We’ve all seen the pictures in the papers of down-and-out businessmen wearing sandwich boards that say GIVE ME A JOB; it’s a sign of the times. As I told Dawn Klingensmith of the Philadelphia Inquirer, nobody likes a pest. The last thing you want is to give off the smell of desperation during your job search.
But we all make mistakes, especially when we’re getting a foot in the door. So I’d like to hear from you: what are the most desperate things you’ve done to try and get a job? Tell me your story in the comments.
I could write a book on this topic (good think you beat me to it Ford!) but I’ll tell my “worst horror” story.
Ten years ago I was looking to break into an industry that really interested me. I marketed hard – in fairly short order I had interviews (informational and/or position-specific) with almost every firm in town (about 20). There was this one company I interviewed with. There were so many clues that this was not an opportunity to consider. And the way I was treated by the hiring manager throughout the interview process, now that I look back, was outrght insulting to me.
So after weeks of blowing me off, this hiring manager calls me and offers me a job – and gives me six hours to decide. Figuring how bad I wanted in this industry, and figuring I could go back to the other 19 firms a year later with a year of industry experience under my belt if this one didn’t look like my “lifetime job” so to speak, I accepted.
I accepted – even though a couple of the other 19 firms WARNED me about this firm whose offer I just accepted. One even said “when you get too good and they fire you because you’re making their managers look bad, call me back and you can work here, I’m happy to have them train you for me.”
Eight months and sixteen days later, I was “asked” to resign. I was thrilled they put it that way because I was able to use it to get approved for unemployment benefits – that’s how glad I was to be out of there, even without my next job lined up. (Sidenote: two weeks later, I had two of those other 19 companies fighting over me with their job offers).
This should have been my clue about this opportunity. One of the “perks” was that after you were there for a year, they put your name on the door. At the time of my interview, 20 people worked there. Four names were on the door, one of whom was the administrative assistant. Eight months and 16 days later, there were still 20 people working there. There were still four names on the door. It was the same four names.
The most desperate thing I have done for a job was to accept the
first offer of a permanent job after having worked four years as a
contractor. I had the transferable skills for the job but lacked
knowledge of corporate tax. Right away I knew it was not a good fit
for me. Then I spent the next four years trying to get out of the
job. I spent countless hours applying for jobs and going to interviews
only to find myself stuck in a job that I did not like.
It wasn’t until earlier this year that my job was eliminated and
I was laid-off that I was able to get out of a job that was not a
good fit for me. What a relief it was for me to know that I no longer
had to work in corporate tax on a daily basis.
My attitude is that having been laid-off my job is a blessing in disguise
and will enable me to find a job that is a more suitable fit. I am
heading in the direction of going back to college to finish up my
bachelors degree and have an appointment this Friday with a local
college for career advising.
My story starts from my days as a headhunter, trying to get into the consulting sales game. I was so anxious to make a move that I took a job working for someone who had my job first. His managers wanted him out of the position, but he did not want to leave the position. They promoted him and gave me his job. It made my life miserable, but I learned a lot about managing a bad situation, and it did set me up for the role I am in today running my own business.
When I look back on the decision, I remind myself that any decision I make in business I need to make with my eyes open and be ready to accept the consequences of my actions. I also look back at that decision and tell myself that I am not as smart as I think I am!
My final lesson from this experience was not to take myself too seriously, and to make sure I have balanced my personal and professional priorities. This job had taken over my life until I looked up and decided to rebalance the priorities. Life is too short for work or business to run over our personal priorities.
I taught my band a hastily put together arrangement of “besame mucho” so we could get a
job playing behind a
hypnotist at the Holiday inn in Portland Maine 1975