Outplacement Explained: What is it, and how to make the most of outplacement coaching

So on this episode of the Biotech Career Coach, we're going to dive deep into outplacement. What is outplacement? Why does it matter? Why is it super beneficial for people who are either receiving outplacement or for companies who are considering offering outplacement? So, Karina, let's jump into it. Let's start with the very obvious first question. What are we talking about when we talk about outplacement?

I'm Karina Klingman, scientist turned CEO of a talent strategy consulting firm. I've helped over 85 biotechs hire and develop thousands of amazing employees. So I know what works and what doesn't work when it comes to landing a job and then excelling in it. I created the Biotech Career Coach podcast to give you simple, actionable, step by step strategies to help you land your dream biotech job, then move up the career ladder.

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In the right place. Yeah, a lot of people come to us with this question because they're laid off and they get a severance package of some flavor. It could be a few months, it could be a few weeks, and they sometimes get outplacement and are confused about even what it is and how to use it. So outplacement is actually just a really big category of things. So there is no one definition of outplacement. I'm just going to say that if you go to 10 different companies that outplace offer outplacement, you're going to get 10 different answers. So it's not the case. Like, if you've seen outplacement, you've seen it all. So every different company is going to offer a little bit of a different flavor. But in general, it's going to be support for people who are transitioning from one job to another, whether they've been laid off or in a lot of cases, you can buy it individually as well if you are making that transition voluntarily or just looking for your next job. So typically we hear it in the context of outplacement as something the company provides for people. So it's kind of a group of services and we can kind of go through the, the high points of it. Often there's a career coaching component. What do you want to do next? Did you like what you were doing? Do you want to do something different? And I think that's one that is not always on the list of options, but I think it's a really valuable one.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think sometimes, you know, being laid off is a really unfortunate event, obviously, but sometimes people take that as the opportunity to really think about, like, okay, well, now that I have to find a new career, is it the same one that I've had, or is it time to pivot and having someone to bounce that idea off of and maybe say, okay, what transferable skills do I have that lend themselves to maybe something different that's in the same realm, but maybe unique or maybe something totally different to you that can be really, really helpful. Forests and trees a little bit, right?

Absolutely. Yeah. The next big thing that we see in outplacement is some sort of a resume, cover letter, application, package, type of assistance. So getting you ready to go market yourself. And a lot of people who have been happily employed and are suddenly not employed, they are not ready mentally or, you know, with the materials, the physical materials, their resume, the LinkedIn profile, all of that to even go start to market themselves. So that should be central to outplacement and often is. Central to the outplacement offering is that ability to get support on crafting and refining that sort of digital presence.

When people talk about resumes and outplacement, there are companies that will write your resume for you. My opinion is that no one is going to write your resume better for you than you are. You know, your career, you know what you've done, you know, the things that you want to bring to the table and how to best describe that? I am not disparaging people who can write resumes really well. That is fantastic. But learning to write your own resume is such a skill that you will keep for the rest of your life. And I think that not only is that one benefit that you've got that resume writing skill in your back pocket, the other thing is that when you have had to sit there and really work on your resume, you're then able to speak to your resume really well in an interview. So if someone's like, okay, in bullet point three X, Y, Z, you're like, yep. And I put that in there because I did this whole project and you're not kind of grasping at like, oh, yeah, what was I trying to get at there? So little food for thought, something to be aware of that some places will write your resume for you, others will sort of guide you through the process and teach you how to write your own resume, which I think is more beneficial for more people in the long.

Term, I could not agree more with that. It's the whole process of writing the resume that gives you the clarity, even on what you're going to say in the interview and how you're going to carry that presence through the entire process. And we have seen a lot of candidates come in, even to our program with pre written resumes. They have hired a resume writer and they it might be a pretty resume, it might be aesthetically pleasing, but it doesn't actually speak to what the person wants to do and what they want to communicate. And that becomes apparent in the first conversation. So if I can pick up on that and I'm not interviewing them for a job, you can bet the interviewer is going to pick up on that because it wasn't written by them, it wasn't their voice, it wasn't encapsulating what they want to say. And so just to harp on that a little bit more, the other thing is that if you pay somebody to write your resume for you, often you're really resistant to tailoring that resume for each job because you think, well, I spent all this money and it looks so good and if I mess it up, you know, I'm doing myself a disservice. No, every job is so individual. And so once you've learned the process of writing your resume and you have what we call sort of your template resume, we have a template resume, but then you take that, you make it your template resume, that then is something you can easily tailor because you created it and then you look at the specific job and I'm going to do a whole other podcast episode on reading a job description with the eye toward tailoring. But when you really understand how the resume is written and put together, it's really simple. Tailor it. It doesn't take all that much extra effort.

I think if we take it even further, sometimes during a layoff or during a job search, it's a really good time to think about your value proposition and what you want to be doing. When you have to sit down and create your own resume and you have to think about like, okay, what did I do that I really want to put a focus on? That can be really enlightening because sometimes you're like, wow, I hated this whole one aspect of my job. So I don't want to list that because I don't want to do that. So sometimes it's a bit of a self fulfilling prophecy because you start pulling out like, oh, I loved when I did that project management on this, but I absolutely Hated when I did this other project, and I don't want that. And then you can start really tailoring your job search to the things that, you know you didn't like that thing. You don't even want to include it as a project you did. So you certainly wouldn't take a job where that's like 95% of the work.

Absolutely. That's a whole exercise we point people to do, is to really dissect the work day by day from their other jobs to kind of put a label to it. Loved this. Didn't love this. And that can come through in your resume, your LinkedIn profile, the interview presence you bring forward, the whole thing. One more thing about this, and this is biotech specific. If you hire a resume writer who is not a scientist and you are a scientist, we already have a challenge to communicate our value propositions as scientists. So imagine playing telephone, then that old game of telephone where it's like you say something to someone else and then they say it to someone else. But now you're adding technical science jargon into that mix. And the intermediary and the recipient are not necessarily scientists. That's a huge problem. Your message will get lost, it'll get garbled. It is not the right way to put your foot forward for that job.

It's a really, really good point. Okay, so moving away from resumes, what else could someone who is working with an outplacement firm expect to get? Obviously they'll get some type of resume guidance, whether it's written or teaching. What else? What goes into this?

A lot of the time you're going to see some combinations of a few other things and we'll hit on them briefly and then maybe talk a little bit about what they might look like. But some sort of a strategy component, like how do you even conduct job search? What's the best practices? How should you be doing that? And that is shallower or deeper, depending on the outplacement service. And again, thinking industry, specifically, where is it best for biotech, where are you going to find the best jobs? Networking, et cetera. For biotech, the other things would be workshops and training regarding interview skills, offer negotiations, sort of the rest of the process. So yeah, you got to get, you got to get your foot in the door. You've got to get that interview, whether it's through networking or applications. But then you're going to need to show up, you're going to need to interview, you're going to need to negotiate your job offer and all of that Stuff. So typically there's some sort of a training there. And then last is one that we don't see very often in these programs, which is a more of an emotional support component. And that comes from community. So sometimes there will be a strong community aspect to these. Many times we see outplacement services as more of an individualized thing. So you will get five sessions with one on one with a coach. And that's, that is outplacement. That's really, really common. And then you lose the sort of community aspect of seeing, okay, we're all in this together. You know, there are other people in the same boat. How come you support me, I can support you. And getting that community, that's something that we don't see very often in outplacement.

Yeah, and that's a shame because I do think that is so, so important because part of being impacted by job loss or a job change, it's stressful, it's scary, and it has a knock on effect. Right. Like your family is impacted by that. And so if your outlet is talking to your partner about how stressed you are, that's great and that's fine. But you also need to have people who are really in the same boat who can help you and really commiserate but maybe not bring all of that internalized stress to your, you know, your personal life. Like, sometimes that's that wall you need where it's like, this is my safe spot to get this type of support. I can vent, I can be, you know, I can get the help I need. And I'm not going to have my partner have to read my resume 46 times, even though they don't really know what they're looking at either.

Yeah, absolutely. It is so critical to have just someone who's a step back from it too. The other thing about your partner or your family is that they may be scared from a totally different perspective. You know, layoffs are scary for everyone. They're scary for the person who got laid off and they're scary for your family. Everybody is worried about this. And so the motivation for the feedback they may be giving you may be coming from that lens of fear. And like, how does this affect our family and our future and our lives and all of that. That is not the energy you want to bring into the job search. And so having people who are just a step removed from that almost panic response, that is only good for you.

Why would a company, you know, a company's going through a layoff and that's really unfortunate. And they're probably doing severance payments. But why would they bother doing outplacement?

First of all, it helps them maintain positivity with the employees that are being laid off, with the community, with their brand. Layoffs are terrible, and they're terrible for the companies, too. You may be looking at a layoff from the employee side, which is awful. But you also should know that the people on the other side are also devastated by this. The company does not want to do this. It is not like a diabolical plan or anything like that. It is business. And business is. It's rough. Sometimes it's just rough. So one benefit to doing outplacement is to maintain that positive, that goodwill with the community, with the employees who are departing, with the employees that are staying. All of the above. It's sort of a goodwill gesture. And I think that it also demonstrates that they're being a responsible employer because nobody wants to have a bunch of employees who are unable to get new jobs because they've been so entrenched in what they've been doing for a long time. So if you give them the tools to be able to shape up that resume, to be able to brush up on interview skills and put their very best foot forward, they're going to get jobs faster. They're going to be happier. Everyone is going to be happier. Trust me. The companies want you to succeed. So this is in their best interest and it's in yours.

If you are an impacted employee and you are given outplacement services, how long should you expect this engagement to last? Is there a set time frame or does it vary?

It really varies. I mean, job seeking is a season, right? You shouldn't be in it for very long. That said, with the economy, the average job search lasts around five months, so it can be a bit of a slog. Our program specifically does three months of intensive work, followed by a less intensive sort of maintenance program if needed. But many of the outplacement services tend to be session driven. So you get X number of sessions within a certain time period. So maybe six sessions across two months or something like that.

And when would someone find out if they were getting outplacement services? Is this something that when you have that really not fun conversation with HR with, you know, the separation and the severance, would they bring it up at that point?

Typically, it really depends on the company and how they're messaging that some companies will have those really difficult conversations and then they'll circle back with the details because it's hard for people to hear the details in that moment. I'm certainly a fan of that approach because there is just a human conversation that needs to be had and then there's all the stuff that goes along with it. You know, all the paperwork and the logistics and all of that. So it could come at a variety of different times. I think it's really hard when you hear the news and then you also have to somehow digest all of the details of what you get when and all of that. So I would hope that your company is giving you a lot of time to ask questions and understand things fully and, you know, just get your hands around the situation and if not, come into our free Slack room and chat with us about that because we can provide you with some questions that you can ask your HR folks to get some clarity on what is and is not provided.

That's a really good point. You can still talk to your HR team. Don't hesitate to ask them questions if you're like, do I get outplacement? I don't understand my COBRA situation. X, Y, Z, email, hr. Because they are either going to have the answers or they're going to get the answers for you.

Yeah, that is their job. Yep. Hey, I just want to cut in to say that if you are enjoying this podcast, you may enjoy the Building Biotechs podcast from our sister company, Recruitomics Consulting, which is a talent acquisition strategy firm that specializes in helping small biotechs hire exceptional talent. In that podcast, we interview amazing people who are building biotechs. They are industry leaders in all different verticals and it will allow you to explore career paths in biotech and to get to know companies that maybe you've never heard about. So if you are a biotech fan, you are exploring careers in biotech. I highly recommend the Building Biotechs podcast. We'll link that in the show notes or you can search for it on Apple Podcasts or anywhere else you get your podcasts. All right, back to our show. We know a lot of HR people, but I can tell you, to a person, they all care deeply and they all really want to make this as painless as possible. And of course it's not painless, but whatever they can do to help you and support you, they will do. And so getting information, it's everyone has different needs in terms of information. So ask your questions, get them answered. It is your time to get what you need before you actually depart. We are creating a document and it should be available by the time this podcast goes live. That is just a list of frequently asked questions that you may want to get your hands on if you're going through a layoff now so that you can be sure that you do have all of your information and you've thought of all the questions. Because I can tell you in the moment, it's emotional. You may not think of everything. So if you're listening to this podcast and you want that document, jump into our slack room and just ask for it and we'll be happy to provide it because it is. It is hard to get your mental ducks in a row when you are in the midst of it.

Okay, so let's set the expectation here. If you are given outplacement services or you are accessing outplacement services, are they going to find you a job?

No, they're not going to find you a job. There are some outplacement services that will say that they have a network of employers and they'll market your resume or they'll put your resume into a database somewhere and things like that. There is no expectation that they are going to find you a job that still rests squarely on your shoulders. And so a good outplacement service, good training, is going to give you the tools that you need to be successful in your job search and the support to be successful. But if you hear that someone will get you a job, that is just false.

What about the confidentiality around outplacement services? Are they just blasting your information everywhere or is there a degree of confidentiality that you can expect?

You should be able to expect confidentiality. I can't speak to every service in the world and how they run theirs, but there should be complete confidentiality. That said, if you do have a recruitment firm that's helping with the outplacement like we are, and we see a good opportunity, we may give you an opportunity to apply for a job, but it's up to you if you want to apply for that job or not. If we see a match or if we advertise a job within our community, then you get to go and put your own application in. We're not going to do that for you for those same confidentiality reasons.

And I think this is a really important question, and it goes a little bit along the heels of, you know, are you going to find me a job? How does someone make the most out of outplacement? Do they just submit their information and kind of sit back, or is it an actionable thing that they engage with?

So, again, I'm going to speak to our Program a little bit here. You have to put in the work. The work is the work. And what we see for successful people is that they come in, they do the work. If you are doing your work diligently, it is a few hours a day for the first week of getting all of your application materials up to snuff, getting em reviewed, coming to office hours. But the bigger piece is the mindset work coming with a really positive attitude, knowing that this is surmountable. And once you have put in the work with a good attitude, you should expect reasonably to start to make progress. That is the normal thing that happens. So we like to see people come, participate, support each other. I would say the biggest thing that you can do to ensure your success is to do the work and then teach it. When you actually go in and teach something to another person, let's say you've been in the program for two weeks now, you've got a great resume template, you've started applying, you've got some interviews lined up, you are now qualified, in my opinion, to go and put your two cents in on somebody else's resume. If they post their resume, yeah, I'm going to give my feedback. But how great is it when you give yours and you say, oh, and I would also think about this, or I'm reading it like this because now you're starting to internalize what you've learned and that's going to make it stick with you for life. So the best, the most successful people, at least in our program, they come, they do the work, they have a great attitude and then they help others and it becomes a really supportive community. And you see that we're all in this together. So I think that's also a mindset boosting side effect of being in the community and doing the work. We don't see success when people ask us, will you write the resume for me? Will you do this for me? And for the reasons mentioned earlier, it's not really about just getting your resume written. It's about how the why. It's about the process of refining your thoughts and your goals and your experience so that you know what you want to apply for and you know how you want to market yourself during the whole process.

I think a critical thing here too is that sometimes timing isn't right. So for some people, they may get the news that they're being impacted by a layoff and their first thing is like, I'm going to get in there and I'm going to just join the collaboratory. I'm Going to do all the stuff. If you are feeling energized and motivated to do that, by all means, like that is incredible. And like harness that energy. But if you're like, I need to take a few weeks, I need to process this, I need to think through things, we're gonna be here and so are all the other outplacement firms. That is, I think, where we see a lot of burnout happen, where people are just so overwhelmed. I know it's jobs, right? You can't take all the time in the world, but you can give yourself a day or two or maybe a week just to process through everything that's happened. Cuz it is jarring and then move forward. So I think that's the mindset piece of it too. When you come in, you wanna be ready to do the work because it is a lot of work. Job hunting is a job. I always say it is a job.

And I advise people to approach it like a job. To carve out dedicated times in their day that it's. That are for job hunting, that are for engaging on LinkedIn, that are for working on application materials. We have structured office hour times that you can put on your calendar. Just like if you were in work and you had a meeting, you show up and you do the thing and that makes it feel more structured in sort of this scary unstructured time that is suddenly not having a job.

Yes. It's like that little thing on your calendar that you're like, okay, I'm going to do this, I'm going to check it off and then you wrap it up, then you leave it, right? Then you leave it for the day. You've done the thing you need to do, you've blocked off your time and then you go do something nice for yourself.

Treat it like a job and then leave it like a job. Even spatially, many people got used to working from home in the panic pandemic. But if that wasn't you, one of the biggest pieces of advice that we had and gave out was to carve out a specific place for work in your house. It didn't have to be big and you know, some people don't have huge spaces. It could just be a corner of an apartment. But carving that out and being like, this is for work, the rest of the house is not for work. And having that transition and even some routines. If you used to commute to work, what's your new commute? Your new commute gets to be at your, at your house, which is wonderful because you can make yoga part of your commute. You could make a morning walk part of your commute. Right. It's what do you do to get into work and out of work? Same thing. What do you do to get into job searching and then out of job searching so you can enjoy your family time and the time you're not doing job searching.

So it's really exciting that we're now at a point that we can offer outplacement services. Obviously, we've been helping people with their job hunt, whether or not they were impacted by a layoff or not. But more often than not, that is who we're seeing in the collaboratory. And it's been really great to work with those people. One thing that we have really focused on in that group though, is LinkedIn. Now, I have not come across a lot of outplacement firms that are as focused on your LinkedIn presence as they are on your resume. And I think that that's a misstep because I actually think that LinkedIn is possibly a stronger tool in your job search than your resume.

We are seeing Data that over 80% of recruiters who are interested in your resume will go visit your LinkedIn. I certainly do. As a recruiter, I visit people's LinkedIn all the time. And that is also how you network your way into jobs. And most jobs are landed through some sort of networking. It doesn't mean you didn't apply, but what we teach people to do is to apply simultaneously with networking on LinkedIn, to be working that network, getting in with some folks in the company so that they can flag up your resume to the hiring manager, to the recruiter from within. So you might already be in the system, but then they would say, oh, look out for so and so's resume. They seem great. So there's sort of a two pronged approach there. But that's when you're in it that you're in the thick of it. What we've seen is that people who have spent time, they know how to work LinkedIn, they really understand LinkedIn, they use it appropriately and they have a great network. When they go put their hand up and they say, hey, I've been affected by a layoff. They have hundreds of people flooding their profile with comments on their posts, sharing their posts, saying such and such group is hiring or this might be a job for you. I mean, we see that all the time versus somebody who doesn't use the platform at all. They put their hand up and maybe two people like their post and that's the traction it gets. It gives you a huge, huge platform.

Additionally, I think the fun part about LinkedIn and the reason that I always go and look at people's LinkedIn is your resume is one thing, but like, there's no personality on a resume and there shouldn't be. Like, do not put the fun fonts and crazy colors and all that. That's a whole nother discussion. But your LinkedIn can have some personality, like give a catchy headline, like have a cool banner image. You know, all the stuff we talk about. Yes, it has to be work related, but like, that's your chance to kind of imbibe a little personality and show someone who you are. And I think that's really compelling to people. Much more so than here's my PDF of just my accomplishments, which, like, is fine.

But well, and part of what we teach in the resume portion of our services is that that resume needs to be pared down just to the essentials. That resume is a document that only speaks to the job, really. It's what do they need to know to know if you're going to be appropriate for the job. So to your point, there's not a lot of fluff, there's not a lot of personality on there. There shouldn't be. Your LinkedIn can be really fun. It can be supporting evidence. That's what we call your LinkedIn. It's supporting evidence for your resume. When they click through from your resume, they should see a LinkedIn profile that supports the document that is your resume and goes further and it gives a little more context, a little more fun, a little bit of personality. And if you're interested in learning how to create a LinkedIn profile and really leverage that, we have a great free workshop. I'll be sure to link that into the show notes. It teaches you exactly what we're talking about. If you're trying to visualize like, oh, what does a great LinkedIn profile look like? We show you, we do some great examples and we give you some templates and things like that. So don't stress over that. But that is such a big component that we do harp on a bit because it is so important, not just now, but for your future. Also, you're probably going to be on the job market a few more times in your career. That is just how careers work, whether you want to be or not. So this is sort of like prep now, prep once, learn how to do it all, and then next time it's not so daunting or scary.

Okay, so Karina if someone wants to work with us on an individual basis, that's that person you're describing who maybe got a severance or they know a layoff is imminent and they want to start prepping. Now what do they do?

The first thing to do is to come into our world any way you'd like to. We have a free Slack community where people can come in and start asking questions. We will provide. We have a lot of free resources, but we provide the opportunity to be able to learn how to go a little bit deeper with us. It's called our job seeker accelerator program. That is the program where we work one on one with people and we give them a small group community to learn from each other as well. So it's a, it's a really nice little program. It's a three month program where we teach resume skills, we teach interview skills, LinkedIn skills and how to negotiate your offer. And we have live office hours where you can workshop all of those things with me directly. And we have a Slack group where there are some private rooms just for that community to get specific feedback.

What if you're an HR manager and you're listening to this and you realize that like, oof, we probably are looking at a layoff relatively soon, I'd say.

To email us@hellolaboratorycareerhub.com we've customized plans that really work for, for and with different companies depending on what their needs are. And you know, so we try and make it absolutely affordable for employers to be able to offer this as a benefit during this layoff that really won't break the bank but will add a lot of value to the folks that are departing.

I really feel for the people on all sides of the table going through this. And I think one thing that is interesting is that there's not many very tailored outplacement firms. This is for biotech industry specific people. If you are looking for a job in biotech or if you've been impacted by a biotech layoff, this is an outplacement service that's really tailored to you and we understand this niche so well, both in the recruiting angle, the outplacement angle and the people side of things. Most of outplacement is it's more general, right? So they offer general services to anyone who's been impacted by any type of a reduction in force or a layoff. If you need to talk to someone who understands science and really has a foot in the door in biotech, you really want to go to a biotech Specific service.

Yeah, we've gotten feedback from some candidates that have come into our program even after getting outplacement from their companies because the outplacement was not terribly valuable to them. And it was that more generalized outplacement. One candidate told me that he got outplacement and he's a scientist, a bench scientist. He got outplacement and he had five or six sessions with an outplacement specialist at this really big outplacement firm that's pretty popular. And they sat down with him and treated him as if he was some sort of an account executive, sales type person, more of like a business person. And so they were giving him resume feedback that was not specific to being a scientist and also couldn't really advise him on his job search. That just wasn't in their realm of. Of expertise, which is understandable. So that wasn't terribly valuable. And that individual ended up purchasing our service, which is something that was very much more valuable in their specific case of being a scientist. Within our services, we allow individuals to opt in themselves if they have not been given outplacement by their company. And we also offer it to organizations. So one little hint I want to give you is that if you are facing a layoff right now, and that is why you're listening to this particular episode, or if you've just learned that that's maybe pending in your company, it is worth asking for outplacement as part of your severance package. It's absolutely worth it. And if you are specifically in the biotech space, we would love to speak with anyone in your HR group because we know that we can give very specific biotech centric outplacement to you that is going to actually be a lot cheaper than some of the outplacement that isn't even tailored for biotech. So just to put that bug in your ear. So hopefully that was helpful. I know outplacement is this black box. Hopefully if you're listening to this and you're like, I've never heard of outplacement and I don't need it, that's great. That's really the ideal place to be. But if you are on the job market and you are worried about this, know that there are resources. We have a lot of free resources and we have some paid resources. If you want to go deeper with us, that is definitely a possibility and it is affordable. So I want to really highlight that. So hopefully this was helpful and we will see you next week.

I'm Karina Klingman, scientist turned CEO of a talent strategy consulting firm. I've helped over 85 biotechs hire and develop thousands of amazing employees so I know what works and what doesn't work when it comes to landing a job and then excelling in it. I created the Biotech Career Coach Podcast to give you simple, actionable, step by step strategies to help you land your dream biotech job, then move up the career ladder.

If you are exploring career paths, looking.

To learn about biotech, or simply striving to be the type of person who makes an impact and gets promoted, you're.

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