Having recently completed what felt like a very arduous job search, I’ve been wrestling with the idea of writing this article for a while. Certainly, there have been many things written about the dos and don’ts of a job search, of interviewing, and most of it probably wonderful and helpful. Honestly, I’ve read some of it, but that’s not really the purpose here.
I’ll state up front that nothing herein contained may be unique, novel, etc. There are a lot more educated and informed people than me on this topic, and I’d certainly suggest that anyone heading into a search do as much homework as they deem appropriate to their needs. In my case, I did some, but not a lot of it. I don’t tend to do much “research” when leaning into something unless I’m really uncomfortable with the subject. I generally want to jump in and navigate a situation based on what I see that is working and what isn’t. It’s not an approach that works for everyone, so I’m just going to acknowledge that up front and allow whomever takes the time to read this to decide whether some of the points are helpful or not. They are ultimately my experience of and observations on what happened in my case. Is there general applicability? I actually believe some of this could be quite helpful to others going through the process, which is partially my goal: to aid in that effort. The other primary goal is to get the experience down in writing and help myself move forward.
Fundamentally, writing is a cathartic process for me, but it also serves as a means to help organize my thoughts, reflect, and try to determine what I’ve learned from my experiences. In this case, the search process itself was extremely stressful and challenging, as I expect it would be for anyone heading into or experiencing it today, and looking back on what occurred is at least a minor attempt at trying to glean out the things that I would apply should I find myself in the situation again. A professional career is a long-term thing and, as such, it’s incumbent upon all of us to find ways to improve and be better at everything surrounding it, including periods of change.
In any case, I wanted to open with an acknowledgement of the reason behind writing this, as well as the understanding that there are a lot smarter people than me who have written on the topic. The goal here is simply to relate my experience and observations. To the extent it can help others, I certainly hope it does. Searching for a job can be an extremely stressful and challenging experience. If something here helps take even one day out of that process for someone else, the effort in writing it will have been worthwhile, and I sincerely hope that will be the case.
The remainder of this article will be focused on five aspects of my job search: the overall context, the “searching”, the interviewing, observations on the search process, and the emotional side of the search.
The Overall Context
First of all, I was lucky in my search process and, given I was looking as an experienced hire, the fact that it took a little over fifteen weeks was a very favorable outcome. That is true both because I was thrust into the process with no warning and no financial relief and I ultimately ended up with a better position than the one I left behind. I also had three viable career options at the end of the search, which helped reduce the risk and stress I would have otherwise encountered had I been dependent on a single choice.
At an overall level, certainly one thing that I took out of the process was that maintaining an active professional network is something everyone should do, because things like this can and do happen, and being as unprepared as I was certainly added time and some lag to the front end of the process. While I had explored some options prior to being hit by an unexpected reduction in force, I simply wasn’t ready to be engaged in a time-critical, full time search and I wish I had done a better job staying connected and being aware of what was going on across my network while I was working, not necessarily because I would’ve been looking to leave my job, but because the time it took to get caught up could’ve been avoided had I just been a little more conscious of staying connected with people along the way.
A second point at an overall level is that I was also very lucky because I had a safety net in place that provided the time needed to complete the search and helped our family avoid what could have been much more severe consequences. Certainly, the old adage to “hope for the best, but prepare for the worst” is something I’d also recommend to everyone in terms of my experience. I know there is a lot written about setting aside X months of salary just in case of a job loss. I never really gave that much thought until this situation occurred and, while there are practical limitations in terms of what any of us can reasonably set aside for a rainy day, we were very lucky that we had the means to carry us through the period of time required. Other people who had been impacted by the same event may not have been as fortunate, and I certainly hope and pray that they were either able to find something quickly or to find a way to carry themselves through as well.
Third, it’s important to understand that you won’t finish what you don’t start in terms of a search. I will write some specific observations on the search process itself separately, but the overall point is that the hiring process will take time, no matter what you do, and even in the best of scenarios, it will take more than a month at almost any company, and more likely two or more from my experience. Certainly there can be exceptions to that statement, but the hiring process moves at a pace that is independent to the urgency of a candidate. It moves at a pace that is driven on the needs of the company filling the position and, insofar as my search was concerned, that was generally not very fast.
Given the previous point, since even a successful interviewing process will take a possibly material amount of time, if there is time-sensitivity involved in a search, a priority in starting a time-critical search needs to be surfacing as many opportunities as possible, as quickly as possible. In cases where someone has a reasonable financial cushion that allows for a more deliberate and drawn out process, this may not be as important, but when time is a factor, certainly a candidate needs to get as many lines in the water as possible quickly, so the process of establishing and exploring leads can begin. In my case, the job that I ultimately secured came into the process as of the sixth week of my search and took nine weeks to complete. While there is no way to evaluate whether making that connection earlier would’ve resulted in a shorter search, there also wasn’t any physical barrier to having gotten started, so it is entirely possible that I wasted time (and money) by not exploring that avenue sooner. This was actually true for two of the three companies that were in active consideration at the end of my search, so in hindsight, I wish I had done a better job at this early on.
In stating the previous point, while I will touch on the emotional side of the process separately and it may be obvious that surfacing opportunities is important, the issue in executing it effectively has little to do with the pragmatic side of a search. Generally speaking, there are two things that almost anyone will experience on the front end of a search: the disappointment and shock of being impacted in their current position and the somewhat overwhelming prospect of conducting a job search while unemployed, especially if the person didn’t have one going at the time they were impacted. The combination of these two things makes getting started in earnest very difficult for most people in my experience, and there is a very careful balance to be struck in allowing oneself to heal and recover from having been through an adverse impact situation and also getting focused on moving forward effectively. Ultimately, the best I can say is that tenacity and persistence matter. Some days just won’t be productive, others will. The trick is to make the most of the days that are productive ones and to try and find ways to make some level of progress on even the days where focus and positive momentum isn’t easy to maintain.
As a final overall point, I fundamentally believe that beginning with the end in mind is important. It has often been said that it is far better to be running towards something than running away from something else. The statement is very true when it comes to a search. Again, in my case, I was very fortunate that things worked out as they did, but I also was conscious of trying to make sure that I was only pursuing opportunities that I had an actual interest in taking on as my next job. I did not apply to every position I saw on the internet, especially when I felt I didn’t match up well to the stated position requirements. I also did not apply to companies that would traditionally hire from my previous employer, largely because I wanted a change and they were involved in the same kind of business. I also did not actively pursue jobs where the travel expectations were significant, because the time I have to spend with my family is very important to my work/life balance. Arguably, not everyone will look at things this way and circumstances may necessitate a higher level of compromise depending on the situation. Said differently though, at one level, I believe it’s relatively easy to find an undesirable job, the trick is to find one that you actually want to have. In a ‘perfect world’, I’d certainly suggest that thinking through the next job and its ‘desirability’ is important so a candidate doesn’t waste time pursuing things that aren’t really aligned with their longer-term career goals. Realistically speaking, if a candidate ends up securing a position they also don’t have an interest in, they will have solved the issue of being employed, but find themselves immediately back in a search or possibly an unsustainable job situation, neither of which is a good outcome. Again, circumstances can and do have an impact of finding the ‘perfect job’, but a person can also only reasonably skip from one job to another to a limited degree over time before it will start to have an adverse impact on their future opportunities.
The “Searching”
Shifting focus to the search process itself, the first, primary point I would make, especially as an experienced hire is the obvious one… network, network, and network. Ultimately, of the more than fifty companies/recruiters that I engaged through my search process, seven of those contacts led to opportunities with some level of active, deeper discussion. Four of those seven opportunities (and two of the final three) came from networking with people with whom I’d previously worked, three of whom I contacted via LinkedIn messaging. Two of the remaining three (one of which was in the final three) were contacts from executive recruiters who found my profile on LinkedIn and contacted me proactively. The final opportunity of the seven was a position that I found on LinkedIn’s job postings to which I applied directly, although I had no connections in the company at all. In that case, the lack of an internal advocate ultimately likely caused me to fall out of consideration as I was highly exposed to the individual impressions of the interviewers, which can be difficult to predict overall (something I’ll address in the interviewing section).
The single most valuable tool in my job search was, without any hesitation, LinkedIn. It was useful in terms of surfacing opportunities through my network (ultimately including the position that I secured), in applying for positions (I upgraded my account to Premium for the purposes of leveraging the additional job search capabilities), and in putting my best foot forward in the interviewing process (i.e., a significant number of interviewers looked at my profile on LinkedIn in advance of conducting my interview). Having a LinkedIn profile that is updated, contains the relevant keywords, skills, endorsements, and so forth can only help a job search, both ongoing and in creating visibility that can lead to future opportunities. I can’t underscore this point enough.
In terms of other tools, I joined a couple executive search sites (Execunet and BlueSteps) and didn’t find anything useful from either site. Everything on Execunet I could find through another aggregation site (like Indeed.com) and BlueSteps, while likely helpful for retained search firms to access a larger repository of candidates, did nothing to help surface any leads for me in the search process. Given there is cost associated with accessing the capabilities of these sites, I was very disappointed in the lack of utility in both. In reaching out directly to larger executive search firms, I was again reminded of the importance of networking, because the follow up from all of the eight organizations I contacted (where I didn’t have a personal connection) was non-existent. It’s entirely possible that one or more of these companies could have helped in my search process, but my lack of a direct connection into them all but torpedoed my effort to leverage them effectively. Ultimately, the process that worked the best for me was to use LinkedIn as the point of origin for my overall search and extend to other sites from there. From a process standpoint, I reviewed all of my contacts on LinkedIn individually, looking at where they were working, visited those company websites, and I took one of two paths. If there was a position, I would reach out to my contact to see if I could obtain help in the application process, minimally to list the person as a reference to try and reduce the risk of being eliminated in the HR review step. If there was not a position listed and I either had a strong relationship with the individual or liked what I saw about their current company, I would send them a message on LinkedIn to ask if there were any opportunities. Ultimately, this latter approach is what led to the position I eventually secured, because there was no position listed for the job I am filling. It came entirely as a byproduct of reaching out to a friend from a previous employer. The other approach I used with LinkedIn was to continually review the postings available on the site itself and either post directly to positions I found there (one of which turned into a relatively well qualified opportunity) or use the postings as a means to identify companies that matched up with the smaller to mid-size organization that I ultimately wanted to pursue. Again, the utility of the site was well beyond anything else I leveraged in the search process and notwithstanding a better platform surfacing in the coming years, it would definitely be the starting point I’d use for any future search.
As a final point on networking, for people early in their career, they won’t have as much direct professional experience to draw from, so likely the best thing to do would be to lean on experienced people with whom there is a strong personal relationship and see whether that can help reduce the barriers that will otherwise exist in the process. On the experienced hire side, I’d simply say that I felt sending a resume anywhere where I didn’t already have a connection was 80-90% likely to be a waste of time. In practice, after a point, senior positions require such a depth and breadth of capabilities that relying solely on a resume and/or cover letter to break through the initial barriers in the process is nearly impossible. This isn’t to say that it can’t be done, but my experience was that having confidence in a job pursuit is directly related to whether you know someone in the target organization already and the strength of the relationship you have with that individual.
The Interviewing
At an overall level, the things that I believe matter in terms of job satisfaction are: the work you do, the person you work for, the people you work with (internal and external), the level of travel involved, the compensation associated with the position, ability to maintain work/life balance, and the culture of the company as a whole. In my experience, if you can find four or more things in a given job, the opportunity will probably work out reasonably well (assuming there isn’t one factor that materially outweighs everything else, like being significantly undercompensated). In the event, however, that more of the above factors are not in your favor, there will likely be significant problems somewhere in maintaining satisfaction with the job. As a result, this is the set of dimensions at which I am generally looking during the interviewing process.
Beyond the overall search criteria, the first observation I’d make on the interviewing process is related to preparedness. While it is common sense to be prepared for interviews, it doesn’t hurt to reiterate the importance of thinking through a few things relative to making the most of the opportunity. In my experience, many people asked me for a short overview on my career, what I was looking for in the next opportunity, what was good or bad about my last job, why I changed jobs in the past, and what I found interesting or exciting about the specific opportunity we were discussing. I certainly got much better at answering these questions the farther I got into my search, but the experience drove home the importance of thinking through the messaging you want to come through in the process, because it should reflect your priorities, values, and ideology overall. Thinking through some of the general behavioral interview questions (e.g., times when you have overcome adversity, addressed complex business problems, managed difficult client situations) is also worthwhile. This is an area where I could have done a better job early in the search, because having twenty-five years and five jobs worth of experience to draw from was almost overwhelming in terms of trying to pick the best example in line with a particular question from an interviewer. At one point, I realized I was trying to think through the behavioral interview questions too much on the fly and so I spent a small amount of time reflecting on each of my jobs and trying to think about what major examples might be good discuss from each. That exercise is one that I realistically should have done as soon as I started the process.
In terms of the questions I asked the prospective employers, I generally asked two things of everyone I met at a minimum: what they liked the most and the one thing they would change about their company, and the same question in relation to their company’s culture. In most cases, the response on things people would change dealt with a functional aspect of their job: workload, travel, more operating efficiency, access to the right expertise across the organization, but culture rarely came up. When asking about culture, however, sometimes the answers were more concerning in terms of a potential workplace than the operational things people mentioned on the first question, while in others, the positive cultural aspects of the workplace that came through made a prospective employer much more attractive, regardless of the day-to-day issues the individual otherwise had just described.
As a final point on interviewing, I was very surprised but reminded of the importance of brand and reputation in the companies for whom we ultimately work in the course of our career. My recent employer and the nature of their business was brought up by interviewers multiple times during the course of my search, and never in a positive way. While there isn’t much a candidate can do in addressing such things, beyond remaining positive and focusing on the desirable attributes of a former employer, I was reminded that the choices we make with regard to our place of work can be a positive or a negative thing in terms of future opportunities. I hadn’t encountered the issue in previous searches, but I was made very aware of it in my most recent experience and it is something I’d definitely recommend people consider when choosing their next place of work. That company will be on your resume from the point you accept a job forward, and hopefully that is something you will be proud to tell people in the future.
Observations on the Search Process
In terms of the search process itself, there are really two points I’d make at an overall level. First is that the availability of information and transparent communication is a significant factor in maintaining a sense of momentum and navigating the process effectively. Allowing the process time to unfold can be particularly difficult in a time-critical search, but being overanxious can definitely undermine the effort, and it’s important to know when to wait, when to follow up, and what questions to ask along the way. For the most part, I found the recruiters I worked with to be helpful, though there were a couple places where the person facilitating the process misled me in terms of timeframes for things to happen, criticality of certain activities in the process and so on. The best advice I can give with regard to this is to treat everything in the hiring process like it matters, regardless of whether someone says not to worry about it.
With regard to having the right expectations, I’d strongly suggest that a candidate ask the person facilitating the process how many steps their process typically requires, how long those steps may take, and what things are important for them to be successful in navigating the process itself. I will address the emotional side of the search next, but the lack of knowing how far you are in the interview process, the number of steps ahead of you, the things that are most important to a given company in how you show up, and so on can be extremely stressful. To the extent that companies want flexibility in how they engage with a specific candidate, it could be the case that they will not be proactive in laying out the expected process up front, but my general experience was that they do have an idea how it likely would progress if everything goes well. Looking at the companies where I had active discussion, once there is interest in talking, most companies started with at least one or two phone screens to provide vetting against the opportunity at an overall level and cull the list of prospects to something more manageable. From there, minimally there will be an interview with the hiring manager, possibly with their direct manager, and then potentially a variable number of peers or team members depending on the level of internal validation and concurrence the organization wants prior to making a decision. In my experience, the time between these interviews was generally over one week, and averaged roughly two weeks per step in almost every company with whom I spoke. In the situation where a search is time-sensitive, this can add a considerable amount of stress, which is why I’d strongly suggest a candidate try and understand that number of steps and the overall anticipated duration up front, so they can manage their personal expectations accordingly.
The Emotional Side of the Search
The final dimension of a search is probably the most difficult one to manage, and it deals with the emotional roller coaster that is part and parcel of the process itself. In many ways, it is as important as anything else in what a candidate does, but it’s the part that seems to be discussed the least by the nature of what is involved… the underlying sense of inadequacy, failure, and isolation that can come with losing a job in the first place.
While there is no direct, tangible way to address what is fundamentally emotional in nature, my first suggestion relative to managing the distress associated with a job search is simply for a candidate to accept the reality that, while you certainly can influence the outcome and facilitate overall progress in your search, the hiring process is not within your control, and you can only do so much about that. This issue is probably the area where I personally struggled the most, because no matter how many applications you submit, follow up emails you send, time you make available to interview, and so on… you can only can control your portion of the process and the rest depends on the individuals and companies with whom you are dealing. As a results-oriented person, I found this exceptionally frustrating at times, because there are days in a search process where there literally isn’t anything you can do to move the needle forward on the opportunities you care the most about, and the best you can do is look at other positions that may be available and throw other lines in the water to try and generate more leads.
In conjunction with the loss of control, there is a definitely sense of isolation that comes from a full-time search, in part because a candidate loses the sense of connection they have with their friends who are still working. Whether the job loss was within one’s control or not, there is a very dramatic change between feeling like you are part of the larger workforce community and being shifted into the realm of the ‘unemployed’, which has a negative connotation overall. Finding ways to stay healthy and active and keeping connected with friends and family throughout the search process is an important aspect to maintaining a healthy self-image during what can be a long and arduous search. While this sounds simple enough, taking an active role on remaining connected, networking with other people searching for jobs, and so on can be very important in keeping your energy and focus so that you don’t undermine your own effectiveness in executing the search itself.
Again, overall there isn’t a simple solution to dealing with the stress and adversity of a search, but it is important to understand and acknowledge that our emotional wellbeing can be very difficult to maintain under the circumstances, and we should pay attention to ensuring we remain mentally and physically healthy so as not to allow things to become more difficult than they already are.
Wrapping up
As one final note and suggestion on the process itself, one final thing that I did in concluding my process was to review all of the connections I made throughout the process, thank everyone who helped, and extend connection requests to every person I met through the process that I wanted to be part of my network on LinkedIn for the future. This could be a very easy thing to overlook, but I’d strongly suggest making sure that a candidate do it as a result of a search rather than allow that entire trail to go cold, especially for other prospective employers where things didn’t pan out for some reason or other. You never know where the road will lead, and the search itself is definitely an opportunity to build a more robust foundation for the future.
Well, this turned out to be a little more than I thought I would write on the topic, but hopefully some of the information is useful. Again, the goal was to relate my observations given my recent experience in the hope that it can help someone else and to bring some closure to what was a very challenging period of time. My final word of advice to anyone else finding themselves in a similar situation is simply this: reach out and ask for help, you will be surprised how many people will rise to the occasion, whether they are the people you’d expect or others you never thought would come through… the worst thing you can do is assume you have to take on a search entirely on your own. There are good people out there willing to help. It was certainly my experience. Many more people have gone through the struggle than you’d probably realize and, consequently, there are a lot of people who know the challenge and will be willing to help someone else.
For anyone reading this who is going through a search yourself, the best of luck in finding your way to the destination, I hope this was helpful…
-CJG 12/03/2016
-CJG 10/09/2016
Structured Chaos 