If You Are Out of Work - Do You Lack Ambition?

Well, happy, happy day everyone. This is Bernadette Boas and you are on Shedding the Bitch Radio, and I'm hoping that you're having a glorious day today. It's kind of gloomy and cloudy and wet here in Atlanta, which quite honestly I'm not going to complain about because you've heard me all summer and spring talking about how hot and dry it's been in Atlanta. So I welcome the fact that it's got a nice cool breeze so we can open up the windows and open up the doors. And at the same time, the cloud is giving some nice, um, relief from the heat, although it is October, so you would hope that we're done with the 90+ rain days. I don't know where you are. I know Texas and some people in the Southwest area were also dealing with 100+ days for 30, 60, 90 days in a row. But I hope everybody's doing great. I am, I am. I've been traveling quite a bit recently, so I'm off again this afternoon to go out to a client and work with them on strategic interviewing. So I'm kind of a little bit distracted, I'll admit. And yet I found a really good subject that I'd love to dialogue with you about. And we were going to be talking all month about office politics and basically anything that crops up around kind of difficult situations in the workplace with your boss, with your peers, with the office politics, whatever the case might be. But then I saw a note on Facebook this morning. Actually, I posed a question because there was an article out challenging the fact that if people are out of work for any given amount of time, more so on the long side of the scale, then they were challenging whether or not they lacked ambition. So I sent that out on Facebook, and I, you know, I wanted to kind of hear from other people as to whether or not they believe that that statement is true or not. And it kind of struck me when someone actually responded. I was expecting kind of both sides of the of the argument. And I, you know, but yet I was surprised at my reaction when I did see someone say that yes, you know, they felt that someone lacked ambition if they were still out of a job after a long period of time. And I don't know, I'm not out of a job. I, you know, I do have my own businesses fortunately, and I do have clients fortunately. But yet that really struck a nerve because I know a lot of people over the last— actually forever, but predominantly the last 3 or 4 years when I lost my job, and I went through a career management group called Right Management here in Atlanta and was very— was immediately thrown in with a large group of people that were out of jobs. And, you know, and they kind of ran the gamut on expertise and on their level of, um, of ambition, I guess. Or maybe not ambition— what I would call it is they, you know, they definitely got a plan together when it came to going looking for a job. And then I've known others that have been out of a job for a year, 2 years, and longer And I don't think it's fair. I'll respond to my own feeling when I saw this comment. I don't think it's fair to kind of just assume that someone's lacking ambition because they've been out of a job for a long time. And I'd love to hear your opinions and even your situation that you're in. One, I'm a great networker and I'm a great, as you guys know for listening to me for so long, and I definitely love being able to hook up people whether they're looking for a job or they're looking for clients or they're looking for resources or whatever the case might be. But I'd love to hear your thoughts and opinions on that statement as— or that question as to whether or not people lack ambition if they've been out of a job for a long time. Because those people that I know, some of them have very specialized skills, and that skill in some industries has gone away or it's been so greatly reduced. Now they're in a kind of a retraining, retooling, reskilling timeline or period of time. And therefore, you know, it's not a lack of ambition as much as it's a lack of availability and available jobs. And therefore they're going and trying to figure that out. And then there are some people that they're just— they're in that pool, that big pool of an industry that is heavily penetrated. And yes, there's availability out there, but at the same time, the competition's that much greater as to who they're able to, you know, go and search out a job for. Maybe they're in a bad location, maybe they're in just an area that's very competitive. So I would love your thoughts, whether it's through the chat room, which I see a good number of people joining in, or if you want to call in at 1-818-572-2910. And let me know your thoughts. Do you feel that someone out of a job for a long time lacks ambition? I wanna say that from all the people that I've met with, and I do a lot of public speaking with both businesses and organizations and associations, but I also do a lot of speaking to job searching networks of people. And just did one, I'm gonna say it was not last week, the week before, And there was a room full, probably a good 40 people, predominantly men to women, and jobs and careers and skills across the gamut. And they've also been out of jobs everywhere from a month to, you know, a couple of years. So I want to also provide some— oh, I'm getting something on the chat room, so I'm going to stop for a minute. Hey Kay, good to hear from you. Um, hi Bernadette. I think like anything else, some people get exhausted by the search, and over a long period of time they have less and less energy to be in the hunt, and they lose— and they— I lost something— and they lose or have a diminished ambition. And there are people out there that are never defeated, and they keep going and going and going like the Energizer Bunny. I absolutely agree. I definitely, definitely agree. Um, great point, Kay, that Yes, some people get so drained out of the search that they just kind of give up. And hopefully those people— because we are going to talk about tips and advice and things that I could recommend, and if any of you want to send in or call in your recommendations and tips too, that you could, whether or not it's been a long time and you've lost your hope, your energy, your motivation, Or if it's just simply you just kind of need some new ideas and new things to think about when it comes to a job search. And you know, this radio show is not limited to what we talk about. I've never positioned it to talk about specifically business, if you have a business, or if you're in corporate, or if you have a, you know, some other personal life issue. You know, basically shedding the job loss bitch is a really, really valid concern and valid issue that many of you are dealing with out there. So, when I saw this come across Facebook and created this challenge, so to speak, I definitely thought it was an appropriate dialogue to have. So, thank you Kay for your input and anybody else who wants to. So, going forward from there. So, there may be some that have lost ambition, there may be some that are still going like the Energizer Bunny. And then there's some that are recently— because, you know, as much as people are hiring again, and I get calls or emails or LinkedIn posts that basically kind of create the positive side of this whole issue, that there are people hiring. I work with clients that are hiring here in Atlanta, just FYI, if anybody's in Atlanta. So, you know, there's definitely things going on, but yet there's, like I said earlier, there's industries and their segments and their skill sets that are not, that they all have been cut, cut very drastically. Either we've lost those skill sets here in the, in the States, or those industries have moved on, or those, they're no longer needed. I mean, think about what technology has done to a lot of industries out there. Think about the automotive industry and, and so many others. Anything that has to do with data and information Yes, you'd think there's a lot of businesses that are coming on the scene as a result of those new areas of expertise, but guess what? They've also killed many other industries, hard copy industries that deal with data analytics, research, whatever the case might be. So, let's just kind of dive in and like talk about some of the things that— I'm gonna address the ones that have lost energy or— I don't like to use the word ambition because I think You know, you want a job. I don't find many people out there that are just purely lazy couch potatoes. I don't. You might, and if you do, I'd love to hear about them. But I really don't. Not that there's not some moocher out there that, you know, moved back in with parents or with a friend and they're just kind of taking advantage of, you know, this, this time in this situation. I'd rather talk with those that just basically, like Kay mentioned, has just lost energy and motivation. And this can even apply if you have your own business and you've just gotten exhausted and tired and drained of really going on the hunt for new clients and prospects. Because trust me, I was there myself, whether— never kind of tired in the corporate world, they pretty much kept me busy there, but going out on my own and really, really just working hard to build businesses, can get to that point of just total drain and exhaustion. So maybe these tips can apply to, to you as well. And again, if you have any of your own, please call in or chat them in. One of them would be, you know, just if you've lost the energy, reach out to someone or reach out to a group. There's a lot of great not only job search networking groups, but there are also some there are also some strategy groups, at least there are here in Atlanta. And if there isn't one where you are, you can actually start one. I'm gonna also just pause for just a minute because I'd love to hear Kay's tips. I'd rather you guys talk than me talk. So Kay is suggesting through the chat room, I have been talking to staffing agencies lately to learn more about the mindsets of these people, and they are having to turn away people who have been out of work too long. And who don't have the skills. We all have to keep reinventing ourselves and keep ourselves sharp. Yeah, I agree. Now, I would kind of want to pose a question back, Kay, if you have the opportunity. I'd want to pose the question back: are they turning them away because they've been out so long that they— okay, yes, you are saying that. So basically, Kay's saying that staffing agencies are turning away people that have been out of business for so long and who haven't taken the time and the opportunity to sharpen their skills, reinvent themselves. And that was going to be my major tip. One, one is definitely going to be to search out groups that are strategically trying to help you. There are a lot of groups out there with people that are out of work, and unfortunately a lot of them turn into, you know, basically pushing business cards in front of you. And you're out of work, they're out of work, and therefore there's not a lot— they're not there with the mindset of how can I help you find a job. They're there, especially if they've been out of work for a long time, with the mindset, how can I find a job and how can you help me find a job. So one thing I would definitely change a strategy on is look, search out those groups that are more strategic, that are kind of coming together to collaborate on what's working, what's not, what are you doing, what can I do, and therefore out of that you're getting new ideas, you're getting, you're staying sharp, you're staying in the mix, you're staying in that networking mindset. But then to Kay's point, if you are not, regardless if your industry still exists and regardless if your skill set is still needed, if you're not trying to learn other skills and other specialties that you can then apply yourself to, that maybe your primary skill really complements or contributes to or enhances, that would be a really, really good first place to start, is to get back into whether or not it's formal school, college, whatever, or if it's just part-time vocational type of schooling, or whether it's just webinars and special classes that if you take a look out there at like the school of the Terry College of Business here in Atlanta, offers tremendous amount of extracurricular, if you want to call it, or just ongoing educational development type of training and webinars and seminars and overall courses. So I think that's a good place to start, is maybe go get some advice as to where do your skills— and there's a lot of coaches out there that can, that can also help you with this, that have assessments, that have tools that would look at your current skill set and your current experience and your current background and then say, "Well, guess what? You can also apply these skills over here into this area." Or maybe they say, "You can't apply those exact skills, but those skills you have will contribute nicely over into this area." And therefore, you may find yourself totally reinventing yourself, as Kay mentioned, into a whole different industry, into a whole different skill set. But I'll go back to her other point about the mindset. And Kay Zern, if you— I'm gonna give you a little plug here, okay? Kay Zern is a coach herself, and you can kind of look her up online to kind of see where her areas of specialty are. But, you know, she would probably also advise you that, you know, regardless of what the situation is out there, whether or not, you know, there is any chance of you finding a job in the industry and in the segment that you're accustomed to, or you have to totally reinvent yourself. It's gonna be all about your mindset, about how you approach this, about how you vision and see and look at what's going on out in the marketplace. Are you one that's sitting there and kind of boo-hooing it? You know, you're sitting there wallowing in the ongoing unemployment rate, of which you can't have any impact, positive or negative, to? Are you sitting there watching the news and getting caught up in all the drama that they create around issues like this? They're never gonna sit there and say, hey, guess what, you know, the world's beautiful and everyone's hiring and your skill set is very much needed. You know, you know that they like to put some negative spin on it. Not all media and not everything, but what you need to do is you need to determine and commit to yourself that you're not going to let anybody else get the better of you, or you're not going to let any media get the better of you, or whatever is going on out there, you're not going to let, let it get the better of you. And therefore, you're open-minded and you're positive, and your, your mindset supports the, the effort that you're going to need to make in order to find a new job or reinvent yourself. So Kay's got some additional information. Thank you, Kay. Okay, so hold on a minute, let me see, let me scroll up here. Um, also really great to do this type of work you're talking about to see if you could be entrepreneurial and consider buying a business. That was going to be my next point. Great. Uh, buying a franchise, starting a business aligned with a direct sales company whose products you like, um, or starting your own business yourself if you've been in a long job search, perhaps reinventing yourself into your own business or business ownership is key. And, um, I have to follow up with Kay because I know she held a fabulous entrepreneurial business expo out in San Diego. Hopefully any of you out there listening in San Diego, uh, learned of it. If not, you really need to pay attention to my Facebook pages and Twitter pages, um, because I do kind of try to deploy all of those events around the country, actually around the world. That you could take advantage of, both business, corporate, entrepreneurial, job loss, any, any type of topic like that. So yes, Kay brings up another great point. Kay, you should have been my guest, uh, guest radio show, show today. Um, yes, if you are also having difficulty finding a new job to put your skill set and your expertise and your experience into A job coach or a business coach or a business broker or franchise consultant can also help to determine whether or not your skill set and behaviors would support you even going into business for yourself. And then there's tons of options as to what you can do there. So for instance, when I left corporate, actually when I was given my lovely pink slip in corporate, and many of you know what that's like, I never once boo-hooed. Actually, I was giddy that I lost my job because it did provide me that opportunity to go and search out what I really wanted to do, what I really wanted to be able to manage and control myself. And I had tons, you know, I have just like probably all of you, skill sets and expertise and experience that maybe I didn't know how it applied to running my own business or building my own business as I am doing. But yet, getting a coach, getting some sort of expertise, even if it's just for an hour-long consultation, will help you tremendously determine whether or not you have the oomph, because it takes oomph, trust me, but whether or not you have the oomph to start your own business. And then you would be pleasantly, pleasantly surprised as to how many people are and have the capabilities of owning their own business, and yet they really haven't considered it, and for a number of reasons which, you know, we could definitely go into here, but that could be a whole session in itself. And if you're interested in, in kind of having a session around what does it take to start and manage and grow your own business, I would absolutely love to have that, that dialogue, whether it's a webinar or here on the radio show, because I really would love to influence that 9.1% national you know, unemployment rate, and I get asked about it so many times anyway that if I can leverage the radio show or my webinars, I'm gonna certainly do that. So if you have any other tips yourself, although Kay can keep tipping if she'd like, you can call in at 1-818-572-2910, or you can chat in like Kay's doing if you're online in the chat room. I just need to acknowledge the fact that my lovely little four-legged friend Charlie kind of wanted to say hello to you. So if you're watching this on video, since I also tape these every week, then you'll potentially be able to catch a little glimpse of Charlie here because I need to keep him quiet so he doesn't bark the rest of our 10 minutes or so that we've got here. So yeah, so as, as was mentioned so far, you have an opportunity to search out groups that, you know, even job search groups, or even just start your own mastermind, your own, you know, your own mentoring group where you all come together strategically to dialogue around what you could be doing to help and support your job search or your business acquisition, whatever the case might be. The other thing to do is to, like Kay mentioned, consider going and engaging a career coach or a business coach of any kind who does specialize in assessments and assessing your capabilities, your skills, your personality, uh, as to whether or not you're one of those people that can, you know, really flourish and, and benefit from, uh, owning your own business and starting your own business. I always knew that I was— actually, it was a goal of mine by the time I was 40 And because I also knew I was very entrepreneurial even when I was in corporate, but yet, you know, I was always surprised at really where my skill set would fit and where my expertise could complement, you know, in working even with other clients. So, you know, you just don't know. So engage someone to help you with that. So that's a great tip as well. And then of course, you know, the job search is a job. You know, that's one point I want to make sure that we get in here as well, is it is a job to find a job. Now, that's a way for those of you who have been out of work for a long time. Oh, we talked about training and getting and reinventing yourself. So yes, that's the other one is get training, go and find, you know, courses that you can take, go back to school if need be, but find some ways so you can retool, reskill yourself. Even into whole new different areas of the industry. The other thing too, though, is being that it is a full-time job to find a job. That is how— that's one mindset that you can put in your head so you can stay focused and stay motivated. So if you treat it as a job, then what did you do when you worked? You know, whether it was mandated or passed down by your company or you did it yourself, Well, you set goals, you manage a calendar, you know, you do the things that you would do if you were actually have a job and a project with deadlines and deliverables that were due and you had a boss to answer to. Go and find those things. Go in and let's sit down and write out your goals. What is it that you're trying to accomplish? And many of you looking for a job, it's to find a job, but it's not just to find a job. Do you want to find a paycheck or do you want to find a career? Do you want to find something that you can apply your passion to? Do you want to find, you know, something that will retool you or prepare you for kind of your longer-term ambition? But lay out the goals and the purpose as to what it is that you're trying to accomplish. And then with that goal, you then can, just like any goal-setting process, You can then determine the activities and the tasks that you need to do to address those goals. Now, one thing that Right Management taught me, and I have to give them credit for this, is Right Management is a career transition organization here in Atlanta. I think they're national, actually, and they help you kind of, you know, look for a job. Now, even though I wasn't looking for a job and I knew I wasn't going to be going and working for somebody else, I took advantage of having their expertise to help me stay focused and plan how do I go and search for a business. So it's the same thing, right? You're searching for a job, you're searching to buy a business. One thing that they taught me is I really kind of shied away from wanting to pick up the phone and saying, "Hey, look, I'm out of a job," and, you know, in your case it might be, "I'm looking for a job," or someone else— my case it was, "I'm looking for a business to buy." They coached us that as opposed to, you know, using your Rolodex and picking up the phone and asking that question, which could turn off a lot of people. If you picked up the phone and said, "Hey Joe, I just lost my job 6 months ago, a year ago," whatever the case might be, "and I'm looking for a job. Do you have any ideas?" Well, as much as Joe wants to help you, you're gonna get a lot of unanswered phone calls, or you potentially could get a lot of, um, sorry bud, I can't, or sorry honey, I can't. Not because they don't want to, but because they potentially just can't. They don't know where the jobs are, they don't know who's hiring, and they don't want to disappoint you. They don't want to hurt you and disappoint you, so they'd rather just not kind of confront that question and confront you. Because they don't want to disappoint you. So instead of looking at your Rolodex as potential people that can find you jobs, look at your Rolodex as potential advisors and, and thought leaders that know you enough to where they can kind of make suggestions or give you ideas as to where, you know, you might, you know, put your time and focus to. So if you were to pick up the phone and call me and say, Bernadette, you know, I lost my job 6 months ago and I am looking for advisement or ideas or thought leadership as to where do you think, you know, my type of skill set might be most suited, or where— what other industries or other capabilities or other jobs do you think that, you know, I would fit into? And do you have any ideas or suggestions as to what I can do next to keep myself moving forward and searching out my next step, my next stage of life? Now, I took that approach when it came to even going back to my Rolodex, at which time then was maybe 1,200. And I literally picked up the phone and used that strategy to search out where do they think I fit. And at the same time, keep in mind, for those of you who follow me regularly, I also had to get over the fact that I was gonna hear some negative feedback as to the whole corporate bitch attitude that I had. I definitely heard also where they suggested I do work and get some development around, especially if I wanted to be in a leadership or a CEO type of role. So, but yet I was open to hearing that. I was open to wanting to get other people's ideas and suggestions. And I have to tell you, I probably placed a few hundred calls with that approach, and it gave me a few— it gave me a few hundred ideas and suggestions. So that's another really big way to approach your job search is Don't look to people to find a job for you. Look for them to give you ideas and suggestions and thought leadership as to how you can leverage your own skills and capabilities. Okay, so those are some tips on shedding the job loss bitch here on Shedding the Bitch Radio. And then come back next week, next Tuesday. I'm gonna spend the next several weeks on not only job loss but these topics of How you can stay motivated and move forward in building your business or finding a job or a number of other type of business type subjects. And if you have any ideas, I'd love to hear your ideas at BernadetteBoas@SheddingTheBitch.com. So, check out SheddingTheBitch.com. Actually, our new website will be deploying shortly. So, I'd love to give you a date, but we've had some migration issues. But definitely check us out over the next week or so and you'll see our new website that will be very collaborative. And then come back next Tuesday at noon, sheddingthebitchradio.com. Love to see you there. Take care everybody and have a great day. Hey, thanks Kay for your time and for your input. Would definitely welcome you back. Thanks Kay, thanks everybody. Talk to you soon. Thank you for using BlogTalkRadio. Goodbye. Thank you.