The perks of being unemployed

Unless you are Jack Welch, the perks of being unemployed are not like those of the employed. There are no junkets to Las Vegas. There are no free golf outings. No limousine rides. No franking privilege....
However, every now and then I run across some small perk of being unemployed. I got an email this morning that outlined such a perk.

Lost Your Job?
FranklinCovey Products Gives Those Unemployed A Boost

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FREE FRANKLIN PLANNERS on April 24-25, 2009
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WHO: Individuals who recently lost their jobs are invited to visit a FranklinCovey store nationwide or call the FranklinCovey Call Center at 800-654-1776 to receive a free 2009 Franklin Planner*.

WHAT: FranklinCovey Products is giving those who have recently lost their job a leg up during these recessionary times. Individuals recently unemployed can receive one 2009 Franklin Planner for free by providing the names of their last employer and supervisor, and the date they were laid off.

WHEN: Friday, April 24 (in-store and call center) and Saturday, April 25 (in-store only)

WHERE: Your local FranklinCovey store (Friday and Saturday) or the FranklinCovey Call Center at 800-654-1776 (Friday only)
Find a store
Call Center hours are Monday-Friday 7:00 am to 6:00 pm MST

WHY: Getting organized for a job search can ultimately save much time and frustration. Having one place to track all information, contacts, appointments, job leads, and interview notes can make a job search less stressful and more productive. Planning and organization are an integral component of a job search....

I also got a very uplifting email this morning (see below) so my day is off to a great start (although not as great as if I had gotten a job offer--hard to top that).

This is God. Today I will be handling All of your problems for you. I do Not need your help. So, have a nice day.
I love you. And, remember... If life happens to deliver a situation to you that you cannot handle, do Not attempt to resolve it yourself! Kindly put it in the SFGTD (something for God to do) box. I will get to it in MY TIME. All situations will be resolved, but in My time, not yours. Once the matter is placed into the box, do not hold onto it by worrying about it.
Instead, focus on all the wonderful things that are present in your life now. Should you decide to send this to a friend; Thank you. You may have touched their life in ways you will never know!

Now, you have a nice day.
God

(Technically I did not check the SMTP header on the email so it could be a spoof and not actually be from God but I am going to go with it anyway).

--
Mike
Original story that WHO-TV did on me: Iowa Job Seekers

Job seeking no more.....

My title as a job seeker has officially ended! As of 8:30 this morning........the search has ended. I was offered a great job and of course accepted! I am now a billing and insurance coordinator for a great company. I start on Monday and will still keep you up to date on the job.

To those of you still seeking..........Good Luck! It will happen.....a little bit of faith can get you a long ways! Just think of what you can do with a lot of faith!!

It's been a week......

What a week it's been! The last interview I had was last Wednesday and I'm supposed to call them tomorrow to follow up. I feel that I did well in the interview and sent them a note thanking them for the interview. I'm anxious to call them tomorrow and figure this out! In the mean time.....I have another interview tomorrow for a different company. I honestly feel like before the week is up.......I WILL be employed!! Hopefully the positive attitude will be the weapon I need!

Once again........keep the fingers crossed!!

The O-Word

Over-qualified. If you're not fresh out of college, then you've probably run into a response from an employer that you're overqualified. What does that actually mean? It means that the employer is...
A. ...Afraid that the candidate will accept an offer but leave, after the economy turns around, for a better paying position. This is a semi-legitimate concern as there are costs associated with bringing any new employee onboard and businesses don't want to incur any more cost than is absolutely necessary. However, most companies seem to exhibit an immediate knee-jerk reaction by issuing a generic "over-qualified" response (if they respond at all) when they receive resumes from outstanding candidates rather than initiating a dialog. There are actually tons of good reasons why candidates might be interested in positions that seem to be a step down (candidate believes that the company will grow and wants to grow with it, family care, non-compete, health-related, housing, taxes, etc. etc. etc.). However, it does take time, energy, & money for a company to validate the true candidate interest. So, unless the candidate has successfully networked (see The N-Word) there is not much chance of having that dialog. (It is probably still a good idea for candidates to address the issue in a cover letter right up front, but understand that it may not matter).

I have also wondered what sports organizations would look like if they took the same approach as the majority of businesses/hiring managers. What if the I-Cubs had an opportunity to acquire Babe Ruth in his 1921 season (ok technically if the I-Cubs could figure out how to implement an Einstein-Rosen bridge to facilitate relativistic time dilation they would no longer be in the baseball business, but just go with me here) for the standard I-Cubs player salary? Even if they knew that they could only keep him for only one year (he will surely get a better offer from a big league club), do you think that they would let him know that he was "overqualified"?
I don't think so.
What about if the Iowa Energy had an opportunity to acquire Michael Jordan? Even if they knew that they could only keep him for only one year, do you think that they would let him know that he was "overqualified"?
I don't think so.

It seems that although most of the business world has not figured this out, that the sports world has figured out that acquiring superior talent drives the business forward even if the stars do not stay forever.

B. ...Afraid that the candidate will not even accept an offer in the first place because the company assumes that the compensation will be inadequate and therefore they want to spend zero (0) time, energy, or money on determining the true candidate interest. This seems even more short-sighted of businesses/hiring managers than the reasoning in "A" above. Many companies simply ask candidates what their last salary was and seem to automatically delete the resume if the previous salary was more than the mid-point for the company's open position. While it's probably appropriate to assume that any candidate wants to earn a fair market rate and further needs to earn a certain minimum amount (everybody needs a home and food)--there are a virtually infinite number of factors that dictate what that minimum amount may be (and it may or may not be the same as the previous salary amount). I'm not sure why more businesses don't pursue outstanding candidates at least to the stage where some two-way conversation about compensation takes place. (3rd party recruiters actually seem to do a good job with this).



P.S. The I-Cubs have several one-dollar nights coming up. If you are a baseball fan, you might want to head out to the ballpark.
P.P.S. If you are a hiring manager that is looking for an IT leader and that is a baseball fan, then let me know and I will spare no expense and buy your ticket on an upcoming $1 night and we can chat about how I can help your organization. I will even spring for a pretzel. :)
(I think that the sales guys call this the strong close). :)

Keeping my fingers crossed!

So maybe that's a superstition.......but at this point, I'll try anything!

I had an interview this morning and it went great. Or at least I think it did! I can't recall ever wanting a job this bad. They have everything I want and I feel I have everything they want....and need!

I should know within a week and in the mean time.......Time will not be my friend. I'm sure it will go slow. Did I mention that I WANT and NEED this job??

So keep your fingers crossed, your thoughts with me, and your prayers expedited!!

Could it be?

Last Friday, I was resume happy and sent out a quite a few! I was anxiously waiting for Monday so I could check the email and see if there were any responses. Like most job seekers, I begin checking the email and start watching the phone for all responses to posted resumes, on a regular basis! I almost feel like a teenage girl waiting for someone to ask her to the prom!

Fast forward to Monday.......

Monday was great! I sent out a resume to a job lead that I feel very confident about and I received a call from that very job today! We played phone tag a few times......and then it happened. We finally got connected and we spent about 20 minutes on the phone. I have an interview with his boss on Wednesday!

This opportunity sounds perfect for what I want. I can't wait to talk more with them on Wednesday. Hopefully this is the job I've been waiting for and I'm the employee they've been waiting for!

A Day in the Life of ...

... a Job Seeker

6 a.m. - Check email and Facebook for networking opportunities
7 a.m. - Breakfast. Check job sites.
8 a.m. - Work on rewriting resume and cover letter for another job opportunity
9:30 a.m. - Donate plasma (earn $25)
12:30 p.m. - Lunch with friend (he buys - $1.99)
1:30 p.m. - Call mortgage company to see if I qualify for a "makinghomeaffordable.gov" re-do of my home mortgage
2 p.m. - Work on freelance project (yea! there will be a little money coming)
3 p.m. - Back online looking for more job opportunities
3:30 p.m. - Apply for job out-of-state (few opportunities found in-state)
4 p.m. - Take 1 hour walk
5 p.m. - Update calendar for tomorrow's activities
5:30 p. m. - Watch national news on TV. More bad news about unemployment
6 p.m. - Snack while searching web again for jobs
7 p.m. - Receive phone call from friend. She's afraid of being laid off too.
8 p.m. - Post resume on 2 job sites
9 p.m. - Check out Facebook to see what my friends with jobs have been doing during the day in their real world
9:30 p.m. - Watch 1 hour of sitcoms to wind down
10:30 p.m. - To bed and . . .
Wake up tomorrow and do it all over again!!

Family

Mike said it very well in his blog of March 30. One thing he said: " You may be pleasantly surprised by the core strength of your family."

My son and I have been through some really tough times throughout he years. Imagine my surprise when I received this card from him yesterday.

It said: "I know this was a difficult year for you. But through it all, you lived each day with amazing courage and grace--growing and learning and finding your way ... and now it's your birthday, and you have a brand-new year ahead of you, the past behind you, and a lifetime of dreams just waiting to come true."

Thanks Hallmark, BUT especially thanks to my son for showing such maturity and insightfulness to know that this card would be the perfect thing to cheer me up during the days of my unemployment.

The N-word

Networking.
If you've been searching for a job for more than 2 seconds, somebody (probably multiple somebodies) has told you that networking is the key to your success. And I wouldn't refute the assertion. However, for some of us networking is easier said than done. A friend of mine (who is one of the best networkers that I know) was sharing with a group that we should, "just have fun with it." I had to politely inform him that those of us with an "I" (rather than an "E") at the front of our Myers-Briggs do not at all find calling friends-of-friends-of-friends (i.e. strangers) asking for favors to be any degree of fun. May be necessary and required but not fun!!
I was looking forward to being flooded with calls after the interview aired. And like one of the other bloggers, the first three (out of the total of four) calls that I have received were from Primerica MLM'ers "looking to expand their financial services business with additional branch manager Vice Presidents." (I'll have to create another post on MLM).
So, it was back to dialing for dollars for me. Ug. I spent almost all day yesterday on the phone. Very frustrating. Couldn't reach anybody directly and left a ton of voicemails. Companies not returning my calls. Which I expect--only the very best companies do a good job of communicating with candidates (and there are not many very best companies out there). 3rd party recruiters not returning my calls. Again, mostly expected--recruiters are focused on the client side right now as it is a terrible environment for them also. Friends and former colleagues not returning my calls!! Wha???? This surprises me. I know everybody is busy, but really? You can't even touch base at the end of the day? Really?

Again, I totally understand how important networking is. I have a friend who is very well connected. She has had success on multiple occasions, after getting a rejection email from HR, by calling somebody she knows at the top of the house for the organization and asking them to intervene. She invariably then gets an interview--which sometimes requires a conversation about over-qualification (yet another topic I will have to post on later), but at least she gets to have the conversation. I, on the other hand, am not as well connected. So, even though I am an unbelievably extremely well-qualified candidate for IT positions I have applied for at Ruan (whose HR actually did return my call) and Des Moines University, I do not actually know anybody there and therefore do not get an opportunity to even have a conversation with the hiring manager. Did I mention how spot-on my qualifications are for those roles? [Note to self -- you must master the power of the Force, er... networking].

There are a bazillion sites out there with tips on networking (who, when, where, how, etc.). Check them out. And maybe some other folks will add some good tips here.
For me, the keys to networking are:
1. Remember to give as much as you take (obviously not always possible, but you get the idea).
2. Contact everybody, but prioritize, and start with folks who know you best. You may be able to link to Kevin Bacon in 6 degrees, but he will still not know you and be less likely to take your call then the guy you worked with for the last 5 years (notwithstanding my experience this particular week--see above).
3. Join a group that promotes networking (especially if there are a ton of people from your industry in the group).
4. You may not like to network, but in the words of master job search guru Ric Flair, "Learn to love it, ...cause it's the best thing going today! Wooooooo."

I'm a PC :(

I've decided that in order to make myself more marketable, I'm going to take a Microsoft Word class on a PC at the Iowa Workforce Center. To a Mac user (and a darn good one at that!)--this is almost a death sentence. I DON'T WANT TO DO IT. But I will. Anything for the job search.

On the plus side, I have heard that the class is excellent and the instructor is fabulous. Wish me luck.

"I'm gonna wash that gray right out of my hair"

Upon having a discussion and taking an unofficial poll at the workshop this morning, it was decided by the majority, that women may have a better chance at getting a job if they look younger. We already have the age discrimination factor against us, so don't add to it by looking older than you are.

Some of the comments: "Gray will date you;" "Perhaps if you were trying to sell a unit in a retirement village, gray might help you;" and "Do everything possible to look as young and vibrant as possible during your job search."

As we all know, though, men are treated differently. Men with gray hair are viewed as distinguished, mature and handsome!

To Gray or not to Gray

That is the question I will ask tomorrow at the Iowa Workforce workshop for tips for hunting for a job for workers ages 40 and up. A few months ago, I started to let my hair go to its natural color (gray!!), covering up the gray with semi permanent rather than permanent color until my roots grew out. I started doing this in order to save money in the long run. Now that I'm in the job search and will be facing age discrimination--yes, it's out there--I don't know if this is the way to go or not. Stay tuned here for later thoughts. Or give me your comments ladies. What do you think? Have you gone gray? Has it affected your job search?