The Comeback
You are in between jobs at the moment. This may be a result of having been laid off, perhaps another impact of the pandemic that pushed companies to do things differently, many going to all-virtual or heavily virtual for roles that can be done this way. It may be that life happened, and you needed to be at home for an extended period to care for family. Whatever the reason may be, you are ready to get to the next phase or your career and are taking steps that thus far have yet to yield the results you want.
Step 1 – Preparation
You have researched what an effective, current resume looks like, utilizing resources online and getting insight from those you know in the HR and recruitment world. It is on point and represents you well. You also put together a nice bio and cover letter that is nimble and will allow you to quickly modify as needed to go along with your resume for any job you apply to. You have positioned yourself to be ready to respond for any job opportunity you find.
Step 2 – Gauging Opportunity
You spend the next couple of weeks focused on the job search. You feel that you have built good connections over the years and are confident that there are people out there who will advocate for you to land an opportunity where possible. Thus far, you have found many opportunities for which you feel like a strong match, and others you feel like a Perfect Match. Thus far the response has been fairly quiet, which you quickly realize may be part of the learning curve that teaches you what a current turnaround time looks like. Still, where we saw and applied for so many roles for which we looked like such a strong candidate, it becomes of increasing concern as days pass without the phone ringing or email alert popping up.
Step 3 – Cautiously Optimistic
Undeterred and still optimistic due to a bountiful selection of quality opportunities out there in, not only our own industry, but in other related industries that we feel strongly we could easily transition to seamlessly. With little response beyond a virtual interview, a couple of phone screen type conversations and some online testing, our optimism is not waning but our practical mind is pushing us to analyze our situation and start considering contingency plans. ‘What If’ is the question and one that pushes us to start thinking about other options.
Step 4 – Considering All Options
Thinking about what we have done in our career, it is much more than ‘whatever the company asked me to do’. Our job can be broken out into a great many tasks, utilizing our skills and talents, such that we have felt that those talents will be transferrable and make us successful with another company. We also realize that in light of the slow response we’ve received thus far, that in as much as our sole focus has been on bringing our skills to a new employer, that perhaps we can bring them directly to the people that do business with that theoretical new employer. In other words, what if we looked at being our own boss and starting our own company that leverages the best of our skills and talents.
Step 5 – Shifting Gears
We are in full exploration mode, dedicating all the time needed to search for new job opportunities, reaching out to contacts for any needed support or advocacy, but because we have set our job alerts and are confident we won’t miss anything suitable, we are immersed in alternatives. It started with searching online for the types of business people are successfully running right now, followed by doing market research to see if those businesses fit for what we do. Pleased to find several business types that fit our skills, we have dug into what it takes to set up, run, and be successful in our own business.
We are not where we need to be just yet, but this period in our life is all about taking action to move things forward. Even with the uncertainty of what will happen next, whether we get our business going on our own, or will the phone ring to offer us a job while we’re in the process. Either way, this shift in our strategy is eye-opening and motivating. We realize that we have been in a box of conventional thinking for far too long, and whether we find the right opportunity or create one ourselves, we are more determined than ever to be successful.
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