We have a good-natured competition going on at Harper's Career Stimulus Program. Our Director--or I should say our Dean -- Nancy Wajler has decided to up the number of her contacts in LinkedIn. One of Nancy’s strengths is competition and this is a perfect area to compete in. Very easy to measure and compare the number of our connections.
Whether you have 150 LinkedIn connections or 250 or 500 or over 600 like Nancy, the next questions is, what do you do with them once you get them? Nancy is a LION a “LinkedIn Open Networker.” She sees value in networking or connecting with everyone knowing that at sometime those connections can be utilized to help someone or to connect to someone else who can help her or someone she is connected to.
While I’m not truly a LION, I have many connections, and I will connect with most everyone as long as I know how I may help them and they know how I they can be of assistance to me. If I’ve never met a person asking to connect to me, I’ll invite them to a 15 to 30 minute meeting or a phone conversation if they are not local. There I find out about them and they learn about me. After all, networking is about relationships.
Sales professionals have an old adage that goes something like this, “Sales is a numbers game.” When I meet a new client, one of the first things I ask them to do is develop a list of contacts. I suggest they start with a list of 150 names. Often I receive a groan of protest, “I don’t know that many people!” they tell me. Some of my clients are on LinkedIn and they say, “Can I start with my LinkedIn contacts?” What’s the difference? LinkedIn has demonstrated to people the power of connecting. Being connected to people gives you a means to finding a solution to a problem.
Lets say you need to talk to (network with) 15 people in order to meet with one hiring manager or decision maker. Now let’s say you need to talk to at least 10 decision makers in order to get one job offer. The more people you’re connected to the better your chances of landing the next job. But wait!!!! It’s not just about being connected: you need to talk to these folks. Call them up and ask for a meeting so that you can describe what you have to offer them. So you can ask them who else they know who you can talk to.
I was speaking to a group of job seekers the other day and I offered them a prophetic statement that someday down the road they’d all have jobs and there would be no more unemployment and then I’d be out of work. There was loud discord from the group, a collective, “Yea, Right! What are you smoking?”
I understand the group’s reaction; the news about the economy is so dark and dismal, how could I express anything so silly as a world without unemployment? Even a rate of 4% is next to impossible to envision. Yet, there was one person back in the far corner said, “No, you’ll still have work; folks will need someone to help them grow in their career beyond their new job.”
This person had hope. There are people out there who realize that “Yes, we can” is more than a campaign slogan and that we live in a world were anything is possible, but, and this is a big but, nothing will happen without the expectation that it will happen. Having hope is having an expectation that something will change, something will be different, something will be better.
Often when we are suffering from some tragedy or trauma, like a mass layoff resulting in job loss, someone comes along an--whether out of ignorance or a total lack of tact--says something trite. “Buck up, Charlie, you’ll have a job in no time.” Or “Sorry to hear that you’re unemployed, I wish I could help but we’re not hiring at my company.” Recently a 45 year-old Electrical Engineer told me that after two months in job search someone said to him, “Hey, they’re hiring at the Seven-11.”
Folks going through job transition often report that after the first weeks of not having a job that they feel they’ve been tainted. People feel isolated, like they caught a communicable disease or something. Then when they’re feeling the pressure of the job search someone says, “Anyone who really wants a job can get one.” Or “Those people who have been unemployed for over a year are lazy...”
Corporate America is sitting on a bunch of money; some estimates go as high as a Trillion Dollars (that’s 1012 or $1,000,000,000,000.00). Companies across the country are running lean and mean and people with jobs report fatigue and frustration with the amount of work they have to do, and that the pressure is building. They report that the unemployment rate is as stressful on their lives as for those unemployed, maybe more. (My clients find this hard to believe.) But, the pressure is real and something has to give. Everyone is waiting for the shoe to drop.
Let’s have the hope, the expectation that companies will start hiring, slowly at first, then with greater urgency and gusto. Let’s have the expectation that consumers will begin to consume more and consume more wisely. Then, folks will then be able to pay off their debt and even start saving. And then, there will be no more unemployment and I’ll be working only with folks looking to grow in their career. Let’s have hope!
I was reading a book the other night and the author quoted Proverbs 29:18 and in his translation it stated: “Where there is no vision, the people perish...”
Now that got me thinking about my clients and career growth. Many of my clients come to me with a vague sense that something is wrong in their life. There is a gap or a hole that is difficult to identify or is producing an anxiety. They report that everything is “okay” but that the joy, pride or excitement they once had in their career is no longer there.
I’ve come to believe that many of us are suffering from a lack of vision. The loss of context to our lives. Many of us work to meet a need, achieve a goal of one type or another. Often these goals are born out of our core values. Say “Family” is a core value in your life and providing for your family is a principle goal... once the family is grown and on their own the reason for working so hard on the job is no longer there.
In a job search, if the job seeker doesn’t have a compelling reason for landing a job, it is difficult to motivate himself. He wakes up in the morning knowing that he has to look for work, but there is no drive, no plan, no vision. Alas the job search falters and the people perish.
Of course there are many other reasons why someone struggles in a job search or moving forward in a career... fear of rejection chief among them. Yet, without a clear vision and definite goals with timelines the person stands still. Whether a career has grown stagnant or the rug was pulled out from under you with a layoff, you’re most likely missing a goal and vision of your future.
Even a person who doesn’t like to plan needs to know where they are going, needs a vision of their life actualized. I think of Chevy Chase in “Caddyshack” when he’s advising one of the movie’s characters about life, “I'm going to give you a little advice. There's a force in the universe that makes things happen. And all you have to do is get in touch with it, stop thinking, let things happen, and be the ball... Be the ball Danny...”
Maybe Chevy Chase’s character isn’t a good example of a Career Coach, indeed he’s not. Still we all need to be in touch with our values and have a vision that is in alignment with our values. This isn’t as easy as it sounds. But with some willingness to look deeply into yourself, working with a coach or a mentor, your career and your job search can be meaningful and filled with passion, enjoyment and excitement. With a vision, you’ll not perish and will find that hole, that emptiness filled.
In our Career Stimulus Program at Harper College we offer sessions on dealing with stress. Also through the college, WIA (The Workforce Investment Act) offers job seekers basic job skills training and they also offer training on dealing with stress during job transition. With all the stress in the world today more and more folks should avail themselves of the opportunity to attend stress reduction workshops.
Scientists, doctors and medical researchers tell us that stress is a killer. In the least severe cases, stress exacerbates conditions ranging from high blood pressure to gum disease. At a business level it adds to loss in productivity and quality. Stress on the job causes pressures resulting in all kinds of interpersonal issues. Stress may also have added to the problems between the President and the Speaker of the House over the President’s Jobs Speech after Labor Day. (Or that could have been nastiness and stupidity.)
Regardless of where you sit on the debate between the kickoff of the NFL season, televised Republican Presidential Debates and a Presidential Speech addressing the number one issue facing every working American, stress is a reality for every human being, especially those looking for their next job. It must be dealt with. One would be hard pressed to list all the different manifestations of stress facing America’s unemployed. The BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics) reported for August that 9.1% or 14,000,000 people were unemployed in America. Of those, 6 million are considered long term unemployed (27+ weeks). This doesn’t count the 2.6 million people considered marginal or discouraged workers. That is almost 17 million people with stress, anxiety, and a host of emotional issues affecting our communities, cities, states and country.
Just to paint the picture even more pragmatically, there are countless millions of folks that have jobs, but are sitting on pins and needles in fear of losing those jobs. 0.4 million people became “involuntary part-time workers” due to economic reasons in August. Economic reasons are defined here as due to hours being cut or the inability for find full-time work. Stress in America is probably best experienced on the morning and afternoon commute throughout America. As I drive to work, I’m amazed that there aren’t thousands more accidents each and every day.
Enough of the realities, what can we do about it? Love and laugh more. Love your family more, focus on what they represent to you. Love yourself more; last week we talked about this. Change your self-talk. Change the way you think about yourself. How do you do that? Laugh more, seriously... it is nearly impossible to laugh for 15 seconds and be stressed. In fact, the effects of 15 seconds of good ‘ol belly laughing will in fact last as long as an hour or more. How do you laugh? The easy way is humor, jokes and comedy. I love watching stand-up comedy. Ellen Degeneres cracks me up. Bill Cosby is a very funny fellow. The Daily Show or Jay Leno make people who can stay up that late laugh. Jokes.com and jokeoftheday.com are great Internet sites that make my friend Conor Cunneen laugh. He even recommends going to these sites just prior to a phone interview, “...it keeps a smile on your face, Tommy me lad,” he says to me.
So this post all comes down to this: “Squash Stress, Laugh!”
