Still Employed - How To Help Unemployed Friends

You dodged the layoff! Congratulations. You aren't the minority, but you feel like it. After you go outside and dance like Wesley Snipes did when he wasn't cut on Major League, you get back about the job. Sure you have a lot of work to do, but now you have friends who are also out of work. What can you do to help them with their job search or new business idea?

Suggestions:

1. Reach out to them but be available at their pace. Different people react to job loss differently. Volunteer to help them with the process. You don't have to hire them to be a help. Help them with their plan; developing it, executing it, or revising it. Offer to politely hold them accountable. (See caveat below.)
2. Help them create their elevator speech. This is a two or three sentence answer to the question, who am I and what do I want to accomplish. It should be written from the hearer's perspective. Help them think of themselves in terms of action verbs rather than industries or functions. See Step 8, here.
3. For that matter, you can offer a lot of information on job searching on the web. There are groups like JobAngels on Twitter and several groups on LinkedIn, as well as hundreds of search sites.
4. Help them network. Networking beats remote searching any time. Introduce them to people. These are people who might be able to use someone like them or who might know someone who could. If their elevator speech is concise, it won't be difficult to introduce them to your friends. Afterward, ask how the meeting went and whether they got any other names. That may even help you think of other people to talk to. Bonus tip: check back with the person you introduced to get feedback to share with your friend.
5. Encourage them. Ask questions about their ideas and help them stay positive. Please do not tell them their ideas won't work. You know you hate it when someone does that to you. Besides, anyone will deflate them, but only their friends can put air in their sails. For every idea they have, try to help them along the way. Imagine what they'd need, even if it sounds impossible and try to be part of the solution. Besides, you'd hate to recommend against something only to find out later that they would have succeeded greatly if they hadn't listened to you. This may be the time they can start a business or move to a new part of the country. You never know what might happen.
6. Pray for them. If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, this is the greatest thing you can do. I can tell you first-hand that God does choose to change events when his people pray.

Cautions:
There are a couple of caveats. First, don't do the work for them! Constantly help with encouragement and suggestions, but rarely, if ever, accept any action items from your discussion. Finding a job is their job. They have to do it. If at any time you feel like you're more interested in this than they are, break it off. Tell them to call you back when they've taken some action. And, when they call you back, if they haven't taken that action, be politely unavailable.

Second, and this is the most difficult. If you either have a position you don't want to hire them for or you feel like they are not qualified for the position they are seeking, you have to tell them, and the earlier the better. The truth will set you free, but it is seldom painless. Put yourself in their position. If they had food on their shirt, you wouldn't let them go on the interview. After you've spent some time helping them define and articulate their strengths, put yourself in their position and tell them the way you would want to hear it. Focus on what would you want someone to tell you and how would you like it to have been said. Put their interests first and do the best you can. That way, if they say they never want to talk to you again, at least you will know you did your best. Besides, you can continue step 6 regardless.

Any other ideas? Please feel free to add a comment with your thoughts.

Jump Start Your Job Search Part 3

As I stated when I started this series, thirty of my coworkers lost their jobs a couple of weeks ago. I thought, since I've been through this quite a few times, that I'd post some tips to help people get started and get past the grief and fear associated with loosing a job in the current economy. So, starting last Friday I posted Part 1 to get you started and yesterday I posted Part 2 to get you up to speed.

Part 3 – Get Known On The Web

This section is designed to put you into overdrive. There are some free or very cheap things you can do to enhance your exposure using the web. These tools haven’t been available to me in my previous job searches, so I’m just learning about them too. Please feel free to add more ideas and correct or comment freely.

1. Step 18 - Write a blog. Pick a cause and begin writing. When you have 10 or so 300-500 word pieces, get going and make one or two posts a week. Be professional, share your beliefs, but be valuable. Check out Problogger for advice and instruction, as well as Wordpress, and Blogger to help you get your blog going quickly. I haven’t yet gone to the effort to try to make money blogging, but if anyone can help you with that it’s Darren Prowse at Problogger. If that comes easy to you, go for it.
2. Step 19 - Market your blog. I recommend you start looking around for some tips and also beginning with LinkedIn, Twitter (see Step 9 from Part 1)and Facebook. There are actually several marketing tips you'll find just by searching for them. Don’t be troublesome about it, but once you’ve taken up a subject (other than your job search), people interested in that subject ought to want to read what you have to say. Remember to add value. Don’t push your blog on people, but “make it available” to them in the event they have some interest. Note: If your blog is about your search, your mom will probably be the only reader, and if she isn’t, I can’t help you.
3. Step 20 - Read a self-improvement book. Any popular book will give you ideas, but I've mentioned several already that help with the job search: Rites of Passage; Now Discover Your Strengths; Go! Put Your Strengths To Work; Strengths Finder 2.0; Dream Giver, Next Gen Leader, Wide Awake, the Bible, What Color Is Your Parachute?; and anything suggested by Jack Covert and Todd Sattersten at www.800CEORead.com. Some cost money but each is cheaper than a meal out. Besides, if you’re cutting it close, you can save the bucks and check out the local library. The first book I would recommend though is the Bible. You probably already have one. I believe it is the ultimate self-improvement book. If not, ask the nearest church if they will give you one, or ask me and I’ll get you one. Then, check out Matthew chapters 5, 6 and 7 and Philippians, Psalms, and Proverbs. And if you do contact me, I can help with some other passages that will help you know a good God who is in charge. I’ll be glad to recommend a friend in your area that can help with personal bible study. Just leave a comment.
4. Step 21 - Create a web bio and link it to your LinkedIn and Twitter profiles. This is the place on the web where you want anyone looking for you to find you first. There are some sites that enable this easier than others. If you get a domain name, many of the services, such as Godaddy, (www.godaddy.com) and Netfirms (www.netfirms.com) have very inexpensive hosting arrangements that will help you create a professional appearance. Check out this page at About.com.
5. Step 22 - Research the companies that could help you reach your desired outcomes. Don't just use search engines. Try Twitter and LinkedIn. LinkedIn is particularly useful because you can see people in the order of their proximity to you (by relationships, not geography) that are associated with the company. Once some of those people have been identified, ask them for information. If none of them are close enough
6. Step 23 - Extend your introductions. Identify someone who could hire you and see if you can get introduced to them through LinkedIn. As your friends who are in the connection chain. You never know what will happen until you ask. One caution: a lot of people are Open Linkers which means they link to hundreds and thousands of people they don’t know personally. You may hit some limits with this behavior. But ask around and see what you can make happen. Don't let this process happen to you, make something happen all by yourself!
7. Step 24 - Create a professional Facebook page. This is another low cost presence on the Internet that you can use to your advantage, if you’re careful. Avoid ultra-personal pages. Remember anything you say can and will be used against you in a job search. If necessary, use a separate profile and don’t open it up to the world.
8. Step 25 - Monitor Twitter. Find people in your industry on Twitter and follow them. Go to Twitter Search, or use a tool like TweetGrid or TweetDeck and search for companies or common terms. When someone refers to one of those companies, ask them a question. You never know what you might find out. Search for the names of people in the industry and also ask your connections for names of companies in the industry. Be professional though because the world is watching. However, resist the temptation to click every link about issues not relative to your job search. If you can’t focus, drop this step. There are several job searchers and helpers on Twitter also. Start by following @JobAngels or searching Twitter for the hash tags #jobangels and #rtjobs
   
9. Bonus Thought: Participate in LinkedIN Q&A and Groups. This will help build your network if done well. Remember to answer when you can add value. Don’t just agree with people. If you don’t have anything to say, don’t say anything. But if you do, please chime in. We can all use the help of an intelligent person like you. Then, if your answers are valuable, people will check out your profile. In some cases, you might use your profile page from Step 21 as part of your signature line. Don’t sell yourself though. Provide thoughtful, valuable answers to questions and people will check out your profile. Also if you have a business-related blog or if you are using Twitter to provide valuable posts to followers, include those links on either your LinkedIn profile or your Web Bio. Also, do not send people to a Twitter profile page that has a bunch of posts about what you’re eating or listening to. That will just detract from your web presence. If your Twitter posts are about your eating and TV watching habits, I recommend you change your Twitter-ways.

There you have it. Work this system, believe in yourself, maintain your focus, and don’t let fear force you to choke. Everything that happens in the next few weeks is designed to get you to chicken out. Don’t take yourself out of the contest by getting sidetracked or letting fear force you to choke. Don't let things happen; make them happen! Stick with this and be flexible and go for it.

And please let me know if any of this is helpful, share any suggestions or success stories. As my Dad always says, "We're rooting for you!"

Jump Start Your Job Search Part 2

Part 2 - Taking Care Of Business

Steps 11 through 17 are necessary for you to go the distance. Once your system is running, (see Part 1)these are the activities you need to do, but they’re not the most critical activities to finding that job.

1. Step 11: File for unemployment, but hope that you won’t need it. Hopefully you will be earning too much money to qualify before the government actually gets around to paying you. The reason I put this at Step 11 is I’ve never done it (in 4 of these so far, but you never know) and because you will have some downtime after you’ve completed the first 10 steps. Besides up until now, you will be too busy to take the time to do this. And, like I said earlier, if steps 1-10 go well, you’ll never collect.
2. Step 12: Exercise. Do it every day. Loose the weight you've been planning to. Write your goals down and keep an exercise log. It took me an extra day to finish this because I had to work out before posting. Anyone who notices the shape I’m in would know I haven’t been doing too well with this one. Check out this post from Military.com or exercises you can find on the web like these.
3. Step 13: Get and stay busy. There are basically two good ways to do this once you’ve made the initial pass to contact your network; either get a part-time job or volunteer. Volunteering gives you greater time flexibility, but the part-time job gives you income. Whatever you do, do it as well as you can, over deliver. Add value. People hire people who create value. Decide today you’re going to improve you value through your output and go do it. Make a difference in everything you do and you’ll attract the right people.
4. Step 14: Update your budget. I didn’t put this higher on the list because the first few items are the most important. Once you have your system working for you, it is time to take an assessment and make sure you have what you need to stick it out. Check out Dave Ramsey’s site (www.daveramsey.com) or Crown Financial (www.crown.org) or Kiplinger’s page (www.kiplinger.com). Other sites that show up on a quick Google search include Personal Budgeting (http://www.personalbudgeting.com/tips/tips.html) and About.com (http://financialplan.about.com/msubbudg.htm).
5. Step 15: Save money where possible. Spend as little money searching as possible. Try to avoid buying software or services if you can. If you must spend some money, consider spending it on your resume first since that’s the first barrier to getting an interview.
6. Step 16: Sell things you don't need. Use Craigslist (http://www.craigslist.org) because the price is right. Call this income. You could also search for jobs there, but most of what I’ve seen is high demand positions or lower income ones.
7. Step 17: Stay in touch with your contacts. When anyone gives you a name from Step 10, make sure you do 3 things and avoid one:

• Thank them.
• Contact the referral.Refer to step 10.Don’t ask for a job, ask if they know anyone who could use someone with your strengths and your goals.If they have a job like that, they’ll tell you.If not, you’ve got another person looking.Check Part 1 Step 10 for a bit more info.
• Follow up with the referrer, thanking them again and letting them know how the contact went.
• Avoid over contact.Your job situation is your biggest problem, but not theirs.You don’t need to follow up with anyone unless they tell you to, or unless you have a legitimate thanks or question about a specific person.

Be on the watch for Part 3 – Get Known On The Web which contains steps I’ve picked up recently. They were not part of my earlier job hunting activity. Until then, please comment freely below. As with all of this, I’m open to suggestions, comments and correction. Let me know if this is helpful or not and any other suggestions you might have.

Take No For An Answer!

Listening to Steve Chandler speak about his new Club Fearless and reading the book by the same name gives me a lot of ideas. Steve makes the point that "Yes" and "No" are like heads and tails. You can't have one without the other. There is no such thing as a coin with no tails. There would be no day, if there wasn't also a night. The two are exclusive. In other words, you can't have both in the same context at the same time. But the absence of one would force the absence of the other.

Now as for No, we do expend a lot of effort avoiding that word. Actually we equate that word with rejection and we avoid the rejection. I find it easy to consider postponing some activities because of the fear of rejection as I start my business. Maybe you're like some of my friends and you're looking for a new job. A large part of our lives gets wrapped up in our career. When we don't have a job and we're out trying to find a job, we can get a lot of our self-image and self-worth wrapped up in the difference between No and Yes. However, if we can realize that No makes Yes possible, maybe we won't take the No answers so hard.

Your job (especially if you're looking for one) is to:

1. Decide as precisely as you can exactly what you want (and don't be afraid to dream),
2. Figure out who is most likely to be able to say yes;
3. Ask the question in a way that makes it easy to answer Yes.

Once you've done that, go for it! You need to collect your No's as quickly as possible.

Decide now, while you think about your dream goal, that a No is just an interim result. Better yet, it is a necessary result. There is some number of No responses that you need to plan for. Set the number high and start getting them. Continually expend your best effort to eliminate the reasons for each No, but don't let them discourage you. Every No brings you one step closer to your Yes.

Jump-Start Your Job Search (Part-1)

Thirty of my coworkers just lost their job. After searching the Internet for advice related to job hunting and career change, I became very discouraged. There is a lot of fear and dread in the job market these days. Spoiler: This is not your normal advice on job search. I’ve been through enough job transition to qualify for my own wiki. As I told some of my coworkers, if I’d lost as many wives as jobs, my marriage counselor would say something like, “after that many, the problem isn’t with the wives!”

What To Do If You’ve Lost Your Job: 25 Steps To Jump-Start The Job Search

Part 1 – Get Your Wheels In Motion

These are your top priority. They get you and your system working for you. Follow these actions as quickly as possible. The biggest obstacle to finding a job is not having one. The inertia of inactivity should be your biggest concern, but these 10 steps get you going. Remember finding a job IS YOUR JOB. Get going.

1. Decide you won't be afraid. "Courage is being scared to death... and saddling up anyway." John Wayne. Several other great quotes are listed here: http://tinyurl.com/7sc4fm. Regardless of the fear, keep moving. You’ve got to show up, keep moving and persist. In times like this, opportunity exists.

2. Keep your standard routine. If you got up at 5, keep doing it. If you worked out in the mornings, keep doing it. Spend your job time looking for a job or building your business. Don’t get lazy and don’t overwork. Here’s an article on the daily routines of several prominent top executives from 2007. Don’t give in to the desire to just lie around and whatever you do, stay away from the TV and the refrigerator.

3. Clean up and update your contact list. This is an activity you just have to do first and keep doing. Be diligent. Get your contacts in one place and evaluate each one. Prioritize them in the order of who you need to contact, who you would like to contact, and those you really shouldn’t contact. If you’re like me, you have some contacts that you don’t know well enough to discuss your situation. Get them out of the way. Don’t spend too much time on them right now. You can always come back to them later. The “need” group gets top priority and energy. Get the information on them in one place and make sure that’s the only place you go to update. Check out Plaxo, Google contacts (which for some reason, can't sync with Outlook) or Yahoo Addresses.

4. Evaluate your strengths. One way to do this is to write a few short stories about events in your life. The stories need to be three to five paragraphs in length. If they were negative, include what you learned. (If you didn't learn anything and they were negative, don't include those.) Then go back through the paragraphs and highlight or underline the verbs. These verbs become the foundation for your transferable skills, or skills that can transfer across industries. Much more depth on this issue can be found where I first heard this, in the book, What Color Is Your Parachute by Richard Bolles or on their site The Jobhunters Bible. Other tools are Now, Discover Your Strengths and Strengthsfinder 2.0. A link to every book mentioned in this article is here.

5. Make a list of your desired outcomes or goals. There is a lot written about goals. Much of it costs money. Don’t pay any money you don’t have to (developed further in step 15.) Simply sit down with a piece of paper and write in detail what you’d like to happen. Write as much as you can. Keep writing until you can’t write any more and then take a break. After a while of doing something else, review the list and add anything that comes to mind. The key is the list. Once you have it, you are ahead of the bulk of people in the world. When your thoughts run dry, group and rank the outcomes. By group I mean associate any goals that are not mutually exclusive. If your goal is to buy a new car and you have another goal to be out of debt, you need to rank the two. One must be more important than the other. But if your goals are to buy a new car and build a website, those don’t necessarily compete with one another. The “group” you’re most interested in though are the goals directly related to job hunting and your career. The more thought you put in, the more prepared you will be when you receive an offer.

6. Update your resume. Consider creating versions aimed at the people who can select you for your desired outcome. The plan here is not to misrepresent yourself. Never be dishonest. But certain hiring managers want to know different things. If you desire a job as a manager, emphasize your management skills and show how you managed your peers, reports, supervisors, customers, pets, anything about management. If you also pursue a job as a contributor, emphasize your contributions in previous positions, even possibly in volunteer organizations or other industries. Put yourself in the position of the hiring manager and write your resume and cover letter in a way that shows you to be just the person they need. If you’re planning on making some money in your next job, this is where you can spend some money. Get some professional help. Take a look through the stuff on jobsearch.about.com.

7. Prioritize your contact efforts. Spend some time thinking about who you will contact and when. You’re planning your sales cycle. You would do no less if you were selling a product for a company. The better you do this, the more effective you will be. Don’t compromise or talk yourself out of contacting some people either. You’re family (and the taxpaying public) is counting on you. Contact the people most likely to either hire you, or know someone who might hire you.

8. Create an elevator speech. Did you notice that the step after prioritizing your contacts isn’t to start calling? You need to know what you’re going to say. Please don’t waste your contact’s time. They are busier now than ever because people are probably being laid off where they work too. You need to prepare what you’re going to say. An elevator speech is a short description of who you are and what you're looking for. Most people will help you if you know what you want and you make it easy for them to help. The best advice I ever read on this topic was in the book Rites Of Passage by John Lucht. The author points out that the quality of your elevator speech helps you avoid dead ends in your networking. Even a lackluster elevator speech helps you avoid awkward situations with your friends. Rather than asking them to hire you or if their company can hire you, you state who you are and what you’re looking for. Then you can ask your friend if they know anyone who might use a person like you to do exactly what you’re looking for. The result is your friend now is helping you. Rites has a whole chapter dedicated to this. Check it out.

9. Create professional LinkedIn and Twitter profiles. Include the elevator pitch in the description. Put in relevant experience and education. Don’t exaggerate. This profile can be a very easy to use electronic version of your resume and you’ll be using it as such. While you’re at it, join some groups in the industries you plan to search and set up searches for the jobs you’re looking for. Check out this article: http://zi.ma/05649b or http://ow.ly/9tV or http://tinyurl.com/czpxpk. Search for other articles and help on LinkedIn primarily. Just don’t spend too much time looking here because the money’s in the next step.

10. Start connecting with your contacts. The point is to ask them if they know anyone who could use someone with your strengths and goals. You elevator speech will help the flow of this conversation. After the introductory conversational exchange with your friend, get right to the point. “I don’t want to waste your time, but I’m looking for a new opportunity. My experience and background have helped me to become a [who I am from my elevator speech] and I’m looking for [whatever you’re looking for from your elevator speech]. Do you know anyone who is in that situation?” As time goes on, you’ll begin to get some names. Make sure to follow up with the person who gave you the name, thanking them and letting them know how the introduction went. Note: This approach is explained in much greater depth in many places, but I first read about it in Rites of Passage at $100,000 to $1 Million + by John Lucht. His book, the companion workbook and their website RiteSite contain much more information. If you’re salary is in this price range, invest the money and buy the book.

So, embrace the future and get going. Your new life is waiting. Part 2 will contain some things to do while you're working and in Part 3, we'll discuss new technologies enabled by Web 2.0.