How is the economy effecting your career?

[Douglas E. Welch]

I am interested to hear how the current economy is effectiing your career -- bad and possibly goog.

[Nathan T]

About two years ago I left my job as a researcher at a large University and my PhD program to get a MBA, because I knew Academia was not where I wanted to be. I wanted a professional life that was collaborative (something Profs in my old field did not do well), where I could work among people, not just books.

Here I am two years later with an MBA and my career prospects could not look dimmer. You see, I spent my life cultivating skills I thought could get me a job, and they have been getting me no where for some time.

I have very strong analytical skills. In fact I have done some freelance consulting work doing competitive and market intelligence, building predictive models for markets, and offering strategic insights and recommendations from these activities, including making some presentations to people up there on the food chain, but that work seems to be falling off.

I have led teams of five to eight, coached and mentored them. I have also planned and managed projects, making sure they get done on time and deliver more than we were originally asked for.

I am also fluent in Chinese and have lived in China and Taiwan.

But all of this seems for naught, because I have no specific industry experience (except for academia, which, for the most part, I am not keen to go back to. I have consulted with a manufacturer, two financial services firms, two defense contractors, and an educational provider) and only about a year’s experience in the business world freelancing.

I have solid skills (well I think I do), but have sent out over one hundred resumes, got in contact with many friends/relatives/acquaintances, and have gotten two interviews that went no where. Even though I lack experience, I am a quick learner and I know I could make valuable contributions wherever I would work. It just seems no one will give me a chance.

Right now I am in a rebuiding phase, looking to how to more effectively reach out and look for jobs. I think there is something out there for me, but I just have to find it. The process of finding it though has been very painful with no end in sight.

[Dave L (@socaldavel)]

Hi Doug (and everyone else as well),

I almost feel as if I could be the poster boy for "How the economy is effecting the nation".

**WARNING: THIS COULD GET LONG**

A few years back (2004) my wife, kids & I moved from NY to beautiful, sunny southern California. We were able to buy a wonderful new home as the market was growing. We were able to sell our home in NY for a good price, which helped. While my wife & kids moved out a little early (and lived with my in-laws until the house was ready) I stayed behind in NY maintaining my current IT position and looking for a new one in California. A lesson learned at the time: noone wants to hire someone they can't interview immediately. Luckily for me, my current manager allowed me to "telecommute" from CA and I could keep my current job. GREAT NEWS.

So I loaded up the car one weekend and headed out west to join my family.

Our new life in California begun, but within a year my wife had an itch to start her own business. I was in process of selling my father's home (the one I grew up in back in NY since he had passed away a couple years earlier and we had been renting it ever since) and had some money to do so. Italian Ice!! It's big back east and we thought would be a sure hit out here. It's less expensive and much less fattening than ice cream or frozen yogurt and the kids love it. We did our research and thought we had a great location. Things couldn't have been better.

Then the economy started it's downward spiral. Local businesses started to take hits. My wife's Italian Ice shop didn't build up enough momentum to last and in 2007 we had to close it down, putting us in a huge hole. While we had money from the sale of my father's house to start the business, with the high equity we had in our home we had (incorrectly so) used a line of credit to maintain the business and pay the monthly expenses. That combined with the rapid decline of the housing market put us completely upside down and in a position where we couldn't get out.

My wife, after 4 months of searching, got back into a position in banking (where she had over 13 years experience previously) but we had to walk away from the house. We bought another one for less money (before regulations tightened up) and short sold the first one. Meanwhile... as we waited for the dust to settle on the sale of the first home and see what our financial future holds... I was laid off from my well paying job. Without going into details, I'll tell you that I worked for one of the big banks that received a huge bailout. I was in the middle of a large $500milion plus project that was supposed to last for a few years ... then they went through a large "reduction in workforce". My position was eliminated, much to my surprise. Luckily I had received about 6 months worth of severence which should get me through April.

That was in October. With a horrible 3Q in 2008 and a typically slow 4Q, nothing was expected to come, but still... I cleaned up my resume, created a few cover letters, updated my online profiles for the job placement sites (Monster, Computerjobs, Hotjobs, Careerbuilders, Flipdog, Dice, etc) and started reaching out to any recruiter I could find.

Now it's nearly the end of January and not a single nibble. Not an interview. Not even a callback. I'm getting quite frustrated to say the least. As an IT professional with over 14 years of enterprise technology experience and having held (and excelled in) roles ranging from Desktop Support to Build Engineering, Systems Administration & Operations to Application Deployment. My biggest concern is that I've been a proverbial "Jack of all trades" without a specific specialty. In relation to the medical field I'm more of a General Practictioner than a Surgeon or Cardiologist or any other "specialized" dcotor.

I'm not sure what else to do or how else to do it at this point. I do want to get back to some technical training and obtain certifications, but having that dilemna of "do I spend the money on certifications" or "save the money because I'm going to need it when severence runs out"?

- Dave in Temecula
@socaldavel on Twitter
Longtime fan of Friends in Tech

[Lon Yett]

Dave,

I am right in the same spot as you - experience is great and you know that they are going to be glad they have you, but you need to get in the door before all that can start. Doesn't it always seem like everyone demands a long list of experience when you don't have it, but when you do have the experience everyone seems to be looking for entry-level people?

I keep telling myself that I just need to hold on for a bit longer and things will start opening up for the old timers like us. The only trouble is that it seems like every News story leads off with another company announcing a massive layoff each time I turn on the TV or buy a newspaper! Great, just what I need: even more competition for the few jobs out there now!

I also was trying to deal with the question of spending money on training versus using the remaining savings to keep the roof over our heads for a little longer. I found a less expensive route from our local community college and started taking CCNA courses. The cost is far less than many other options, but my only issue is the slow pace: 4 classes to prepare to take the CCNA test will actually take until the end of the year to complete due to the way the school has setup the schedule.

I am in the first class now, and have decided to go ahead and buy the books for the second, third and fourth classes so I can explore the possibility of studying on my own. I would miss out by not having an instructor to help keep me on course through the material, but at least I could proceed at a faster pace since I have the advantage of time to spend on it right now. If I find that I can do the work on my own that will be great, otherwise I have the books for the fall classes and can hope I can get by on my charm and experience as it is now.

I don't know if something like this would work for you or not, but thought I would suggest it.

[Dave L (@socaldavel)]

Agreed. I had been given notice prior to my last day and wasn't immediately walked out of the door (as was typical of IT staff in the past). I was able to wrap up my projects and do a "knowledge transfer" to those who would be picking up my workload. The one thing I had picked up along the way was that the layoffs weren't "performance based". I have, for years, been considered a top performer in any role I've undertaken. A fact that I'm quite proud of. I take great pride in my work and it shows. Even after relocating to California and performing my role via telecommuting, the one compliment that was paid to me time and time again by other managers I interacted with was, "Oh that's right, Dave's out in CA". This was said amongst themselves during employee evaluations. This was quite important because I was able to stay in such control of my projects, interact with my clients and handle any issue that arose in such a timely manner that, for the most part, it was almost like I was always right there..

As for training. I agree with the problem of taking classes in a Community College environment. The cost seems to be the only benefit. It does need to be dragged out throughout the length of the semester though to fit the college curriculum. I'm currently looking at some online training in college environment and weighing it out vs. something like Trainsignals or Lynda video training vs. the Vendor's training & certification box sets. I much prefer to be hands on vs. just having to read through the material. We'll see. Time is critical too of course.

I've spent the entire morning wandering into employment agencies (most of which I've applied to online already) to introduce myself and see if I can setup a face-to-face meeting with one of their representatives. Even if they don't have anything immediately I'd much rather them get to know me and put a face to the resume. And while I'm at it, I can let them know that I'm available to temp assignments to help hold me over. Anything that I can do to help improve the situation has to be better than sitting around waiting for the tide to change.

[Lon Yett]

As a Senior IT Professional in the Title Insurance industry, I knew that we had tough times still to come, but made the mistake of assuming I could cement my position by being a top performer. I fell prey to Corporate desperation as they laid off people based on salary rather than performance. What a shock.

Luckily, I had been listening to Douglas' suggestions and had already started putting together a portfolio of my work and, even though I felt relatively secure, I had begun polishing my resume by the time the axe fell in early November.

As is so often the case it was a blessing in disguise because the company declared bankruptcy shortly after the lay-offs and they suspended many of the few remaining benefits that I (at least) received due to the timing of my release.

I am currently sifting through job ads, and even toying with the concept of working indepentently - though I must admit that I have worked in a corporate environment all my life and it is unnerving to imagine not having the benefits that one expects from that kind of job. I am also working on some training to expand my value to prospective employers or customers.

[Douglas E. Welch]

Glad to hear that you prepared BEFORE you really needed to. I try to bring it home to everyone that a career portfolio is something you work on constantly, not just when you think you might need it. That way it is always ready to go no matter how arbitrary or sudden the layoff.

You can find many mentions of a career portfolio in my writing, speaking and podcasting over the years. This Google Search highlights some of the best.

http://bit.ly/hFwb

Even if you don't go full-time freelance, I hope you will investigate some of the possibilities. If nothing else, it will give you a different perspective on the next corporate job you get.

Thanks for writing!