Career Advice

The Definitive Guide to Getting Work

Keep this exit plan handy, it could be a rung on the ladder of success

It may seem odd to publish an article about getting work when unemployment is at historic lows. Basically if you have a pulse you are hired but the question is whether the job is right for you. If like most people on a career path you want to have all the tools for success on your belt during both times fo fat and famine. These tips will leave you prepared for something that is inevitable fo 99.999% of workers from the factory floor to the C-suite.

Hold onto your hat!

The sudden end of a job can leave a person without the specific skills needed to get a new job. The work of job hunting is very different from the work being sought and this article describes the process of getting new employment as quickly and efficiently as possible. Sections of the paper cover reorienting the mind, organizing for the job hunt, establishing an effective routine, creating a resume, avoiding scams, staying motivated, and accepting the opportunity.

The Surprise

Getting let go is hard regardless of the circumstances. After years of working on movie projects where there were strong bonds built during the difficult and challenging work of making a film I noticed an attitude among the old-timers and pros that was different from the interns and gophers just starting out. On the last day of shooting these seasoned and sometimes grizzled workers would shake a few hands, pack up their stuff and get on the road leaving behind the weepy newcomers making the rounds for hugs. These guys had left emotionally long before the last shot by looking for that next gig and knowing that any relationship worth having on the set would last long after, even if they might not cross paths for years to come.

The meeting that ended my stay at Disney started with “today is your last day”. Eleven seconds later, having shed my expectations of the meeting; my first thought was “I guess the meeting is over since I need to get working on my new job”. Essentially the only reason to look back was to assess if there were resources for my use. The HR representative quickly gave me all I needed to know and communicating my departure to those who either deserved my farewell or could provide leads took only a few hours. The focus was now on moving out and moving on as fast as possible.

Your Job is Getting a Job

Day 2, still on payroll but the attitude is that of starting any new job. The key is to organize and prioritize.

1. Do I have any immediate leads to follow up on?
2. Who needs to know right away?
3. Are my resources at the ready?

This last one is an exit plan you should develop long before you need it but my forgiveness is quick if you have not.

• Methods of contact open and ready (cell phone, email, voice mail)
• Resume updated (more on this later)
• General-purpose cover letter ready
• References listed and alerted that they may get called
• Interview clothing and haircut at the ready
• Transportation at the ready (car and/or bus maps)
• Contact lists

On this last one — list everyone! also, group them by opportunity:

1. Recruiters and hiring managers
2. Employed people (doing something similar)
3. People who know a lot of people (e.g. at your church)
4. People you do business with (car mechanic, CPA, etc)

Make the Rounds

Every day is a workday and must be as efficient as possible. You are self-employed and your business is in what start-ups call burn rate. The idea is to get to positive cash flow as fast as possible.

Start the cycle at 5:00 PM with research to be acted upon the following day.

Review your list of contacts for anyone who has not been contacted yet or is ready for a return call. If someone said they would have information in 5 days, call them in 5 days, not 4 and not 6. Have a script ready to get started in a conversation with someone or at least bullet points to cover. You want to take up the least amount of time as possible when on the phone. People are busy and they don’t mind contact if you make it quick and to the point.

Research job boards for listings of interest. Take care of submissions of resumes and cover letters to open positions. Keep track of all submissions, especially if you are also working with a recruiter since dual submissions can disqualify your application entirely. Track source of lead, date of submission, type of response, date of response and any names revealed to you in the process. Look up the names on Linked In and Google to get more familiar with the contact.

Start the next day at 9:00 AM with calls to leads, some offices open at 8 but prime contact hours are 9:00–11:30 AM and 1:30–4:30 since people are often out during other times. You want to make human contact wherever possible. If you hate talking to machines as much as I do then have a script for leaving voice mail so you be sure to leave the position you are applying for, some incentive to call you back, and your contact information. The key is to remind and not hound.

Voice mail script:

Hi, I am [name] and I am calling in regards to [position]. I believe I can provide you with [some skill of benefit]. I can be contacted at [phone number] or [email]. Again my number is [phone number a bit slower]. Thank you.

If there are applications to do in person it is best to arrive in the morning hours, as it will increase the chances of meeting someone face to face.

The Resumé

Your resumé is a representation of yourself. Here are the basics.

Summary

This should describe what experience you have and what skills you have. Be sure to include items like communication skills, ability to teach others, attention to detail, etc.

Experience

A very straightforward section with the heading of employer, title, start and end dates. Do not put salary here. List the things you were responsible for and include importance in dollar amounts wherever possible. Be sure to include things that were done outside your job description like training others.

Skills

List all skills you have both technical and soft skills (excellent customer service skills, etc.). List skills you have even if they are outside your job if you think they are relevant.

Education

A summary of school name, state, and graduation date is sufficient. This is more important for recent graduates or engineers.

Other

Interests such as leading scouts or other volunteer work are good. These items can give the interviewer an icebreaker or a human aspect to the resume. Do not put a picture on the resume as this can disqualify it based on equal opportunity rules.

The Interview

Interview days are special. Do not plan on doing anything except preparing for the interview for several hours beforehand. (My appologies for the male oriented list here, I am writing from experience).

Before

• Do not eat or drink anything except water after dressing for the interview. Coffee seeks out a clean shirt like ants to a picnic.
• See if you can find the appropriate attire. If the place is hip and young, a jacket with no tie is good, if more conservative then go for the tie and jacket. Anything financial or legal requires a suit.
• The white button-down oxford shirt is indispensable as it can be worn open collar with no tie and the collar won’t spread out like a nun’s cornette. It can also be worn with any color or pattern of tie. Be sure to spend the extra money for a sized shirt (not S/M/L/XL). The haberdasher is your friend; take their advice on what is timeless, flexible, and fashionable.
• Do not wear anything flashy or that could be used to judge you. No earrings, ponytails, visible tattoos, political campaign/union buttons/badges. No jewelry except a wedding band and a watch, a simple Timex or Seiko is preferred.
• Polish the shoes, be sure belt and shoes are the same color.
• Arrive 30 min early but no more than 40 min early. Ask the receptionist where the restrooms are and have a private moment to get the shirt tucked in properly after riding in the car. Check teeth and hair one last time then forget what you look like and have fun meeting new people.
• Have three copies (or more) of your resume ready.
• Have one copy of references in case they want to get going right away.
• Have picture ID ready as some facilities require it for entry.
• Have a pad of paper and a pen. I write people’s names and titles down as I meet them. It shows diligence.
• Carry everything in your left hand, it will keep your right hand dry for handshakes and using pens.

During

• Eye contact is very important during the interview. Share it with all participants. Even those not saying anything will not be as likely to have a positive recommendation if ignored. You can get over being shy if you remember they are just ordinary folks like you meet at church.
• Answer questions with very direct answers of a few sentences. Remember time may be tight for them.
• Most important: Have questions for them! What is an average day like?What is the culture like here? Has business been good?
• Often there will naturally be questions arising from the interview — be curious!
• Shake everyone’s hand when the interview concludes. Let them know you are interested (if you are). Ask when you will find out the results of their search.

After

• Be sure to follow up with a thank-you note if they have supplied you with email contacts, if not, don’t worry about it.
• Document the experience in case there is a call back or you can adjust your act.

There are tons of guides on how to handle questions but the best is to just be honest. Answer if you know. If you don’t know the answer express interest in learning the answer. Relaxed, honest, willing to learn, and enthusiastic will go a long way!

Cautionary Tales

If it’s too good to be true, it might be

There are many scam artists out there willing to prey on desperation and steal your money or your time. Keep a link to snopes.com handy to check out email offers. The scams come in many varieties but here are the ones I have encountered.

Multi-level Marketing

Amway, Herbalife, and Mona-Vie all require an initial buy-in and enormous amounts of your time to return very small amounts of money. The promise is astronomical but the reality is meager. Anything that promises down-the-line royalties is introducing massive markup in the product that is not competitive with normal retail. These products generally have three basic elements that are flawed.

1. The product is not unique or defensible. I can get soap, vitamins, and juice anywhere without the hassle of calling up my supplier and having it shipped or delivered.

2. The self-consumption of the product is part of the sales strategy. The vitamins are supposed to make you a better salesperson — yes if you are selling them to yourself.

3. Getting a piece of the action induces higher prices than competitors.

Paid Services

Be very wary of any offer that involves payment upfront. Legitimate recruiters and placement firms only get paid when they get you paid. Otherwise, they have the money and no longer have an incentive. I have personally met with a representative that provided letters of recommendation (without dates), talked about all the great work they had done, and then proceeded to ask how much money I had in the bank. I refused to answer and they refused to pay for parking. Wasted time.

Earn While You Sleep & Get Rich Quick

These can sometimes be hard to spot. The TV ad says the real estate seminar is free to attend and shows a lot of big checks. I was curious and went, what I saw was a gradual sifting of money out of the audience starting with talk of getting motivated by buying the speaker’s books and tapes. Selling a limited number of trial memberships at the next price level was next. Finally, a video revealed the real investment cost of thousands.

Every technique in the program was unworkable in the current context of the market. It worked for the speaker but only once and now he was making his millions off the attendees.

The Spanish Prisoner and Wire Transfers

The Spanish Prisoner is a classic con game where I can only get something of high value if you give me the seed money to release it. Variations include Nigerian emails and many other techniques.

Wire transfer scams are popular and post the offer as a job where all you have to do is accept payment and pass a portion to a third party. The wire transfer is reversed after the payment is made to the third party and you lose the money paid out. US banks are complicit in this as they then offer a line of credit to cover the overdraft in your account.

Both of these can be avoided with a little research in Google.

Commission Based Work

I sold credit card merchant accounts for a week until it dawned on me there were several flaws to the work:

• The number of salespeople far exceeded the sales opportunities. The owner was using the mob in the office to flood the market with calls.
• The salesperson covered all costs except local phone calls. This included fuel to visit prospects.
• There were absolutely no benefits.
• Any large accounts brought in had caps on revenue.
• You had to be with the company for a set period before commissions were paid out. Employee turnover helped lower costs.

Be Your Own Boss

Sometimes a change can provide the drive to start a business and be the owner. This is fine if the following items are considered.

Is the product or service defensible?

Is there a lot of competition from other businesses selling the same product or service that can beat you on price or quality? I had an idea of providing IT services to private homes but the cost of transportation made the product unaffordable to that market. Even today Geek Squad (funded by Best Buy) is not doing all that well despite the money poured into advertising and branded cars.

Are cost outlays and burn-rate affordable?

The IT house call business might have worked but the initial outlay was not affordable to drive 10 miles to make $20. Best Buy could lose big money for a year to try and get the service going. The ideal way to get a home-based business going is to have a day job that covers the basics and then build it gradually. My website business was running in my spare time for about 2 years before it became a serious income source.

Making the Rent

Getting creative is a good strategy when in a tight spot. The film industry was having a writers strike and the recession under Bush senior was making tough times for almost everyone. I had seen college kids painting house numbers on curbs in the past and I thought I could do the same or better.

The investment was two cans of spray paint, a set of paper stencils, masking tape, and newspaper. Day one was hard because I was walking from house to house. The next day a bicycle increased the number of doors I could ring. I offered the service at $10 and if they hesitated at all dropped it to $5, which closed the sale half the time. Again the key was to make good use of time since it was winter and there were only 2 hours between employed people getting home and the onset of night. The best day was $120; the worst day was $20 and some good exercise.

Opportunity exists everywhere. As you go through the day ask what is needed here? Is there room for improvement? Tires were scraping off curb markers and homeowners were willing to pay a few bucks to ensure the fire department could find the address.

Stay Awake

It’s going to be hard to keep up the drive of looking for openings, applying, interviewing, and perhaps not hearing back. Remember that even when it seems like all the contacts have dried up, keep feeding the resume mill with applications. I get a bit superstitious on this one but applying to online postings beats doing nothing.

Say Yes

On my first day working on a movie set in Hollywood I talked to the sound guy and asked for advice. Trevor Black advised two things: One, “Just smile and do your job since there are ten people in line for it.” And two, “Always say yes”. This second one was a bit cryptic but I figured it out when I was called to run a Fischer boom for one day. I had only seen one being used once but when asked if I could run one I said yes (I thought I could remember where the controls were). The pay was pretty low and they did not quiz my experience level as the need was urgent.

When the boom arrived at the set it had to be assembled. I was scared I would not figure it out but it was logical and I was able to do it. The shoot was shut down four hours later for a permit violation but I made some contacts that led to other work and added a skill to my resume. The bottom line is, don’t be afraid to take on something new and different.