“Resourcing for Growth”.., I think that is still my favorite euphemism for a reduction in force. Sounds so promising doesn’t it? A new future. Oh.., it was a new future alright. A future without a whole bunch of people at their jobs.
That was about 10 years ago and that was the last time I actually searched for a job. You see.., since then all my offers have come to me without me having to search for them. And believe me, this is a much better that way!
I was going through the management placement program my previous company sent all of us to. It was a very good program. I learned a lot that’s helped me along the way but I also noticed one thing. We were all doing the exact same thing! We all came out of this program looking and acting just alike.
We were all clones! Very polished clones, but clones nonetheless. Our resumes looked alike, our elevator pitch was exactly alike, our phone and in person interview responses were just alike. And we had the hours of video of ourselves rehearsing and perfecting to prove it.
I began looking around and thinking, “If I have to compete against some of these people I don’t stand a chance”. There were advanced degrees galore! There were several PhDs, and a plethora of MBAs and Master degrees in everything, from everywhere.
One guy had a Master’s in Viticulture and Enology from Cornell. Are you kidding me!?! Viticulture and Enology? It took me two days to figure out how to pronounce it right before I worked up the nerve to look it up.
He had a Master’s degree in grapes and wines. Grapes and Wines!!!
Oh yeah!.., I’ve got a Master’s in Humulus Lupulus and Pilsner Extravegandous! With a minor in PassingOutus on BuddiesCouches.
I mean seriously when they got around to asking about my education I stood up and said, “Uh.., I went to flight school”.
No.., I had to come up with a different way of canvassing. I had to find a way to stand apart and I wasn’t going to do that by updating my resume to a new format, or working my network of contacts, a lot of whom were the same contacts that everyone else in this program had.
[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”||28px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]My goal, odd as it sounds, was to have offers and opportunities come to me without me having to search them out.
Being a User Experience Evangelist, or at that time a Usability Specialist, I decided to look inward to my own strengths and ask myself, “What would I do if I were my client?” And the first things that came to mind was to identify any potential opportunities by performing a heuristic evaluation. This would give me the clarity to see any gaps in my business strategy and approach and craft a strategy.
Like the cobbler’s kids that have no shoes, I was amazed that it hadn’t occurred to me to use the same skills and strategies on myself that I use for clients. And when I did it was there as plain as the nose on my face. The gap I had been looking for.
I was going to market myself to recruiters!
We’ve all gotten the emails and calls from recruiters when they have an opportunity that fits our skill set. And depending on who’s available and when, determines what opportunity they may have left when they get around to us.
But I took a different approach. I began creating a list of all the recruiters that had contacted me in the last 6 months. Then I crafted my first campaign to them. I created a newsletter, that has since been replaced with a more efficient collateral, and in that newsletter I gave them a rundown of my skills, my availabilities, and lastly I included a bit of my personality. I’m not sure why I decided to do that, but it turned out to be the defining difference because I was inadvertently creating myself as a brand. A brand that they were identifying with.
At first I wasn’t sure about how often to send this out so I sent it once a week. By week three I had lost half of my list, so I cut it back to once a month and that seemed to work.
I also included a recent picture of myself so they could put a face with the name.
It wasn’t long and I noticed a drastic increase in the emails and phone calls that were coming to me about opportunities that matched what I was looking for. By the time I had sent out my fourth newsletter the emails and calls had doubled to where I was averaging a dozen or more emails a day and at least three calls a day. In less than three short months, and by the time I had collected my last severance check, I had five strong offers to select from. And all with the money, benefits, and working conditions that I wanted. I had even begun asking for pie in the sky type of things that I was certain that I was going to be laughed at for but wasn’t.
Since then I have kept up my connection to an ever growing list of recruiters, and created relationships that have allowed me to never have to worry about a “Resourcing for Growth” situation again. I’ve included stories about vacations, my children’s accomplishments, and even the occasional selfish promotion about something I’ve done, like publishing a book. And because of my newsletter I’m the first person they think to contact for the prime opportunities with the prime salaries.
In all these years that I’ve done this, recruiters tell me I still remain the only one that sends them an update of what I’m doing and my availabilities.
So if you never want to have to search for a job again, but have opportunities come to you…, give this a try.
[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]
