Getting Unstuck: One Client's Story
When Barb was laid off nearly two years ago, she was surprised and embarrassed. She felt that despite her many business successes, she must be a poor performer. In fact, she was one of many talented employees in the industry who were impacted by the economic downturn.
After working with her for several months, she continued to be depressed and had no energy for writing a résumé or conducting a job search. Her brother died shortly before she lost her job, and I suspected that grief was impacting her ability to move forward; I suggested she see a therapist.
I didn’t hear from her for nearly six months. Then, as 2010 was wrapping up, she contacted me to restart her job search. She had been working with a therapist and felt ready to jump back into the market.
Once again, the prospect of putting together a résumé seemed overwhelming, so instead we started slowly and focused on identifying a few accomplishments that could be used to create a networking brief.
I knew she would feel better with at least one marketing tool under her belt. Once we completed the networking brief, we used it to create a bare-bones profile on Linkedin.com, an online business networking site.
Seeing her experience come to life in the networking brief and online profile encouraged Barb to identify and write about additional job accomplishments that we used to create her primary marketing tool, a powerful, focused résumé. Then I had her share her résumé with a couple of friends in the industry to test drive it and get feedback. With an up-to-date résumé completed, we were able beef up the bare-bones online profile.
At the same time, I suggested that she invite friends and family to connect with her on Linkedin.com. Once she felt confident about using this online networking tool, she took the first tentative steps to reconnect with former colleagues.
One of her Barb’s concerns was that she would be viewed poorly by those who were still working for her previous employer. It was a huge relief to discover that she is well-regarded by former colleagues and managers. Not only did they happily accepted her invitations to connect, several wrote recommendations for her on Linkedin.
Networking online reminded Barb of how much she enjoys building business and personal relationships. She commented that in the past, she was one of the few people who knew everyone by name at the end of a conference and how familiar networking online felt once she got used to it. In the span of just a few weeks, her online network grew to nearly 100 people.
Completing these job search tasks energized Barb and convinced her to increase her competitive edge by updating an industry certification that she let lapse. This specialized certification and her solid experience made Barb a very attractive candidate.
Within a couple of weeks Barb was fielding calls from recruiters in her industry. In less than six weeks she was offered multiple opportunities one of which included a pay raise and an increase in responsibility. She jumped at the opportunity. Today she is unstoppable.
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