OCM and Landing That Next Big Job

Confident, and competent. I don’t know what I can do to try to reinforce it more than that: Confident and Competent!

OCM (Outplacement Counseling for Management) consultant Don Martin animatedly paced the floor, talking with his hands, his middle-aged face the picture of wisdom and experience in human resources.

“You’re going to get a job. Just get past that thought that you’re not right now. Every person in this room is going to have a job soon! I have this little paper,” he said as he held up an 8.5 x 11 inch photocopy, “that describes the phases we go through in handling stress.

“We go through phases in dealing with job loss, similar to that of death or other personal disasters: first is disbelief. I can’t believe this is happening to me, we say, it’s not happening. Next is bargaining: Excuse me, boss, look, how about I accept a cut in pay? I mean, can we make a deal here?. Then comes the part we really like:

“Anger.

“Oh, yeah, we like to get angry. That dirty so-and-so, how could he do this to me? I do not deserve this! I’m gonna soak this company for everything I can.

Then, there’s grief and depression. I sincerely hope none of you are stuck there, but if you are, I say: get out. Get on to the next phase: acceptance. Move on. Realize you’re not going to change what is, but you can change who you are.”

Thus began my oddysey into the world of finding my next job. I’ve spent the last two days at OCM’s Salt Lake office, learning how to approach my next resume, interview, and ongoing job effort with a positive attitude and the tools to make it happen. I think it will really make a difference in my prospects. I’ve recently been overwhelmed by an absolutely crushing sense of inadequacy — the thoughts that I just didn’t have what it took in my career field, that I could not possibly find another job that paid what I wanted doing what I do in my career field. I realized at the moment Don reiterated the stages of personal stress that I was deep in the throes of grief and depression over my loss, and only one person had the ability to get me out of it:

Me.

So, once I realized that I was deeply in a funk, I got out of it. Simple as that. I could feel it trying to creep up on me again as we went through creating our thirty-second summaries and today roleplaying interviews… I fought it off by reminding myself that, despite having eight jobs in nine years, I am a success, and that riding the crest of the dot-com wave I should have expected short-term gigs. I guess I did, in a way, but now looking at my resume, even though I know I can market it as having a “breadth of experience”, it just feels like a string of failures.

Anyway, key concepts from the course include:

1. Prepare a 30-second summary that you are ready to give anywhere, anytime, detailing:
   • Your name
   • Years of relevant experience
   • Most recent job title
   • A brief, one-liner story that will make you memorable
   • Education
   • 2 best qualities, such as honesty and being a team player

   You may not think that’s hard to fit into 30 seconds, but it is *hard* to make it that short.

2. Figure out how to create defensible numbers for your achievements
3. Writing concise resumes that are effective ads for what you want
4. Researching companies before the interview
5. Effective interview techniques, such as:
   • Knowing the “dirty dozen” vague questions interviewers ask and figuring out how to respond to them
   • Asking good questions
   • Gaining confidence in the interview process
   • Adequately conveying your desire to have the job
6. Identifying ways to get interviews:
   • 5-10% from advertising
   • 10-15% from Internet
   • 10-15% from cold calling
   • 10-15% from agencies
   • The vast majority from networking.

Great quote:

Kevin: “Unemployment Checks are ‘Plan E’!”.

There’s more, but I’ve run out of time for now to keep this updated. Succinctly: if you run a business, you really *need* to have your outgoing employees have some service like OCM to help them in their transition.