Ten Green Candidates

Altogether now:

"Ten green candidates hanging on your call,
 Ten green candidates hanging on your call,
 And if one green candidate should actually get the job
 There'll still be nine green candidates hanging on your call"

I am sure I am saying what has been said by many before; looking for a new job stinks.

In my previous blog Tick Tock Tick Tock I have already spoken about the fact that employers tend not to get back to people - past the candidates that actually get hired.  

Recruitment Consultants are great as they do the leg work and get you feedback - but I still feel that it is best to apply in person. That can lead to more and more rejections or just a an open expanse of nothingness apart from the occasional ball of tumbleweed.  

Looking for a job from a job is a different kettle of fish as we have "all the time in the world"; but when you are gainfully unemployed you find yourself waiting on a call, a message, an email, ANYTHING. 

All I am saying is: 
     If you say you are going to get back to someone then it is only right that you do.
     In this day and age of easy communication we can drop a text, or a one-line email to a candidate to say they have been unsuccessful - if they have been for an interview it is the least they deserve.

We are all busy people; but courtesy should always prevail.

In Sickness and in Health

My sister and I were always sent to school, sick or not, Mum would pack us off to school.  That was instilled at a very early stage.  She would sometimes get calls saying that one of us had thrown up or broken something (latter usually my sister) or that maybe we should go to a doctor.  In general however we would go to school and just get on with it.

This has come with the both us into adulthood.  Our poor kids are treated the same way - and little pity is given.  We have also taken the idea into our working lives.

I am one of those that likes to spread the love; I go into work with a cold, tonsillitis, sickness (maybe not diarrhoea)!  As I became a manager I realised that this wasn't the best thing as if a colleague came in to the office unwell they would, invariably, give it to everyone else.

Anyhow the point of this blog is to say that I am not a sick note; far from it.  However if someone from HR were to give you my sickness stats they would not be good.  I recently had four weeks off work.  I went to the doctor and she told me to have a week off then whilst I was off I sprained my back (in fact they thought I had ruptured a disc).  My employer were great and I attended intensive therapy.  Once I could sit for an hour without pain I went back to work.  Prior to that I had not been off in the 4.5 years that I was with the company.

So my point is thus: data, without an explanation, is just numbers; it isn't a statistic.

It's Not Personal

I was conversing with the other half, who is rather adept at the redundancy procedure: unlike me (who is now on her third redundancy) he has been given the unenviable job of making redundancies in his work place.

His first statement to me was to remember that it wasn't personal; this was a business decision.  And he wholeheartedly believed that.  He could see that because he knew that, and that is how he gets through his tasks.

However I needed to show him that this was personal.  This was happening to me (and to two others too) but to ME.  A person.  A person who thought she had a career in front of her, who was in the job for the long haul.  A person who found herself both angry and sad; a bad mixture at the best of times (both often resulting in tears).  A person that was confused; had she done something wrong.  To this person it was everything and the business that had made that decision wasn't making a position redundant but a person, a mother.

My first thought had been for my children, how was I going to provide for them now?  Was I going to lose my house?  It was never a woe-is-me, why me, it was more a "not again" thing.  

But it was personal.  To me.

Redundancy is hard and as much as people making the decisions and those giving out the news can proffer the phrases that it isn't something that we have done, it is 'just' a management decisions, it needs to be said; to those on the receiving end it is personal.  It hurts and it isn't something that we can quickly recover from.  Jobs don't hang from trees, there isn't any low-lying fruit we can just grab to get by.  Money makes the world go round and as much as we all strive for a work-life balance, we need both of those aspects there to achieve it.

My previous blog spoke about responses to my news and how others responded with unhelpful phrases and I find that again I am writing about this.  Maybe this is just to let others know how to respond and to let anyone else know, in the same unfortunate position as me, that they are not alone in feeling like poo and that there is a long road ahead that we have to muster up the energy to walk.

Who Am I?

My recent redundancy set me to thinking; and not in a "woe is me" way:  It got me wondering about where my future lies, in what profession, and in what position.  I find myself thankful for the pause, for the fact that someone else other than me, hit the eject button.  I have time to reconsider what I am doing and take stock of where I have come from.  It allows me to spend some time working out what is right for me and where I see myself going.

As a woman that seems to have gotten used to being made redundant I did the dutiful thing and updated my CV.  In fact, the last time this happened I put together a video CV, in days before vlogging it didn't include me but just a visual representation of my Curriculum Vitae.  This time I looked at my new CV; already in two versions: the classic two-pager and the infographic version.  I updated the latter and put it "out there" into the world of LinkedIn.  I haven't ventured into the world of the Agency as yet but I have perused the local cyber neighbourhood for some ideas.

When I let people know what was happening so many greeted me with words of kindness and affirmations; you will get another job; you are an intelligent woman; everything happens for a reason; maybe this is a good thing.  And do you know what I actually wanted to hear from someone, I wanted to hear someone else confirm what I was thinking "this is shit".  Because that is exactly what it is.  It is a situation I had no hand in and was not of my making.  It is something that happened to me and was a complete shock.  When someone finally said those three words I felt so much better, like someone understood, and that maybe things were going to be ok after all.  Don't get me wrong I am grateful for all those that reached out to me to show their support but I have learnt, over the years, that good honest truth is sometimes what we need to hear.

Today I reached out to an industry expert for some advice, a little mentoring, a pep-talk.  Do I want to stay in the industry I have been in for the vast majority of my working life, do I want to change direction and career, or do I take my skills into a new sector.  He helped me bring things into perspective and gave me questions to ask myself.  This blog is going to join me on my journey; please come along with me too.