Near the end. (Layoff) Part II

Recently, I interviewed for the permanent position that I have been working at for the last 9 months in a temporary capacity. Thought this would be a good time to do an overview of the journey that I have been through to this time.  This was written before I found out that I was selected for the position.  This is part 2 of a three part post. 

Write your resume for three audiences. First audience is the computer. Match the words in the Job requisition to the words in your resume. The more matches the higher your score only the top ones make it past the computer screening. Second audience is an HR person. Generally, this person is not qualified to judge the technical merits of your submission, but understands the business, has a pretty good bullshit monitor for people trying to game the system, (like putting the entire job requisition in invisible type to get by the computer screen). The HR representative does not read your whole resume. They read less than 7 seconds. A good test…

Near the end (Layoff). Part I

  Yesterday, I interviewed for the permanent position that I have been working at for the last 9 months in a temporary capacity. Thought this would be a good time to do an overview of the journey that I have been through to this time.

I may be near the end of this part of the journey; a journey that started almost 2 years ago, when after 23 years of very dedicated service, I received the 60-day Warn notice from Boeing. I had no pre-warning that I understood. It was a shock to my system to say the least.

In ways, I was a by-product of the Great Recession, the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930’s, this one brought on my greed in banking and finance communities just like that one.

Getting ready for the first day at school

 

Tomorrow is the first Day at UW.  I’m excited to change from trying to sell myself, via my resume or my ability to answer questions, to actually doing what I know how to do—to what I have trained for years to do.

It is expensive to park, when you can find a place, and because of the traffic, it is hectic to get to where you want to go.  I will be taking bus 372  instead.  Monday, I did a test ride to check the timing: 10 minutes to get to the park-n-ride; 30 minutes on the bus;  and then a nice 10 minute walk across campus to get to my office building. 

Also in getting prepared, they ran a back ground check, (I passed ) and have been setting up my internet connections.  UW is using more cloud computing, so lots of resources are available via the web.  Some of these I’m merging with the services I already use like Gmail. 

In a few minutes will be laying out everything I need for tomorrow. And rechecking the timing in the morning.  I feeling like a first grader getting ready for that all important first trip to school.

I feel like I am starting a 6 month interview process.  I have 6 months to convince them that they are better off with me permanently on-board.  And at the same time, I will be evaluating whether UW is really the place I want to work.

Go Dawgs!!

Day 276–Transition—Uptick

Maybe it is just wishful thinking, but it seems that starting last Thursday there was a noticeable uptick in job activity in the areas  I search.  The number of job requisitions I go through each day has increased and the number of jobs that see that turn out to be of interest for applying has seemed to go up.

At the same time, my personal job hunting activity has gone up.  This week I have four interviews and I have 4 possibilities for positions in the works.  Three are shorter term contracts that could lead to longer term employment and one is a full time position.  This is the most activity that I have seen since I was laid off.

Each of these four has come about in a different way.  One was from an interview from December.  I wasn’t chosen, but my resume was passed on to someone else.  One came from a recruiter seeing my LinkedIn profile and then contacting me directly.  One is from some personal networking I had done with friend.  And the last is from a  job requisition that I put in near the end of the year.

The timing for hiring at Boeing usually comes after budgets are finalized and released.  This seems to happen towards the mid or end of February.  The Pace of Boeing jobs has remain constant since moving lower for the holidays around the end of November.  I’m wondering if other big companies have this same sort of beginning of the year delays.  If they do, then the next few weeks could see even more improvement in the jobs market.

This has combined to improve my outlook on the situation.  It was hard for me to remain upbeat at the end of 2010.  But the sun is out today, and the outlook seems bright.  Bright, not just for finding a job, but for finding a a position where I can bring all of my talents to bear in helping organizations, teams, and individuals become more productive and to expand their boundaries or concepts of themselves.  This is what I love to do and I do this as a organizational change management consultant and by helping in with continuous process improvement.   With this uptick, I’m seeing more of these positions, and with that an uptick in my personal emotional situation is taking place.

I hope the sun keeps shining!

Day 262 - Transition - Taking Stock

It is the beginning of the year.  For many years I have spent January reflecting on what has happened in the last year and what, if anything needs to change in my goals and behaviors going forward.  It is a time of taking stock and deciding what to focus on in the coming year.

I can’t believe this transition phase in my career has lasted as long as it has.  I was easily prepared to last 6 months, figuring that I would be able to find something in that time.  Even as I was planning this, I was hearing that the average time to find a job was taking 8 months.  Now I’m moving past this mark and not feeling good about it.

In order to last 6 months or more I decided to set my priorities as the following:

Day 200–Transition–The Saga Continues

Image via Wikipedia

I can’t believe that this is day 200.  This journey continues with little or no end in site.  Today I learned that 13,000 people will lose extended unemployment benefits in just King County later this month.  That is a lot of people being affected and that is just one county in the state (though  most populous).

Over the last week and a half I got my hopes way up high and had them crashed to the ground.  A job I interviewed for, seemed like they were going to extend an offer, but in the end they did not.  I really thought this was going to be the one.  I was a fool. 

Today I had the privilege to  a keynote presenter at a local community college staff workshop.  It was nice to do some work in my field, something I that I really enjoy doing, as opposed to searching and filling out job requisitions.  I did an 1 1/2 hour session called Leading from the inside out.  This was a series of exercises designed to help people find the passions that they can use to drive their personal leadership.

Day 136 - Transition – Life by a thousand pats on the back

Image via Wikipedia

 

Have been looking at my productivity or value in a number of different ways over the past few weeks. 

As the time grinds on, it is hard to maintain a positive perspective on the process of finding a job in this economy.  Maintaining a positive perspective has many different aspects and through this journey a change that has taken place in when I feel valued.  When I feel more valued, my perspective is more positive. 

When working, each two weeks Boeing would send a fat check to confirm that value that I was bringing to the corporation.  Now with severance and unemployment, I’m getting paid for past value and not for present value creation and at times I have wondered if I am bringing any value. 

I have at least three areas of value creation or service that I am still working.  The first being a stay at home Dad and taking care of the house and meals.  And the second being my house remodel.  The third is in improving my health.

Looking for a job is a necessary activity, and I receive positive psychological rewards when a great job requisition is found, the call comes in to interview, or just going through an interview process.  But there is also stress related to the not hearing, my lack of patience, and then the death by a thousand paper cuts from the little rejections received on a daily basis.  This seems like a different  than providing value.

See more on keeping positive…

Day 124 transition – This officially sucks—mostly.

Well it has been a little over 6 months since this ordeal began, and about 4 months since being laid off.  Time to take stock and look at the macro level to see what has been happening.
Looking for work in the worse job market in decades is not fun.  In fact, it sucks.  It seems that things are getting better, (there seems to me to be more jobs to look at),  but the pace of job growth is dismally slow.  This combined with the number people out looking is making it very tough.  Also, I read an article today that companies are trying harder to make better employment decision in the first place, which translate into longer time to evaluate candidates up to twice as long to make decisions.

Unemployment 1890 to 2008

Unemployment Jan 2007 – Jan 2010

It is not just the unemployed that are looking.  I have friends at Boeing that have decided it is time to leave.  Several are beginning the process of building up their resumes and dipping their feet in the waters of job searching.  Protecting what they have, but giving up the dream of staying with Boeing.  My point is there are many employed people that are looking to change positions or companies and are actively out looking.
So far, I have had 78 job applications or interviews.  Accompanied by 61 rejections.  John Gottman the relationship expert says that in order to have healthy relationships you need to have a 5 to 1 ratio of positive interactions to negative interactions.  Unless somebody radically changes the job hunting process, I will never be able to build a healthy relationship with job hunting. 
My hope lies in the current 17 open job requisitions which have not responded, some date back to May.  Not saying that one of the local airplane manufactures is slow, but I have given up hope  that I will be getting a call these.  I dare them. I double Dare them.  Hell, I Double Dog Dare them to prove me wrong.
So how am I doing on the other things I was trying to accomplish.  I wanted to do more than just job hunt.  I had the following areas that I wanted to focus on:

• Find a Job (Priority 1)
• Be a great stay at home Dad
• Get healthy (lose weight and get in better shape)
• Remodel the house
• Define a non profit that I have been thinking about.

Finding a job.

  This progresses, but I feel like a failure here.  I keep bashing my head against the wall and hoping that it busts through soon.  This is a class the I feel I’m trying hard, but so far I don’t quite understand what the teacher is looking for.  I would say I get a C here.

Being a stay at home Dad.

I think I’m being more good than great.  I have been focusing on other areas and could keep the house cleaner.   It isn’t bad, just still trying to find the right mix of when things need to be cleaned and developing the self discipline to complete the task when it comes up. 
I believe that we are eating healthier and I pretty happy about that.  I use more whole grains and have tried to reduce the amount of corn syrup.  Also, the amount of fruit in our diet has gone up. 

Getting healthy.

Here it is a mixed bag.  I have done lousy in the exercise department over the last month because I injure my foot and have tried to let it heal.  It doesn’t seem to be getting much better.  So I may try building up my walking again.  I could also be lifting weights, but I have been bad about getting over there.  I hope to improve in this area significantly in September.
Image via WikipediaLosing weight I’m doing great, at least for me.  I’m not at the Biggest Loser level that you see on TV, but I’m afraid people’s addiction to quick changes is what holds many people back.  I am much more satisfied to slowly take it off and then work to keep it off.  Since the beginning of the year I lost over 15 lbs.  I still have a ways to go to get to my perfect weight, but I am starting to see and feel the difference.  My blood pressure has been trending down since the beginning of the year and if it keeps going the way that it is, I should be able to stop my medication before long. 
So over all, I give myself a B in this area.  A B that I am pretty happy with.  If I can get back at the exercise, then I will have an A in this area.

 

Remodeling the house.

This is going slowly but we are making progress and September promises to be a month of big changes here.  The master bath is being rebuilt this week and by next Friday we could be able to take showers in there (using a temporary shower curtain instead of a door that will have to be ordered.
In the basement the tear down is proceeding and hopefully by the end of next week will be complete.  We have the cabinets in for both bathrooms and the old bar area.  And we have the tub in to replace it.  We are waiting for the other shower to get operational before tearing into the main bath.
I am meeting with a Sheet Rocker tonight and will find out what he can do.  He has a regular job, so he will only be able to work nights and weekends.  I have seen his work and it is great.    I’m excited to get this going.
We are trying to figure out what we want for electrical, carpet, and other colors downstairs and in the main bath.  So we once again have samples laying around the house. 
In this area, I give us an B- with most of the grade coming in September. 

Defining a non-profit.

Here I have done great.  I have thought about this and decided that I idea that I had was not worth pursuing .  There are many institutions that are out their, adding another one isn’t of great value.  Many later on I will get back to this, but for now this is complete.   This turned out to be a Pass/Fail endeavor and I ended up with a Pass.
I titled this the officially sucks, mostly.  It has it good points.  I am in better health physically and mentally than I was in February when this all started.  I feel that I am closer to my kids, than I would have been if my job would have continued.  I feel that I am having more of an effect in their lives than if I was working over this whole summer.  Could I have done better, you bet you, but the progress I have made is good and I like that I have been given the chance to change my focus.  I feel less stressed, I think that is why the weight is coming off; I’m doing less stress related stuffing of my mouth out of boredom.
The hardest part with this all is in the inability to have enough structure to plan for the future.  Instead, every day is a work day, a day to do something related to looking for work.  Others things are thrown in as best I can.

Overall

My nervousness has gone up in the fourth month.  I can feel the end of my severance pay coming up.  The unemployment checks are a welcomed addition to our finances, but it is not enough to sustain us with one in college and another one headed that way.  We are comfortable, not at our wits end yet.  We are lucky to have all that we do, and I wish we had a little more stability that we could bank on.  I appreciate the chance to improve in others areas than just being a working stiff.
I pray for the many, many people that are worse off than we are. 
Today’s quote, I think as a society we have a lot of this that we must do.  I know I have to work hard at getting my heart in order:

To put the world right in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must first put the family in order; to put the family in order, we must first cultivate our personal life; we must first set our hearts right.
-- Confucius

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