Finished That Chapter, Starting a New One
If you haven’t heard by now, I did land a new position with a great company. I’m not going launch into the job, the company, etc. in this post. Some things are still not 100% final. But since I haven’t posted here in a very long time, and since I anticipate that my future blog writings will likely come from a different site, I did want to talk about what I experienced in this chapter. And how it finally came to a close.
I got the word that I was ‘being affected by the downsize’ in early May, 2009. I immediately jumped into a full time job search within HP. I spent 6 solid weeks applying, sending emails, interviewing and stalking old managers for help. But it didn’t go anywhere. Had I been willing to move to the Bay Area, I probably would have found a job at HP. But that’s not something I could do.
By early July, I knew HP wasn’t going to pan out for me. I had had some interviews with one other company external to HP and those were continuing, but I hadn’t done a lot of networking or looking outside of HP, so it was time to shift gears. However, since we had a big trip to the desert southwest planned – I decided to take most of July off and pick up the job search in August.
We had a wonderful time.
Grand Canyon
Santa Fe
Points in between
In addition to the southwest trip, we went to Tahoe a few times, we went to Pismo Beach and Santa Barbara, and visited our favorite place in the world – Lakes Basin north of Truckee. It was a great time.
But then I got to work. I took advantage of all the services of Lee Hecht Harrison – the awesome outplacement firm/service that HP provided. I took PMP courses online for free, I joined a job search ‘support group’, I worked on my resume, my summary, my cover letters, my list of target companies. And I networked like crazy. Here’s what I did:
1) Contact everyone I could track down that I knew here in the area and tried to have a face to face meeting
2) I used LinkedIn like crazy. I could use it from the ‘Company A has a posting do I know anyone there” point of view. I could use it from the “I want to work at Company B – do I know anyone or does anyone I know know someone there.” Or I could use it from the “where do my friends’ friends work? Are there any cool opportunities there?” People in LinkedIn – sometimes total strangers – were all VERY helpful. The key is to be able to tell them specifically how they can help. More on that below. I also signed up for JobAngels and other groups relevant to my background where jobs were often posted.
3) I stayed in touch with people who had tried to help. As the months wore on, I reconnected and check back in with people periodically.
You can’t just ask people if they know of any jobs – most people don’t. What you need to is ask people if they know any one in your target companies, if they know any other companies you should look at, and if you have found an opportunity – ask people if they have any contacts that might help you. Help comes from odd places. I had one great job opportunity come from a friend at my gym. Church was a good source of ideas too. My sister’s neighbors were helpful. I mean, you have to tell every man, woman, child, dog – whoever you come in contact with that you are looking for a job.
But many people don’t understand what I do or what I would be looking for – so you really need to have your ‘elevator statement’ down – a quick blurb to explain to people what you do.
At the end of the day, I calculate:
I talked to over 20 people face-to-face
I talked to 15 recruiters
I networked with over 200 people – email, LinkedIn, Facebook and twitter
I had close to 20 interviews
At the end of the day, one contact with a supplier that I hired at HP led to a job. A contact in June, led to a possibility in August, which led to an interview in October, which led to an offer on Christmas Eve, which led to a late January start date.
I need to keep writing. I enjoy it and it has served me well. Once I start my job, I’ll write another post. Maybe by then I’ll decide the fate of my blogging future.
Godspeed to all.
