While you may be excited and want to launch into your job search, Ivy Exec recommends members do a little assessment of their external and internal situation first. It is important that you are taking off from a secure foundation and headed in the right direction!

Assess Your External Situation (and Shore It Up if Needed)

Here are some recommendations, based on your employment and job satisfaction status, to consider:

I. If you are happily employed, congratulations!  You are wise to have joined Ivy Exec while things are going well for you so you can plan from a position of strength. Start with our “How Strong is Your Brand Quiz ” quiz, and then take steps to build your reputation and visibility both inside and outside of your organization.

A. Visibility: Departmental

1. Identify your achievements each week
2. Update your manager on your progress, quantifying the benefits to the organization
3. Set a weekly time on your calendar
4. Participate strategically at meetings/conference calls Bring notes into every meeting/call.
5. Stay off your e-mail and phone
6. Compliment your team throughout the organization
7. Publicize your manager’s, peers’; and employees’ work to others frequently
8. Look for important projects needing leadership – e.g. technology integration projects

B. Visibility: Organizational

1. Work on projects that cross departments, business lines, and regions
2. Internal training programs HR and Technology
3. Major community projects
4. Charity drives

C.  Visibility: External

1. Join a committee and volunteer diligently
2. Write an article for association newsletter/website
3. Conceive and plan a strategic event
4. Get nominated to speak at events

Tips for Industry Events – Preparation is key!

• Research speakers and attendees in advance
• Arrive very early and help the organizers set up
• Ask for introductions to one or two speakers or attendees
• When talking with a networking contact, focus on them almost exclusively
• Remember to ask for their card – don’t worry about yours
• Follow up the next day with an appreciative e-mail, requesting to meet for a cup of coffee in a couple of weeks

D.  Visibility: Online

1. Google your name. Do you like what you see?
2. LinkedIn, LinkedIn, LinkedIn. Then everything else.
   1. Establish a good, thorough profile that positions you for your next role, whether you hope it is one month or four years
   2. Link to friends & colleagues who are already on
   3. A good Linkedin standard is: a) Would you feel comfortable introducing them to your LinkedIn connections? and b)Would they feel comfortable introducing you?
3. Other Social Media: Facebook • Twitter • Blog •Personal/Company web site

II.  If you are unhappily employed BUT your job seems secure, we recommend brainstorming with a friend or a coach for ways to make things a little more pleasant for the short term. Pat Olsen has some great tips on how to do that in her Harvard Business Review article on How to Survive in an Unhappy Workplace.

While you should never stay in a situation that is abusive or hurting your health, if your job is just boring – or annoying! – there might be some value to sticking out it out while you job hunt rather than quitting before securing your next position:

1. It is often easier to get leads and meetings when you are employed.
   1. When you are employed, you speak regularly to vendors, clients and perhaps even competitors. Those are the people who are most likely to hire you, or at least to point the way to your next job.
   2. And unfortunately for many job hunters, both work friends and potential hiring managers may feel more comfortable talking to you about your job search when you are employed as they won’t worry that you are feeling desperate.
2. Some employers trust the abilities of employed candidates more – they think that if someone else is willing to pay you, maybe they should too.
3. You may interview better because you may feel more confident.
4. You will have more negotiating leverage (if you don’t let the new company know you’re not happy where you are) because your current job will serve as a “competing offer”.
5. All the networking and interviewing may make you seem more desirable to your current employer (After all, you are now dressing better, speaking with more enthusiasm and optimism, and referencing more contacts in the industry). You may find that you get a lot more “love” at work – and more opportunities – and so you might not stay so unhappy there.

III.  If you are unhappily employed and your job does not seem secure (your management doesn’t seem thrilled with you anymore, or layoffs are pending), try to improve boss’s appreciation of you or your company’s need for you to reduce likelihood of termination before you secure your next role. Start with our “personal brand” quiz.

A. Increase company’s need & appreciation for you:

1. Get involved in an unpopular (because it’s tedious, for instance) cross functional project that is important to the company (i.e. working on the system integration of your company’s systems with those of an acquiring company).
2. Increase your boss’s appreciation of you by making your boss look good and eliminating the behaviors or habits that annoy ​them.

B. Work on consistently demonstrating high quality, responsible behavior – no matter how senior you are within the organization, small changes can make a big difference!

1. Improve your punctuality:
   1. Be early on time – ALWAYS!
   2. On time for work, for calls, and for meetings.
   3. Return all phone calls and e-mails promptly – even if just to say that you’ll deliver the answer or the work at a later time.
   4. Always deliver your work on time – even if everyone else misses deadlines.
2. Improve the quality of your everyday work:
   1. Accept from yourself and your team only very high quality, thorough work that encompasses both the tactical and strategic
   2. Start projects early, work consistently, and finish on time and completely.
   3. Re-read original assignment/request to make sure it’s error free:
      1. Reread & reread before sending
      2. Check spelling, grammar, and punctuation
      3. Test web links
      4. Fact-check twice
      5. Present from point of view of recipient
   4. Address practical and strategic implications of all issues
3. Voicemail – write a script for your greeting & any important messages.
4. Exceed expectations on important projects.
5. Write out what quality of work you think the recipient expects, and think how you could do even better.
6. Behave in a more composed and tolerant way:
   1. Aim to look polished, calm & prepared at all times. Would you give increased responsibilities to a manager who is depressed, frantic, or overwhelmed?
   2. Don’t lean on your employees to calm you down or cheer you up.
   3. Never lose your temper at work:
      1. Count to ten, leave the room, etc.
      2. Bursts of anger are more damaging for some demographic groups.
      3. NEVER send an angry e-mail, and never bad mouth someone to someone else in an e-mail.
   4. Remember to hit # when you finish a “voicemail gone wrong!” and wait for prompts
7. Become more positive and thoughtful:
   1. Brevity is overrated!
   2. You can build trust by acknowledging any emotional content in your reply.
   3. Never criticize anyone in a non-constructive way at work or in a social setting.
   4. Why is this hard to do?
      1. Short-term payoff: Sharing your negative opinions (ie. behind their backs) is a strong way of building relationships/bonding with others.
      2. BUT longer-term payoff for resisting bad-mouthing others: You will feel better about yourself, and others will trust you more and see you as more mature.
8. Be warmer and friendlier in your work communications:
   1. Build trust by acknowledging any emotional content in your responses to colleagues.
   2. Offer thanks, assistance, congratulations, or commiseration
   3. Set up Outlook and smart phone shortcuts to make it easier to get back to people with the gracious extras included.

IV.  If you were recently laid off/fired/quit without another job, read Penelope Trunk’s blog (see sidebar to the right) about the best way to deal with being fired. It includes our favorite (and pretty unusual) tip – writing a warm note to the boss that fired you!

A. Don’t talk about what happened until you have a very positive story to tell. 

1. Take steps to secure your current situation – avoid making mistakes that could hurt you long after you’ve returned to work.

B. What to do immediately if you are still in discussions with your employer:

1. Negotiate your severance package with your employer.
   1. If your company offers a lump-sum severance package, ask them to give it to you as salary continuation so that your official termination date is postponed for as long as possible.
   2. If it’s near the end of the year, push hard to have your last day be in early January instead of late December so that you’ll have another “year” at the company.
2. Ask your company to extend your company-provided health insurance, and if you have non-vested stock options or other long-term compensation, ask for it to vest early.
3. If you’re worried about short-term cash, check your life insurance policy and pension plan – some companies allow you to borrow against your plan.
4. Change your tax withholding at your current company if you haven’t yet received your last check.
   1. If you’re married and your spouse is working, adjust withholding on his/her paycheck to reduce the amount of tax withheld.
   2. With only one wage earner in the family, you’ll probably fall into a lower tax bracket, so it’s unlikely you’ll end up owing the IRS.
5. File an unemployment insurance claim in the first week that you have become totally or partially unemployed. It is important to file timely because in places your first week is an unpaid waiting week, commonly referred to as the “waiting period”. A delay may cost you benefits.
   1. New York residents can click: http://www.labor.state.ny.us/ui/how_to_file_claim.shtm
6. If your company offers outplacement services, take advantage of them.
   1. Better yet, request to use a private career coach instead of the big firms most companies contract with. Your human resources department may say “no” at first, but will often give in if you keep asking as it doesn’t cost them any more to send the check to a better provider.

C. What to do over the next few weeks:

1. Make sure you have continuous health insurance – no matter what!
   1. If your spouse is working, you may be able to join his or her plan.
   2. If not, and your company won’t continue your coverage, you absolutely should pick up the cost yourself to avoid losing your continuously-insured status.
   3. Only by remaining continuously insured can you prevent insurance companies being allowed to disallow claims on pre-existing conditions.
      1. Under federal legislation known as COBRA, your employer must allow you to continue medical coverage for at least 18 months. COBRA (for Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985) seems expensive — for a family, the bill can exceed $1,600 a month.
      2. But if you drop your coverage and become ill while you’re out of work, you may not be able to get insurance in the future.
   4. If you or someone in your family requires major medical care while you’re uninsured, the costs could bankrupt you.
2. Avoid canceling your life insurance. If you let your policy lapse, resuming coverage later could cost more. You’ll probably have to undergo a medical exam, and you could be denied coverage if the physical reveals health problems.
3. Prioritize your bills and manage your debt.
   1. Mortgage, rent and utilities generally should be paid first as if you fall behind on your mortgage or rent, you could face late fees or even the loss of your home.
   2. If paying your credit cards or insurance policies are a problem, try to negotiate a payment plan with your creditors. They may be willing to reduce your minimum payments or waive interest, or give you a 30-day grace period, until you’re back to work.
   3. Avoid taking money out of your 401(k) or individual retirement accounts. You’ll have to pay taxes on money taken out, plus a 10% early-withdrawal penalty if you’re younger than 591/2.
   4. If you’re quite worried about cash flow, your spouse may also want to temporarily reduce or discontinue 401(k) contributions, which will increase take-home pay.
   5. After you leave your job you can’t borrow against your 401(k) plan, but if your spouse is still working and has a 401(k), you may be able to borrow from that plan.
   6. You might also check your life insurance policy and pension plan – some companies allow you to borrow against your plan.
4. Take actions to improve/maintain relationships at recent employer, even if it seems impossible at first.

D. Personal Assessment

We recommend that all Ivy Exec members who don’t already have a very specific job target (hyperlink to a definition or graphic) start their job search with “personal assessment” activities before networking or applying for jobs.  Personal or initial assessment activities are pre-networking activities that don’t require other people (other than perhaps a career coach to interpret the Myers Briggs and your other assessment work).

RECOMMENDED ASSESSMENTS

There are a number of tests and exercises we recommend if you wish to better explore your career direction. It is not necessary to complete them all, however, and if you have already done some assessment exercises you may be able to substitute them for some of these.

1. Take online Assessment instruments (tests) such as Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and Career Leader.
2. Perform online research including reading industry sites, articles and blogs.
3. Complete recommended career exercises (such as the Five O’Clock Club’s Seven Stories exercise and 15- and 40-Year Vision exercises, Values exercises, and “brainstorming all possible jobs” exercise.)

Goal: 2-5 potential job targets to explore, relatively quickly, so that you can rank them and dive into a targeted job search focused on your first choice goal!

TYPE OF ASSESSMENTS

1. Take the full MBTI assessment
2. Learn how type works and what your type preferences are all about
3. Verify your four-letter type results
4. Receive a comprehensive description of your type that talks about how you interact with others, identifies your strengths, and points out important areas for growth

Note for the assessment: In terms of how to respond to the items on the assessment, please answer the questions as spontaneously as possible. Don’t think about how you “should” answer the question. Also, please try to think of your life and your preferences as a whole and not just your preferences at work or in your outside life. If you have any questions, feel free to call or send an e-mail.

 [I’ve already created a dedicated Ivy Exec link]

2. CareerLeader Assessment

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