As many of you might have read, I was laid off of work on January 8th, due to a company layoff that affected 98 people at my facility, out of a workforce of about 500+.

A week later, the company revealed that they were actually going to be laying everyone off, in pre-determined stages, and closing the plant entirely by the end of the year.

That same period, the first two weeks of January, at least 5 other major companies announced large scale layoffs or plant closings here in Minnesota within the Twin Cities area.

The economy is in tight times, and not only are you facing more competition from other newly unemployed people looking for work… but with the irresponsible panic being broadcast by the new administration and the American media, many companies are tightening their belts, and cutting back on plans for growth, expansion, and are finding ways of doing without replacing vacant positions. All to try and maintain profitability when they are told that things will only get worse.

Well, I agree the economy is certainly not going through a period of joy and plenty, but there are still positions available out in the job market. Not every company has bought into the panic and doom and gloom. There are still plenty of people that believe in the future, and are looking to expand and grow, and yes, they are still hiring.

Yesterday, I was offered a position of employment in an established, innovative, very successful company. An excellent position. My responsibilities will be what I feel I truly WANT to do, and what I am highly skilled at, the level of compensation is exactly what I was looking for, and even is a slight increase over my previous position. 

I have even accomplished my personal goal of moving my career away from the volatile industry of Printed Circuit Board contract manufacture, an industry that is being increasingly outsourced to overseas markets, and have positioned myself in an industry that I feel has excellent growth potential, and at a company within that industry that I feel confident is poised to grow and succeed.

I accepted the job, and I am scheduled to start on March 2nd.

I have been actively looking for employment since the first moment I came home from the layoff meeting on January 8th. It has taken me exactly 40 days and nights of seeking employment to land my first job offer, and I am fortunate in that it is exactly the position and placement that I most hoped to find.

However, it was not my only possible opportunity. I have, since getting that offer, had other employers contact me with serious follow ups.

I know things are difficult, very difficult when looking for a job right now, and keeping an optimistic outlook is only getting harder with every self-serving news broadcast driving you to panic… and coincidentally tune in for more news updates.

It can be very hard to believe that there are any opportunities in this economy. I know.

Don’t believe them. There are opportunities. They are out there, I promise you.

To do what I can to help those of you, like me, that have been looking for a new job, I wanted to share some of my personal tips for doing the absolute best you can to make the most out of every opportunity you apply for. 

These are, since they are coming from me… “No shitters.”

1) Attention to detail is king.

You know you need to have a resume. You SHOULD know that you really need to have a personally written cover letter as well. You will very likely be expected to fill out an application for employment, and you will need a list of references, people that can be contacted by the employer who know you and your work ethic.

Every single word, phrase, sentence, and communication you have with everyone involved in the employment process must be perfect.

Every interaction with your potential employer MUST be error-free. If you suffer from various conditions that increase the possibility for mistakes in the written word, such as dyslexia, then you MUST work three times as hard to triple-check your communications for accuracy. You have to. You must never, ever send anything to an employer or human resources professional that has mistakes on it.

Spelling, grammar, personal information, claims as to what your skills are. Everything must not only be factual, it must be perfectly presented, without mistakes.

The human resources department, or in smaller cases the employer himself, will see your cover letter and your resume. If they are reading it, and see that you have mispelled words, or have phrased things in ways that obscure your meaning… they will get a feel for the person you are. And those feelings will be ’sloppy’, ‘careless’, ‘lacks attention to details’, and the worst one of all time, ‘cannot catch or correct mistakes or defects’.

Employers these days are looking to cut costs wherever they find them. One of the largest single wastes is scrapped material, product that was being made, and was ruined by a mistake during processing. One of the biggest causes of scrap in manufacturing is careless or inattentive work, and one of the worst money sinkholes happens when a defective product is not caught early, and time and materials continue to be added to the defective product further and further down the process of production. The sooner a defect is caught and the cause is identified and corrected, the better for the bottom line, and the better your quality can become. 

You DO NOT want to tell a prospective employer that you cannot even catch the defects in your own cover letter or resume, let alone whatever you would like to do for them when you get your hands on their product. 

What if you just happen to be a careless, sloppy person that does not have attention to detail?

Then WORK ON IT, as if your very life depends on it. Because long term, it does. Practise perfection in everything you do, and work hard to pay attention to those fine details. Work very, very hard.

2) Strive for clarity.

When you write your resume, when you create a cover letter for each position you are applying for, be as clear as possible about each concept you are discussing.

Do not write just to fill the paper with words. Each sentence must have a clear purpose for being on the page.

I cannot stress this enough. When an employer is reading your resume, when a human resources person is scanning it… they may not even know what the job you are applying for DOES. They are looking, as quickly as possible, for keywords on your resume that are appropriate for the position they are trying to fill.

CAD. SolidWorks. Maintenance. Previous management experience. Food service experience. Medical manufacturing. 5S. Six Sigma. Lean Manufacturing. Calibration. Test Engineering. Quality measurement. Defect analysis. Scrap reduction. In-flight rotor technician.

Whatever career you may be applying for, there are going to be commonly used industry phrases and terms associated with it.

Identify exactly what skills you have that are directly applicable to the position you are applying for. DIRECTLY applicable. Translate those skills into the appropriate terms and phrases recognised in your industry.Those go at the very top of the resume, where they will be highly visible.

After that, identify what other skills you have that you feel would HELP in performing the position, skills that would give you an advantage and contribute to your success in the position. What we call synergistic skills, skills that build upon each other. Those skills help give you an advantage over someone else that has the core skills, but may lack complimentary experience. Place these next on the resume.

After that, a brief section on previous work history that directly relates to the position you are applying for. There is time enough to tell someone you were ‘chief fry guy’ at McDonalds when they have you fill out an official Application for Employment. This is your resume. It’s purpose is to tell an employer what you know, and what you have done, that qualifies you for the job. Period. Gaps in employment are bad, so you have to use your best judgment… but it’s better to focus on what you actually have done that contributes to your new career.

It gets across to an employer that you have the core skills they need, plus you bring a little extra as well that supports those core skills. And it also tells your prospective employer that you can think clearly, and focus on what is important. That you can identify a priority, in this case what the job description specifically asks for… and that you can bring that clear vision to work for him.

If you bury your skills in a mountain of words, if you swamp them with text that is irrelevant to their needs… then the human resources person that is pre-screening the applicants will not see how well suited you are for the position, and they will move on to the next resume from the over 300 they have received that day.

And if you bury your skills in a mountain of words, then even if it reaches the employer, he will feel that your mind is a jumbled mix, lacking focus or direction.

Does that sound like someone YOU would want to hire?

Make it very, very easy for a human resources person, or an employer, to see exactly what you have to offer them.

Strive to clear your mind of distractions, build your ability to identify priorities… and focus on the most important ones.

Do you have a hard time maintaining a focus? Of identifying priorities? When you are up to your ass in alligators, is it hard for you to focus on the fact that your assigned mission was to drain the swamp?

Then you’ve found more things in your character to consider working on improving! Congratulations!

3) Keep it concise.

I just touched on it briefly when talking about clarity, about being as clear as possible about what skills you can offer an employer that he needs for a position.

When you represent your skills and experience on your resume… you want to be as brief as possible. Get your point across clearly… and be done.

Don’t write a dictionary, don’t provide a life’s history, don’t ramble on.

You want to focus specifically on those skills and talents and experiences that you possess that directly apply to the position you are applying for… and no more.

If you are, in your spare time, a Scoutmaster for your local Boy Scout troop, you are proud of it, and you feel that this extra-curricular activity shows that you are civic-minded and charitable to the community… list it at the very end of your resume, if you feel you absolutely have to.

But my advice to you is to not mention it on the resume. Instead, if you are a member of an organization that has ties to your profession outside the workplace, showing your commitment to your chosen field, list those instead. Professional associations show a level of commitment to your field that goes outside a 9-to-5 job. Those are a bonus, an enhancement to the dedication you are trying to convey. 

Wait until an actual interview opportunity to mention the Scouting, and how you feel it builds your character and other traits that are directly relevant to your profession.

Your cover letter should be a very brief paragraph or two mentioning those skills you have that you feel REALLY make you ideal for the position… and mention in passing that those skills, in addition to the others on your resume, are why you feel you are ideal for the job. It’s an enticement, a teaser to ‘look inside’.

Your resume should be a deeper listing of all the skills that you feel directly relate to the postion, and your supporting skills. But try and limit it to one page. One sheet of paper. Two at the very most. And that’s it. It’s a brief ‘what I can do for you’.

The interview is when you need to be able to elaborate, in depth, about those skills you listed, where you got them, how you’ve used them, and how you feel it would apply to this position.

So don’t feel you need to tell everything about everything on the resume. List the skills. Hit the high points. List only the skills appropriate to the position.

Time enough for the long drawn out explanations once they offer you an interview.

4) Networking doesn’t help if you are an asshole.

People will tell you, frequently, about the importance of networking. Meet people in your industry. Get to know others that work in the industry, build relationships, get your name known, and form a network of contacts that you can then draw on to help find opportunities out there for a person of your skills and reputation.

They are absolutely correct. I have obtained three jobs in my previous career from people I have met within the PCB contract manufacturing industry outside my actual current employment at the time, in what can only be termed as ‘networking’.

But let’s be honest here. If you are an asshole, then meeting a bunch of people in your local industry is not going to work in your favor.

Because despite what you may think, most folks have a bullshit detector a mile wide, expecially when they meet you in person. If they meet you, and they think to themselves ”this guy’s not only a self-centered asshole, but he also couldn’t find his butt with both hands in a roomful of mirrors”, well, you aren’t going to get many opportunities coming your way. 

The way networking works for you, is by becoming known to other folks. They meet you, they get to know you. They learn what kind of person you are, what kind of work ethic you have, your commitment, your thinking, your approach to problem solving, your personality, your dependability. How you handle adversity, and what your actual workplace attitude and teamwork skills are like.

And they learn a bit over time as to how competent you really are.

They get to know you, and if they LIKE what they know of you, then they are now a valuable network of friends within the industry that will want to help you out… because nobody wants to work with an asshole. They WANT to keep you around in the industry to work with. It makes life better for everyone. 

Then, when you are looking for employment, and let these folks know your new situation… well, this guy you know from that Seminar on lead free soldering rework techniques finds out you are looking for work, and he tells his friend Harlan, “Hey, I know this guy, a really solid guy, knows lead free rework inside and out, has experience on that equipment platform you just blew $120,000 dollars on, and he’s a very reliable, dedicated guy. He just got let go when company x laid off part of their crew, and he just let me know to keep my eyes open for any good opportunities I may find. Weren’t you just telling me a few weeks ago you were thinking of bringing on a real good guy to handle all that new equipment introduction for you, and get it up to speed?”

That’s how it works. Networking can help you a great deal by giving other people a chance to get to know the real you, not just the person represented by a cover letter or resume. People might even give you an interview and create an opportunity for you, where one didn’t even exist before, specifically because they know that you’re the kind of person they could use in their operation somewhere.

And networking can kill you by giving other people a chance to know you, the real you, and let them find out that no matter what you put on your resume, they don’t want you on their workforce causing problems. 

So strive to be yourself, in all of your dealings, with everyone you meet.

If you try to picture how you appear to other people, what image you present, what they think of the real you… if you picture that and recognise that you can’t be yourself around other people if you’re trying to get a job because if they knew the real you they’d never hire you…

You have just identified what you need to work on improving about yourself.

Whatever behavior you think you exhibit, however it is you think you act that would prevent someone from hiring you if they got to know you… those same behaviors are likely to be the same ones that will prevent your success in your new job, will prevent your eventual promotion, and may end up getting you fired. And are also probably reasons why I wouldn’t want to hang out with you in real life.

So change yourself for the better. Be honest and work on it!

The better you work with others, the more open and understanding you are, the less of a chip you carry around on y0ur shoulder, the better you will succeed.

The wrap up.

I’ve been laid off before. This experience actually marks the third time I’ve been affected by a company-wide layoff in the Printed Circuit Board contract manufacturing business.

The first time it was with 6 months warning, and I took the time to carefully find another position, and walked from one company on a Friday to the new one the next Monday… at a substantial pay increase. I contacted folks I knew in the industry, let them know I was going to be leaving, when I’d be leaving, and what kind of thing I was looking for. I found a new position doing exactly what I, at the time, wanted to do within the industry.

The next time I was laid off, it was a complete surprise. I walked in to work, at a new position I’d only been at 3 months where they had heard of me in the industry and had aggressively recruited me to come work for them at an exorbitant pay increase. An hour after I got there that day, management formed up lines for seperation interviews for a massive layoff. It turned out they had only one customer, who decided to outsource the manufacture of their product to Mexico. Within a few months after the layoff, the plant closed down. 

I walked out the door, I called various people I knew in the industry locally, and by the afternoon I had another job lined up for the next week, again due 100% to people in my industry knowing me, my skills, and my work ethic and reputation. The drawback? A horrible benefits package. But at least I quickly found work again at a comparable salary.

This last time, again, no warning. Just a meeting with a large group getting laid off, a seperation interview, and out the door.

The difference here was, I specifically did not want to continue with the same industry.

In the years that I have been working in the PCB manufacturing business, the market has shrunk dramatically. Most manufacture has either already been outsourced, or is in the process of transitioning overseas as I write this. At this time, Military and Medical remain the only two branches of manufacture that remain here in any kind of a presence, and there are literally hundreds of people suddenly all competing for those same few openings in a dwindling employment environment.

So yes, I decided to sever my ties to PCB manufacturing, and focus on my core skills of managing people, and managing maintenance of an industrial facility. A much wider field where being adaptive and flexible count for more than hands on experience on a particular hardware platform.

I had no network of people in the industry who knew about me to help me this time. Yes, the current economic conditions had a lot to do with the delay, but having no network at all certainly made just as big a difference. I was just another name on a resume to everyone I contacted, and that meant the cover letter and resume had to really stand out. 

My final message to you is;

When you are applying for a position, pretend that this is the only position you are applying for. I don’t care how many positions you have found on CareerBuilder, Yahoo HotJobs, Monster or Craigslist that you still need to contact today.

Find out what you can about the position from their description. Find out what you can about the company. Tailor your cover letter specifically for the position, highlighting what skills you have that directly relate to the position. Your resume should already be tailored for the specific kinds of positions you are looking for. If you are looking for two or three different career paths your skills can take you, have a seperate resume focusing on EACH. Be prepared to fine tune each down even further.

You have to put forth that level of effort, because you never know which position that you apply for that could be the one that is the perfect fit. No matter how the listing sounds, the position itself may be perfect… and if you don’t put your best effort into presenting yourself and your skills and what you can do for that employer, you’ll likely never know.

For those of you who have kept Cassie and I in your thoughts and prayers while we have searched for a new job… thank you. It matters more to us than you could possibly know.

Honestly, I appreciate it more than I can ever say.

God bless you all, and if you are also in the position of looking for work, I dearly hope that some of these tips will help you find exactly what you are looking for.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 17th, 2009 at 2:22 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.