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… Read More
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Back to the 9-to-5—Finally
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… Read More
Beyond Job Boards: Targeting the Source
This article originally appeared in the Wall Street Journal By JOSEPH DE AVILA July 2, 2009 For many Americans looking for work, the first stop is an online job board. Now job seekers are finding that prospective employers increasingly are looking elsewhere to find new hires—the companies’ own Web sites. To draw more applicants to their sites, companies such as software makers Intuit Inc. and Adobe Systems Inc. are revamping their online career pages, including making them more interactive by adding videos and employee profiles. Companies also are trying to reach job seekers through social media sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Sodexo Inc., which provides food services to institutions, offers online “widgets” at its Web site, which send alerts to job hunters’ computer screens when the company has new openings. Companies say they are scaling back advertising on online job boards, which saves them money. By… Read More
Wear Your Heart on Your Sleeve When You Interview
By Laura Gassner Otting You’re called in for an interview for the job that could launch your encore career. The standard advice would be to promote your achievements, but that may not be the best strategy. Instead, voice your passion about this new stage in your life and share the “aha!” moment that set you on your new path. Job seekers transitioning into the nonprofit sector are often filled with assumptions and expectations about the sector itself, some true and some not. Likewise, the nonprofit sector is teeming with assumptions and expectations about these job seekers. To avoid being stereotyped, encore careerists need to stand out in a different way. There is no doubt that many nonprofit hiring managers staring at any would-be encore careerist’s resume think that they have seen it all before: another for-profit refugee looking to “give back.” The best way to avoid being pigeonholed by these… Read More
Dressing for job interviews in L.A.
This article originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times By Emili Vesilind June 14, 2009 The LA Times really nailed it in this article. Being ready for an interview is absolutely essential these days; from being prepared to answer questions, to knowing the questions you want answered, to the shoes you wear into the interview…read on. Hip jeans and a cool T-shirt get the nod at some trendy companies, but for conservative firms, nothing but a black suit will do. Flip through any how-to book on job interviewing and you’re bound to run into the same timeworn tenets on how to dress when facing the hiring squad. “A conservative two-piece business suit” is appropriate for men and women, according to “The College Grad Hunter” (2008) by Brian D. Krueger, with women clad in pantyhose “at or near skin color.” Susan Britton Whitcomb, author of “Interview Magic” (2008), suggests… Read More
Jobless Professionals Yearn to Do Good
This article originally appeared in the Wall Street Journal By Kyle Stock June 9, 2009 A few months ago, Andrea Kornfeld was working on a computer program to shave milliseconds off of transactions at Merrill Lynch. Now, she’s a Peace Corps volunteer teaching computer skills to high-school students in Cameroon. Ms. Kornfeld, 26, applied to the program in August, before the worst part of the financial crisis. Her acceptance arrived a few weeks after she was laid off in January. “Honestly, getting laid off was a good thing,” she says. “Merrill Lynch just wasn’t a good fit for me and it gave me an opportunity to do something different.” The recession is proving a boon for volunteer programs and social-enterprise groups, which are swamped with midcareer applicants like Ms. Kornfeld. Some lost their jobs, others are planning to change careers. Many of the organizations say the applicants, and… Read More
The Winds of Change
This is the last installment from our guest blogger, KSS, who wrote several posts as she went through her process of applying to graduate school — something she was not sure she would even attempt when we first met last July. When I was an adolescent, my grandfather dispensed sound advice upon my upset regarding yet another out-of-state move. Just as I would begin to feel settled in a new place, news would come from my parents that we were set to move again. Concerning this particular incident, he said, “Think of moving as being an opportunity for you. Each time you move, your slate is wiped clean, and you are given the chance to start over again.” I often think of his words now as an adult, especially during times of change, whether voluntary or involuntary. Perhaps it is a bit of nature (I’ve always tended toward movement) and… Read More
No Place Like Home
This article originally appeared in the Wall Street Journal. By Anna Prior May 24, 2009 The dismal job market has twentysomethings realizing that they can — and maybe must — go home again. For the young and jobless, moving back with Mom and Dad can provide free or low-cost housing. But conflicts can arise when independent offspring are subject again to the rules under their parents’ roof. Here are some tips to make the most of your time at home, while keeping your (and your parents’) sanity. Set a move-out date and have a plan. If you go home without a plan, six months might turn into a year, and a year into two. Instead, establish a timeline and a plan of action for finding a job or temporary work, says Gary Gilgen, a financial planner. “Try to get as much of this in writing as possible, get… Read More
The Case for Working With Your Hands
This is a very satisfying article from the New York Times Magazine on 5/24/09. Rich with ideas for adults facing new realities and parents wondering about what’s to come for their kids. Hope you’ll take the time to read this. By: Matthew B. Crawford The television show “Deadliest Catch” depicts commercial crab fishermen in the Bering Sea. Another, “Dirty Jobs,” shows all kinds of grueling work; one episode featured a guy who inseminates turkeys for a living. The weird fascination of these shows must lie partly in the fact that such confrontations with material reality have become exotically unfamiliar. Many of us do work that feels more surreal than real. Working in an office, you often find it difficult to see any tangible result from your efforts. What exactly have you accomplished at the end of any given day? Where the chain of cause and effect is opaque and… Read More
Losing the Income, and the Camaraderie
This article originally appeared in The New York Times May 16, 2009 by CATHERINE BERGART I WAS around No. 1,892,450 of the 2,111,000 people who lost their jobs in the United States last October. It happened near the end of the month. I wasn’t new to layoffs — my first one was in 2001 — but this was different. This time, I not only lost my income, but also I lost the day-to-day camaraderie of a particularly close group of colleagues. “The Great Good Place,” a book by the urban sociologist Ray Oldenburg, talks about the social and psychological importance of what he calls “third places.” He designates home as “first place” and work as “second place.” He describes “third place” as somewhere neutral, convenient, comfortable and welcoming. It’s where regulars gather and where conversation is lively, engaging and often accompanied by laughter. Soda fountains, beer gardens, cafes… Read More
