CareerSherpas: Climbing the Mountain

Peter Fitzgerald is chronicling his process of navigating from losing his job to a new and brighter tomorrow. To read other posts from the series, see “Job Transition: A CareerSherpas’ Odyssey”.

Following fairly constant and somewhat chaotic work finding contacts, following up, responding to follow ups and generally chasing everything that looked like an opening, Day 13 made for a good chance to take a small breather.

Taking a day to rest up ahead of a busy day turned out to be a great tonic. Time spent on hobbies and checking in on other activities let some of the stress and strain flow away. Much as I didn’t entirely plan for it, the handful of follow ups interspersed with carving (a hobby I haven’t indulged in too long) and simple relaxation with family was another reminder of the importance of self care.

The process of searching is very consuming. The ups and downs of positive connections, progress and unexpected lapses in communication takes a toll. Without stepping back occasionally we lose focus and miss important openings to try different approaches and work our way into a better spot.

Today was a great day to rejuvenate and enjoy the last rays of summer sun. It’s hard not to find that appealing!

Peter Fitzgerald is the founder of CareerSherpas.com and is currently working on his first book, looking for a new day job, connecting individuals with ideas and opportunities, and attempting to learn the bagpipes.

Peter Fitzgerald is chronicling his process of navigating from losing his job to a new and brighter tomorrow. To read other posts from the series, see “Job Transition: A CareerSherpas’ Odyssey”.

I’ve had two very different experiences with recruiters today. One very promising and the other may be promising after the fiasco that preceded the meeting.

On the one hand I have a recruiter who is doing all of the right things:

• Following up on a regular basis
• Explaining changes in the process
• Sharing new information as it becomes available
• And moving things forward to get responses from and co-ordinate with the hiring manager.

On the other hand, sometimes the person you make contact with drops the ball. Sometimes this happens repeatedly. When that happens, and it almost certainly will, there are a couple of ways to respond:

• Cut ties and go somewhere else
• Carry on and see what happens

After a fairly frustrating series of dropped balls ahead of getting a meeting set up, I followed through and went to catch up with a recruiter. Between going to the wrong location, (Not being given directions makes things a bit difficult. Also, Google apparently doesn’t always know all.) not getting the contact details for the person I was supposed to be meeting from the person I had contacted, and not getting any response from my contact when called the setup could be considered a disaster.

So on arrival, and finding the front desk unattended, I proceeded to wait. Five minutes later I took a guess at the business card I thought was the recruiter I was supposed to meet with, not having a last name to work with, and called from the waiting area. To make all this more fun, my resume had not been passed along to the recruiter I was to talk to.

However, none of this was the fault of the recruiter I was meeting! The meeting itself was positive, covered my experience and interests fairly well, and left me with an appreciation for the way it was handled. Going ahead with the discussion turned out to be a good thing and I wound up with a positive connection.

The moral of the story? It’s important to know when to reschedule and when to go forward with a conversation. If an intermediary drops the ball, you don’t have a lot of options to work with. At the same time, not giving up and not letting your frustration get the better of you usually lands you in a good spot.

Peter Fitzgerald is the founder of CareerSherpas.com and is currently working on his first book, looking for a new day job, connecting individuals with ideas and opportunities, and attempting to learn the bagpipes.

Peter Fitzgerald is chronicling his process of navigating from losing his job to a new and brighter tomorrow. To read other posts from the series, see “Job Transition: A CareerSherpas’ Odyssey”.

It seems like Friday is often a strange day in my process and this was no exception.

I had a very positive, very abrupt meeting this morning and spent the rest of the day following up on it and trying to suppress my excitement. In a strange turn of fate, exactly what I was looking for is hanging in front of me. The role, title, work and ability to really use a lot of the skills I’ve built over my career is sitting right in front of me.

The hardest part of having something like that appear out of nowhere as a complete surprise is that it’s very difficult to remain calm. I won’t deny that I’m over the moon, but I have to temper the emotions with the fact that I don’t yet have the job. Being giddy won’t help the process and building up too much hope in one opportunity lets too much focus land on the one space.

An important point in all of this is that part of the success of today comes in the timing of events far beyond my control. A chance conversation between people I’d never met corresponding with my information and availability landing in the right hands at that time.

But what if I hadn’t been actively making connections? When the time is right, the information has to be fresh in the minds of the contacts you make. Follow up! Work the phone, your email, coffee or lunch meetings, social gatherings and any other positive contact time that you can find.

I’m excited. I’m hopeful. And I’m once again grateful to my immediate contacts for helping me find new and wonderful connections I wouldn’t have thought about or known existed.

Peter Fitzgerald is the founder of CareerSherpas.com and is currently working on his first book, looking for a new day job, connecting individuals with ideas and opportunities, and attempting to learn the bagpipes.

Peter Fitzgerald is chronicling his process of navigating from losing his job to a new and brighter tomorrow. To read other posts from the series, see “Job Transition: A CareerSherpas’ Odyssey”.

The pace hasn’t really slackened, but the action is a bit different as is to be expected. This week has seen more transition from phone calls to in-person meetings, paperwork to review and forms to fill out.

I realized I haven’t described the plan in a lot of detail since the first days, so I thought I’d re-visit it and see what I’ve learned in the process. Here’s my plan in a nutshell.

Phase one of the plan I’m working is roughly following these steps:

• Make (or refine) a contact list
• Contact people, starting where I think I’ll have the most success
• Respond to anyone who contacts me
• Thank anyone who helps or offers to help
• Review and update my resume
• Follow up on leads
• Rinse and Repeat

Phase one status check: This phase of the process is working. I’ve been able to make a lot of contacts and get my information submitted with a number of recruiters and employers. I’ve also learned or had reinforced a couple of important lessons:

• Everyone is a good contact. Many of the people I thought would be my most helpful contacts weren’t as able to help as people “further down” on my contact list. This probably shouldn’t have surprised me, but it proves what I’ve been saying for years about networking. You never know who will open a door (or shut it!)
• There are no bad conversations. More often than not “bad” leads are good leads in disguise. The person who shares a lead which isn’t a good fit may be sitting right next to the ideal role.

Phase two has really just started, but it follows roughly these steps:

• Meet with anyone and everyone who offers a meeting
• Follow up on all meetings with an email (or a call if something comes up)
• Track activity on leads (Even no activity is an activity!)

Phase three, which I hope starts soon, is to engage in “real” interviews. That might sound presumptuous, but it seems like a necessary step to land a job.

That’s really all there is to my plan. Does it sound too simple? Sure it does!

The trick is being open and energetic in working every possibly lead, no matter how strange or off base it seems at first. Having both of those pieces in place all the time is what makes the process difficult. If you aren’t always working at every step along the way, you will miss something and you can’t know whether it is important or not until after everything plays out.

Taking Care of Myself

I’ve done a better job of taking care of myself as the rhythm of the days settled a bit. Interspersed in all that activity, I made sure to keep a couple of lunch appointments with old co-workers. Apart from reminding me that I have worked with some remarkable, wonderful people, both helped shine light on areas that I hadn’t spent as much time on. Add to that insight the relief that comes in spending time with people you share a history with was more than welcome. I feel better than I have done all week for the break, and as I absorb more of the messages shared I know the search will improve again using that input.

Once again, I have more people to thank for their kindness, insight and support. Much as I’ll hold back on naming my lunch partners here, thank you.

Peter Fitzgerald is the founder of CareerSherpas.com and is currently working on his first book, looking for a new day job, connecting individuals with ideas and opportunities, and attempting to learn the bagpipes.



Peter Fitzgerald is chronicling his process of navigating from losing his job to a new and brighter tomorrow. To read other posts from the series, see “Job Transition: A CareerSherpas’ Odyssey”.

I’ve spent the last couple of days meeting with people and getting more information in on roles and out about myself. Generally I’m getting a positive vibe from people and somehow my network is still buzzing and feeding new ideas in.

Most of the conversations are in the early stages still and all of them cover some basic points:

• What have you done? What about when you were at X, Y or Z employer?
• Why aren’t you at your last employer?
• What do you want to do?

Having clear, concise answers to each of these questions isn’t always easy. At the beginning of my search I discovered that I was out of practice. Even though I’ve got a great track record for interviews going well, when you’re rusty or when there’s something new in your message it does take a few tries to get the kinks and stumbles out. There were a couple of points that I’d thought through around what I wanted to do, but it helped to have feedback to narrow the four paragraph description down to a few keywords that said it neatly.

Particularly since I’m trying to transition to a more strategic lead position, my language needed to adjust and tighten around that message. At first it felt very clumsy to explain what I wanted to do, but the “spiel” is coming easier with practice. Being comfortable with the message is half the battle.

There is one question that does still throw me a bit: How can I help you?

That’s a tough one for me for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, I don’t like asking for help. Whether it’s part machismo or egotism I don’t really know, but I’m not very good at it. I’ve spent some time getting over myself on this front and I feel a better person for it. There are few things more humbling than being out of work and learning to ask for support of all types when you need it is an important personal development step.

Secondly, each person who asks it has different capacities to help and different ways they feel comfortable helping in. Knowing when you’re asking too much, or not enough, is not an easy thing to figure out. Matching your needs to their ability and availability to help is very important so as not to burden the person and to get help targeted to what you really need.

With a bit of practice, I’ve narrowed my requests down to two simple things:

• Looking for connections to other people who might be close to an opening
• Asking for people to keep me in mind and their eyes and ears open

I’m very thankful to the people who have been willing to help me work through my early stumbling descriptions. The assistance in refining my message has been invaluable. I have a slight speech impediment that can get in the way at times. People generally don’t hear it thanks to years of practicing “tricks” to manage stumbled words. I can fairly comfortably get up in front of small and large groups to speak, but practicing the message is always the most important part to making the delivery fluid and direct.

The message you send to any prospective employer has to be clear, direct and fairly precise. Getting a feel for what questions your message leads to and being prepared to talk to those questions is an important part of making the right impression. If you think you’re ready, answer the questions at the beginning of this post out loud to yourself or to someone you trust to give a supportive, honest response.

In the end, our ability to sell our messages will decide whether or not the job is ours.

Peter Fitzgerald is the founder of CareerSherpas.com and is currently working on his first book, looking for a new day job, connecting individuals with ideas and opportunities, and attempting to learn the bagpipes.