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09.08

Are You Prepared for a Career Crash?

by Gary Perman

Do you remember the last time your hard drive crashed? Last month, mine did. When I discovered I no longer had a working computer, I could feel my blood pressure begin to rise. Then anger set in. Then the fear of lost data. Then panic. “Why me?” repeated over and over again in my mind, as I frantically went through my BlackBerry searching for the number of my engineering guru and PC savior, Dan, who, hopefully, would be able to resurrect my hard drive.

“Please save my data and get my PC back up and running — I’ll do anything,” I begged Dan over the phone. I think I even said a little prayer promising to give more to charity, if only Dan could save my computer. Dan arrived and went right to work. Minutes seemed like hours and hours seemed like days until, finally, Dan came out of my office. His eyes were cast down and I knew the prognosis was not going to be good. “The hard drive is gone and your data is lost,” Dan pronounced. A feeling of helplessness and loss overcame me. Was I prepared for it? Not as prepared as I should have been.

The emotional roller coaster ride I experienced is common among people who have experienced a hard drive crash. Talking with computer pros since my experience, I’ve heard the same truth about hard drives repeated over and over: it is not a question of if it will crash, it is simply a question of when.

My personal experience and this insider adage reminded me of the same advice I give employees: it is not a question of if you will lose your job, it is simply a question of when.

Mergers, terminations, Dot Com busts or layoffs — whatever the reason or cause, we have all lost a job, and have experienced the same emotions that I experienced when my hard drive crashed, only worse. When a person loses a job, he or she experiences shock, anger, disappointment, fear and the feeling of loss. We eventually dust ourselves off and begin to rebuild by searching for another job. Through networking, submitting résumés, interviewing and selling ourselves to perspective employers, we eventually land a new job.

However, finding a new job can be difficult. How well you are prepared for finding a new job can mean the difference between days and months. Unfortunately, most of us are more prepared for a computer crash than we are prepared for a career crash.

Be Prepared for a Career Crash

Layoffs and terminations can come quickly and often without warning.
John Burk, a manager with first-rate qualifications and more than ten years of professional experience at a Portland software developer, was suddenly downsized during a recent acquisition of his company. He saw the downsizing as a blessing and a curse. After experiencing the emotional feelings of loss, disappointment and anger from having the ten years of his life he had given to his company tossed aside, he soon came to the realization that it was time to stop wallowing in self pity and find a new job. He thought finding a new job would be easy. He figured he would land a new position quickly by surfing a few Internet job boards and sending out his résumé. After months of applying for open positions, he declared, “I never got a single interview from a posting on the net. Applying for all those jobs was a complete waste of my time.” His job search began to turn around when he realized that the missing element in his job search was the human factor.

Even though he had lived in Portland, he said, “I had almost no contacts, so I was relying on postings and ads to find out about available jobs. But by the time I saw the ad, so had hundreds of other people, and one of them was always just a little more qualified than I.”

So Burk set about rebuilding his network. He joined two networking groups made up of others who shared some of his personal interests and hobbies, and he began to meet new people. When he let his new friends know about his job search, his prospects improved immediately — he began to hear about jobs before they were advertised, and interviews started to materialize. When he finally did land a new job, it was the direct result of a referral.

You may not recognize what Burk did as business networking, but that’s exactly what it was. Many people think of business networking as circulating around a room and exchanging business cards. A broader view of business and social networking is that it creates a pool of contacts from which you can draw leads, referrals, ideas and information for your job search. You can network without ever attending an official business or social networking event, although attending events can be useful in networking.

I met Ariane through a business networking group called PdxMindshare, which meets monthly at a local Portland bar and grill. Ariane relocated from the East Coast and began networking throughout the Portland area with an interest in the software industry. She had exceptional Internet product marketing skills, and I had a client in need of the same skills and experience Ariane possessed. Introductions were made and she got the job. It was a great fit. She loves the culture, people and her ability to contribute to the success of her new company.

Others have found their next jobs as a result of working as a community volunteer. “I was volunteering at a local soup kitchen and I found myself flipping burgers side-by-side with an executive of a local internet company," Janell Cooper remembers. "He asked me if I had ever been involved in online marketing and when I said I had, he asked for my résumé. He forwarded it to the marketing director with his personal recommendation, and three weeks later I was hired as their online marketing manager.”

Networking Prepares You for a Career Crash

Building your network when you have a job is critical in today’s fast-paced environment. Your career network can and should contain current and former co-workers, alumni from college, a wide range of people in your industry, volunteer organizations, church members and personal friends. Making time for lunch or coffee with these people can be much more productive for a solid network than reading the want ads or surfing the Web when you don’t have a job. In fact, surveys consistently show that 80-85 percent of job seekers find work as the result of a referral from a friend or colleague, whereas only 2-4 percent land jobs from Internet job boards.

Bret Overbaugh, of Oregon State University, makes a good point about networking by saying, “I believe that there is value in networking far beyond the potential employment opportunity. A person can use their network to enhance their knowledge, create ties to others within the industry or outside of it, create potential customers, be informative.” Networking can also allow you to be a resource for others, including being a mentor to subordinates or people in related interest areas.

If you have fallen out of touch with people, don’t let that stop you from re-establishing contact. Everyone you speak to can be a network contact or a lead to someone you can help and someone who can help you. To spread your business and social networking net even wider, you will want to start making the acquaintance of new people as well. Every time you speak with friends or colleagues, ask them to suggest others you might speak to, and follow up on their referrals.

Todd Graves, chief technology officer at GE Security, adds, “Networking within your company is vitally important and should start the first day on the job. You never know when you will be able to use a co-worker’s assistance. Networking in your industry can provide benefits by giving you early warnings of industry trends, health of competitors and customers, availability of potential employees, while also providing the longer-term benefits of a ready-made network in the event you are looking for a job change. Many of the same benefits can be achieved by networking more broadly in your local community.”

Use Organized Events for Business Networking

Attending organized events may also play a role in your business networking and job search, since this can be an easy way to expand your business network quickly. Here are some popular choices for business and social networking events:

• Trade industry mixers

• Service clubs, such as Rotary, Kiwanis and Lions

• Trade and professional association meetings in your industry, including dinner/speaker events of industry-related topics

• Lectures, workshops, conferences and fundraisers hosted by educational institutions, community organizations and affinity groups

• Social, cultural and sporting events that include receptions or other mix-and-mingle time

• Private gatherings organized for the purpose of meeting new people and schmoozing

• Job clubs, such as The Breakfast Club and Job Finders Support Group

• Involvement in non-profit groups such as Friends of the Gorge, Bikers Associations, Young Republicans and Mercy Corp

You will have more success at this kind of business and social networking if you go back to the same groups over and over than if you keep going to new groups all the time. Find two or three that seem to have the right mix of people and keep going back.

Follow-up is the Key to Business Networking

If you don't follow up with the people you meet, you are wasting your time meeting them in the first place. You might think that once you have told someone what you do or what type of job you are looking for that they will call you if they hear of something. The truth is that if they have met you only once, they may not even remember you, and it's even less likely that they will remember where they put your number.

After meeting someone new, send them a “nice-to-meet-you” note and invite them to attend another event with you or make a date for coffee or lunch. Find out what the two of you have in common and see if there is an activity you could share.

Building relationships like this takes time and effort, but relationships are the core of networking. The people in your network should be people you truly enjoy interacting with, because if you’re doing it right, you’ll be spending a lot of time with them.

Don't limit yourself to just networking in your industry. Everyone is interconnected. Getting to know a pastor or Rabbi makes sense, even if you don't want a job in religion, because they know so many people. Waiters and hairdressers are often the first to hear about coming changes that lead to open positions. As long as you have your antennae out and listen, you can connect with anyone.

If you find yourself searching for a job, don’t expect business and social networking to be a quick fix; the payoff from your relationship-building can take time. You need to put in the effort to get to know people, and trust that you will see results from it. The best time to begin building your business and social network is while you are still employed. It is vital to your career that you continuously maintain your existing network — as well as expand it. When that fateful day comes that you receive the proverbial pink slip, you can easily transition into full-time networking mode to land your next position. You’ll be less stressed, more productive, and you will have shortened the gap between losing a job and contributing to a new company.

Larry Shepard, a vice president in the call center industry says: “Networking should never cease. Having gone through several instances of downsizing and not networking prior to this, it makes it more difficult to start over. You lose sight of your previous contacts and then have to track them down. In addition, if you continue to keep your contacts active, I think they are more willing to help you. They realize their friendship is not just for your benefit. Stay active in the networking groups you belong to, whether employed or not. Also, continue to be involved in volunteering, which will help to develop new contacts. As we know, the business world is constantly changing and we do not know when we will be in the job market again.”

10 Tips to “Back Up” Your Career

1. Keep your résumé current and updated.
    

2. Network, network, network — continuously meet people in your industry.
    

3. Make a point to attend at least one industry networking event per month, such as The Software Association of Oregon or the American Marketing Association. Other options are networking groups such as pdxMindshare [www.pdxmindshare.com] and Welldiggers, as well as Special Interest Groups (SIGs) within trade associations. A complete list of networking events can be found on “Doug’s List.” If you don’t have a copy of “Doug’s List,” contact me and I’ll send you a copy.
    

4. Join professional networks such as LinkedIn [www.linkedin.com], where you can post your professional profile and background. The site provides a great place to position yourself as a professional, and a great place to network with other like-minded professionals. I was amazed to see how many engineers use LinkedIn to find and connect with other engineers for collaborative projects.
    

5. Join a social network such as the Software Association of Oregon Social Network [http://softwareassociationoforegon.ning.com]. Not only can you network with more than 1,200 software-related people, you can also receive instant information on upcoming area technology events to increase your skills. Social networks exist for just about every industry and specialty now. Find yours at www.ning.com.
    

6. Twitter [www.twitter.com] is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users (affectionately known as twits) to send updates (known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length. Twittering is another great way to meet industry people. To learn more about Twitter, including instructions, go to http://twitteriod.com/blog/.
    

7. Get involved with your industry Special Interest Groups (SIGS), such as pdxphp group, product marketing SIG, java developers group, CIO SIG, engineering SIG, sales and marketing SIG. Not only do SIGS allow you to share your expertise, they also allow you to meet more people — an invaluable asset if you suddenly find yourself a professional “free agent.”
    

8. Get involved with your industry trade association. Consider joining the board.
    

9. Follow blogs to keep abreast of what is going on in your industry. In the Portland software industry, for example, blogs such as Silicon Florist, Silicon Forest, and Technical Headhunter.com provide news and insights from the Portland technology scene.
    

10. Take a headhunter’s call and refer others to them. In effect, network with good headhunters. They will remember you and return the favor when you call looking for a new situation. The worst time to start a relationship with a headhunter is when you are unemployed, so find one you like while you have a job, and keep in contact with him or her.

Jan Simpson, Director at Sun Microsystems, shares this advice: “Networking isn't seasonal, it isn't sometimes, it isn't whenever I need them, it is everyday. You build better and deeper relationships within your network and you add to your network everyday. Everyday I wake up and I figure out which four people I am going to help in my network. I decide who I need to follow up with and I ensure I get those things done. EVERYDAY — I do this — everyday.” She summarizes, “Your network is your bloodline — it is your life. Ignore it and it will die. Abuse it and it will die. Feed it and it will grow.”

Most of us spend more time preparing for a computer crash by backing up our hard drive than we do preparing for a career crash. Both are inevitable. If you prepare for a career crash now, not only will you have a little fun and make new friends and acquaintances, your next career crash will be less traumatic and you’ll be up in running again in no time.

Gary Perman is a certified recruiting professional and a twelve-year veteran in the recruiting industry. He owns PermanTech, specializing in recruiting technology executives, managers and engineers. PermanTech was recently ranked among the top 7 Executive Search Firms in Washington by CEO Magazine. Gary is also a member of the SAO and IEEE, and hosts a technology blog at www.technicalheadhunter.com. Contact Gary at gary@permantech.com or visit his LinkedIn profile at www.linkedin.com/in/perman or his Web site at www.permantech.com. Comments may be submitted to todaysengineer@ieee.org.