How to help your friends job search

In 2017 I had the good fortune of doing my first ever job search.

While I’ve been professionally employed for more than twenty [mumble] years, my past job acquisition process can be most accurately described as: occasionally agreeing to go work for someone else.

Before I start my next big opportunity (more on that later), I want to take a moment to reflect on what I learned and share one big idea that anyone can do to help with a friends job search.

For context, here are some stats and observations on my funployment

• 14 months to find a fit that both excited me and wanted to hire me — this probably shouldn’t have been a surprise… but it was.
• I met/called/connected/engaged about 400 people
• I had coffee/meetings 2-3 times a week
• I pursued about 40 awesome jobs
• Bias is alive and well and shows up in very subtle ways
• My network is amazing — I had more than 75% response with LinkedIn messages I sent out asking for leads
• Many people went way above and beyond with helpfulness — brainstorming, connecting and recommending me

In retrospect, the smartest thing I did was to create structure, community and accomplishment into this unstructured time.  I shifted my energy to improving my positivity and health, and as a result, I came through both mentally and physically stronger.  Huge shoutout to Angie at I Am Fitness and all my Sweatheart friends at DanceSweatSmile for making this fun.

Of course, every kind of help is appreciated in a job search: encouragement, coffee, lunch, brainstorming, job leads, etc.   But I learned that one thing a few people did had an outsized impact, reminding me of my unique strengths.  

This helped in two ways

1. Gave me words to describe my work.
2. Helped me stay positive in a time of waiting, rejection and extraversion overload.

Some amazing things people took the time to say:

• you were tough, intelligent and had vision – I miss that
• you have a great understanding of dependencies and how they are designed and deployed
• you are such a bright, dynamic and interesting person
• transformational leadership is your strength
• you are always looking at how to create, disrupt and build the most effective organizations and teams
• When you were leading we were at “peak collaboration and cohesiveness”.  I appreciated that we were always working towards a strategic goal.
• I am a huge fan and I would love to work for you again
• Superpowers include pioneering new things, thriving amidst uncertainty, taking risks and building great teams

It is with great gratitude and humility that I wrap up this chapter, and extreme excitement that I begin my new impactful journey.

To all my friends, associates and colleagues, I am blessed to know you. I  would be honored to have a chance to share my observations of your uniquely awesome superpowers.  Put me on your list of people to alert when you are searching for your next job.