The Three C's

You would think that since I had known for three months that my job might be going away, I would have been better prepared. You might even think that given my lengthy service (14 years) in the retail industry, I would have been in demand. You are wrong! I naively began the “in transition” phase of my life totally unprepared!

• I could not articulate my value proposition.
• I had a ridiculously small and weak network.
• I did not know how to interview.
• I had even underestimated the difficulty that the recession of 2009 would pose for any and all IT executives in transition.
• Simply put – I was in over my head!

Not wanting to throw in the towel, I chose to knuckle down. I:

• I met with my personal outplacement coach. Forty-five seconds into my first practice interview, I held up my hands to signal “time out.” I told him: “That is one of the worst answers that I have ever heard to a ridiculously easy question. I obviously need help in learning how to interview.”

• I joined several support groups. By the time I had met with each of the three groups, three times, I found myself hearing the same advice and same counsel.
• I re-wrote my resume multiple times only to have another “expert” re-write the resume again.
• I made a list of every person in my network. It took me about two weeks to burn through that list.
• I posted for over a hundred jobs only to hear back in writing from three.
• I read everything that had been written on being “in transition.” The information proved to be confusing and contradictory.

It was then, that I threw up my hands. Nothing was working! Worse, I was scared.

You may challenge that conclusion given that I was only sixty days removed from my job of the previous fourteen years. You may chastise me for being impatient. But what you don’t know is that sixty days into this new phase of my life, I was directionless and clueless. I was merely running around with my head cut off – applying for every job that even remotely looked like me, uncertain of which version of my resume I had submitted, and meeting with people who had great intentions but no idea how to help me. I desperately needed to recalibrate!