Getting your player ready...
Dear J.T. & Dale: I worked for a company for 20 years before getting laid off. Recently I was contacted by a recruiter, and she asked, “Why did you stay in the same job for so long?” I was thrown off. Isn’t it obvious? It was a well-paying job with great benefits. That’s what I told her, and I haven’t heard from her since. What was I supposed to say? – Robert
DALE: First, there are dozens of reasons not to hear from a recruiter, most having nothing to do with you or your work history: The company decided not to fill the job, or filled it internally, on and on. But let’s assume for a minute that your answer was a deal-breaker.
J.T.: There are different versions of the truth, and the one you gave wasn’t what the recruiter was looking for. She wanted to hear that in those 20 years, you were paying attention to your career and the need to develop it. Otherwise, she would assume that you spent those 20 years just plugging along, keeping your job. In this competitive job market, there isn’t a single employer that will hire someone like that. Next time, talk about your career progression and the expertise you gained, and how that made you more valuable over time.
DALE: As Shakespeare put it, “the past is prologue.” You need a story that makes sense of your career path, what it was and will be. Speaking of paths, when I go hiking and lose sight of the trail, I’ve learned to stop, turn around and observe the route I just traveled; often, doing so makes sense of where the path has been and how it logically carries forward. The same should be true of your career. Look back and make sense not just of where it’s been, but of where it’s going. Stability is no longer revered; change is. Consider this: Say you meet someone who mentions that he has lived in the same house for 20 years. Does that make him seem dynamic? Is he going to embrace change? We’ve reached the point where you need to have as good a reason for staying in one job as you do for job-hopping.
Dear J.T. & Dale: I’ve been in the nightclub industry for seven years, starting right out of college. I make a great living, but the hours and lifestyle are catching up with me. I want to make the transition to a day job, but I can’t seem to get anyone to even consider me. Most people see my industry as “party city” and assume I don’t have transferable skills. What can I do to prove to corporate America that I can handle it? – Jason
J.T.: Overcoming the “party” stereotype is going to require a concerted effort. For starters, try to de-emphasize the nightclub aspect of your work and play up the transferable skills, such as sales, customer service, budgeting, operations, hiring and training.
DALE: It isn’t just a matter of those skills being transferable, but of being translatable. You need to spend time with people working in your target jobs to learn their workplace jargon. Further, it isn’t just skills, but style – the look and dress, and etiquette and camaraderie. They all go into the answer to the inevitable question, “Will Jason fit in?”
J.T.: You could benefit from a career coach or other professional help in getting your resumé, LinkedIn profile, elevator pitch and other career tools to resonate with corporate America. Further, you might get help mapping out a networking strategy to develop new contacts who can open doors for you and get you the exposure that Dale is talking about. The most successful career transitions happen when people leverage their relationships to get recommended for jobs, getting screened in rather than screened out.
DALE: Said another way, it isn’t just a matter of possessing transferable skills, but of you taking hold of those skills, along with your materials and relationships, and reinterpreting them. You can’t expect prospective employers to figure out how they transfer; you have to make the transfer for them.
