St.Louis Business Journal
"PLAN B" CREATES SAFETY NET WHEN JOB IS IN JEOPARDY

By Anna Navarro March 2010  

Examples in this column are fictionalized to protect privacy.



Merryl was a survivor. She was one of the few people in her firm who still had a job after drastic downsizings in 2008 and 2009. But she was scared her job could disappear any moment.

When she came to see me, it was apparent she needed to operate on two tracks simultaneously. One track was to regain control of her career, so she would not be so totally at the mercy of developments in her company. The other was to regain her emotional and life balance, which had been seriously undermined by the stress she was under.

We pursued both of these tracks simultaneously. She probably could not have succeeded at either had she not undertaken both at once. Because of space constraints, I am telling the career change aspects of her story in this column. The steps we took to help her manage her stress were covered in my previous column.

Considering a change in jobs, let alone careers, was difficult for Merryl. She was an architect and loved her work. She also really liked the firm she worked for, which had built its brand in the commercial real estate market. The thought of leaving that behind was unnerving.

But she realized architecture as a whole was struggling and probably didn’t offer the most favorable prospects for employment at the moment. So she soldiered on with the effort to uncover clues about other possible directions.

Working quickly, we did an in-depth self-assessment. That uncovered the fact that she was good at and enjoyed marketing architectural services, a strength that had only come into play recently as she’d helped her firm generate business.

She’d been instrumental in helping the firm land the few contracts it had signed recently. She used business publications and the internet to identify who might need architectural services, did the legwork to determine who in those organizations was handling the projects, researched those individuals, and helped the partners figure out how to approach them and make a pitch. She enjoyed the process and was good at it.

Merryl was surprised as we talked about the industries where this skill could lead to employment: janitorial services, food service, law, accounting, healthcare, and many more. Once we identified this possibility, the next step was to network with people who made their living marketing services to see if moving in that direction was realistic.

A friend who was a veteran consumer products marketer helped Merryl get connected to others who specialized in marketing services. We rehearsed the kind of networking interview that would help her figure out whether her skills would be transferable to fields outside architecture. Then she did the interviews.

She learned what she had to offer would readily transfer to a variety of service firms. She also picked up some useful tips about what employers look for and how to package herself for maximum appeal. That enabled us to write a terrific resume.

Just as she was on the verge of launching a job hunt, the firm she worked for landed a major contract she’d helped bring in. The contract was big enough to give her job security for a few months.

That was good news, but it threw Merryl into a quandary. Her first choice would be to stay if she could. Should she be launching a job hunt when there was a chance she could ride out the storm in her current position?

After wrestling with the issue, she decided to put the job hunt on hold. She couldn’t imagine herself accepting an offer while there was still any possibility she could stay put. But if it all came unraveled, she knew what kind of a job she’d go after, and how to sell herself. She still had some things to learn about job hunting, (cover letters, references, doing a hiring interview, etc), but she felt confident she could master them.

To add a measure of safety, I suggested she cut her budget and start a “job hunting fund”. The goal was to save enough that, when added to unemployment benefits, she could cover nine months of her most essential expenses if she lost her job. That would probably be enough time to land a job in marketing services.

Merryl’s story is still in process. But she has regained her emotional center and her resilience, and she has a plan for what to do if her job disappears. That makes all the difference.

Anna Navarro is the founder of Work Transitions, a nationwide career consulting firm that works with clients on an individual basis to help them find more satisfaction and fulfillment in their work-lives. She can be reached by phone at (314) 367-0008 and her e-mail address is email@worktransitions.com. For more information visit the worktransitions.com website.

This column was originally published by the St. Louis Business Journal. The actual title of the column and date in which it appeared in the Business Journal may be slightly different from what appears on WorkTransitions.com.