When my first layoff struck at the end of July 2008, my kids (Maya--then 9, Cameron--6) were on vacation with their dad and stepmom. I told their dad on the phone what had happened, and his reaction to the news was dramatic ("What??? Oh NOOOOO! I'm so sorry!!!"). The kids happened to be listening, and were obviously traumatized when I picked them up at the airport at the end of the week.
"What are we going to do, Mommy?"
Since my own question about the situation was so similar, all I could do was reassure them in a way that I wasn't quite sure of myself.
"It's going to be fine, guys. Don't worry."
Despite this reassurance, they could see right through me. Of particular note was Cameron's need to explain the situation to each new acquaintance. Encountering a classmate and his mother on the sidewalk in front of our house, for example, Cameron introduced me in the following way: "Hi, this is my mom. She lost her job."
This past spring, when I got the news of another layoff, I had enough poise to remind their dad not to break the news--to let me do it. I took my time, eventually explaining that we were going to get to spend some nice time together after school was out, because I had been laid off.
And we did. Normally, my kids are in day camp from 8 to 6 during the summer, roughly the same hours they have at school during the school year. Their dad and I decided to go ahead and send them to camp so I could spend good chunks of the day job hunting, but not to enroll them for after or early morning care. This meant they were at camp 9-3.
I got to pick them up some days and take them to the pool, or just back home to lounge around in the air conditioning. I attended a noon awards ceremony I would normally have missed, we went on a weekday camping trip, and I kept them home for the entire week of July 4th just because it would be fun.
Despite the love fest, Maya expressed concern about my job situation on a regular basis. And, as is often the case with kids, I fielded a lot of requests for activities or items outside of my unemployment budget. I found myself starting to promise to consider these requests after the current crisis resolved itself.
"Mom, are we going to be poor?"
I didn't know what would happen, but I was fairly certain we would not be poor, as in not having enough to eat or a place to live. When I was laid off the second time, I was making less than I needed to comfortably pay my mortgage, so I did have a real concern that I would need to move. But never did I think we'd end up on the street, mostly because their dad or my family would take us in if nothing else. I assured Maya that no, we would not be poor, reminding her about all the family that loved us.
"Do you know how often you say, 'When I get a job'?" Maya countered.
I had to admit that I knew I'd been saying it a lot...and that I'd been saying it to myself as well. If nothing else, being unemployed has been a handy excuse to avoid the dreaded haul down 44 to Six Flags. Nevertheless, when I got an appealing job offer about 5:30 on Friday, Six Flags was the first thing I promised when called my kids and their dad with the news.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Friday, July 10, 2009
The time when I...
One of the things I find most useful about Orville Pierson's book, The Unwritten Rules of the Highly Effective Job Search, is that following Pierson's recommendations gives me tasks to work on when the phone isn't ringing, and no one seems to be interested in talking to me about my qualifications. For example, making an Accomplishment List.
As part of taking your Skills Inventory, Pierson recommends making an Accomplishment List--essentially, a list of success stories from your professional life. I found this task to be surprisingly fun and useful in reminding myself that I have a long Excel spreadsheet's worth of work to be proud of. The idea is that once you have this list of stories, you can organize them according to the particular skill you have that they illustrate, which you can then tell when you are having a discussion with a potential employer about that skill. Here are a couple from my list:
1. As a new PM in a fairly chaotic web development environment where project management was in its infancy, I initiated a quarterly project management symposium. When it was my turn to present, the topic was a large and complex client I knew very little about. I interviewed as many people as I could about the client and got many differents stories about the best approach to working with the client. I came up with a game that involved me reading quotes from my interviews, and the participants in the symposium guessing who on our team had told me that particular anecdote. I even had prizes for the most accurate guesses! This approach generated a lot of discussion about the client, as well as new ideas about how to improve the relationship.
Skill: Communication and Facilitation
2. Working at a branch of a global organization based elsewhere, my branch sometimes felt removed from the larger communication campaigns. In addition, we had limited communication vehicles at our branch to report on events specific to our branch. Working with senior leadership and contributors across our branch, I successfully pitched and edited a newsletter that profiled individuals at our branch, highlighted specific activities, and gave a much needed voice within the larger organization to our branch.
Skill: Sales, Communication, and Management
As part of taking your Skills Inventory, Pierson recommends making an Accomplishment List--essentially, a list of success stories from your professional life. I found this task to be surprisingly fun and useful in reminding myself that I have a long Excel spreadsheet's worth of work to be proud of. The idea is that once you have this list of stories, you can organize them according to the particular skill you have that they illustrate, which you can then tell when you are having a discussion with a potential employer about that skill. Here are a couple from my list:
1. As a new PM in a fairly chaotic web development environment where project management was in its infancy, I initiated a quarterly project management symposium. When it was my turn to present, the topic was a large and complex client I knew very little about. I interviewed as many people as I could about the client and got many differents stories about the best approach to working with the client. I came up with a game that involved me reading quotes from my interviews, and the participants in the symposium guessing who on our team had told me that particular anecdote. I even had prizes for the most accurate guesses! This approach generated a lot of discussion about the client, as well as new ideas about how to improve the relationship.
Skill: Communication and Facilitation
2. Working at a branch of a global organization based elsewhere, my branch sometimes felt removed from the larger communication campaigns. In addition, we had limited communication vehicles at our branch to report on events specific to our branch. Working with senior leadership and contributors across our branch, I successfully pitched and edited a newsletter that profiled individuals at our branch, highlighted specific activities, and gave a much needed voice within the larger organization to our branch.
Skill: Sales, Communication, and Management
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Editing Samples
Editor, Metro St. Louis Chapter of the Project Management Institute Newsletter, Bi-monthly, January 2006-December 2007.
Jan-Feb 2007
Editor, Reuters St. Louis Campus Newsletter, Quarterly, February 2005-February 2006.
Q1 2005
Jan-Feb 2007
Editor, Reuters St. Louis Campus Newsletter, Quarterly, February 2005-February 2006.
Q1 2005
Writing Samples
"H. Richard Duhme, FA'53," Art Works, Washington University School of Art, St. Louis, MO, Fall 2005.
Duhme
"Combined Studies: Outlet for Creative Dreams," Art Works, Washington University School of Art, St. Louis, MO, Fall 2002.
Combined Studies
"Public Transportation as Public Art: MetroLink, St. Louis," Maquette Magazine, published by the International Sculpture Center, Washington, D.C., December 1994.
MetroLink
Lilley, Kelvyn Grant; Debra N. Mancoff, Lewis W. Williams II, and Tanya S. Yatzeck.Life Imitates Art: The Aesthetic Movement 1860-1900. Beloit, WI: Wright Museum of Art, 1987,"Toybooks."
Toybooks
Duhme
"Combined Studies: Outlet for Creative Dreams," Art Works, Washington University School of Art, St. Louis, MO, Fall 2002.
Combined Studies
"Public Transportation as Public Art: MetroLink, St. Louis," Maquette Magazine, published by the International Sculpture Center, Washington, D.C., December 1994.
MetroLink
Lilley, Kelvyn Grant; Debra N. Mancoff, Lewis W. Williams II, and Tanya S. Yatzeck.Life Imitates Art: The Aesthetic Movement 1860-1900. Beloit, WI: Wright Museum of Art, 1987,"Toybooks."
Toybooks
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
The Unwritten Rules
My copy of Orville Pierson's The Unwritten Rules of a Highly Effective Job Search arrived from Amazon.com on the day I got a job offer after my first layoff in late summer 2008--which lasted 7 weeks when all was said and done. Since I had a job at that point, I didn't even crack the binding. Pierson's book had been a recommendation from my older sister, Elena, who is smart enough about professional life that I should know enough to pay attention. As the younger sister, I am usually not smart enough to do so. The first time around.
When I got my second pink slip in a year this past spring, I tore up my study looking for the brown cardboard box with the Amazon.com branding. Not finding it, I went to the library, found and checked out Pierson's book, and have been using it both as a job search guide and a talisman (I carry it in my bag at all times) ever since. Two renewals so far.
One of the best lessons of The Unwritten Rules is that most jobs aren't filled from postings--online or elsewhere. So you can apply for jobs you see listed someplace until you are blue in the face, and have only a 25% chance of success.
So, it's networking. Which everyone says is SOOO important...and it really is. The idea is, you make a list of all the companies you are interested in, and then contact EVERYONE you can think of who might be willing to help you and ask them if they know anyone at any of your target companies to whom they would be willing to make an introduction for you. So, obviously, the more people you know, they better off you are. This approach feels laborious and hopeless at first--but I've had a few little successes I'd like to share which I hope will inspire anyone out there who is unemployed to use this approach.
My Mom
One of the first contacts I made post-employment this time around was through my mom. I had not sent my mom my list of target companies, but of course she's my mom, so she's very interested in my job search and I talk to her about it a lot. Mom is a retired minister, but keeps herself busy in a variety of church-based organizations. Her spirituality group, it turns out, included a person at a large financial organization in town going through a complex transition due to a take-over, with large-scale project management needs. I knew about this project through the recruiters I was talking to, but hearing about my situation from my mom inspired this person to quickly meet me for lunch, pay for it (lovely!), and give me all the information she had about the project as well as the recruiting organizations. I continue to stay in touch with her whenever I hear about a new job for this organization through a recruiter. Although she couldn't immediately connect me to a hiring manager, I know that knowing this person gives me an invaluable edge.
My Previous Employer Who ALSO Laid Me Off
I was professionally traumatized by both of my recent layoffs, and I'm sure this is a nearly universal experience. Although I was told in both cases that the layoffs were due to downsizing forced by the poor economy and not my work, I felt I had been singled out. These were not mass layoffs--it was only me in one case, and me and one other junior employee in the other. The layoffs made me question the work I had been doing for the organizations, and all the relationships I had made with colleagues who I now felt I could not approach, and who in some cases weren't free to recommend me due to corporate policy.
So, when it came time to send my target list to someone from my previous company, I sent it to the one person I had the best and most successful business relationship with. We hadn't talked since the layoff, but despite the fact that she was on long-term leave, she responded within a day with possible contacts for nearly every company on my list. The most important thing about her response to my request for help, was that her contact list for me included people at that company who had believed in me when I worked there. Because I was so upset by the abrupt end to my career there, I hadn't been able to see the value of the relationships I already had. Both of those people responded immediately and warmly to my request for help, each providing a list of their own of people for me to contact.
When I got my second pink slip in a year this past spring, I tore up my study looking for the brown cardboard box with the Amazon.com branding. Not finding it, I went to the library, found and checked out Pierson's book, and have been using it both as a job search guide and a talisman (I carry it in my bag at all times) ever since. Two renewals so far.
One of the best lessons of The Unwritten Rules is that most jobs aren't filled from postings--online or elsewhere. So you can apply for jobs you see listed someplace until you are blue in the face, and have only a 25% chance of success.
So, it's networking. Which everyone says is SOOO important...and it really is. The idea is, you make a list of all the companies you are interested in, and then contact EVERYONE you can think of who might be willing to help you and ask them if they know anyone at any of your target companies to whom they would be willing to make an introduction for you. So, obviously, the more people you know, they better off you are. This approach feels laborious and hopeless at first--but I've had a few little successes I'd like to share which I hope will inspire anyone out there who is unemployed to use this approach.
My Mom
One of the first contacts I made post-employment this time around was through my mom. I had not sent my mom my list of target companies, but of course she's my mom, so she's very interested in my job search and I talk to her about it a lot. Mom is a retired minister, but keeps herself busy in a variety of church-based organizations. Her spirituality group, it turns out, included a person at a large financial organization in town going through a complex transition due to a take-over, with large-scale project management needs. I knew about this project through the recruiters I was talking to, but hearing about my situation from my mom inspired this person to quickly meet me for lunch, pay for it (lovely!), and give me all the information she had about the project as well as the recruiting organizations. I continue to stay in touch with her whenever I hear about a new job for this organization through a recruiter. Although she couldn't immediately connect me to a hiring manager, I know that knowing this person gives me an invaluable edge.
My Previous Employer Who ALSO Laid Me Off
I was professionally traumatized by both of my recent layoffs, and I'm sure this is a nearly universal experience. Although I was told in both cases that the layoffs were due to downsizing forced by the poor economy and not my work, I felt I had been singled out. These were not mass layoffs--it was only me in one case, and me and one other junior employee in the other. The layoffs made me question the work I had been doing for the organizations, and all the relationships I had made with colleagues who I now felt I could not approach, and who in some cases weren't free to recommend me due to corporate policy.
So, when it came time to send my target list to someone from my previous company, I sent it to the one person I had the best and most successful business relationship with. We hadn't talked since the layoff, but despite the fact that she was on long-term leave, she responded within a day with possible contacts for nearly every company on my list. The most important thing about her response to my request for help, was that her contact list for me included people at that company who had believed in me when I worked there. Because I was so upset by the abrupt end to my career there, I hadn't been able to see the value of the relationships I already had. Both of those people responded immediately and warmly to my request for help, each providing a list of their own of people for me to contact.
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