Losing your job really sucks. It can leave you feeling confused, anxious, helpless, depressed and even ill. As a result, your chances of finding work go down, rather than up.
In the movie ‘Up in the air’ George Clooney plays a suave retrenchment consultant telling people they have lost their jobs, before handing out packages the company has prepared. His young assistant makes inappropriate suggestions to those being affected, sharing the kind of wisdom you find on bumper stickers. But Clooney, after listening to a tirade from a father who asks how he and his family will cope, replies calmly by saying: ‘I’m not a shrink, I’m a wakeup call’. Watch the clip here: https://youtu.be/TkX-TPaodoM.
Being retrenched is a wake-up call, and you may not be ready for it. I managed retrenchments over many years as a senior manager in financial services. It led me to investigate every book and resource I could find around helping people with this life-altering event. But with all my knowledge and experience, it was only when I faced it myself that I realised how difficult this can be. When the organisation I worked for merged with a larger bank, I was faced with a tough choice when my own role became redundant. I decided to take voluntary severance rather than taking a position that didn’t utilise my best skills, in a culture that I was not suited to, and in a city that I particularly didn’t want to live.
What struck me most after I left was the loneliness, and I’m an introvert, so perfectly happy to spend time alone. But I was also struggling with loss, even positive change means losing something. In my case, a company I believed in, a leader I admired, colleagues I enjoyed working with, friends, a job to go to every day, a salary on the same day every month, and being part of a purpose bigger than me. That loss would come with a rollercoaster of emotions and uncertainty.
Sometimes the biggest job is getting a hold on yourself, and so I would like to suggest six things you can do to give yourself the best chance of success if you are facing job loss. 1) Ride the emotional rollercoaster 2) Get connected again 3) Actively create alternatives 4) Make job hunting your new job 5) Manage money actively 6) Set up a weekly performance review.
1. Ride the Emotional Rollercoaster
A woman shared with me how her husband, a senior executive in his organisation, phoned her to say he couldn’t find his way home after being told his job was redundant. Others have told me they knew for weeks their job was gone but didn’t know how to tell their families. Common refrains are ‘I can’t think straight, what am I going to do?’ ‘My kids have just started University and I’m not so young anymore’; ‘How do you find work in this country when you’re the wrong colour?’; ‘I’ve been out of work for more than a year, what now?’
Change is stressful. Even positive change creates stress whether that’s buying a new home, getting married, emigrating, changing jobs, having children, starting a business or moving to a new city. But when change happens ‘to you’ rather than ‘by you’ that is quite a different story.
Being retrenched can really throw you around, just as it does with the loss of someone close to you or the loss of your life savings in a scam. It can feel like you are in freefall from the edge of a building with nothing to hold on to. Psychologists call this ‘Acute pervasive emotional distress’ and it comes with a predictable bag of emotions. Confusion, fear, anxiety, anger, anticipation, guilt, blame, and all at the same time! It’s no wonder we call this emotional turmoil, I have called it a rollercoaster ride since its so up and down.
We all experience ups and downs every day, but during this rollercoaster ride your emotions are intense and unpredictable. You can slowly gather anticipation on the upward climb, then in the fraction of a second fall from grace into a state of hopelessness and anger – without warning. As you take the next steep corner at high speed it may feel like you are going to fall out, or perhaps feel like you already have. Your stomach lurches and you wish it would just stop.
This rollercoaster ride can put you seriously on edge. Even the slightest unwelcome comment can trigger an intense reaction that seems to come out of nowhere. You may even behave in ways that are not like you. You scream your head off when someone swoops into the parking bay you have been waiting for. You don’t even recognise your own behaviour: ‘Was that me?’ There is also the danger of making impulsive decisions during this part of the journey. Change your car. Sell the house. Go do some retail therapy. Renovate the kitchen. Fall into a relationship that may not be good for you. Or perhaps spend your severance package to buy a fast-food franchise for which you are wholly unsuited. Or do whatever else will fill this uncomfortable vacuum.
How long does the rollercoaster keep going? Well, that depends. But it does have to run its course, you can’t get off half-way or escape the next bend. A sure way to keep the rollercoaster going is to pretend it’s not happening or embrace advice like ‘just be positive’ ‘everything will work out fine, you’ll see’ ‘don’t focus on the negative, you just invite more of it’ ‘calm down’ and other unhelpful comments that simply feed denial. Denial comes with its own price; ongoing exhaustion and negativity about life in general. Ignoring the ride doesn’t make it go way. Unless you acknowledge and work with you’ll be up and down on the track for a long time.
As the lurching eases, you reach a kind of dead zone. A place of chaos where nothing really works. You try a few things, and they don’t work either. You feel less anxious, but you also feel less of anything. You are now in a no-man’s land between the old and the new. The old hasn’t gone but the new is uncertain. You want to either go backwards, or forwards, but being in the middle isn’t fun and any picture you have of the future is very blurred. One of our basic human needs is certainty, and there is none.
It’s easy to forget what you are good at, or to question whether you were ever good at anything. You phone a few people only to be told it’s a bad time to be looking for a job. A good interview gives you hope, the next confirms your suspicion there are no jobs for someone of your age or skill level or colour. Encouragement from well-meaning friends and family to ‘get out there’ and send out more CVs may be more alienating than helpful. You wonder if anyone knows how much emotional energy it takes to ‘get out there’, whatever that means. You may have used up all your resolve to just get out of bed. And when you do send out more CVs and get no response, your energy depletes even further.
Since there are no ways around the rollercoaster, here are some things you can do to get through the ride safely so you can move on and give yourself the best chance of success.
a. Give yourself permission to feel the emotional turmoil that comes with loss. Giving yourself permission means allowing yourself days to be sad and confused. Days to be excited about new plans. Days where you are positive and excited. Days when you feel hopeless. Days when you feel inspired. Feeling emotions simply makes you human. Emotions help us process loss. They are helpful messengers to guide and direct us. Even getting angry helps you make important decisions. We ignore our emotions at a cost. My dear friend Dick Bolles once said to me: ‘When you have tears, God is very close to you’. Without giving yourself permission, you can struggle on, pretend it’s OK when it’s not, tell everyone you are fine when you are dying inside. The rollercoaster does not last forever if you work with it and not against it.
b. Remember what you have achieved in your life so far. Remember the difficult times that you got through, periods of huge stress you survived, things you did against the odds and are now proud of. I have a friend in the USA who is a very successful business coach and won’t see a client till they have sent him a list of 100 things they have achieved in their lives, no matter how small they were. It may be time to remind yourself what you have achieved before you write yourself off as a failure with no hope of surviving. You’ve done it before, you can do this too.
c. Write a simple journal. You don’t have to be a good writer, nor do you have to buy an expensive leather-bound journal. Just buy an inexpensive counter book from the supermarket. Write the date at the top of a new page and jot down whatever is in on your mind. It may be your thoughts. Or how you are feeling. It could be ideas you have for the future – drawings of house plans, a logo for your business, a preliminary list of what you need to do next. My friend and colleague Ruth Tearle recommended this to me when I first started my business. I asked her about books that would be helpful to read around change. ‘The best book you can buy about change’ she said, ‘is a blank counter book to write in’. ‘You mean journaling?’ I asked looking sceptical. I discovered this was nowhere as formal as that. It was simply a place to make sense of what I was thinking and feeling. I bought one on the way home and it lay on the top of my bookshelf for a few days. But turmoil, as you may have noticed, messes with your sleep. Gazing at the ceiling at 2.30am and trying to sleep only makes you more anxious, right? And so, at an unearthly hour, I grabbed my journal, made some tea, put the light on at my desk and started writing. It started with ‘Ruth told me to write this, I am not sure what I want to say. But here I am awake when I should be sleeping, so what have I got to lose? I must have written for an hour or more without stopping. I didn’t know I had so much to say! And it was random as she warned it might be. It included things about my two boys, my new business, the squeaking garage door, a layout for my offices and so on. This simple book became a place to make sense of many thoughts in my head over many days. It helped find direction when I needed it. It tracked the turmoil from good days to bad days. I remember a day when I seemed to be going around in circles. My wife suggested I try ‘that book’ to see what popped out. After ten minutes of writing, I had a clear to-do list. But I also discovered I had cabin fever and needed to get out. I locked up my office, got in my car, went to look at boats at the Waterfront, saw a good movie, had chocolate cake with coffee and got home refreshed. The next day I rolled like a steamroller. Now, you can’t spend every day at the movies, but you can help yourself recover energy when you need it. And be kind to yourself as you do. Maybe you know what you need to do, but you don’t know what it is till you write it down. Treat your journal as something that serves you rather than being an obligation. Some days you may write a single line, other days a few pages. Give up being critical of your handwriting, or your style. You don’t have to present it to anyone, or even read it again. It’s about listening to yourself. This activity accesses a part of your brain we call ‘the observing self’. You may therefore be surprised by what you notice or find clarity about. And then you can go back to sleep. This may end up being an essential part of your armour.
d. Nurture your energy. Change is tiring, so this is a critical time to look after your personal energy. Here are some simple ways to do that. Firstly, nurture your physical energy by getting some exercise, by making sure you get enough sleep and by eating food that gives you energy. Drink more water and less caffeine. Get a massage. Use the bubble bath you have been collecting from hotels all your life. Get someone to rub your feet. Or do it yourself. Introduce half-hour naps into your life as well as some exercise. A walk around the block is a good start. Practice naps and practice exercise. It’s easy to learn and with little effort offers huge rewards. Secondly, look after your emotional energy by choosing the people you spend time with. Connect with people who will listen without judging or giving advice, who will challenge you in a way that is helpful and who will encourage your efforts. Get and give more hugs to people and animals. Avoid spending time with negative people, the ‘analysis paralysis’ types, the whiners, the armchair experts in all matters except their own and the Dr Freud hobbyists who want to psychoanalyse you. Get some space if you need it. Go to places that give you energy. Listen to music that inspires you. Do things that restore your soul. Thirdly, look after your mental energy. Avoid becoming a couch potato in front of the TV. Read stimulating and helpful books. Seek out journals that support your interests. Explore book shops or libraries and notice the kind of books that interest you. Discover some new interests. Have conversations with people who are good to talk to and can challenge your thinking. Avoid hours on the internet – there is adequate research to support that this fuels depression – even when you have a job. You sure as hell can’t afford that now. Fourthly, look after your spiritual energy. That means different things to different people. It may be meditation, prayer, yoga, mindfulness exercises, powerful music, time on your own in a quiet chapel, walking on the mountain or reading inspiring literature. Writing down things you are grateful for each day is an easy and powerful way to keep perspective and to notice what has not changed that you are continually grateful for. Write handwritten notes to people you care about and tell them what you appreciate about them. Old-fashioned, maybe, but hugely effective. Or thank them for things they have done for you that you simply haven’t got round to telling them. Gaze at the stars and remind yourself how huge this universe is, and get some perspective – we are not at the centre of it. Lastly, make energy management a daily task and get some basic routines in place. When you wake up, get up! Get up around the same time. Then have a shower and get dressed. Make your bed. Water the flowerpots. Write a to-do list for the day. If you need some motivation, find time to listen to an audiobook version of the 5am club by Robin Sharma and get a routine that helps you be your most productive self. Managing one’s energy is an ongoing job for us all. Start by doing simple things to get control of your energy and take it one day at a time. Not every day will work, so be kind, and start again.
2. Connect with Real People
It’s lonely being out of work and the days can be long when you don’t know what to do next. Before you had somewhere to go each day. Work to do. Things to get done. People to connect with. Even those colleagues who got up your nose were part of your life. You might have created a home office in the dining room or the kitchen and sit there wondering what to do next. It’s so quiet. And quite dead. And very lonely.
This is time to get out of your reclusive space and renew contacts with people you like and enjoy talking to. Your world can become increasingly smaller as you live in your own head, your own room and your own computer. Get out and speak to people, don’t hide behind mailing them. Spending hours on social media may feel satisfying but can waste hours you could be connecting with real people.
Don’t wait till you feel like it, that may not happen. Just because you don’t feel like reaching out to anyone (it takes so much energy) doesn’t mean you shouldn’t. You may be waiting to feel better, feel energised and enthusiastic before you move. But positive emotions are not available ‘on demand’. You may often have to act your way into a new way of feeling rather than feel yourself into a new way of acting.
Job hunting requires connecting with real people. It means deciding who you need to connect with, who they can connect you with, and how you can get to have a conversation with people who need someone like you. This means challenging yourself to move up the communication pyramid. Rather than posting something on social media, send a direct mail (not bulk mail). Rather than send a mail, send a message. Rather than send a message, set up a video call. Rather than a video call, meet face-to-face if you can. And so on.
Actively follow up with contacts. Just because they don’t need what you do now, doesn’t mean they may not need it in the future. People resign, die, retire. Companies also grow and have new needs. Say thank you to people who help you, give you their time, give you the chance to meet with them, share their business information with you or give advice.
This is a time to nurture and build your network. You have a network of people you know that could be anything between 100 and 1000. Use them. The people in your network can help you connect with people, who may know people who need someone like you. But just because you have many thousands of people on your database or on social media doesn’t mean you have a network. A recent social media post likened having thousands of contacts on social media to being rich in the game of Monopoly. Make it real with people you really know.
Ask those people close to you to hear your idea, be a sounding board, help you create more alternatives. Find people who won’t just feed you positive encouragement, but people who understand that success means finding work and who will challenge you and hold you accountable for the things you agree to do.
3. Actively Create Alternatives
Hope comes from having alternatives, so think of yourself as the CEO designing new products and strategies for your business. Stay loose and work on each of them as you go. Nothing is carved in marble, but actively working through alternatives is also work. Find someone you trust that you can share them with, explore new ideas together and test your own ideas more rigorously.
This will help you weed out ideas that are using up your head space but aren’t really what you want or what you are prepared to work with. Creating alternatives is an active thing, not just thinking of ideas as you lie on your bed passively gazing out of the window.
Here are some ways to do that:
• Identify specific organisations you want to work for. You may have been in one organisation for so long that the world outside of that is unknown to you. Use your contacts, the internet and journals to find who else does the kind of work you want to be involved in. Find the names of actual businesses.
• Generate a ‘what else’ list for yourself. Write down ten new career options. Ask yourself: ‘What else could I do? Your previous job need not define who you are, so thinking beyond it may give you some new ideas. Share them with someone you trust and who will listen and encourage your thinking without ridiculing your ideas.
• Draw your ideal job and lifestyle. Do it in one picture, even if you can’t draw. Stick figures are fine. See what emerges. Maybe it’s time to pursue your ideal job? It’s never too late.
• Decide what you have got that has potential for earning an income. Design ten ways to use what you already have at your disposal; your spare room, your laptop, your garden, your car, your hobby. There are lots more ideas in the chapter ‘New lenses at 60’ for people who are formally retired but want to earn more money.
• Consider changing industry and taking your skills with you. If you’ve always been fascinated by aviation, or food, how could you sell your skills into that industry? The chapter on skills will help you separate what you do from the field you have worked in so far.
• Be willing to earn less. Consider jobs that pay less than you were earning, or want to earn, but get you into the workplace. It may also be a stepping-stone to other opportunities down the track. Sitting at home for months unemployed is not good for your energy or willingness to move on.
• Do some free work. Consider working for free for a short period of time. It will get you in the door, create new networks, be good for you psychologically and give you something to do while you hunt for a paid position. I was involved in retrenching members of my own HR team as we merged with the larger bank. In walked a young lady, Thandeka. ‘I have just finished my HR diploma and wondered if you had a position for me?’ ‘You haven’t picked a great week to find a job here’ I explained: ‘We are in the process of letting a few people go’ ‘Oh, I know that’ she said. ‘But I imagine there will be some gaps when they go, I don’t need to be paid and I am very good at queries, managing personnel files and spreadsheets. I also speak three languages. I just want to get some experience’. So, with a belt and braces contract, Thandeka joined us for two months with no pay and provided some valuable support. Then the credit control department wanted to ‘borrow’ her while someone went on maternity leave. She would be paid for that. Many months later she was offered a permanent position in a different part of the business.
• Create an options matrix. Try something new. Find a different role in a field or industry that interests you. It doesn’t have to be your dream job. It doesn’t have to be at the same level as your previous job, but it gives you access to a new range of opportunities in a new industry. Combines fields of interest (Interests and amethysts) with Skills (Sylvia and other skills) by using a matrix. Three fields along the top, three skills down the size. Then in each block see how many alternatives you can create. Get a friend over to help you add more.
• Try bartering. Where could you do some bartering, where you can offer something in return for support in finding work? Where could you provide some administrative support in exchange for office space once a week or offer to do some marketing and connect with people as you develop your confidence? It can be a win-win situation.
• Reverse into an old role. Consider the jobs you did in the past and that you were good at. Perhaps started your career in an administrative position where you were really good. There is nothing demeaning about doing good work while you explore other options.
• Remember old dreams. Consider some of your old dreams. Did you always want to run a guesthouse? How about converting part of your home into an Airbnb?
• Create some businesses. Explore new business ventures. If you had to start three new businesses that you knew something about and would be keen to pursue, what are they? Design a brochure for each of them, then test them with a good friend who can ask you questions about them. Go to Chapter ‘z’ and test a few business ideas. Get creative, use colourful pens or use the many cool features on your computer.
• Develop five business cards. A few years ago, we were supporting a retrenchment exercise in the shipping industry. One afternoon we were exploring self-employment alternatives that might run alongside job hunting efforts. I introduced the concept of five business cards. After all, who said you had to do only one thing? The room went silent and the creativity was palpable as they grabbed coloured crayons, packs of blank business cards. In the space of perhaps an hour each of them had created five different ways of earning an income. It included taxi services, samoosas, cupcakes, clothing alterations, wedding dresses, graphic design, running a guesthouse from home, just as a start. One participant’s daughter was getting married soon. We discovered that everyone in the room had some way of contributing to that whether it was transport, flowers, cup-cakes, financial planning or putting lights in the trees! We would have organised a great wedding, and weddings are big business.
• Make a hobby pay. Consider converting a hobby into paid work. In another organisation we worked with, one of the ladies said: ‘If I had to start a business by Monday, I would sell more of my famous milk tarts. I have been making them to order for many years – it’s time to make money from this!’
• Search online. Consider looking for jobs online with no constraints of age, qualifications and experience and have fun doing it. Follow searches that interest you and see what turns up. Just snoop, as we say.
• Ask for ideas from people who know you. Ask people that know you well to tell you what you do well. It’s easy to become so involved in one role that we forget what else we do well and can offer potential employers. Stay loose and write down their ideas. Consider them overnight before eliminating any because you are not good enough, don’t like the activity or find reasons why that job doesn’t pay.
• Approach previous employers. Consider contacting previous employers or clients who may have forgotten about you and let them know what you can do for them. They may need someone in the short term, which gives you time while you explore other opportunities.
• Learn some entirely new skills. Consider learning a whole new set of skills, something you always wished you could do. How could you learn something new without investing a huge amount of money? What online course could you do? What online learning is free that you could access? Who could you learn from who is good at this? Go to ‘z’ and learn coding, absolutely free.
• You can also go to www.careerwarriorsonline.co.za and use Conversation #10: I want to test my career goals (you can use it many times over) or Conversation #3: I want to test a business idea (you can test many business ideas, then print each of them out when you are done). There is a coupon at the back of this book that will give you 365-access absolutely free.
4. Go to Work, Every Day
Make job hunting your new job. If you have been in sales and marketing this may come more naturally, but if this is entirely new to you, it can seem quite daunting and overwhelming. Jobs aren’t always available because you are ready for them, and it often takes time to find someone who needs someone like you, even if you are good at what you do.
Find a place to work that gives you some structure. You don’t have to hire an office. Create a makeshift office in a spare room at home if you have one. Paint it in your favourite colour and make it a great place to be in. Use a few second-hand items or whatever you have already. Or find a place outside of your home that works for you.
Make a daily to-do list. This helps you decide what is most important to do, today. Filling your day with sorting things in preparation for tomorrow may be wasting valuable time. You can sort the paperclips another day.
Take one day at a time. Job hunting is tough when your hope and your energy is low and it’s easy to become despondent, tired, even depressed and sick when it drags on and nothing seems to work. This is not the time to run yourself into the ground, but rather to do one day at a time, and be kind to yourself as you do.
My friend Wimpie, who is a successful business development executive, has this wonderful advice: ‘Raak besig!’ In English that translates into ‘Become busy!’ Job hunting is about becoming busy! No matter how much help you may be getting from your current employer, or agencies that are working to find you positions, or internet postings you are busy with or coaches that are supporting you, you have to get up every day and treat job hunting as your new job. Waiting for job ads to appear may be a waste of time since many jobs are filled internally or through networks.
Accept the barriers. If you take every barrier seriously, you can get very despondent. Some people won’t need what you do. Other jobs may be reserved for equity candidates, for people with disabilities, or require minimum qualifications. There is nothing wrong with you, these jobs are simply not yours.
You may consider that you are too old. That is certainly a barrier with some employers, but not for others. My friend Craig, who is a director in a successful business, specially hires older people. His two most successful salesmen are 73 and 77 respectively. And with good relationships and expertise in their field, they bring in huge amounts of business.
You can see why this is a numbers game. If you only see three people and each of them says you’re too old, you simply haven’t met the right people who regard your contribution more important than your age.
Be clear about what you are looking for. This may seem obvious, yet many people who are job hunting are looking for a job with only a vague idea of what they want, or no idea at all. ‘Something in finance…’ ‘A strategic role…’ ‘I want to add value…’, or even ‘A job in Cape Town’. They leave it up to the other person to work out what role would suit them best. Identify where you want to work, specifically. Where geographically do you want to live and work? How much travel are you willing to do? What industry do you want to work in, and how will you make an impact there? Which organisations specifically do you want to work for and why?
Then decide specifically what you can and want to do for them.
Have more than one strategy. Don’t depend on one strategy or person. If you are waiting two weeks for an agency to get back to you, or you are waiting for job postings to deliver, you are not busy job hunting. You need more than one job-hunting strategy to give yourself the best chance. The job market has changed and there are more people looking for work than there are advertised positions. There is a huge move towards organisations looking for candidates using LinkedIn and other online sites where you can promote your profile and personal brand – Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest. As a result, job placement agencies are getting a smaller chunk of the pie and only have a handful of positions compared to those in the open market. That means you too need a broader strategy and more alternatives. An online presence is not enough.
The days when a good CV and online profile was enough to have your phone ringing off the hook are gone. Many people end up disillusioned after spending huge amounts of money on a CV, their social media presence, online campaigns, and expensive printed material. Their job hunt is like playing the lotto, and they cannot understand why the returns are so low or there are none at all. The assumption then is that there is no market, or there is something wrong with them, from their age, gender or race to the economy. It can be a real killer of confidence.
I am not, even in the slightest way, suggesting you don’t need those. But you also need an active marketing strategy that generates alternatives. More than ever before.
5. Think and get out of the box
Go beyond traditional job postings. Since the bulk of jobs are not advertised, developing contacts and looking after them will be critical. Anyone in business development will know the value of relationships and the power of referrals. With many salespeople wanting to beat down the door, the gift of a good referral is huge.
Richard Bolles has shown how employers and job hunters approach filling vacancies and finding work from two opposite ends. Start thinking like an employer. The shortened version looks like this. Employers start by employing people they already know and trust. When that doesn’t work, they may hire people who present themselves with evidence of what they do. When that doesn’t work, they ask their network if they know anybody. Only when that doesn’t work do they hire agencies, since those often come at a significant cost. If they don’t want to do that, they post advertisements online. The least favourite way of hiring people is responding to unsolicited CV’s received in the mail in brown envelopes addressed to ‘whoever it may concern’. It remains the least successful strategy of all time.
How do job hunters look for work? Well, they often start by sending out CV’s and get angry or disillusioned that no one even replies. When that doesn’t work, they search job ads. But since the bulk of jobs are not advertised, they may not find what they are looking for. So, they contact agencies who will tell them they don’t offer job hunting services, they serve their clients who are looking for candidates. And in any case, they only have the brief for a small number of jobs at a time. And so, they contact their friends, often with a vague description of what they want, telling them they are looking for job. So are a few million other people. Then they hit social media, posting all manner of things on Facebook, where people go for entertainment rather than to employ someone. Then they resort to messages and emails rather than connecting with real people.
So start at the top, not the bottom, but don’t use only one strategy, you never know where your job might appear.
Be flexible. Historically a job was a ‘piece of work’ not a job that was permanent. So, stay open to short term contracts, single projects and even free work that allows you to make a difference, meet people, demonstrate the value you can add and build new confidence as you do.
That may mean doing work you didn’t first envisage, but that helps you to get going. And those may lead to other opportunities you may not have envisaged either!
Be a gift. As you begin to job hunt, there is the danger of becoming needy where your attitude and your approach is ‘please help me and give me a job’.
How would it be if you changed that approach to offering a gift, wrapped in a beautiful box with a bow. The conversation then becomes ‘here is what I can offer you, do you need a gift like this? And if not, do you know someone who might?’ That changes both your mindset and your energy as you do that.
And if the answer is NO, it merely means they don’t need it, or don’t need it now, or can’t afford it, or can’t afford it now. Or maybe they don’t like the bearer of the gift, that’s possible too. Not everyone has to love you.
Determine working hours. Imagine if you had a job and only pitched every couple of days, then took off for a week, then again pitched briefly before hitting the shopping mall, you would surely be fired.
See your job hunt as a regular job. You needn’t have a five-day week, or an 8-hour day, but it needs to be structured and regular. Short spurts of good work are better than long days of drudgery.
Make sure your CV says what you want. Job hunting is a combined skill of making sense of what you are good at, re-inventing yourself as often as you need to, and finding people who need someone like you. See Chapter 17 – Gift Wrapping for a detailed look at the CV.
Focus your CV and online presence. Your CV on its own is not enough to find work, but it’s still an essential part of your toolkit. Make sure your CV has a clear objective, shows how your experience contributes to that and how the kind of person you are makes you a good candidate. Avoid relying on qualifications, personal attributes like ‘reliable’ and ‘hardworking’ rather than telling employers specifically how you can help them.
Stay connected / in touch with potential employers. Stay in touch with people. Don’t expect a single visit to result in job offers. They say people only buy after the 7th contact. If that’s true, then surely one contact is not enough.
Set up a tracking system of what you have done. Use a spreadsheet or if you prefer a counter book to write down who you saw, who you spoke to and what you need to get done tomorrow. Do this before you go to bed.
Go for no! Many people avoid asking for work for fear of hearing the word ‘No’. And after three noes they are ready to chuck it up. Asking for work may take some humility as well as some resilience. A colleague of mine managed a large multinational call centre where agents were getting disillusioned getting so few yesses. Then they implemented a goal system called ‘Go for no!’ The goal was to hit your NO target every hour rather than your YES goal. Confidence went up, sales went up and they started having fun. Set a goal to get ten Nos this week and see what happens!
Remain the CEO of your job hunt. You are responsible for finding work, no matter what assistance you get from your employer, agencies, friends, and contacts.
Nelson Mandela said: ‘Once a person is determined to help themselves there is nothing that can stop them’. I hope nothing stops you either!
6. Manage Cash
At a time of emotional turmoil, the combination of impulsiveness and low energy can put your cash at risk.
Having no money is stressful and watching your cash dwindle with no work on the horizon can keep you up at night! It can affect your confidence, make you negative, feel hopeless, and can even make you ill. You may have received a package to tide you over, but the stress of watching it dwindle with no work on the horizon is not fun and robs you of the energy you need to look for work which then puts more pressure on your finances.
We asked a few people what advice they had about managing money when they lost their jobs and put together this list. I am not a financial advisor, so this is not intended to override or replace any advice you get from accredited financial professionals.
It’s also a time to beware of armchair advisors who have all the answers gleaned from a few articles they’ve read. Or those who know all the answers, they just haven’t done it themselves! Others will arrive like bees to hive to help invest your provident fund in a get-rich-quickly scheme. This is not the time to take financial risks you have not thought through and where you have not sought good advice from professionals you can trust.
With that in mind, here are some things you may want to consider:
• Work out how many months your package will last rather than just holding you head and feeling guilty every time you go to the supermarket or fill the petrol tank of your car.
• Avoid impulsive purchases that make yourself feel better but which you cannot afford ‘Oh, what the hell….’ you say, ‘You only live once!’
• Avoid buying the first franchise you can find and for which you may be wholly unsuited, check it out and make sure it is right for you and that it can fly.
• Since you have a lump sum for the first time in many years, avoid renovating the kitchen or anything else you’ve been putting off for twenty years, as a way of filling your time.
• Re-assess your budget and see where you can save money till your income is more sustainable.
• Determine what expenses can be put on hold for a period of time.
• Negotiate reduced payments on accounts. Make agreed regular payments on accounts even if they are small, rather than ignoring them. They don’t go away just because you don’t think about them, in fact they push your stress levels up every time you think about them or check your post- or inbox.
• Guard against impulse spending unless you have significant reserves that do not put your livelihood at risk.
• Understand your options on pension and provident funds. It is not called retirement funding by accident, and you may live longer than you think. Avoid spending this cash and find a reputable financial advisor to help you invest it wisely. Be careful of get-rich-quick schemes that offer double the return of investments available in financial markets. When investing money, talk to someone that specializes in this field rather than fall for schemes that are too good to be true. They probably are.
• Have fun saving money, making meals at home, enjoying free outdoor activities, and finding discounts at the movies or restaurants. This is also a great way to treat yourself as you meet job hunting milestones.
• Discuss your money plans with people in your life. That could be your spouse, partner or best friend. Sometimes talking about it and getting a second opinion can help put things into perspective and make a clearer picture in your own mind of whether the choices you are making are beneficial or not.
• Do some research on what benefits you are entitled to when you are unemployed. That includes UIF (Unemployment Insurance Fund) or policies you have that may cover you for retrenchment or loss of income.
Remember that the purpose of managing your money is to help you get out there and find work! Figure out what you need to do to solve the problem to avoid a financial situation that will drag you down and make you ill. Some say that the prospect of no money in the bank focuses the mind.
Use that focus to stay with the goal and find work. Winston Churchill said ‘Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm. I hope you’ll do that no matter how tough it gets.
7. Do a Weekly Performance Review
Set up a fixed meeting time, Friday at 4pm, Monday at 9am?
Don’t set yourself up to fail. This is probably the only time you will ever hear me say this, but this is a time to aim low rather than high, to give yourself the chance to hit and not miss. Having lofty goals to talk about but not reach will not get results. This is the time for action. To climb one step at a time. If you had one good meeting this week, that may be your meeting. If you’ve created one new contact, that’s one more person who may help you. If you’ve sold one batch of your delicious rusks, that’s income you didn’t have last week. So be kind to yourself and keep going. You can raise the bar once you are on the way!
In summary, here are some things to do to keep you on track:
• How well did you look after your energy, this week? Look after your energy. This is not a soft skill, but a hard reality. Energy is everything. Without it your mental and emotional capacity is low. You present poorly. You easily get despondent. You look lousy.
• How well did you activate or re-activate your network, this week? Do this proactively and continue doing this. Don’t wait until you are desperate for help. Create a mind map of the people you know.
• How clear is my ‘CV’ in all of its versions, this week? Write a CV with an objective so what you can offer is clear. Read the gift chapter.
• What job hunting methods did I use effectively, this week? Use a range of job-hunting methods to create alternatives. Read the job hunt chapter.
• Which employers did you connect with, directly, this week? Connect with potential employers in a direct way ‘Are you looking for someone like me?’
• What new job options did I create, this week? Get in the door. Even if it’s not your ideal job, or the pay is not great, get your name out there and show what you can do.
• Who did I send a thank you card to, this week? Keep in contact with people you have seen. And remember just because they don’t need what you do now, doesn’t mean they may not need it in the future. People resign, die and retire. Companies also grow and have new needs.
• Make sure they can find you when they need you.
• How did I pace myself, this week? One activity a day is better than taking a few weeks off then getting so exhausted you take more time off until the feeling passes.
• Who did I call to say thank you to this week? Say thank you to people who help you, give you their time, give you the chance to meet with them or share information about their business. Write them a note, give them a call. Drop off a few of your famous chocolate brownies.
• How well did I maintain a record of my job hunt, this week? Maintain a record of who you have seen, when you saw them, when you followed that up or sent a note, and who they referred you to. That way you can measure your activity and progress.
• What books or online articles did I read this week to help or inspire me ? Buy a copy of What Color is your parachute by R.N. Bolles. It’s my favourite career book and also happens to be the best-selling job-hunting book in the world, for good reason.
• What different job-hunting strategies did I use, this week? Connect with agencies that support your particular line of work. Use the internet without expecting it to do the work for you. Activate your network and let them know, specifically, what you are looking for. Then get out there and do some direct marketing to employers that interest you.
• How good was my work attendance, this week? At a guesthouse I stayed in a few years ago, there was a chalkboard I saw in the kitchen that read: ‘Move forwards. Or move backwards. Just move’. You have to keep moving.
• What steps did I take that I am proud of, this week? Be kind to yourself and climb the ladder one rung at a time. No double steps. Have both feet on a rung before you take the next one and pace yourself.
• How well did I manage myself, this week? When you wake up, get up!
• How many potential businesses did I create for myself, this week? Consider being self-employed, even if only for a while. It will increase your confidence and help you develop new skills. You may even find you like it better this way.
There are so many needs to be met in the world, which means there are people looking for someone like you. They just don’t know you exist.
©Andrew Bramley, 2022. All Rights Reserved.