Blog Post: Adapt, Change, Grow and Get Employed!

 I am writing to offer you hope in the wake of Friday’s unemployment figures.  Do not panic.  There are still plenty of good jobs out there.  They are harder to find and more difficult to get, but they are there.

These jobs are obtained by proactive networking and who you know.  You are going to need help to get these jobs from everyone you know.  This is a time for everyone to pull together and work together so that few are unemployed.

You might have to take a salary cut for a while, or get creative in how you’re paid.  You might not get the benefits you’re used to, or the title you’re used to.  You will have to leave no stone unturned.  Especially younger folks might have to change some attitudes about the workplace and employers.  You might have to change your hair, your makeup, your attire.  In other words, you might have to change and adapt to survive.  This, I’m afraid, is evolution in action.  You adapt or starve.  It doesn’t get much more real than this.

If you aren’t willing to grow, change or adapt, you are likely to remain unemployed for a very long time…and, as I think that things in America will never again be the same as they were before, you might never work again.  But you will work rapidly again if you are willing to be flexible, adapt and change.  Here’s how I know this.

My clients, who are some the least easily employable people in the country — top executives, mostly in their late 30’s and up, and some as old as 70 — are getting rapidly employed.  It isn’t that they’re a select group of people.  Many of them were out for a year or more before coming to our Practice.  But they are getting employed in a period of a few weeks to a few short months.  The only ones who “hang around” the Practice unemployed are those who don’t do what we tell them to do, argue with us, or refuse to adapt, grow or change.  So it isn’t that our Practice is magic, or even the many contacts we have.  It is them.  If they’re willing to adapt, grow and change, they get employed…and quickly.  If they don’t, they don’t.

The only thing we provide (other than a great network) is the know-how and my very large size 12 6E shoe on their butt to get them to adapt, grow and change.  That’s it.  No magic.  No “exclusive lists.”  No “we do the work you get the job.”  They work plenty hard, as change is the hardest work someone can do.

Here’s how to get a job in this time.

1).  Network, network and network some more.  Don’t sit on your butt and watch daytime TV.  Get out and do things.  Meet people.

2).  Get help if you need it.  There are several very good career coaching firms in Denver Metro.  There are plenty of sleazy ones, too.  Make sure that you get involved with a good one with a sterling reputation.  Don’t get ripped off.  Do your due diligence.  Don’t believe everything that is said if it is bad, but check it out.

3).  Don’t get people angry.  Be nice to people.  Answer their calls.  Call them back.  Be nice.

4).  Be careful with LinkedIn.  Don’t ever say “I don’t know” someone who sends you a LinkedIn invitation.  This is a major error.  Oh…and feel free to invite me to LinkedIn at jheckers@heckersdevgroup.com.  Then work my network.  Also, check out my website, www.heckersdevgroup.com, for lots of free stuff and networking venues.  Write me if you want a free résumé guide.   It won’t help blue collar folks or admin types, but it will help management, professional and technical workers.

5).  Don’t be suspicious.  We got in the mess we’re in because of greed, suspicion and fear.  For years the government has been mongering fear and pulling people apart.  Certain elements in the government are still trying to do that.  Don’t fall for it.  This is the way we got in this mess.  To get out, we’re going to have to start to trust and help each other, not look at everyone as a terrorist or an enemy anymore.  If someone offers to help, let them.  Of course, if their help involves paying something, do your due diligence.  But don’t assume that people are out to hurt you.  Most people are good and loving people who just want to help.  Let them!

6).  Be flexible.  Be flexible on everything possible.  Salary.  Title.  Location.  Bonuses.  Etc.  A recruiter friend of mine told me the other day that an IT executive who had been out of work for seven months turned down a good offer because it was the same as his previous salary and he couldn’t see moving for that.  What?!?!?  Stupidity!  Be flexible.  This isn’t 1999.   It isn’t even 2004.  This is a different time.

7).  Be courteous to everyone, regardless of position.  This attitude is essential if America is ever going to be a different place than it is now…and few people are happy with the direction it took over the last few years.  We need to get back to an America where custodians were called “sir,” and waitresses “m’am,” and a man or woman who worked hard was worthy of respect and courtesy regardless of title or position.  We have stratified this country far too much and taken it from its roots.  If you want to be employed again, be courteous to everyone in every position.  It is not only good business, it is morally right.

8).  Be conscious.  Get the media stuff out of your mind.  Vision yourself in your perfect position.  Vision money flowing in.  Our clients who allow us to teach them to vision their perfect position and money coming in get almost instantly employed.  Those who think this is a bunch of hooey…don’t.  You create a goodly portion of your own reality.  What reality are you currently creating?  (For more on this go to http://spiritualmastery.blogspot.com, and read my recent posts on creating jobs.  I hope many of you do, because I give in-depth Spiritual job search advice they probably won’t let me give here.)

9).  Be proactive.  Don’t wait for someone to rescue you.  It is time to get aggressive and rescue yourself.

10).  Don’t be a victim.  Look, I’ve got loads of disabilities.  Yet I have made a very good life for myself, even though my docs didn’t expect me to live out my first year.  I just celebrated by 53 rd birthday last week…and still intend to die by being shot at the age of 112 by an insanely jealous husband!   Everyone has something.  I’m tired of hearing about “ageism,” or “racism,” or “abilityism,” or “sexism,” or “sizeism,: etc.  All these things exist.  So what?  Get over it and get employed.  You aren’t a victim.  If an employer doesn’t like you because you’re “differently abled,” as I am, or because of the color of your skin, or because you’re an old so and so like I am…too bad…their loss.  Get over it and get on with it.  Stop crying in your beer and say “next!:

These are the things that will get you employed.  You are very employable.  And there are plenty of jobs….for you.  And, look, it only takes one good job.

Above all…keep your chin up.  You will get employed.  And soon.  If you want to call me to talk, call.  I’ll listen and help if I can.  It might be a couple of weeks before I can talk to you, as I’m very busy now.  But I’ll do what I can.  And others will help, too.

Best of luck to you, and ignore the doomsayers and media pundits.  Remember, they make their money on doom and gloom.  You make your money on hope and joy.

J.

John Heckers, MA, CPC , BCPC, is an executive career and transition coach in Cherry Creek with over 28 years of experience.  He welcomes your contact at jheckers@heckersdevgroup.com.  Read his other blog at http://employmentskills.blogspot.com.  www.heckersdevgroup.com (flash site) or www.heckersdevelopmentgroup.com (HTML site).