A Job Hunt Story

Lecturer Ian Parsons files this report after approximately 7 months out of work

About a year and a half ago, I felt burned out on my long commute and the corporate climate at [integration systems company] Oracle so I was hoping to find a start-up or other company closer to home where I could have a bigger impact on the company's success.  I had been doing a passive job search while I was still at Oracle which began about a year before I was laid off.

Earlier last year I had thought I had another job lined up (2 months before I was laid off) where the company wanted to hire someone new by around late September. Unfortunately, the VP of Sales who was set to hire me was laid off himself and this put me back at the end of the line when a consulting team came in to hire new reps. In spite of that passive search in the works, I didn't really get searching full tilt until about October (2+ months after I was laid off). 

Initially, I made sure I was signed up with updated resumes on every job website that I could find, but also linked up with as many recruiters (in my field) as I could. What I found was that the job boards like Careerbuilder, Monster, DICE, etc. were useless. Most posted jobs were not really available, but were placeholders for companies who wanted to collect resumes. It was my 3-4 recruiters who came up with actual IT sales prospects. I came to rely almost exclusively on recruiters and I would recommend the same for ANYONE looking for a new position.

I was surprised by just how competitive it really is with these job opportunities. Where I was sure that I aced all stages of an interview process and the employer even checked my references, I would lose out to someone with a tiny bit more specific experience than I had (even though I knew they REALLY liked me culturally, etc.). Coming from a huge company like Oracle (one of the toughest companies to succeed at and to stay at) actually hurt me with some of the smaller companies who were more looking for small company experience in spite of Oracle's reputation for lots of training, etc.

The base salaries with some of these companies was lower than what the recruiters and I  expected. Companies are taking the chances that candidates will accept less because the economy has been so bad. And this turned out to be true,  People with more experience were willing to take a job they were overqualified for at a huge pay cut. I quickly learned that I would probably have to take a large pay cut too --  of between $5K-$10K less per year if I hoped to get past the phone interview stage (OR to even have my recruiter introduce me to the employer).

During my last job search (2006) I was actively working and doing really well. I loved the company I worked for but wanted to make more money and to get more experience in the software space (I was selling IT hardware). At that time, Oracle (among others) was eager to find new talent to hire. I had no problem getting in for interviews and the process moved along pretty well for a huge corporation. Basically, I didn't need to find a job, but I wanted to and I was able to do so even though I was already working.

As this new job search began, I made a lot of the same must-have rules. I was initially NOT going to give into a lower base salary (simply because my family couldn't live on less than I was earning at Oracle), we could NOT relocate because of the value of our house given the bad housing market, and I was NOT going to commute more than 75 miles to any job.

I made it to the on site interview stage with 7 companies in 7 months, and made it past the first on-site interview with 4 of those companies. One of the prospective employers put me through FOUR interview stages including THREE on-site meetings with every executive in the company. The whole process went really well...the CEO even listened to my music online and liked it a lot...  Although all of my interviews were completed by before the New Year, they kept telling me that I would need to be patient because it was the first time they were hiring for this position from the outside. I followed up regularly and yet they were still interviewing other candidates. They told me they hoped to have someone hired by the 2nd week of January; however, as of TODAY (February 26th) they still haven't made anyone an offer. I was even approached about the same job by two different recruiters after I'd already completed 4 stages of interviews. This job was at the top of my list from a salary and commute perspective and the waiting was awful. I even had a mutual friend of the CEO talk to him about me one day and he confirmed that I was in strong consideration for the position when they spoke in mid-late January.

The fact that my family needed me to get a job ASAP, and the dedication of my recruiters to find me new opportunities is sometimes all that kept me going. But there were other bright spots too.  One of the VP of Sales who didn't hire me even referred me to his good friend with a company that was too far away for me to commute to.   I was touched that someone who narrowed his search down to just me and another candidate still took the time to try helping me find a job elsewhere. It was dedication like that which helped me to keep pushing. One recruiter even shared an opportunity that they wouldn't be paid on while others still coached me on opportunities that I had been sent by other recruiters.

We exhausted our 401K plans just to scrape by and pay our mortgage. It was tough to do, but we had no choice.

We were close to cutting out many of our 'creature' comforts, but also to file for bankruptcy due to our huge debt (the result of a bad economy plus not enough commissions from my job at Oracle). We met with a Credit Counseling professional and our budget was way off. Our expenses were more than twice what my unemployment income was.  Our session with CCC was a huge help, so we will be trying to budget our money more carefully and hopefully to enjoy the new benefits of this new job where I can coach my kids in T-ball, etc. and we will have more vacation time to work with as well. I learned from this experience the value of quality time with my family.

You have to enjoy your time off as much as possible; it's better to be relaxed when searching for jobs. One of my recruiters cheered me on withevery opportunity including those she didn't place me with.

The position I was finally offered turned out to be BETTER than anything I was aiming for. It was very far off from what I expected to find. There is no commute and the base salary is  $11K better than my previous job!  We expect to have more flexibility than we had previously.

Some things about the Job Search game have certainly changed.  But most of what you know is still true.  You have to be yourself and be confident. You have to ask LOTS of questions to show that you're thinking a lot about the company (and they need to be creative questions like "What makes you lose sleep at night in your role?"). Companies are looking for a cultural fit as much as they are experience because they can afford to be that picky. You have to learn about the company and their competition to show that you have more than surface knowledge of the company you're trying to get into.

A  VP of Sales at one company (where I was one of two finalists) took the time to debrief with me for 40 minutes and volunteered to stay in touch with me for counsel on other possible jobs since he knows the IT start up marketplace very well. Even though he didn't choose me for his one position, he cared enough to keep helping me because he would have liked to hire me if there were two positions available.

I was asked what I would say to someone I am close to if they were to lose their job. I would want them to immediately post their resumes online (because sometimes that will lead to finding recruiters), to research recruiters and to find as many as possible to help their search.  I would encourage them to place realistic expectations on the job options they're willing to take. The important thing is to just get back to work...7 months is far too long to go without a job and even if you have to take a stopgap job until you find the best opportunity, it's better than the anxiety of having nothing because you set your expectations too high. But, the main thing I would say is find RECRUITERS, RECRUITERS, RECRUITERS!!!

Our own Wicked Recruiter also comments frequently on the current job market.

To share your unemployment stories, contact the editorial staff through our comments space.  The Finishing School is an advertising partner of Monster.com. 

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Survivor's Guilt: Watching the layoffs unfold

Miss Minchin, Dean of Students

There was no hint that anything was brewing, at least nothing aside from what has become the norm for anyone holding down a corporate job in this economy. It started as a regular Friday, with a full day of meetings and deliverables to complete before losing another two days to the weekend. And then about 9:30 in between conference calls, did I hear that right? Is someone saying good bye? Did he quit? No way, he's got important projects in the works. Wait - he sounds emotional, he wasn't expecting this. I turn around and he invites me over to tell me that he's been told it's his last day. Holy @$&*. I am not going to cry at work. He better not cry because if he does I won't be able to keep it together. This guy has been working just as many evenings and weekends as the rest of us and had his fair share of responsibility. He was likable and a good worker. I can't imagine that he stepped on anyone's toes. I can see that he's stunned and hurt, and we are too. What the heck is going on?

Wait now I see someone at the other end of the office getting a hug and putting on her coat. Now I'm back at my desk, nervous my boss is going to come and tap me on the shoulder. I'm late for my next conference call and as I dial in I wonder if it's in vain. I'm not panicked but feel a sense of dread. What did he just say? Two people on the project are no longer with the company? I didn't make the connection until later. Where are my project managers? They're not responding to IM. Oh I really hope they are not gone today. Everyone is being unusually nice on the call and I'm having trouble focusing.

Oh no, not him too. I see a coworker packing his desk a few cubes away. He's a recent grad, and has done great work for the past year (two years?) and he looks like he might be fighting back tears. I have an email draft half-written to him about some info I owe him. I'm still on the call and I can't say goodbye. I don't think he wants anyone to talk to him.

After my call I get some coffee. I see the manager from the UI team here. She doesn't work on Fridays and she isn't usually in this office. Now I know this is more than just a few people.

A little while later, another coworker comes by to tell me goodbye. He says he feels relieved and it's not too surprising since there aren't any projects pending for his area of expertise. I give him my contact info and wish him good luck. That's 3 people from my team now. I start wondering who's next? Are we all going? I see my boss waiting to escort him out. And I can't help but watch her out of the corner of my eye to see if she changes course and heads my way. I hold my breath when she looks like she is coming toward me but heads another direction.

Well I'll know something by 11. That's when I'm supposed to present in our team meeting. Surely she'd tell me before then and it's 10:30 now.

I'm IMing my neighbor about the layoffs on my team so far. He says he heard there were 17 cut in our Eastern Europe office. He is starting to freak out. I still can't get my project managers on IM.

It's almost 11 and my boss comes over. No she doesn't look like she is about to fire me. She says we'll have the meeting but we won't do our presentations today. She looks like you would expect someone to look like who just had to cut 3 good people from her team.

In our meeting she tells us the cuts to our team are done. That's a relief. We learn there is a large number being cut in our overall organization today. She tells us our leadership has changed again. I'm stunned. It just changed 6 months ago. He was a visionary, an incredibly inspirational  leader, and he made me feel privileged to work for him. Not only that but he knew me and my work, and made me feel like a valued part of the team. How could he leave? Why would they make him leave? What is going on?

There's only so much she can tell us since the layoffs are still happening around us. There will be a meeting at 5:00 to discuss as an organization. Now we know the layoffs should be done by then.

Back at our desks I try to be productive but I can't concentrate. Every 20 minutes it seems someone else is packing up. In our office we can see straight down the row from one end of the building to the other. It is almost like being under fire by a sniper, but you can't duck under your desk, and you don't know who the next target will be, and there's no avoiding these bullets.

My calendar has almost completely freed up as all my meetings are getting cancelled. By 2:00 it seems the worst is over. My neighbor and I are almost joking about him being afraid of getting cut, but I'm sure he would have been told by now. I saw his manager having normal project meetings earlier in the day, surely he would have cancelled them and not delay the layoffs. Then his boss called him into a room. I'm certain he's just filling him in on what is happening today, but when he comes back he starts packing his things. I can't believe it, he's such a sharp guy. I've learned a lot just sitting next to him. I can't believe they made him wait until the afternoon when everyone can see layoffs are happening all around us.

Everyone is hyper-alert to movement in the aisles. Anyone putting on a coat is assumed to be leaving for good. But some are just going out for lunch or consolation drinks. I exchange information with a manager I work with. I'm stunned once again by the cuts that have been made. He clearly didn't have a say about the people who were chosen from his team. This confuses me. I ask if I can protest - how could they cut Her? He's just as upset about it. I wonder who made the decisions then, and how did they make them? If they can cut those great people, then why am I still here?

Around 3:30 I get an invitation to attend the 5:00 meeting. In the invite I can see several names have "zzz" before them. Dear God they are already starting with the z's in Outlook? Oh no not her too. She has z's next to her name. I have to talk to her. We started on the same day and she kept me going through some rough patches. I go to her desk and find out it's true, but she's not there. On my way around the office looking for her I run into my boss' boss. We exchange some words about how it's a rough day but I'm distracted. I can't believe they cut my friend too and I want to see her before she leaves. She walks by and I inadvertently cut off my boss' boss to get my friend's attention. I realize later what I did - not good! - but hopefully he understands.

My friend and I talk at my desk for a minute while I write down my contact info. I can see she's keeping it together and I tell her I hope we can be friends outside of work. She starts to cry a little and so of course I do too. I give her a hug and offer to help her carry her things. She cracks a joke that at least she doesn't have to work the release this weekend. She and I quickly compose ourselves, she doesn't need help and we say good bye.

Now I'm trying not to cry at my desk - NO CRYING AT WORK- RIGHT? I know these people are not dying, but it is still a loss. It's a loss for them and for me. I should be able to grieve a little and I just want to go home. We all came in today thinking it was a normal day. They are thinking - why me? Why was I chosen? We're thinking the same thing.You hear bits and pieces about their personal life now: parents to take care of, how many children they have, health issues in the family. I call my husband but can't talk about what's going on and stay together emotionally, so I ask about some errand he was supposed to do. I'm exhausted and drained.

I leave at my usual time and try to dial in to the 5:00 call from the train. I miss most of what is said anyway.
I'm relieved that I made it through the day, but what will keep me through the next round if these great coworkers were taken out this time? Do I want to work under the new leadership? Is my heavy workload just going to get even heavier? I'm grateful that I'm still employed and glad I have a healthy emergency fund. I find out about more co-workers who were cut as I check my email, and I wonder what's in store for us on Monday.

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Unpaid Furlough is Not a Good Management Tool

Guest Lecturer, Eloise, Fundraising Director

Nothing creates an us-versus-them dynamic and blows employee morale quite like implementing unpaid furlough, especially when it’s done twice in six months.  What begins in a meeting room as a compromise to save money and jobs can worsen your employees' situation if not planned with real-life outcomes in mind.  Read more in Eloise's story below.

For the past two years I have worked as a fundraising director for a nonprofit arts organization in fiscal crisis.  In mid-April of 2009, senior management announced that due to impending financial disaster, they were forced to cut 10% of the staff and were implementing mandatory unpaid furlough for the remaining staff. This was presented as a necessary last resort that would get the budget back into balance.

The number of unpaid days to be taken was on a sliding scale, based on each employee’s salary level that ranged from two to 10 unpaid days.  Unpaid time had to be taken between April 15 and the end of our fiscal year on June 30 -- in other words...now.  Human Resources presented it as "not a big deal" because everyone qualifies for unemployment for their furlough time.

That just sounded wrong to me in so many ways.  I did not ask the government to pay me because my organization could not control its finances, but the majority of my co-workers—including the senior management team who created the fiscal problem—filed for unemployment for their furlough.

Since the last quarter of the fiscal year is the busiest time in the fundraising world, taking time off was not an option for me.  I worked two weeks without pay because foundations and the federal government have specific deadlines, and the work had to get done before those deadlines, or we would have no possibility of incoming grant money.  My manager, however, not only took two weeks of unpaid furlough, he took an additional four weeks of vacation time throughout the summer months.  I was astounded when all of the senior staff followed suit, taking their two weeks of unpaid furlough as well as their full complement of vacation days last summer.

We were in worsening fiscal crisis, they had said.  The organization needed increased management attention, and most of the management team was absent for six weeks to start our new fiscal year. My experience in similar situations in the for-profit work world had been that senior management is more present, not less, in times of financial difficulty.  They had role modeled team work, worked longer hours, and rallied the troops with specific goals, communicating constantly to get the organization back on track. 

We heard nothing more about the fiscal situation until six months later in October 2009 when Human Resources sent an email at 4:55 pm on a Friday announcing a second mandatory furlough…only this time, everyone was taking the hit of 10 days without pay on mandated single days selected by senior management staff.  So, from April 2009 to April 2010, I will lose four weeks of pay—that’s one month without a paycheck or an 8.3% pay cut.  It is significant, it is painful, and it feels like punishment for all staff because of poor fiscal management by senior management and the Board.


Webster’s Dictionary defines “furlough” as a noun meaning “a leave of absence from duty granted especially to a soldier” and as a verb “to lay off from work.”  We have been treated like solders, handed orders from on high.  And we are expected to accept those without question or rational discussion.  My position generates about $2.5 million of revenue a year—one quarter of the organization’s total annual revenue.  Cutting my paid work time by 8.3% did not result in a similar reduction in my fundraising goal.  In this time of crisis, my goal was actually raised 10%.  How was that supposed to happen?

I should also mention that my organization gives its employees 22 paid vacation days, 21 paid sick days, and five paid days off between Christmas and New Year’s Day each year.  Add 20 days of unpaid furlough, and (if I actually took all that time off), I would be taking off 68 days or over 3 months of potential work time each year.

In the midst of this fiscal crisis, Board members do not seem to comprehend the impact to staff members of the financial hit of two to four weeks without pay.  Perhaps it’s because Board members are selected for their wealth and have never had to worry about paying the rent or buying groceries. When the second furlough was announced at the Board meeting, the Board president said “employees have to take a couple of unpaid days.”  Board members shook their heads and gave sympathetic looks to the staff members in the room, but they had no idea that staff had to go two to four weeks—not "a couple of days"—without pay. 

In that same Board meeting, the Managing Director reported that “employee morale is good given the circumstances.”   Senior management has become so out of touch with employees that they do not recognize that morale has been flushed down the toilet.  Yes, we enjoy our co-workers, but we do not enjoy continual denigration.  We have a lot of gallows humor because if we weren’t laughing we would cry every day that we have to slog to our dank basement workplace and pray for 5:00 pm to come more quickly.

Some advice to senior management considering implementing unpaid furloughs:
1.      For God’s sake, analyze your financial plans and create organizational budgets based on reality before you mandate unpaid furlough time for your staff.   

2.      Don’t downplay the severity of each employee’s economic hit in an unpaid furlough—it’s painful to go without a paycheck for a week or a month.

3.      Don’t tell employees that you are in such financial crisis that you are unable to budget for “extras” like training and professional development and then send six senior management staff to the same expensive conference on the other side of the country.

4.      Don’t ignore employee morale and pretend everything’s okay because it’s not.

5.     Understand that most of your staff are currently looking for employment elsewhere because they cannot take incessant abuse, inept management, and repeated pay cuts any more. 

Finishing School adds:  Know the law.  There are laws regarding furloughs in your state, additional guidelines for federally funded organizations.  Managers and Staff both are strongly encouraged to know responsibilities and rights before planning mandated furloughs.

related reading
Companies turn to furloughs
Employee Furloughs and Related Wage and Employment Laws
Avoiding Legal Pitfalls in RIFs and When Reducing Hours
MSNBC on "Furlough Frenzy"

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Weekly roundup 11-13-2009

Are you "Professional"?
This week on Career Rocketeer, one of the fastest growing career search, career development and personal branding blogs on the web today.  Founded by Chris Perry.  Additional services still under construction - check back often.

How do you lead when the news is all bad?
More resources for leaders in turbulent times.  As our resident manager explained this week, staying "on message" can be difficult when the message is hard to swallow.  Forbes contributor Susan Adams reinforces that honesty is still good policy.

Resume Red Flags
Work Coach Ronnie Ann Himmel responds to concerns about resume "red flags."
Work Coach Cafe specializes in the interview phase of your worklife, and includes several tip lists on interviewing, resume writing, and networks.  Ronnie Ann also published Zen and the Art of Being a Receptionist, which complements this week's post on the secretarial arts.

Top WebSites for Finding Freelance Work
As compiled by CEOWorld magazine

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Avoiding layoffs: Making yourself indispensible

Everyone is expendable, and in many cases there is nothing you can do about a layoff when your company is forced to reduce headcount. There are steps you can take however to make yourself harder to live without should the time come to make the hard choice of who to let go.

1. Do work no one else wants to do
In every workplace there are jobs that no one wants to do. If you take those tasks and execute them with gusto you can quickly make yourself an indispensible part of the team. This works best when it is a mission-critical task that you actually enjoy and can excel at. Even if you don't enjoy it, if you do it well no one will want to lose you because then they'd have to find someone else to fill that role (or do it themselves). But don't go around offering to scrub toilets or complain loudly about how you work late every night on the WEENIS - there are limits to what tasks will help move the team forward and which just make you out to be a martyr.

2. Find a Gap and Fill it
Whether it be a gap in process, in skills or in knowledge on your team (or even with your manager), seize the opportunity to fill it. By doing so you can make things better for your coworkers, make your manager look good, and be seen as a knowledgable asset to the team. For example, say you and your co-workers regularly labor over tedious data manipulation in excel for your monthly reports. One way to help would be to use formulas to set up a report template that everyone can use to save time and reduce errors. Or, if you happen to be interested in new relevant technologies that your team could benefit from learning about, offer to put together a presentation to share what you know. This only works if you are sincere about sharing and helping your coworkers. No one likes a showboat who only offers to help when the boss is in earshot, and touting your awesome knowledge on a subject at the expense of others will only backfire.

3. Become a subject matter expert
Like the first two tips, making yourself the go-to person for a given subject can help to make you a necessary member of the team and therefore harder to lose. This works best when you have the opportunity to dive deep into a project as you may doing tips 1 &2. This is not about hoarding knowledge or being a know-it-all; it's about acquiring sufficient experience with a subject area to be considered an expert. If you don't see any opportunities to do this within your team, volunteer to work on cross-functional teams and build relationships with groups your team depends on to get their job done. These connections can help you to become the liaison who people turn to when they need assistance from the other departments.

Implementing these techniques out of a sincere desire to make a difference is key and can help cement your place as a valuable, productive team member. Continuing to produce and add value, while "owning" certain subjects can make you a less obvious choice when the time comes to make cuts. If, in spite of your excellent performance you are still let go, you can use these tips in your new job when you want to establish yourself quickly as a valuable member of the team.

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