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Shary Raske |
Show me the Money March 2010 Once the shock of a job layoff subsides, it’s time to get into action with creating a bare bones budget, that still has enough in it to have a little fun now and then. You want to stretch your savings, and if at all possible to not tap into your retirement. The sooner you make adjustments the better. There is a tendency to keep spending at the same level as if you are still working. Now that you’ve figured that out, you want to decide when delivering pizzas or some other part-time stop-the-bleeding job should be added to the mix. It’s like a good business plan. There has to be a threshold that triggers the decision of when to re-adjust your full time search in lieu of creating room for a temporary job. Divide your number of months of available savings by two, and then start looking for a temporary work at that half-way mark. You don’t want to find a temp job that is so all consuming that there is no time left for your professional search. The next step is to create a job search spending plan. Will you spend $50 a month on special events? Will you utilize a career transition strategist? What will you spend on gasoline, meetings, business cards, thank you cards or a new suit? If you initiate a lunch or dinner meeting, you should pay for the meal. You want to be prudent, but at the same time spend money so you will gain visibility. Here are some things NOT to spend money on: a recruiter who charges upfront fees and guarantees you a job within a certain time frame and at a certain income bracket. If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is. Also stay away from job lead services that promises to send your resume to 700 companies. Yes, they might do that, but an unsolicited resume is usually as good as not sending one at all. Unfortunately once you post your resume, you will be contacted by people who do not have your best interests at heart. Buyer beware. Tailor your job search spending plan according to your unique situation. I have had clients who spend $150 a week for power lunches and others who spend no more than $10 a week for coffee and still others who spend nothing at all when it comes to meals. There is no right or wrong. The point is to create a financial job search plan that works for you. The Long Distance Search Some of you have discovered after a thorough market analysis that the opportunities for your career direction are limited. A market analysis is not applying to 100 jobs online and then drawing that erroneous conclusion that no one is hiring. Online postings represent a small percentage of what's actually available to you. A market analysis requires a minimum of four (sometimes more if you are targeting more than one industry) face-to-face career research meetings with leaders in your field who can give you an accurate forecast of the probability that you will find work in less than a year in your current community. You'd be surprised to learn how many people change the trajectory of their career based on just one person's opinion. That's not a good idea. During these meetings, the question is asked, “What are the barriers for me to make a successful career transition in the direction I am choosing, and how do I overcome those barriers?” Sometimes adding a long distance search is the answer. First of all, if you do choose to conduct a long distance search it will cost more, usually be lengthier, and involve managing logistics and momentum that a local search does not require. That’s the bad news. The good news, if you follow some fundamental guidelines, you get to where you want to be: working in your new market. 1. Before you start, you must know your new market. This means reading online (check www.bizjournals.com) a weekly business journal in your area, as well as the local newspaper on the day that business issues are discussed. Your county library will also have the yellow pages of most major markets as well as most major newspapers across the country. Reading the advertisements can also be a source of information to review. Trade association magazines or journals, blogs related to your field, and using social media (Linkedin, Plaxo, Facebook, Twitter) are also good ways to research your new market. The library will have access to business databases that will give you the names, contact information, and websites of potential target organizations. My favorite is Gales directory and (D & B) Dun and Bradstreet’s Million Dollar directory. Some library databases have a downloadable feature where you can build lists of target organizations. 2. Have an end in mind. Create three target occupations and 50 organizations that are potential employers. Write a summary of who you are and what you want to accomplish, the occupational direction, the preferred industry focus (banking, advertising, information technology, non-profits, etc) along with 50 organizations that you would appreciate getting introductions. This is a market research project and the more people you can enlist into your cause the better. At this point you may be feeling an overwhelming sense of excitement or immense dread. Take this in manageable steps. It may take you several weeks to develop, yet without a career direction plan is like thinking a roof can be suspended in mid-air without a foundation and walls to connect it to. 3. Plan your logistics and your budget. It’s a lot easier to target cities that are within a five hour driving radius. Do not target more than one city at a time. There are exceptions to this rule, but a sure way to dilute your efforts is to spread yourself too thin. If the city you are targeting is more than five hours a way, how often can you get there? Every six weeks is sufficient during the building phase. Then once you have momentum, plan every three weeks. That’s about $1600 for a six month period for longer distance flights. If you stay two days for each time, that’s about $700 for a six month period, unless you have someone to stay with. Then there are meals. Some of your meetings may be over lunch or dinner, and you will offering to pay for that, too. This example equals an approximate budget for six month project of $2500. Needless to say, this doesn’t include lost wages, if that applies to you. If you are at a higher level, and the opportunities are even scarcer, plan on a one year long-distance project. 4. Build momentum and visibility in your new market. An easy, low cost way of accomplishing this is to work backwards. Once you’ve identified your target 50, find out if these organizations have a presence where you live. If you can get introduced through a local contact to where you want to be, the chances improve that your long distant contact will be more receptive to seeing you. Find and enlist three community leaders into your cause. Yes, it’s okay to seek prominent people: the mayor, the executive director of the regional chamber of commerce, the editor of the weekly and daily newspapers, the top commercial real estate developer. If you have a base of at least three people who you have trained to keep their eyes and ears open for you, they can be working in your behalf between trips. If this tactic doesn’t work then develop three other community contacts who know who your are and what you want to accomplish. Keep in touch with them every two weeks with a progress report. Use social media, email and phone calls to compensate for you not being there. 5. Position yourself to be a solution to a pressing need. Ironically it will take you even longer to find work in a faraway market if you only play the role of job hunter. You don’t hide your goal to relocate and find work, but you balance that by being seen as a winning contributor who has market specific information that will be useful to a future employer. Think of yourself more as a market research consultant than a job hunter. The more you know, the more marketable you will be. 6. Keep going and balance that with replenishment time. Long distance searches require a lot of energy. Be sure to take at least one day off while you are doing this project, and at the same time be sure to devote at least one hour a day if you are working full time, and four hours a day if you are not employed. This is a marathon, not a 100 yard dash. If you work full time and the only way you can make this work is to see people on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday every six weeks in your targeted destination, please be careful that you don’t over extend yourself. It’s better to delay a trip, if you haven’t set up more than three career research meetings in advance. 7. Follow and evaluate your plan. Do not shut down your long distance search once you have started. The key is to build momentum and interest. It’s been my experience that if you take one week off, it takes three weeks to regain the level of productivity you were at before. My work with professionals, who make long distance searches work, has shown that the right strategy, followed by an accountability system, followed by an effective debriefing with encouragement will eliminate getting off track. Long distance searches are complex with a lot of moving pieces, yet are still very do-able with the right planning and action steps. If any of you have completed a successful long distance, please pass on to our readers what worked for you, and I’ll publish that in next month’s newsletter. A new support group called “Journeys to Jobs” will meet every Friday at 9:00 a.m. - 10:30 p.m. in March. Organizational psychologist, Steve Lawler, and executive leader, David Boudinet will be facilitating. J2J will focus on how to draw from our spiritual resources to keep going. From my experience of this group, I predict you will leave feeling refreshed and hopeful. There will be Christian themes, but you do not have to be religious to participate. There is no cost to attend but RSVP is preferred! Call for details. (314) 560-1088. We meet at St. Timothy's Episcopal Church, Creve Couer. For more information contact David Boudinet at dvboudinet@gmail.com or Steve Lawler at episcopalians@gmail.com 90% of my business comes from referrals. Thank you for the recent referrals from Gary and Joanne and Gaylen. Gary, a former client, said, “You’ve always been in my corner, Shary. I know you’ll be in this person’s corner, too.” Joanne, a career collaborator, said, “Shary is excellent, knowledgeable, motivating, and moves you along.” If you know someone who is stuck, stalled, or dissatisfied with their current work situation, please consider referring them to Courage to Change. After just one session that career changer will have a written, preliminary plan with specific action steps on how to move forward. Call today! (314) 560-1088. Next issue: How One-More-Thingitis is Bad for a Career Change. Shary Raske, Career Strategist, Courage to Change Enterprises (314) 560-1088. For career changers who want to get where they want to be, with less suffering and better results. Enjoy reading, and please forward to others, particularly those who are job searching. If you received this in error, our apologies; see column on your left for options. |
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Shary Raske, Career Strategist, Smarter, more effective career change! Delivered by Webvalence |