Day 27 – Transition- When it Rains

Well, after hearing very little over the course of the last 3 months, I have been contacted twice for follow up this week.  Another company sent me email today wanting to schedule a phone interview for next week.  I guess when it rains it pours.

Today, it was reported that the jobs front is doing pretty good.  Job growth was better than expected and better than has been recorded in quite some time.  It seems like things are coming around.  It seems like people are little less worried than they were.  It seems like there is more hiring and more good jobs to go through. 

Though over the last two days of searching I haven’t found anything to spike my interest.  I think I may be getting more picky in what I will apply for.   When I started looking, if I had most of the requirements covered I would send in the application.  Now I’m looking to cover all the requirements, unless it is an area that I want to grow into.  I am also more likely to throw out something that I might be qualified for, but know that I would be bored doing it. 

The odd thing is that this getting choosier really hasn’t cut down the number of applications.  There is more sieving through titles, but I’m faster now; I know more of the buzz words that I’m looking for to either qualify or disqualify the job requisition.

Business Cards and LinkedIn

My case worker from WorkSource has been telling me that I need to get business cards to hand out in networking situations.  She had suggested the website vistaprint.com saying you can get the first 250 free. 

I started this process last night and then stepped away and let it mature over night.  Part of the reason for letting it mature was a couple questions that were running through my head.  The first was should this just be a card with my name, phone number, and email address and nothing else?  Or should I supply a business name?

I have done some coaching over the years and have used a company name that I developed in my masters program for the type of coaching that I do: “On Purpose Alignment Services”.   I needed time to think about whether it would be ok to put this on the card.  Would a hiring manager be put off because I gave them a card with a business name on it.  I decided not, and the cards would be useful after I get another position.

In order to get the free 250 cards, well I guess I can’t write on that because I didn’t figure it out the free part.  I knew there would be a change for postage which came to $5.67; but there was another charge for 3.99 that I think was due to the design I picked.  It took a while to navigate through the website mostly due to offering you a millions things once you’ve picked out your design.  You can get coffee mugs, T-Shirts, return address stamps and a whole host of other things.  It took me a while to figure out that a $12 charge was because I left the default of putting a design on the back of the card.

Here is how it turned out:

I shadowed out my address in the corner for the blog, which makes it look a little odd here, but I like how it turned out.   I didn’t like the staid conservative corporate designs or the new age spiritualist designs.  This seemed like a happy medium, some design, but overall sparse.

I hadn’t changed my LinkedIn since being laid off.  That meant that it still had me listed as my current position of being with Boeing.  Also, my term as Vice President and Secretary of the Saint Edwards Environmental Learning center was up in May and I had decided to retire from this board last fall.  Today, I updated both of them.  Now LinkedIn only shows past and no current position.  Thought I would leave it like this for a while and then decide whether to add the On Purpose Alignment Services as a position also.

Networking

This week I attended the IT SMF local chapter this is a IT interest group concerning the ITIL (which is an international set of process best practices for IT.)  I had work extensively in this area a few years back.  I volunteered to help them organize the local chapter.  They put on talks every other month.  This is a way for me to network with people that work the area of process management and in an area that drives a lot of need for change management (my preferred area). 

My case worker with WorkSource has also been after me to attend a professional networking group that meets every Monday from 9 to 12.  I will try this out this week.  I don’t know what to expect from this, but I know that networking is one of the biggest factors in finding employment now. 

Have a great weekend.

Here is my quote for today:

Each of us makes his own weather, determines the color of the skies in the emotional universe which he inhabits.
                                                       --- Bishop Fulton J. Sheen

What color are your skies today?  And is that helping?