The challenge remains but a dream comes true…
… or how one man trudged through the professional wastelands of 2008 and 2009
Life throws practically anything at you, at whatever speed, often multiple things. Some are meatballs, you dont even break your stride. Others purely intend to bring you down. I vividly remember riding high in the late 90s, the rocket that was the telecom industry. We felt invincible because of the industry’s seemingly limitless potential (a little like the teeming community of life science professionals in Cambridge’s Kendall Square today). 2008 and 2009 were the kind of years that pointedly remind you about the exceptional nature of the late 90s: such years are not the norm. The very global growth that telecom powered has rapidly leveled comparative advantages enjoyed by western telecom vendors and firmly tipped the balance in favor of low-cost vendors from Asia. And that is how folks like myself find ourselves to be the COBOL programmers of the ’10s.
Although I chose to pursue a long-standing interest in clean energy in 2007, the impact of deep professional roots in a rapidly shrinking industry hit home after September 2008. I left my first clean energy job in February 2008 with the intention of starting an enterprise in that hot sector. But the long gestation for energy-related businesses in conjunction with the credit crisis ended those hopes by November of that year. By then telecom was shedding jobs like it was shearing time and I was actively pursuing employment in enterprise software, web applications and embedded systems. But the enormous number of job seekers spawned by the recession and the jobless growth that followed has made professional transitions extremely difficult, especially at a time when people need to make those very transitions to become employable.
With all modesty, I think that anybody looking at my resume would conclude that I was a promising candidate even if I lacked specific domain knowledge or functional experience. But the reality is that the two necessary criteria these days for filling the majority of open positions are precisely domain and functional experience. I must have cold-applied to about 60 positions. I got a total of 0 responses. I kept asking myself where I was going wrong; was I:
- targeting the wrong industries
- targeting the wrong functional roles
- unable to clearly explain my potential
- over-qualified
- too experienced
I have come to the conclusion that my lack of success is pretty much a combination of reasons 3, 4, and 5, and selection criteria (likely employed to deal with the sheer volume of applicants) based on keyword matches for domain and functional experience. If my resume was to make it beyond those filters, my application would then likely hit points 4 and 5.
In these last two years I have learned some valuable lessons that I share in this post. My wish is to tell any reader in a similar position: you are not alone in your experiences. And that the only way to keep moving is hope. So lets get to those points.
Never give up - ever! A different way of saying the same thing is: Always keep hoping. When we are being ground into dust by the weight of life and luck, hope is the gasoline that powers our souls. The struggle and trick is to actively find and keep finding sources of this fuel. Dont look for a job - look for the possibility of getting a job: it will broaden your source of opportunities and sustain your hopes.
Network, network, network These days it is who you know, or get introduced to, that gets you hired. That does not mean putting a stop to cold applications. Networking increases your chance of success in any professional endeavor: within a job or otherwise. You never know if your network somehow extends to the organization where you cold applied. One of the top tools to network is LinkedIn: I guarantee you that you are no more than four relationships away from President Obama. The point is that for any professional opportunity you target, you are likely 2-4 steps away from being introduced via LinkedIn. Developing an online presence is another powerful tool: tweeting and blogging are excellent ways of telling people about you. An extended online presence is a tremendous source of information about you and is used by potential employers in more ways than you can imagine. For the same reason you are better off maintaining distinct professional and personal online presences; and, if necessary, ensuring that the two cannot be linked. So go ahead, you may be 35+, but dont be shy to dive into Twitter, Tumblr, Posterous, Wordpress, (or if you are tech-sufficient you can host your blog yourself), Blogger, whatever else. It can be a lot of fun and rewarding.
Believe in yourself In difficult times it is very easy for the lack of success or judgments from others to shake fundamental faith in yourself. Belief in yourself is least volatile when based on a solid understanding of yourself. So go ahead and take the time to do that if you need to. Once you know and understand yourself: your interests, strengths, emotional triggers, etc you will have a better sense for why you react to things the way you do and consequently why you take the decisions that you do. Ultimately knowing yourself and being honest with yourself is the only way to keep believing in yourself. A related point: trust your gut because deep inside, you know who you are. Often people hold their gut reaction culpable for some particular negative outcome. I believe (not based on any rigorous empirical data or theoretical basis, so take it FWIW) that in the majority of cases there are other reasons e.g. execution, circumstances etc.
Dont be afraid to get help Vanity can kill you too. As you learn about yourself, reach out for help in any area you could benefit from. Dont be proud: focus on removing obstacles, remaining happy and keeping the hope alive. If that means you could do with help, then get it. Friends and family often come to mind first, and given their disproportionate impact I elaborate on them in the next point. But most folks could benefit from all kinds of help. Even if it is admitting your job-search struggles to a professional acquaintance and discussing your strategy with her. People love to help; it makes them feel better. I recommend being judicious in choosing helpers and the time you spend with them. But that should not stop you from reaching out.
Seek the support that comes from the love of family and friends that truly care for you. I cannot emphasize this strongly enough. When there are no more facts or intellectual rationalizations to keep you up, to keep up your hope and self confidence, it is their unflagging support that will fuel you. Take time to love them back; dont postpone it simply because you are down. Loving them back is empowering in itself - it produces a happiness that mysteriously nourishes you and gives strength. We are social animals. However cliched that sounds there is no other way to say it. Regardless of where you fall in the Myers-Briggs profile, whether you are an I versus an E etc, every human thrives on positive emotional reinforcement. Commonly found in familial relationships and friendships. Intense manifestations are known as love. Is nourishment for your soul, mind and body.
These are difficult times. But perspectives can be reshaped if you think about how the majority of this world subsists. While incorporating the five points above and keeping myself moving, I sensed that perhaps I was experiencing a tiny sliver of how that majority struggles for entire generations. I felt that in the grand scheme of life my own struggles, although not unimportant, are far removed from the catastrophe I sometimes imagined them to be.
March 2010 has brought good tidings for me. I have the surreal privilege of contemplating a good problem: choosing between two excellent opportunities, the MIT Sloan Fellows program or a full-time position with a tremendous software startup in downtown(!) Boston. After a scorching professional drought, this is like torrential rain.
Note - if interested in viewing struggle from the perspective of an extremely disadvantaged person, read the uplifting novel A Fine Balance, by Rohinton Mistry.
