Preparing for the Unexpected

Friends, I hope this week’s post finds you well.

And, given the constant stream of?public announcements about large company layoffs, for those who want to be, I sincerely hope this finds you gainfully employed.

It’s one thing to lose your job due to performance issues or because your startup gets acquired or shuts down — you generally see that coming. But layoffs can affect almost anyone in organization without warning, from high earning executives to entry level staff.

I know this firsthand — I’ve been both laid off and had jobs eliminated myself….more than once…so if you are thinking it can’t happen to you, think again.

For some it can actually be a bit of a blessing — an opportunity to pause, take an unexpected but welcome break, reassess and maybe hit reset on your career.

But for most, the idea of losing a job is scary, stressful and demoralizing, particularly when you have a family and financial responsibilities that go with that.

And while most companies like to deny it,?ageism is real. This can be a double whammy for many people over 40 in certain roles because it makes landing their next opportunity that much harder (not to scare some of you, but conventional wisdom says you should take your salary, divide it by 10,000 and that is the number of months you should expect it to take you to get a new job).

Needless to say, tensions will be increasing for many during the first half of this year.

So what do you do?

I’m here to give you hope?— and a kick in the pants to take some steps to proactively prepare for an unexpected change in your status before it happens so that you can have the quickest bounce back possible.

Good news:?things are different now.

Despite the?move to get employees back?in the office, remote work is now commonplace and more accepted, especially when landing the best talent. That means your options for work are no longer limited to just your zip code.

With the world your oyster, you want to take a broad approach to understanding and marketing your talents.

Here are some very simple things you can do today to prepare for an unexpected change in status:

Develop your personal elevator pitch.?People generally group others into categories (ie “salesperson,” “technologist”, “email marketer.”).?But what do you do better than anyone else? I know it can be difficult, but boiling down your talents into 1-2 sentences (and have up to 3 bullet points that support them) makes it so much easier for other people to process your story and categorize you correctly.

Be active on LinkedIn every single day, RIGHT NOW.?LinkedIn is essentially Google for talent. The more active you are on the platform, the more likely you will stay top of mind with people in your network (and get exposed to other connections in their networks). Don’t wait until you need a job to be a part of the conversation there — you need to start now. What are things you should be doing on LinkedIn?

• Update your?profile?— this is the first place everyone goes when they hear your name or are considering you for a role. Treat it as your online resume, except a lot more dynamic. Include links to publications, videos, etc. that showcase your talent and thought leadership.
• Update your headline?— your headline should NOT be your current job title. The headline should be a short version of your elevator pitch — and optimized for search so people can find you.
• Regularly share interesting content with your thoughts included?— don’t just repost your company’s marketing content or share a link without adding your thoughts. People want to see value added content that is going to make them better or smarter. Help them know?why?the content you are sharing is important. Do this at least once a week if you can.
• Like and comment on other people’s posts —?Liking content is so easy, and it amplifies your connection’s post amongst your network. Commenting on someone else’s content amplifies YOU amongst THEIR network.
• Create original content in the form of articles or a newsletter?— as you know, I have this version of my email newsletter, where I repost preambles from past issues. Truth be told, if I was starting my newsletter today, I’d probably start it on LinkedIn. It's seamless delivery to people in your network keeps you top of mind.
• Join groups on LinkedIn and contribute to the conversation there?— groups are hit or miss in terms of regular engagement, but there are high concentrations of people there that share interests and experiences with you. Extend your network by participating in conversations.

Update your resume now and optimize it for ATS.?Today, almost every company uses an applicant tracking system (ATS) to help them sort through, match and manage the high volume of resumes they receive. With LinkedIn profiles as a more dynamic companion, resumes just need to be formatted for machine reading so they can match the keywords of jobs with applicants. Spend time (and money if you need to) making sure your resume highlights the right words and phrases to make ATS work for you — worry less about how your resume looks (that is what your LinkedIn profile is for).

NEWS FLASH: you are a consultant.?A few months back I wrote about all of us having opportunities to be?coaches or caregivers? Well, you have inherent knowledge and expertise that is marketable and valuable to someone (ie what you do better than anyone else on the planet). They may not be able to pay you for full time work, but they would be willing to pay you part time or on a contracted basis to get access to your knowledge and talent (there are firms that may even do this today, even while you have full time employment). Make it official — name your consultancy and put it on your LinkedIn profile. If you lose a full time gig, you can easily switch to having this as your current employer. A few other proactive steps you can take are:

• Set up an LLC (limited liability company) —?you don’t need to do this to be a consultant (you can be a sole proprietor), but there are tax benefits to doing so and it is pretty easy to do. Check out?ZenBusiness?or?Stripe Atlas?as resources for doing this, but there are many others.
• Register a domain and set up a website —?again, you don’t need to do this, but it can be a great companion to your LinkedIn page and help you further tell your story and market your talents. And today basic websites are VERY EASY to design and setup and are pretty inexpensive to register and maintain (you can have it all up and running in an afternoon). At the very least check out?GoDaddy?or?HostGator?and get yourself a cool domain name.

Start re-engaging with contacts in your network.?I recently?shared a quick video?from Michael Katz about how people like “being remembered” even after years of not connecting. The easiest (and most comfortable) thing to do is reconnect when you DON’T need something from someone — you just want to check in. Get those dormant conversations restarted now. You’ll be glad you did if you end up back on the job hunt.

Get yourself familiar with what jobs are available.?Set up alerts on LinkedIn to see what active full time hiring is going on in your field of expertise (as well as those that are adjacent). Start to think about a target list of companies that could be a good fit for you. You’ll find that a large amount of opportunities are now listed as remote, opening up possibilities with companies you never thought were an option for you based on location. Also sign up for executive hidden job sites like?ExecThread?(founded by?FoD Joe Meyer ) and?AboveBoard. From a consulting/part time perspective, join the talent networks at?BTG,?Catalant, Go Fractional and?Scalewise?— these are platforms for sharing fractional/part-time/project based work (usually executive/senior level). To be considered for hourly freelance work, submit your information at?Upwork?or?Fiverr.

Stay humble.?Things may be going great now, but that doesn’t mean they can’t change in an instant. Don’t be too big or too proud to ask for help. Keep an open mind about possibilities — that includes maybe considering roles that are less flashy, have a smaller title but allow you contribute to the success of a team. Sometimes a small step back can lead to two steps forward.

If you do get laid off, resist playing the victim. As I said earlier, plenty of people have experienced this before (myself included) and many are going through this now -- so you are not the only one. Layoffs are seldom about personal performance -- they are clinical financially driven decisions. I know it doesn't make it any less scary, but accepting this should make moving on easier. Allowing yourself to take it personally will not help you land the next opportunity -- it can actually send you into a deeper hole. Take a day to feel sorry for yourself (stay off social media), and then dust it off and start coming up with a plan to work your network, find an organization that could benefit from your talents and land that next great opportunity.

Look, of course I hope things go smoothly for all of you this year. But it can’t hurt to take some proactive steps now to prepare for unexpected changes to your situation or job status. If nothing else, view all of this as prep work for the next chapter of your career.

And if you find yourself in a bind or have questions about any of the suggestions I have made, please don’t hesitate to reach out — I’m here to help. And,?Friends, I can say quite confidently so are the rest of the?FoDs?as well.

While the next few months may be uneasy for some of you, I can assure you of one thing....the sun will come out tomorrow.

XOXO

Dave

This was adapted from the January 21, 2023 intro to my weekly "Friends of Dave" newsletter, which is accompanied by interesting links I curate each week. If you would like to see past full issues, please click here >>>?https://friendsofdave.substack.com/