable questions Chambers asks when he interviews candidates. Great lessons here for all of us. Life is demanding that all of us get out on a limb and try some new things these days. Daily life is an act of courage these days, isn’t it? — Daisy

In a Near-Death Event, a Corporate Rite of Passage

Source: Peter DaSilva for The New York Times

Q. What are the most important leadership lessons you’ve learned?
A. People think of us as a product of our successes. I’d actually argue that we’re a product of the challenges we faced in life. And how we handled those challenges probably had more to do with what we accomplish in life.

I had an issue with dyslexia before they understood what dyslexia was. One of my teachers, Mrs. Anderson, taught me to look at it like a curveball. The ball breaks the same way every time. Once you get used to it, you can handle it pretty well.

So I went from almost being embarrassed reading in front of a class — you lose your place, and I read right to left — to the point where I knew I could overcome challenges. I think it also taught me sensitivity toward others.

I learned another lesson from Jack Welch. It was in 1998, and at that time we were one of the most valuable companies in the world. I said, “Jack, what does it take to have a great company?” And he said, “It takes major setbacks and overcoming those.”

I hesitated for a minute, and I said, “Well, we did that in ’93 and then we did it again in ’97 with the Asian financial crisis.” And he said, “No, John. I mean a near-death experience.” I didn’t understand exactly what he meant.

Then, in 2001, we had a near-death experience. We went from the most valuable company in the world to a company where they questioned the leadership. And in 2003, he called me up and said, “John, you now have a great company.” I said, “Jack, it doesn’t feel like it.” But he was right.

Q. How has your leadership style evolved over time?

A. I’m a command-and-control person. I like being able to say turn right, and we truly have 67,000 people turn right. But that’s the style of the past. Today’s world requires a different leadership style — more collaboration and teamwork, including using Web 2.0 technologies. If you had told me I’d be video blogging and blogging, I would have said, no way. And yet our 20-somethings in the company really pushed me to use that more.

Q. Did you need to be pushed?

A. I thought I was very leading-edge in terms of how I communicated. My team just kept pushing, and I finally said, “Why do you want me to do this?” And they said: “John, if you don’t do it our company won’t learn how to do this. It won’t be built into our DNA for the way we interface with customers, our employees. The top has to walk the talk.” I was expecting text blogging and we did video blogging.

The first one was a little bit uncomfortable, because it’s very unprofessional. You just basically put a camera there, and you go. By the second one, I realized this was going to transform communications — not just for the C.E.O., but it would change how we do business.

Q. You mentioned Jack Welch. Who else do you rely on for advice?

A. My wife. She has a way of picking me up when I get knocked on my tail. But also if I get a little bit overconfident, she brings me back to earth.

The other day, I was practicing a concept with her and saying, “You know, there are two major mistakes that I make and Cisco makes repeatedly.” She looked at me and she said, “Only two?”

My mistakes are always around moving too slow, or moving too fast without process behind it. And it’s something that, if we’re not careful, we’ll repeat again and again.

Q. How do you hire?

A. First thing I want to ask you about: tell me about your results. I never get hard work confused with success. So I’d walk you through the successes, and what did you do right.

I’d also ask you to tell me about your failures. And that’s something people make a tremendous mistake on. First, all of us have had mistakes and failures. And it’s surprising how many people say, “Well, I can’t think of one.” That immediately loses credibility. It’s the ability to be very candid on what mistakes they’ve made, and then the question is, what would you do differently this time?

Then I ask them who are the best people you recruited and developed, and where are they today? Third, I try to figure out if they’re really oriented around the customer. Are they driven by the customer, or is the customer just somebody who gets in the way?

And I look at their communication skills, and one of the largest parts of communications is … what?

Q. Listening?

A. You betcha. Seeing how they listen, and are they willing to challenge you? And then I look at their knowledge in industry segments, especially the area I’m interested in.

Q. What’s changed in the last few years?

A. Big time, the importance of collaboration. Big time, people who have teamwork skills, and their use of technology. If they’re not collaborative, if they aren’t naturally inclined toward collaboration and teamwork, if they are uncomfortable with using technology to make that happen both within Cisco and in their own life, they’re probably not going to fit in here.

Adam Bryant conducted and condensed this interview. A longer version is at nytimes.com/business.

Daisy Swan & Associates – August 2009 Newsletter

Hello Readers,

At this writing, I’m taking my inspiration from Jim Collins, an individual and author I respect and admire. The other night, I watched Charlie Rose’s interview with Jim, in which they discussed his latest book, “How the Mighty Fall: And Why Some Companies Never Give In”. Fascinated, I rushed to pick up a copy of the book the next day. This book, in my estimation, turns out not to be just about business, but also about life – with a title like that, how could it not be? Here’s Collins’ back book jacket quote: “Whether you prevail or fail, endure or die, depends more on what you do to yourself than on what the world does to you.”

I know that the wisdom of this quote, for many of you reading this, is old news. But truly, who in this new world with which we find ourselves coping, isn’t reeling from some form of anxiety? I find it helpful to continuously look for inspiration, useful information, and ways to encourage and incorporate new insights. Actually, I recently stumbled upon some notes that I wrote five years ago, which re-ignited my passions and interests in the work that I do. How fortuitous! If we’ve ever worked together, you know that I am always encouraging curiosity and learning. Now, more than ever.

So back to Jim Collins’ book: While I won’t ‘give away the goods’, he discusses the five stages that take down a great company. The first stage is hubris, ‘excessive pride that brings down a hero’. What often comes with hubris, is a level of complacency. I’ve seen this complacency and I think it sometimes looks like boredom or ennui. I blogged about boredom a couple of years ago when so many of my clients were realizing that they really weren’t getting or going anywhere in their jobs. They were ready for more challenge and for many that meant learning new ways of being and doing.

The challenge of today’s world, it seems, is not what most of us had in mind, but it sure does give us an opportunity to turn on the creativity and find new solutions. If this Great Recession isn’t having that impact on you, I encourage you to pick up some books (a Kindle, if you must) that are out of your comfort zone, watch some TV that is out of your ordinary lineup, or take a trip to a museum or forest you haven’t been to in a while. Inspiration is available to all of us, all of the time, but we have to be able to see it. These days, being able to see anew is crucial for those searching for work, but also – clearly – for those who aren’t.

This is also an important time to take a good look at yourself (a nod to Michael Jackson’s “Man in the Mirror”), and how you’re prepared to talk about yourself and your gifts…what makes you the person/employee/founder/partner that you are? My clients who have scored in job interviews have relentlessly prepared. Sadly, but honestly, some of those who have not been offered the job, have learned so much about themselves and what they have to offer through their preparation, that their self-esteem actually increased regardless of the outcome of the interview.

We want you to shine from the inside out and be so right for the job you want, that it’s practically impossible for someone to turn you down. Being that person takes a lot of work. And hard work, it turns out, is an important underpinning of the winning underdog (a nod to Malcolm Gladwell’s New Yorker piece). And these days, who doesn’t feel like some sort of an underdog?

I’m certainly not all about hard work and no play – although I do take my work, curiosity and learning pretty seriously. In fact, those of you who’ve been in any of our Job Search & Networking Groups know that balance is a huge part (not ‘party’) of what we discuss.

So here’s my segue: We’re offering another new Job Search & Networking Group beginning September 9th, at 7:00 PM. We offer these support groups for people who want to be proactive as they move forward with their career transition and job search. These groups are a place where we expand our perspective and listen to others we wouldn’t have met under usual circumstances; we develop and share ideas and create new ways to think about things and take new actions. I, and my associates, love these groups because we get to offer more of what we know with more people, who also enjoy getting to know each other in the process. To sign up for the next group, please click here.

We’re also offering a new group for those of you who are ready to more seriously consider the idea of going back to school. No matter how old you are, an investment in yourself via education, is a good one. And the rub is, you want to have researched what you’re really getting yourself into when you take this step. You want to know what your investment’s return will look like. We know you’re out there, mulling over these options, and we want to help you structure your time and research, as well as the application process, if need be. You can sign up here, if you’re interested – this group will also begin in early September.

I’m also happy to share that I’ll be on a September 1st panel of esteemed economists and business leaders discussing the employment situation in California. If you’d like to listen to this panel discussion live, you can check out the webcast at 10:00 AM (PST) on September 1st, at http://news.everest.edu. Just click on the California Labor Day Survey link, or call 1.877.570.6091 – the conference ID number is 22941914. I can also be seen on a web/TV program, LiveWellHD.com. Those of you who work for organizations that are doing more than just some housecleaning, may want to know that corporate outplacement services are now available and are provided in the same very personalized manner that we have, here. For more information, please contact our office.

And to keep up the momentum, I’ve been quoted in an upcoming issue of Good Housekeeping Magazine – yes, it’s still a thriving magazine, after all these years!

For more suggested reads, links to helpful sites, a Q&A with me, newsletter archives and more, check out the Resources page on my website. And for those of you who are in the process of updating your résumé, you can sign up to receive a FREE résumé template from Daisy Swan & Associates; the signup box is located right on our home page. Please feel free to tell your friends and colleagues about our FREE résumé template!

Until we talk next, keep your eyes and heart open. Recognizing and grabbing opportunity when it appears is a hallmark of those that enjoy what life offers.

Warmly,

Daisy

Here’s a new guest blogger post. Other clients are getting jobs, I’m happy to report, so don’t give up. Take a break maybe, but don’t give up! Daisy

On February 26, 2009, my life hit rock bottom. I was laid off unexpectedly from my marketing job that I had held for 4 years. I just remember shaking and crying and thinking – oh no, now I have to actually do something with my life. How scary! See, for 4 years, I was showing up to the office, doing what was expected, doing it well, and going home when the clock struck 5:30 pm. There was no joy, no challenge, no passion. I was simply going through the motions.

I used my family as a convenient excuse for not putting myself out there. After all, if I work hard and take on more assignments, then I can’t leave on time and spend time with my family. What a joke! It’s only been through recent self-discovery and reading The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks that I discovered that I was sabotaging myself in order to keep things status quo – safe, familiar.

It wasn’t until I took a job WAY beneath my abilities (to pay the growing stack of bills) that I discovered that I was wasting my mind and my life. What if I were to play big and really put myself out there? What could possibly happen?

Well what happened is that I got offered the job of a lifetime. Just yesterday, I accepted a position as Regional Marketing Manager for a multi-billion dollar, worldwide organization. I have never had a job like this in my life. The benefits and perks are amazing. The challenge is going to be incredible. I am scared to death of August 24th (my start date) quickly approaching. I am going to have to step up like I never have before. That thought terrifies, yet exhilerates me at the same time.

Looking back, getting laid off was a true gift. It gave me the kick that I needed to take my life to the next level.

This article originally appeared in the Wall Street Journal
By ALINA DIZIK
July 28, 2009

Last December, with unemployment at 7.2%, The Wall Street Journal enlisted eight people who had lost their jobs to write about their hunts in a new blog called “Laid Off and Looking.” All eight had M.B.A. degrees; five had worked in finance at big banks. They had been unemployed for a median of nine months.

Since then, it’s gotten even harder to find a job. Unemployment is 9.5%, and the monthly hiring rate is at its lowest level since the Bureau of Labor Statistics started keeping track in 2000. There are now about six unemployed people for every job opening.

Despite that, four of the eight original bloggers, and three additions, have landed full-time jobs. But they made compromises, many of them significant. Five took pay cuts of as much as 80%; at least three cuts exceeded 35%. Four changed industries. Four went from big-name employers to smaller firms. Two relocated. Some say blogging helped their search.

Of the rest, one has a 40-hour-a-week consulting gig—but it doesn’t have benefits. Other bloggers declined jobs they felt required too many compromises. Dawn Jordan, who was laid off from Bank of America Corp. in November 2008, rejected two offers to work at startups that would have required as much as an 80% pay cut. “I’m willing to work for a bargain but I’m not willing to sell myself out,” says Ms. Jordan, who’s now starting her own nonprofit business.

As the job market has tightened, tradeoffs have become even more necessary. Professionals are still able to land jobs, says Rob Saam, a senior vice president at outplacement firm Lee Hecht Harrison, but “more of them have to make more compromises.”

Here’s what it took to get back in the workplace:

Big Pay Cut

Matthew Vuturo, 27 years old, was working as a strategic planning manager at VR Mergers & Acquisitions in Tampa, Fla., until January 2008. He says he lost his job after the business was acquired. To help make mortgage payments on his Tampa condo, he spent almost 10 months handling overnight deliveries at a FedEx warehouse; he also consulted part time. He went on about a dozen interviews and lost track of how many jobs he applied for.

In March, his mother stumbled across an opening online; she’d been helping Mr. Vuturo’s brother, a recent college graduate, find a job too. It was for the director of sales and marketing at GPI Prototype & Manufacturing Services Inc., a firm with about 25 employees that makes and develops prototypes in Lake Bluff, Ill.

Three weeks later he got an offer—at a 50% pay cut from his old job. Mr. Vuturo quickly accepted the offer on a Friday and started the following Monday. “For the last 18 months all I’ve been doing is dying for something to do,” he says.

His Tampa condo has been up for sale since June. For now, he has moved back to a home outside Chicago that his parents own and live in part time. He’s making less than he did when he graduated from business school, but hopes that will change in the next few years.

Mr. Vuturo says blogging impressed interviewers. He put it on his résumé and says that it “sparked interest,” though many of the contacts didn’t lead to job possibilities. “There wasn’t one real good lead that came out of the woodwork,” he says. Among the contacts he turned down: MTV, which wanted to feature him in a reality-show episode about being unemployed.

Pulling Up Stake

Flexibility on profession and location paid off for Brian Fetterolf. After getting laid off from a real-estate investment-banking job in Chicago at Macquarie Capital Advisors, a unit of Macquarie Group Ltd., in March, Mr. Fetterolf, 38, spent nearly four months searching for a new position. “I had about 1,000 conversations with 250 to 300 people.”

He made it clear that he was willing to go back to his earlier career—before getting an M.B.A. from the University of Pittsburgh and working in investment banking, he spent eight years as a lawyer. He was also willing to relocate with his wife and three children.

Through law contacts, Mr. Fetterolf in July got a job as in-house legal counsel at TriState Capital Bank, which has 90 employees. It means moving his family to Pittsburgh, near where he grew up. Selling his Winnetka, Ill., house is “not going to be easy,” he concedes, but his family is looking forward to being closer to their relatives.

To land the job, he had to convince TriState he wasn’t too senior for the role and was willing to do the work himself. He managed about 15 people in his old job and isn’t managing anyone in the new one. He says he needed to show he’d “like doing ground-level heavy lifting.”

He took a 10% reduction in base salary and expects to earn at least 50% less in bonus. But he says he anticipates getting equity in the company.

Going Small

When she got laid off in June 2008 from Citigroup Inc. in Atlanta, Karen Reid knew she didn’t want to move. She had been with the firm six years, most recently logging 70-hour weeks as a vice president of global banking. She had moved to Atlanta from New York to be closer to friends and family; she’d bought a house and wanted to stay. Ms. Reid, 39, hoped to find a job in Atlanta in finance at a big company, but found such firms weren’t hiring much. So she began looking at smaller firms. “I really didn’t want to leave,” she says.

Six months later, she found a vice president of finance position at Conisus LLC, an 80-employee Atlanta firm providing oncology marketing information on behalf of drug companies.

Four months into the job, Ms. Reid says she does “miss the global reach and being really tuned into the capital markets” and is making about 45% of what she used to. But she enjoys the shrunken bureaucracy of the smaller company and less-hectic schedule. “I’m going home right now, and it’s 5:30,” she says.

Still, she isn’t looking to be in this job forever. She has talked to the company’s chief executive officer about a promotion to CFO, and says she may want to work for the private-equity firm that owns Conisus in the future. Ultimately, she wants to take on an assistant treasury role at a global public company.

Ms. Reid listed the blog on her LinkedIn profile. She says it helped her expand her network, and prompted a few recruiters to contact her, but none that led to the job she got.

Entry-Level Vetting

Amanda Sundt, 36, lost her senior marketing manager job at Orbitz Worldwide Inc., the Chicago online travel company, in November. Over the next month she contacted about 15 recruiters. Though she heard back from about half of them initially, only one followed up after that. She also contacted former co-workers and friends of friends. She landed interviews with about nine potential employers and estimates she spoke with more than 120 people about potential opportunities.

In interviews, Ms. Sundt, who has 14 years of work experience, says she was vetted as if she was seeking an entry-level position. “I got a lot of those stupid interview questions like, ‘Where do you see yourself in five years?’” she says. Once on a Friday evening, a recruiter called to tell her to devise a company marketing plan for an interview the next morning. She spent the whole night preparing a 15-page PowerPoint presentation. She didn’t get the job.

After 4½ months, she landed a job as the chief marketing officer at iExplore Inc., a 20-person adventure-travel Web site based in Chicago. She applied through an online job board and says she took a slight pay cut.

Ms. Sundt says blogging did help her search. She brought it up when asked about her social-media experience and says her interviewer was impressed.

New Job Culture

When Spencer Cutter, 40, lost his investment-banking job in April 2008, he was burned out. He had been with Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. for nine years, most recently as a senior vice president.

“When you work in investment banking, you get sucked into it,” he says.

He didn’t want to return to the long hours or the constant pressure. He considered going into the wine business or teaching math. While mulling his next step, he became a stay-at-home dad for his now 2-year-old son; his wife works in marketing and business development for a handbag designer.

He says the blog helped him stay dedicated to finding a new career. “I had to be committed to it and be prepared for the consequences if what I wrote ended up cutting off other options,” says Mr. Cutter, who wrote in one post that he “was probably never really cut out to be an investment banker.”

In March, he spotted an opening online for a business-development job at Bloomberg LP. He had several interviews. He didn’t mention the blog there and says it didn’t come up. The offer took two months to materialize; Mr. Cutter says he often lost hope that he was still being considered.

He started the position July 13. He makes about 20% of what he earned as an investment banker, including bonus, but he enjoys the “less competitive and high-strung culture,” he says. “Let me go somewhere where I don’t make a lot of money but can be home at 6 o’clock to see my son.”