Being prepared for a job search

I recently ran into an individual who had been laid off. This was his third time. He’d been in banking in branch management, and when his bank was bought by another mega-bank they of course laid off many of the – in the English terminology – “redundant” personnel.

What I discovered during our initial meeting shocked me deeply. Apart from the fact that he had done nothing to prepare for a possible layoff, he said casually: “I really need to brush up on my PC skills.”

It takes a lot of denial to think that you’re not going to be laid off if you work for a bank in the United States in this day and age of mergers, and it takes even more denial to think that you can get along in any position today without being computer literate.

I’m probably preaching to the choir here about being prepared for a layoff and about becoming computer literate, but this individual reminded me just how many older people lack even rudimentary knowledge of how to use a PC. As a realization, the impact of it felt like a smack on the side of the head.

Let’s address the PC area first. This is a terribly important and basic issue in finding a job today because, as our previous newsletter has noted, many jobs today are listed on the Internet in on-line websites, and you have to know how to use the Internet before you can even look at these jobs. It’s even more important to all future employers because most of them absolutely require such skills and take them for granted and someone who lacks them is in deep, deep trouble as a candidate.

Here are the basic computer skills you will need to acquire if you haven’t already done so. You need to:

• Know how to use a Personal Computer (not a MAC). NOTE: MACs are perfectly fine computers, but they are not the dominant breed and, except for graphics work, most employers don’t require knowledge of how to use them.
• Know how to use the current Windows operating system (not that I prefer it but it is the dominant business operating system).
• Know how to use Word as a word processing program.
• Know how to use Excel as a spreadsheet program.
• Know how to use Access as a database tool (this is not as critical as everything I’ve mentioned already).
• Know how to use PowerPoint to produce a presentation (this becomes critical if your executive position requires you to give presentations).
• Know how to access the Internet and use Internet Explorer as a browser (again because Microsoft dominates the business market).
• Know how to use and send e-mail

So anyone who is reading this, whether employed or not, who doesn’t have all of these computer skills needs to find a good training outfit and sign up immediately. The YMCA or YMHA near you may be an inexpensive source for such training. There are other relatively inexpensive ways to acquire these skills and the expenditure is an investment in yourself. Sometime even your local library, that old stand-by for information, can provide you with classes that will teach you these computer skills or at least give you a line on inexpensive schools. This is not something you want to ignore or put off. It is basic, basic, basic.

The second issue is far more complex. If you are working in a field in which mergers and consolidation occur regularly and with increasing frequency, it behooves you to begin learning all of the key elements of successful job-hunting post haste. In other words, you need to learn how to find another job quickly.

The elements of conducting a good job search, the elements that you need to learn and master, include:

• Being able to write a “killer” resume
• Knowing how to write cover letters that sell you as a candidate
• Being able to use on-line job-listing websites
• Having a good elevator speech and being proficient about using it
• Knowing how to network
• Knowing how to use a broadcast letter
• Understanding how to work with recruiters
• Knowing where to find a support group and/or job coach or “buddy” to work with
• Understanding the interviewing process and knowing how to interview well
• Knowing how to negotiate so you maximize the offer

For most employed people in fields that are consolidating and merging, the number one priority is to learn how to network now, and then begin using these skills by actually networking. In effect, you’re always – I repeat – always lining up your next job as part of this process. This starts with finding all of the professional organizations in your field, joining them, and networking within them. You can then branch out to networking with individuals.

Whenever possible, if working in such a high-risk field, you need to create a Plan B. This includes understanding your industry, which companies are growing and which are declining, networking to learn as much as possible about trends, who pays what, who can use your skills, what skills are required by those who are hiring, and the like. It is constant education, paying attention to yourself, not immersing yourself in your job and job skills to the exclusion of what’s going on around you.

If you take the actions suggested here, any abrupt transition can be met with some measure of equanimity.

The expectation is, you could lose your job at any time. Your tenure is comparable to a hired gun or a tenant farmer or a month-to-month tenant. In the “new economy” there is less and less security as a salaried employee, to be cynical about it.