How to Reinvent Your Career Path After a Layoff — Step 4: Break on Through to the Other Side

Career Management, Interview, Job Search, Networking, Resume and LinkedIn

Note: For the previous post in this series, “Step 3: Reach Out and Touch Someone,” see here.

Getting laid off took me by surprise. It meant I’d have to look for a new job, and I felt totally unprepared.

“Okay,” I said, “I’ll just find a new job. Shouldn’t be too hard.” (Yes, I really was unprepared!)

I also wanted to reinvent myself (good luck with that), which meant I would have to reach out to people who didn’t know me or my work. And before I could do that, I would have to get things in order.

Fortunately, I already had a blog, was redoing my website and working on my social media presence. Together, I felt these would be my strong suit and a good example of what I have to offer. But to reach out and finally get that job, I would also need a plan of attack, a workable resume and business cards. Then I could work on making connections. So first, I tackled the easy stuff.

 

Moving Forward: Taking the Safe or Risky Road?

People say you need an elevator speech, and I suppose you do. But I also wanted my business cards to help me do that. I wanted them to make a good impression, but what would that mean? Classic or artsy? Slick or traditional? Risky or safe?

I decided I should take a risk and do something memorable, stand out from the crowd and be true to who I am. If I wanted to work in a creative field, safe and boring just wouldn’t do. If I were a bank, then maybe safe and boring would be perfect.

Here’s a life lesson: Be true to yourself. That’s the best place to start — build from there. (Click here to tweet this thought.)

 

Getting Carded

I started with business cards. That was a pretty easy decision to make; I knew I wanted something I could design myself using templates. I decided VistaPrint would work — they have lots of designs, lots of flexibility in reworking their design templates and their prices are great. Plus, they give you a lot of choices in card stocks. I like how my card ended up.

After I got the cards printed, I decided to add “Writer, Producer, Storyteller” on the back top line, which I handwrite on each card. It continues the writer theme and gives it a totally unique look.

 

Kicking the Job Board Habit

Some friends told me about job boards, and at first glance, they seemed like a no-brainer. Here were posted opportunities I could respond to. It was only later that I realized they were more of a problem than a solution.

Here are my personal statistics: In five months, I applied to well over 100 jobs. Out of the 100+ applications (which required I spend 2-4 hours each), I received one email of interest saying I’d made it past the first round and asking me to take a psychological test. I took the test and must have flunked, because I never heard another word.

I got no more than 20 emails thanking me for applying and telling me with seeming regret there were more qualified applicants. And that was it. Nothing else for all that trouble. The majority of places never responded at all, other than sending an automated acknowledgement that they received my application.

Why are job boards so alluring? Even now that I’m working on a freelance assignment, I still feel twinges of curiosity when I get emails announcing there are 10-20 jobs waiting out there for me, if I just apply. Like any other addiction, I think we need something like a 12-step program to stand fast against their seductive lure:

1. First, you have to admit you have a problem. Why do you have a problem? Because job boards are set up to get lots of people on their websites, only to ultimately reject them. The overwhelming number of hires come from networking; only a small percent come from job boards. But still, they get you hooked. Listen, I used to smoke cigarettes and know all about addiction. Smoking isn’t good for you, either, but I was only able to quit when I was really motivated.

2. Realize the difference between “activity” and “productivity.” Yes, your activity on job boards gives you the illusion of being productive, but really, it’s more like being a hamster in an online cage.

3. Understand the value of networking. Everyone says networking is so important, but job boards don’t connect you with anyone — another reason to avoid them. You need to make a connection to get a job. That’s pretty much the only way to move the odds more in your favor.

4. Acknowledge the issues. In applying to job board postings, I would run into all manner of problems. My freelance career didn’t neatly fit into the online application prototype. You can see after a while how they’re set up to weed you out, to get to “no” instead of “yes.” Their application process tries to make you fit into their notion of the ideal work history, activity, etc. You’ve got to answer all their questions and present your work history chronologically. You’re playing to their strengths, not yours.

5. Know when it’s time to cut to the cord. I had to learn the hard way. I kept at it, thinking I would be that one special person who would beat the odds. That kind of risk-taking may work well for entrepreneurs, but it’s not so hot when it comes to reinventing yourself or playing the job search game. So, as much as job boards seem to hold promise, I’d highly recommend you put as little time as possible into them.

6. Stick to the good ones. If you must continue using job boards, from all the ones I’ve explored, I’d recommend two: Indeed and FlexJobs. Indeed has the most possibilities and is well-organized for a Web search. FlexJobs isn’t organized as well but may make sense if you’re interested in freelancing, temp work or working at home.

 

Everybody Wants Paper

As a freelancer, no one ever asked me for a resume. Almost all my work came from referrals. In film and video, people typically want to know who you’ve worked for, what kinds of projects you’ve done and how much you charge. They’ll call one or more of the people you’ve worked for and ask how well you did your job. If the answer was positive and your fee was acceptable, then that pretty much was it –- you were hired. So for me, trying to construct a resume was a work in progress, and I redid it over and over again.

My first effort was with a long list of credits and a two-page cover letter describing major production challenges I’d solved. Since I’d been working for quite a few years, there was a lot to say. Then my friend, a former VP of Communications for a nonprofit, told me no one looks at cover letters –- and even if they did, they wouldn’t read a two-pager. Well, that was frustrating. She recommended I hone in, streamline and pick the most important pieces.

Here was my dilemma: the challenge of making an effective documentary video is difficult. It’s like starting up and running a small business each time you do a project. If people understood that, they’d see I had a big toolbox of skills. But trying to communicate that in a few words isn’t easy. I’ve also worked in so many genres and on so many different subjects; once I finished a project, I was on to the next. But I’d never know the specifics of how the video was used and what it accomplished, other than hearing that it was “great” or “everyone loved it.”

That’s all fine if I wanted to continue in the video business. But I was after broader horizons, so I spent days writing and rewriting my resume. Each job I applied for was in a different field: education, health, mental health, marketing, advocacy, whatever. So for each online application, I’d create a new resume. I was responding to what people said they were looking for instead of working from what I had to offer. I should have figured the odds were way against me, but I persisted.

Still, I was starting to see that the resume and job board thing just wasn’t working.

 

The Challenge with Reinventing Yourself

Wanting to try something new is about change and growth — two positives I certainly embrace. But reinventing yourself also means your past efforts don’t fit neatly into the story of where you’re heading. So you have to be creative in how you tell the story of who you are.

For example, look at the skills so familiar to you and try to see them in a different light. How do they mesh with the new you? What other skills do you have that fit more closely with this new career you’re launching? What part of the “old” you will work for the new?

It took me a while to see that my descriptions of what I’ve done in the past were too locked into my old career. I had to repackage all of that for my new career. For example, I had to understand that producing a video had a lot in common with project management.

You have to see yourself in a new light and then work at becoming this new you. I knew I had made a change when people asked me what I did and I could simply reply, “I’m a writer.” But still, to get there, I needed help.

 

Getting Help

In my search, I ran across Career Attraction. I liked it, signed up for some webinars and got some great advice.

On one of his webinars, Kevin Kermes said you should only go back 10-15 years in your work history; employers assume you got to your present situation because you were competent in the previous one. And who cares what happened 15 years ago, right? That helped focus me. I also learned the average time anyone spends looking at a resume is about 20 seconds, so you need to shape your presentation to visually direct where people look and what they see.

Making my resume stand out was a lot harder than I thought it would be. After many false starts and missteps, I created a header to give people a quick sense of what I was about. I used some formatting to create text boxes to make it more visual. I used subtle color and an attractive font and I cut, cut, cut copy to add a lot of white space to make it more appealing.

 The few times I applied for a video position that fit perfectly with my past experience, I was told, “You have an impressive resume.” I was offered a job producing video programs — and the possibility of another — but neither were really right for me, so I said no thanks and kept looking. Then my friend the Communications VP told me I should think of my resume not as a door opener but as a leave-behind. If that’s the case, I thought, and it’s so difficult to make headway with job boards, what is going to work?

I decided I had to really hone in on networking and make LinkedIn work for me. That’s when things started to pay off.

 

“Who Am I?” Is a Work in Progress

A Career Attraction webinar with Joshua Waldman, as well as Career Attraction’s advice about LinkedIn, helped me refocus my LinkedIn efforts.

I had many false starts on LinkedIn, redoing my headline, summary and profile over and over again (not the best approach). I learned you need to figure out who you are and where you’re going and then put it out there. You need a strategy and a focus on the big picture. Ultimately, after first trying to call myself a “media specialist,” “communications professional,” corporate communications strategist” and “media communications professional,” I decided my best shot was to stick with “freelance writer, blogger and videomaker.”

The way you choose to define yourself is important. After deciding who I was — a freelance writer — I next had to decide how to make that clear in an instant. As a freelancer, I was putting myself out there as a hired gun, but “hired gun” sounded too gangster, and I wanted to make people smile. “Samurai Warrior,” on the other hand, was certainly eye-catching and also a little romantic, which I liked. So for my LinkedIn headline, I put, “Samurai Warrior fighting on your behalf to create killer copy, standout blogging and powerful but graceful video.”

My blog has helped draw people to my profile, and every time I write a new post, I send out notices to my LinkedIn groups, so still more people check out my profile. I’m working on building my voice on LinkedIn and Google+ and responding when appropriate to other people’s comments. Each time I comment, my picture and headline phrase are displayed, so that also helps me get noticed.

So, have the offers been pouring in? No. But I did get an important gig from all my efforts. I called someone I knew from my old video network and talked about my interest in writing for his company. After a number of phone chats, a visit and lunch, when an opportunity came up and he needed a freelance writer, our previous contacts paid off. He was also a reader of my blog, so he knew my writing, plus he’d seen my LinkedIn profile and told me he liked it. From that, I have a paying gig –- a 10-week writing project –- and I’m off to a good start.

 

What I’ve Learned From My Reinvention Journey

1. The biggest obstacle to change is fear, and that’s what you have to overcome. You have a lot of options out there to help you, but you can’t make good decisions when you’re frightened.

2. You have to think strategically, meaning you should have an overview of who you are and what you want to accomplish. If you don’t, then work on that before you start anything else.

3. It’s important to focus not on what you’ve done, but on how your work has made an impact. Think in terms of how your expertise can help the person or company you’re approaching.

4. Focus on companies that need what you have to offer and show them how you can help them solve their problems. What do they need? What can you deliver? Where do you excel?

5. Many of us find it hard to sell ourselves. It’s much easier to identify what people need and figure out how you can help them solve their problems and talk about that. Then you’re offering them something they need, and they’ll be more likely to want to hear what you have to say.

6. Think of social media as an opportunity, not a barrier. I’m sure there are more ways to reach out than I’ve explored myself, but for the few I’ve tried, I’ve had positive results and feel empowered to do more.

7. Give yourself time and work for the long-term. You can count on this: Everything takes longer than you think it will or should. Keep your eye on the big picture, and don’t get stuck in the weeds.

8. Accept that some of the people you approach will simply not be interested. It’s not a reflection on you; it’s more about bad timing or not meeting their criteria. In a tight job market, hiring managers can be very choosy. However, if they reject you, try asking them to recommend other people to talk to.

9. If you’re weak or need support in certain areas, find help. Career Attraction’s webinars covering the job search, resume writing, overcoming ageism, excelling on LinkedIn and exploring part-time and freelance work were invaluable in helping me get oriented in a positive, proactive direction.

10. It’s important to make decisions. Not deciding is the worst thing you can do. If you make a wrong decision, you can always correct it with another decision. If you’re feeling paralyzed, get help.

 

The Last Word

Ultimately, I think the goal in a reinvention journey is to make the job search part of who you are and let everything flow from that. Maybe that’s not the simplest approach –- or the easiest -– but it’s certainly the most rewarding. You’re much more likely to end up in a place that works for you.

The other thing is to expect some drama along the way. The road to reinventing yourself is full of twists and turns. But wherever you may end up, the journey is worth the effort. I wish you all the best on yours!

 

Are you on a reinvention journey? Share your stories with us below!

Dan Bailes

Dan Bailes creates killer copy, standout blogging and powerful but graceful video — wielding his keyboard to enhance brands, motivate audiences, celebrate heroes and inspire change. Blogging about innovation, creativity and vision on TheVisionThing, he can be found at danbailes.com.

 

 

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