People write and ask, “I just lost my job. How do I find another one?”
Answers.
- Have some skills.
- Start a job search.
- Drop your ego.
There’s no secret shortcut — and reading HR blogs probably won’t give you any great insight. Sorry dudes. I’m glad you’re here, though.
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Almost totally agree, though I tend to subscribe to the view that once the job has been lost, you’ve actually already moved into another one, but it’s got a title of “Head of Finding Myself a New Job” The good thing is that you’re your own boss; the downside is that there’s no-one that you can really delegate the activity to, so you have to use the virtual team members in your network. You can choose your own working hours and pattern, but, just like in the real world, if you don’t put the hours and the effort in, you won’t achieve your objective!
This is why I love your blog.
No philosophical discourse on personal development. Just three easy steps.
Yes people are losing their jobs, that sucks! I lost mine 3 years ago and I started my company.
Having skills, and dropping the ego are effective.
Realizing that taking a job that one feels is “below them” to put food in the bellies is a necessity.
Great post!
Dude, I have to disagree with you. You clearly have not learned that HR is the repository for Magic Bullets (not the blender from the weird infomercial). We know all the secrets. When a position is open and an A player needs to be hired, we have a super secret spigot hidden behind a cube in A/R that we open at night and candidates pour right out. When employee engagement is at an all time low, we know the secret isn’t open two way dialogue, it’s a picnic, or even better a can cozy with the company logo on it for everyone. When the budget gets tight, we know the secret of how to cut benefits, raise employee contributions, and cast a spell to make everyone think that it’s good for them.
So for the individual that asked for the secret here it is: Brand yourself in expert in some useless arcane sounding area (examples: multi-generational functional expert, workforce optimization guru, next generation social media evangelist, or total rewards augmentation potentate), get a web site and charge enormous fees to companies to come in and spend several hours reading aloud to them text generated by the corporate b.s. generator: http://www.tommybutler.me/bs-generator.html. Your talking big bucks and zero accountability.
I’m Jimmy, and I’m crabby.
Dude…that is some Punk Rock advice. I almost laughed through my nose when I saw the part about reading HR blogs.
Having skills is good, but having marketable skills is better.
Jimmy, I think I love you.
I agree with you, Laurie – there is no magic shortcut. People have to be inventive and work their ass off to get noticed.
But we’re in a very different arena right now. I’ve dropped my expectations and my ego, and if my asking price was any lower I’d be a volunteer.
My observation after nearly three months of looking from the outside it: the action and movement in the job market right now is at the extremes – extreme entry-level, or in management or 100K+ positions. For mid-career people like me, those positions are being eliminated left and right.
The question is – what do you do to regain optimism?
best. advice. ever.