Dear Liz, I got laid off in October and job-hunted actively through the rest of 2013. Im an Accountant with a public accounting background who is open to either public accounting or client side work. I got zero interviews in 2013. I havent been freaking out up until this point but with exactly no requests for interviews after sending out at least forty resumes, Im starting to wonder whether I will ever get a new job. This is ridiculous, because Im 38 and had a great career at my old firm. Im thinking that I should step down my aspirations at least for now, especially since my wife and I dont have a lot in savings and we have two kids, ages ten and eight. We havent changed much in our spending pattern so far because we didnt want to alarm the kids. I am looking at everything, from entry-level jobs to temp agencies, because Im sick of sitting at my desk sending resumes into the void and also starting to feel frantic about money. When do I switch out of my search for my traditional position and just take any job? And God forbid, what if those guys wont hire me? What do I do then? Thanks so much for your help and inspiration Liz! I can tell you Id be in much worse shape right now if it werent for your motivating stories and podcasts. Our dog is also called Mojo, like yours! Thanks, Sean Dear Sean, Im sorry youre in such a frustrating spot. Its horrible to have that rug pulled out from under you, and then another horror to begin a traditional job search and hear nothing but echoes coming back at you. Lets break down your questions and tackle them one by one. The worst part of a job search in my experience is the powerlessness we feel. Youre sitting at your computer, researching firms and sending out resumes, and absolutely nothing is happening. Youre thinking What else can I do? Am I invisible? There are lots of things you can do, not only to put more irons into the fire job-search-wise but also to lower your monthly burn rate while your household income is reduced. Well get to those action items in a second. I would definitely talk with your kids about your job hunt. Kids are smart. They already know Daddy is upset and Moms probably not her chipper self all the time either. Kids want to know, and they want to help. Talk with your wife about how to get the kids involved. You can sit down with the kids and help them understand that your family spends so much money on certain things every month, and that if the kids can help you and your wife figure out where to save money, it will make a big difference. Thats empowerment. The kids will get into it. Its wonderful to have a kid say Dad, I saw this new Lego on TV, but its expensive and so I dont need it. I can wait. They want to be part of the solution. Let them! I saw a documentary about Amish families, and the little kids a year and two years old were helping with chores. They know their job in the family. Its always been that way in human families, right up until some genius decided that kids are supposed to be protected from the real world that they feel in their bodies anyway, and kept out of grown-up economic issues. Thats insanity. Get the kids involved. It will help them, your wife and you for your family to be one super-charged problem-solving unit! As for the survival job, theres no Either/Or. You can have more than one prong in your job-search strategy and its never a bad idea to do that. That being said, there is a lot of ground to cover between your traditional accounting positions and a ten-dollar-an-hour position at your local superstore. As an accountant you know that there are jobs it wouldnt serve you to take, because the opportunity cost is too high. The other things you could be doing with your time -- including more high-impact job-search activity than pitching resumes into Black Holes -- are likely to be more productive than a survival job. So, you have to look at your savings and do some projections -- send them to us and well share them with our readers, many of whom are asking the same questions you are! Look at what youve got in savings and in IRA or 401(k) accounts, not that you want to tap those but that day might come, survival job or no, and youve got to know what that landscape looks like. With the kids and without them, look at your monthly expenses with a critical eye. Im not a fan of keeping up appearances. If its practical and economically smart to shift your living situation, why not? You might find a great place to live that costs one-third less than where youre living now, and find that you like the new neighborhood better. My Buddhist friends tell me everything happens for a reason. I dont want you tossing and turning at night if you could lower your monthly spend and take some pressure off your job search. If you do take a survival job, keep the career job search going full steam. That means youll need to budget your time as carefully as your money. Sign up with every temporary and project-based Accounting firm in your city. Get a business card at Vistaprint or any office supply store and start taking on accounting clients. Its tax time! You should be able to make good money doing taxes for your friends and neighbors. Do accounting for churches and preschools, or anyone else you can find. Get out there. A job search today is a contact sport. Dont sit at your computer throwing resumes into the Black Hole where their atoms will be shredded and sent through a wormhole into an alternate universe. You are too smart and sparky for that! On the career-job-hunt front, forget the wan Black Hole activity and start sending Pain Letters directly to your selected hiring managers. Every organization has a CFO - that makes your job easier! Read up on Pain Letters, Human-Voiced Resumes and the STOP! Dont Send that Resume process, which is a way to avoid the Black Hole to reach hiring managers directly. You are awesome and powerful, Sean, even if you dont feel that way right now. Your mojo and muscles will come back, and you can take an active part in making that happen. Do what makes you happy while youre in this reinvention mode. Play with the kids and ride your bike. Your flame is the fuel for your job search. When you feel that you have something valuable to offer an employer, they will feel it too. When you feel beaten down and disposable -- and we have all been there! -- that energy will radiate from you. Growing your mojo is the most important thing you can do on your job search or, for that matter, at any time. I hope Ive given you some alternatives to your plan of applying for an entry-level job, but lets say that you do apply for a job at Target and lets say they dont hire you. Is that the final confirmation that you suck? Of course not. I wouldnt advise Target to hire you as a cashier, floor person or cart attendant because youve got Accountant in reinvention written all over you. It costs them money to train a new person, and we cant expect them to hire every dislocated office worker and keep them on for a few months while the dislocatee puts his or her next career job plan together.
Posted on: Sun, 09 Feb 2014 05:50:14 +0000