🆘 career crisis

✍🏽 What advice would you give to professionals who are potentially facing job loss, due to the new administration’s policies, that have been in their current position for 10+ years? What will the process look like for gaining new employment and how have things changed since we did it last?

Context: My colleagues and I are in a grant-funded, social service/education field where our positions won’t exist anywhere if the funding goes away and will potentially need to figure out how to apply skills to a completely different market. Personally, I have been with my agency since I graduated college and have never worked, professionally, anywhere else.

📣 Brittany Kumiega, Human Resource Manager @ Switchcraft:

I’m so sorry to hear this and I don’t want to be all doom and gloom, but it will be difficult to find another job. I was laid off after 10 years with a company with 20 years experience in HR, Master’s in HR, 2 HR certifications and it still took me 6 months of hitting the job search hard before I got a position and that was 2 years ago. It’s even crazier now.

My suggestion as a recruiter is first use your network, referrals are going to be your best bet to getting a job anywhere. Talk to anyone and everyone that will listen to you, is your friend’s husband’s company hiring, can he give your info to their HR/Recruiter? Chat with people at your gym – are their companies hiring? When you’re having these conversations speak positively about your situation, you are looking at this as a chance to learn a new profession/industry, etc.

Then, when you are applying into the online void of applications, I always say pretend like recruiters are very dumb. Spell things out for them in the first half of the page and make it easy. We look at SO many resumes, we need to be able to look at a resume in 5 seconds and decide if it’s a good fit. In your top summary, right under your name, put your skills that would match the job you are applying for. If you have those same skills down in the bullet points of your last job, bold them so the recruiters eye goes there. We are looking for a match between the job description and a resume, so the easier you make that for us, the more calls you’ll get.

Also, talk with staffing firms, they may have temporary gigs that they can send you on where you can use those skills you have but in different areas of business or different industries. Sometimes what starts out temporary can become a full time position too. Once companies see what an amazing employee you are, they won’t want to lose you.

Also, make sure to take care of yourself during this time. This is a hard transition and you may experience grief and loss of the life you had for all those years. Get up, shower, and get dressed before sitting down to apply to jobs all day. Talk to a therapist, go do your workouts, get outside in the sunshine, meditate, or do whatever self care helps you to recenter.

Hopefully this will help you!

📣 Becks Klump, Talent Acquisition Partner @ ADM:

I’m sorry you’re going through this. I’ve been working with more and more candidates who are being impacted, and I’m approaching each situation with empathy, knowing that many are navigating the job market for the first time in a long while.

First, absolutely use your network to your advantage. I was laid off a year ago, and my network was what helped me land a new role in this intense job market. Build out a solid LinkedIn profile that highlights your transferable skills, and connect with the people you know and have worked with in any capacity. When the time feels right, share that you’re looking; it helps get your name in front of people who are hiring or know someone who is.

Next, start documenting what you’re doing in your current role: how many accounts/schools/people you’re responsible for, and which tools or programs you’re using. I know it can feel like a time-suck, but it’ll pay off. You’ll use that information to tailor your resume to each job you apply for. For example, if a job description says, “Strong documentation and organizational skills,” your resume should include something like, “Documented and organized education budgets for # students across # school districts.”

Finally, give yourself grace. If you’re applying and interviewing but nothing’s landing yet – don’t beat yourself up. Make time for family, friends, and self-care that isn’t tied to job searching or overanalyzing every interview moment. It’s tough out there, and you’ve got to take care of yourself. I’m rooting for you!

 📣 Cassandra Schaffa, Director of People @ Mixlab, Inc:

When it comes to interviewing, I cannot stress enough how important it is to practice and prepare.

Practice discussing your experience and skills in a concise but detailed manner. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve walked away from interviewing a candidate disappointed because the candidate had all the right experience on paper but completely bombed the interview. I often see candidates who have been out of the market for a long time make the following mistakes:

• They’re too long winded – Prepare by comparing your experience to the job description and consider what are the key skills and accomplishments that are most relevant and that give insight to your ability to do the job. Focus on those to avoid going off in irrelevant tangents
• They fail to speak confidently about their experience, skills and accomplishments – Make sure you sound like you know what you’re talking about. Your resume already says what you did, be prepared to give some context as to how your skills and expertise supported what you did
• They don’t prepare real world examples – Consider the job you’re interviewing for and anticipate what examples you may be asked to provide. This is a big one for me – If I’m asking you to “Tell me about a time when…” I don’t want the response to be generalized hypotheticals. For example, if I’m interviewing for a manager position, I will always ask for an example of a time when they’ve had an underperformer on their team and how they dealt with it. I would say less than 20% of candidates give me a real world example.

Wishing you all the best!!!

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✍🏽 How can my HR team support me as a mid-level supervisor? My manager requires all decisions to pass through him prior to implementation. I’ve been a supervisor for him now for 15 years and with the company for 23.

Context: I feel suffocated! My team of 10 professional clinical dietitians are in a hospital food and nutrition department. We are the only professionals in our department. I was hired to represent the clinical side of nutrition as our manager is not a dietitian. I feel I have multiple manager responsibilities yet need to have clearance from my manager for communication in any form with other departments within the hospital. Is this a situation I could present to my HR department? If so, would this case be brought to my manager and would he know I questioned his micromanagement? I don’t want to affect my career and job security.

📣 Stephen Miller, People Engagement Consultant @ Insight Employee Development:

 I would frame your discussion as positive for the business and then ask him how you achieve it.

“I’d love for us to be more agile with more expertise for the business, and I’d be proud to move extra burden off your plate. Right now, I noticed every single decision has to go to you before we actually take action. What do we need to do to be more agile but keep you informed? Which decisions or actions can I take with your confidence?”

Then let him talk.

If you need help with skills transfer from him to you, reach out. I have a really easy method.

📣 Tiffany Mackey, Director, HR Development & Training @ Catholic Charities of Denver:

I think it would also be helpful for your manager to see the impact of having every decision go through them as well. Have some specific examples to share and solutions/thought process to how you got to your conclusions/analysis.

I would also let them tell you the ‘why’ behind why they are requiring this as well to open up that communication channel.

I would first start there, if it isn’t getting anywhere, I would follow your chain of command for next steps (for us we would encourage the employee to go to the next level of manager before HR).

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