Oracle of NY

Non-Chronological Transferable Skills

After eight months of passing out the same resume, I still did not have a job. Although acquaintances who read my resume sometimes made suggestions, I received enough positive feedback from prospective employers to make me feel as though my resume was as good as it was going to get.

Typical responses included: “Excellent resume!” “Strong cv!” “Great experience!” “You are certainly qualified—perhaps overqualified!”

Then why wasn’t anyone hiring me? I thought I had a great resume—other people had told me so. I was famous—yet, I still could not land a job.

Paloma was insistent. “Your resume needs to stand out. You need to do something different. You have to write a non-chronological resume and you need to base it on your transferable skills.”

Transferable skills made some sense to me. Those were the skills I could apply to a variety of tasks, jobs and environments. But a non-chronological resume? Wasn’t my resume supposed to be a sequential, orderly documentation of my work experience? What use could there be in writing a non-chronological resume? What would a potential employer think if they received one?

I was hesitant, but I was also intrigued.

“Forget about the chronological order of your jobs,” Paloma explained. “Concentrate on your transferable skills and remember the mantra: I can make you money. I can save you money. I can solve your problems.”

Paloma had shown herself to be sensible with the advice she had given me so far, so I figured, what have I got to lose? Obviously, whatever I was doing was not working. I had everything going for me—a degree from MIT in Management Science, world-class work experience in business development, commercial and investment banking and more international publicity than money could buy. Yet I had been unemployed for eight months—and two months had passed since I had been gifted with my publicity.

At Paloma’s behest, I agreed to reassess my experience and rewrite my resume. I spent several tortuous days working on the new format and even more importantly, working on myself.

Once I got past the initial angst, writing a non-chronological transferable skills resume released me from a lifetime of constraints. It allowed me to consider and include all my skills and experiences, not just the skills that were most obvious from the jobs and tasks I had performed. I was able to include in my resume the skills from my education, hobbies and life experience—the skills that set me apart, defined my individuality and emphasized my greatest accomplishments—the skills that could help me land a new job.

The results were startling and transformational. Instead of having a dry, chronological resume which listed job titles and job descriptions in a standard format with monotone content, I was able to clearly express the breadth of my skill set and achievements and the depth of my personality and capabilities. It was my land-in-Oz-and-everything-turns-to-color moment. Instead of merely citing my job experiences and education, I was able to express my capacity for experience and learning.

As a result of my efforts and self-evaluation, I produced a non-chronological transferable skills resume containing examples under each skill category demonstrating how I had used my talents to make money, save money and solve problems.

My new resume could even be used as a master list template from which to create an endless variety of job-specific resumes and targeted cover letters. It also included a personal touch, my photograph—a simple but wonderful improvement.

Lesson Learned—Get Professional Help!

• It is too easy and there are too many people sending out resumes by email. Unless you are a perfect match, it is hard to get noticed—and even then, you still need a lot of luck to get a response. 



• It is imperative to follow up when you send out your resume and follow up with impact. Remind your potential employer how you can make them money, save them money and solve their problems.



• It is much more effective to speak to people on the telephone than to contact them via email—and it is much more effective to meet in person than to speak on the telephone. Ultimately, it is who you know and who knows you. By far, most jobs are found via personal networking.



• You may not think you need or can afford professional help when you are searching for a job, but if you are struggling—or even if you are not struggling but want to be as successful as possible—get professional help. It may be one of the best investments of time, money and effort you ever make.



• Especially if you are a professional, get professional help. It is a competitive world out there. A career management coach can help you bring out the best in yourself and release your inner creativity. A coach can help you market yourself better and produce a resume that will stand out and get you called in. A coach can also act as a shoulder to lean on when you are down and out.

Job Hunting Tips

After I started working, I did not have time to speak with Paloma as frequently as before, but she remained my confidant and career coach—and I kept her updated with my activities and relationships at work.

As she had advised me, finding a job was not the end of her work as my coach or the end of my quest—it was just another step along the way. I still had to manage my career.

In fact, when I told Paloma that Cindy Perman wanted to interview me for a job-hunting tips article for CNBC.com, I asked for her advice. After all, she was the professional job-hunting expert, not I.

Paloma got her wheels turning and sent me an email summarizing what had taken place over the course of my unemployment.

First was the job termination. I had always depended on my network and my family’s network to obtain jobs in the past. However, my previous network had not been effective this time. I thought the search would not take a long time. Time marched on and on and finances became problematic. I had bills to pay and the responsibility to support a wife and children.

The old ways were not working as well as before. Networks were drying up. People were worried about their own family’s needs. It took you almost a year to become re-employed—and this is the new rule, not the exception.

Cindy (my wife) and I decided to cut our expenses and provide security for her and the children. Our plan was for me to stay in New York while she moved back home with her parents. Our last hurrah together was to have a small dinner out. We brainstormed. What haven’t we done? What would help me get recognition from outside our standard network? Thus, the Sandwich Board Guy was born. I did not plan on it being a lengthy career move. I just wanted to hand out my resume and get a few new leads. It was a cry for help.

You have got to try something new to increase other people’s awareness of your needs. You have got to brainstorm for ideas that will help bring your cause and need into the market in a fresh way. It did not get you a job but it did get you a job coach.

My wife and children left for Omaha and I felt a loss, but also maybe I was relieved that my expenses and needs were lessened. Time was still a problem. I received some publicity—great!—but no job. I cut my expenses and conserved my financial resources but still needed an income. I became famous but remained unemployed. I moved in with my sister. My sister and her family provided me with food, shelter and emotional support. If not for her, I could not have stayed in the area where Cindy and I wanted to live. I would not have been available for interviews in New York City, and I would not have gotten my job at Weiser LLP.

You have got to lessen your financial drain. Barter, negotiate, find a second stream of income, lessen your obligations and increase your security by tapping into your family and extended family. It is difficult for families to give financial support, but most families can help by taking in one or more family members and sharing resources directly. Everyone can assist if they only have to increase their utility bills and food budget marginally to take in one or two family members—while the bread-winners hunt for jobs.

Then there was the professional coach. Paloma Bowland worked as a career coach and business strategist. She had read my story, watched it on television, read my blog and recognized I was becoming a poster guy for all that wrong with America and the lack of support for people out of work. My image and story resonated with the Great Recession and hinted at the Great Depression. I elicited sympathy from around the world but not much from the good old USA. Everyone figured it was someone else’s responsibility and few rose to the challenge. Some people took my resume and tried to help, but time marched on. Paloma was relatively late getting to my story since she had recently moved and was busy writing a book. She examined my resume. That was the most obvious starting place.

If you are a professional, get professional help. Hire someone to analyze and re-write your resume. Writers do more than make sure it is grammatically correct. This is your image, your first impression. Make it as good as can be—the best. Get a career coach, someone who holds your feet to the fire. Find someone who motivates you and can see the obvious when you are standing too close to the picture. If you truly cannot afford to hire someone, turn to the Internet and books from the library. Some web sites are offered free of charge—and blogs have realms of good information on the process and what to do.

We did an assessment of strengths. Paloma conferred on me Sterling Bateman’s mantra, “I can make you money. I can save you money. I can solve your problems.” She told me everything should be tested against that. Employers want to know what you can do for them.

Once you have done an assessment, rewrite your resume in a transferable skills format and think along those lines when you speak with potential employers. Be able to answer the questions, “How can I make you money? How can I save you money? How can I solve your problems? Why should I hire you as opposed to the thousands of people who want this job?”

Next we focused on my blog. It said Oracle of NY but read more like Poster Guy of What’s Wrong. It was a continual reminder of what was not working. It did not showcase my career or what I personally brought to the table. After I gave my blog a makeover, Forbes.com was impressed with my writing and the blog’s professional look. An executive recruiter was impressed with my skill-set, primarily my writing skills which had not been showcased before. A potential employer was pleased with my resume, experience and professional approach to the information I posted.

Link all your networking to your blog. Make sure the blog is a continual showcase of your talent and ability and reflects what an employer would get if they hired you.

I shifted my job-search paradigm and accepted that I needed a career for a lifetime. The paradigm shift was thinking in terms of continual career management not just filling an immediate need for a job.

Think in terms of career! Take back your career! Manage your career! Adjust your strategy to reflect that you are in control. You are the CEO of Me, Inc. You do things differently when you look at the big picture.

We reconsidered the importance of networking.

Keep people engaged in helping you. The best advice is that it is not the amount of contacts you have but the quality of network you have in place. Offer to help your contacts. Serve others. If needs be, remind people how you used your resources to help them with their needs.

Another missing piece of the puzzle was to be better organized. Most people have their search information scattered as I did in several locations and in multiple formats.

Get organized. Put all your information to work for you in one place that is accessible no matter where you are, such as JibberJobber.com. It also has a blog to give professional points, keep people informed of the most current research on career management and lists tips from top professional resume writers, coaches and recruiters.

The rest, so they say, is history.

It took time and effort. It took working on my finances and lessening my obligations—getting help from family—brainstorming creative approaches to getting noticed—getting professional help in order to understand my assets and present them—networking through friends and family, blogs, social networking sites and professional organizations—and having one place to focus everything together.

It was also about hope and keeping my spirits up. I recalled the few really down days when my well-wishers and Paloma renewed my energy—and I went out to slay the dragons again.

You are limited by time and strength but must get through the marathon. Hope and faith will get you through.

“It’s been quite a ride so far,” Paloma said to me. “Since you have become a friend and work associate, we will have more endeavors in the future. This is how valuable the quality of a network becomes, rather than the quantity of a network.”And that is the value of a professional career strategist like Paloma!

Happy Ending Holiday Story

On December 1, 2008, I started working at Weiser LLP—and the media went wild. The New York Times and New York Post published splendid articles (i.e. “Better Sign Of Times, From Sandwich Board To Dream Job” – New York Post) and dozens of other media outlets quickly followed suit.

New York magazine came out with a humorous article “The Recession is Over!” and cited the number one reason as “Joshua Persky…got a job!”

Fortunately, there was a savvy Chief Marketing Officer at Weiser who helped me prevent my media attention from becoming too much of a circus or a distraction from work. I loved the attention and would have spent as much time as I could telling my story to the media, but I also understood that the established and respected firm had to protect its reputation and not let the publicity get out of control.

My supervisor accompanied me on all my major interviews, helping me host the New York Post, Inside Edition, WPIX and others at the office—and joining me for interviews at the studios of CNN, MSNBC and Reuters.

We had a fun and exciting honeymoon, including an in-depth lunch-time interview with Erika Hayasaki of the Los Angeles Times at a local sushi restaurant.

After a couple of weeks of exciting interviews, we started toning things down and refused any further interviews at the office or during work hours.

I was extremely disappointed about having to turn down major international television networks from Japan, Taiwan, and Brazil who wanted to interview me at the office and share my inspirational story with their viewers—but I understood I was being paid to do business valuations and had to focus on my work.

Nevertheless, I still received many telephone calls from journalists and spoke freely about my job-hunting experience.

As the holidays drew closer, my story became a happy ending holiday success story and instead of subsiding, my media attention soared to new heights.

Curtis Silwa and Steve Scott called for live radio interviews. Forbes.com featured me in an article called "Extreme Job Hunting," and Cindy Perman published a break-through article for CNBC.com, "6 Job-Hunting Tips From the 'Sandwich Board' Guy."

My iconic image popped up in newspapers, on television and on popular Internet sites all over the world.

My picture was even included in the Wall Street Journal’s “2008 Year in Pictures (Financial Crash),” as part of 20/20’s “2008 Year in Review (Greed Gone Wild)” and was noted as the New York Post’s number two viewed story of the year—ahead of scandalous stories about Elliot Spitzer, David Letterman and Marilyn Monroe!

PRWeek cited me as number two among the year’s “10 PR stunts that would make PT Barnum proud.”

I even got a call from a Hollywood movie agent asking if I was interested in creating a movie adaptation of my inspirational story.

When I had been unemployed and famous, most of the emails and calls I had received were full of encouragement.

After I had started working and had a second round of publicity, many of the emails and calls I received were congratulatory—but many were also from people asking for job-hunting advice.

Whereas before finding a job, I was the go-to unemployed sandwich board guy, after finding a job, I became the go-to how to get your dream job guy.

The Sandwich Board Guy Gets Weiser

Unbelievably, while I was on the way to Yokohama, Richelle Konian emailed me that I had received the green light from Weiser LLP. I accepted the offer via email and signed the Offer Letter when I returned to New York.

I was ecstatic, my wife and sister and the rest of my family were ecstatic, and Paloma Bowland put one more notch on the handle of her gun.

My wife and I were ecstatic because although many challenges still lay ahead, we could start rebuilding our lives and making plans for a future under one roof.

My sister and her family were ecstatic because after doing a great deed by sheltering me for three months, they could have their privacy back. Yet, I knew their dog Skipper would miss me.

The rest of my family was ecstatic because I had prevailed and would become financially independent again.

Paloma was ecstatic because of all of the above and more. She knew that this was the beginning of our relationship and not an end. “Now that you’ve found a job,” she told me, “You have to start managing your career.”

A couple of weeks after returning from Yokohama and accepting the job at Weiser LLP, I moved out of my sister’s house and back to Manhattan—and then I flew to Omaha for a real Thanksgiving celebration.

I also brought my wife and children their winter clothes which had been in storage since the end of June.

At last, Cindy and I had a happy ending in sight after what had been a very difficult year.

As my Grandpa Victor used to say, “Making a living is as difficult as parting the Red Sea.”

Well, the Red Sea had split wide open—and I was crossing over to the Promised Land.

Inspiration

I am still trying to come to terms with what I saw and experienced in Yokohama. Dr. Okuno hosted me with the greatest hospitality and generosity, even while he operated on patients twelve hours a day.

His medical practice, a combination of science, technology, research and art, impressed me beyond words. I watched as he introduced a scope into the veins of a middle-aged woman and sprayed multiple malignant cancerous tumors with a cocktail of cancer-fighting agents. The tumors shrank within hours.

Patients who entered his clinic with excruciating pain and little hope, left without pain—and with renewed hope.

With one treatment, Dr. Okuno saved a person’s life—and with two or three treatments, he saved his patient’s quality of life.

That was his main goal. Dr. Okuno was so brilliant and so humble, he would not even admit he cured cancer or saved lives. He only admitted to helping cancer sufferers improve their quality of life.

If I had been on my own, without a family, I doubt I would have returned from Yokohama.

However, when I sat with Dr. Okuno and his counselor Takahashi to discuss business, I asked for more than I would require from an employer in the United States. Cindy and I had agreed that if we were going to move abroad, we would only do so if we could put money in the bank. I did not want to live and work in Yokohama with the possibility of finishing the year with little or no savings. Yokohama was not as expensive as Tokyo, but we wanted to put our children in private international schools which were very expensive, and we wanted to be able to visit the USA at least twice during the year.

I told Dr. Okuno that if was going to move my family to Yokohama, I would need a salary—plus all expenses paid.

Dr. Okuno told me that Clinica E.T. functioned on a budget and could not hire me on those terms. Both the doctor and I were disappointed we could not reach an agreement, but I had the feeling my visit with Dr. Okuno would not be the end of our relationship but the beginning.

Actualization

Interestingly, once I had taken my career coach’s advice and was putting more effort into my job applications, interview preparations and follow up, had rewritten my resume in a transferable skills format and had unified my social networking profiles and public communications, good things started to happen.

I felt better about myself—and the people with whom I communicated felt better about me. I was able to move forward and incubate two fantastic opportunities.

Suddenly, an executive recruiter was as excited as could be about getting me in front of a hiring manager and actually followed through. Richelle Konian, co-founder of Careers On The Move, had followed my story—saw my resume, blog and LinkedIn profile—and put my resume on top of the stack.

When she asked me if I was interested in a Senior Manager of Valuation and Corporate Finance position with a large accounting firm in midtown Manhattan, I was more than enthusiastic.

Nevertheless, I tried to prevent myself from getting my hopes up too high. I had suffered too many disappointments since becoming unemployed.

Rochelle was extremely encouraging from the beginning and seemed to have little doubt during the entire hiring process, including several rounds of interviews, that I would get the job.

Simultaneously, my communications with Dr. Okuno became more focused and his invitation to host me for a week in Yokohama materialized. I was extremely intrigued by Dr. Okuno’s research, the possibility of contributing to the fight against cancer and taking a trip to Yokohama—yet, I had many questions and practical considerations.

Was I really qualified to help Dr. Okuno publicize his endovascular therapy research and disseminate his tumor-destroying techniques internationally? Could I effectively help him build a new and larger clinic and research facility in Japan? Was it feasible to move to Yokohama with my wife and children? Could Dr. Okuno really make my efforts worth my while?

After much deliberation, even with all my questions and doubts, I decided to go for the journey. At worst, it would be a great adventure.

Creativity, Bravery and Integrity

After we had worked on interviewing strategies and my transformational resume, Paloma’s next advice to me was to identify my brand—and to professionalize and unify my blog, social networking profiles and all my public and professional communications.

Identifying my brand was not too difficult. People from all over the world, including Paloma, had emailed me telling me that they admired my creativity, bravery and integrity—so that became my identifiable brand. I began infusing all my communications with creativity, bravery, and integrity.

Unifying and professionalizing my blog, Facebook and LinkedIn profiles did not require a tremendous amount of effort either.

I had started my blog in order to keep in touch with people from all over the world, document my job search and post my resume. I was not exactly sure in which direction I was ultimately going to take it, but I knew I wanted it to help me find a job.

It did not take much effort to be sensitive and professional about what I posted—and to keep the site focused on my job-hunting efforts.

I had signed onto Facebook when my children had invited me to be their friend. How could I refuse? I had not considered it a public forum or a platform for finding or preventing me from finding a job, but with Paloma’s advice, I started to regard Facebook not only as a personal site for keeping up with my children or as a free-for-all social networking site—as most people seemed to regard it—but as part of my professional platform.

I certainly regarded LinkedIn as a professional platform, but I did not have a complete profile and did not fully understand how to best utilize it to find a job or enhance my career.

As I cleaned up and unified my profiles and online communications, I always kept in mind that my main goal was to find a job. Anything that would interfere with my chances of finding a job was not good and was omitted or deleted, and anything that added to my chances of finding a job was posted and retained.

One of the simplest techniques I used to give my new resume, blog and social networking profiles a professional and cohesive look was to post the same business-like photograph on all of them. My profile pictures had been too casual.

My wife Cindy is a photographer, so getting a high-quality digital portrait was easy. Otherwise, I would have gone to the nearest passport photo service which could supply me with an electronic image.

Once I had streamlined my online presence and had instilled my personal brand of creativity, bravery, and integrity in all my public communications, I felt as though I had an effective marketing campaign working in my favor. My professional image was sharpened, and I was transformed into an easily recognizable brand.

Transformation

Once we had spoken about the interview process, Paloma advised me to rewrite my resume in a non-chronological transferable skills format.

“Oh no, not again,” I thought. I had reformatted my resume countless times before.

“All my skills are transferable,” I told Paloma, “but nobody seems to understand that. They want people with the exact experience and skill set for the job description.”

“That is exactly why you have to make a non-chronological transferable skills resume,” she responded.

I was initially resistant but Paloma was insistent. She said it would help me find a job—and did not stop telling me so.

I spent several days on the first draft of my transferable skills resume and by time I was finished, I was transformed. It was my a-ha moment when my resume, job search, career management and self-perception in general turned from black-and-white to color.

If I had been reluctant to take my self-appointed career coach’s advice before, after writing my new non-chronological transferable skills resume, I was hooked by Paloma’s charisma, intelligence and determination—and by what I quickly coined as the Paloma Method.

What would I have done without my coach? Would I have gotten my job at a midtown accounting firm? Would I have ended up somewhere else? Would I still be unemployed?

When I asked Paloma why she had reached out to me, she did not hesitate to answer, “I followed your story and could not believe that after all your publicity, you could still not find a job. I could not believe that no one was helping you. This is America! I knew that I could help you, so I contacted you.”

She also told me that if my integrity had not shined through my sign board story and had not been reaffirmed by her conversations with me, she would not have given me fifteen seconds of her time.

“Character is not something that can be taught,” she said.

The Mantra and the Promise

As I had a couple of interviews coming up, my self-appointed career coach started advising me on how to prepare for interviews and how to follow up.

She convinced me I needed to put much more effort into preparation and much more effort into following up after my interview. I had been so busy applying to as many jobs as I could, I was not preparing as well as I could or following up as much as I should for the most relevant leads. If I did not get a response from one or two calls or emails, I usually let the lead slide and that was the end of it.

With most of my resume submissions and job applications, I was not even including a cover letter—or if I did, it was brief and generic.

Paloma advised me to take a more targeted and custom-made approach. Every communication, especially the first contact with each potential employer had to be fresh, personalized and effective.

I was used to doing some preliminary research about the companies and people I contacted, but I did not take the time to apply what I learned in crafting a position-specific resume and cover letter.

I was also not following up appropriately—and that is where a little additional effort can make a huge amount of difference.

Paloma advised me to think hard and long about each company to which I applied and explain to them how I could contribute to their success.

“There are only three things that your potential employer wants to hear,” she told me. “How you can make them money, how you can save them money and how you can solve their problems. If you can tell them that—I promise they will hire you.”

She told me to keep those three things in mind in all my communications—and promised I would find a job. “That is the mantra,” she said. ”I can make you money. I can save you money. I can solve your problems.”

Career Management

According to Paloma’s email, she had read my story in the New York Times, was a career coach and promoted a web site for career management called JibberJobber.com. She asked me to take a look at the web site and tell her what I thought.

I took a quick look at JibberJobber.com, liked what I saw and also noticed that the founder of the site Jason Alba had written a book I’m on LinkedIn Now What???

I was on LinkedIn and making occasional connections, but I wondered if there was a better way to use the professional networking site to find a job.

I responded to Paloma, and she sent me a page of tips concerning LinkedIn, inquired how my job search was going and told me I had to start managing my career. “Shift your thinking from job search to career management,” she wrote. When you change your thought process, you change your strategies. You are in control of managing a long-term endeavor, not merely a job replacement. When you accept this paradigm shift, it resonates in your interview sessions.”

Over my lifetime, my MIT degree and family connections have opened doors for me. I was fortunate enough to have a succession of higher and higher paying jobs—but I never had a career. I rode a roller coaster of challenging new jobs and eventual disappointments and was lucky that after each sharp decent, there was a swift and dynamic ascent. However, I never had a long-term career goal. If anything, I was an expert at changing careers.

Manage my career?

After nine months of unemployment, including over two months of international fame, the concept resonated strongly within me. Career management was certainly something I had not accomplished for myself and with which I could sorely use help.

Paloma suggested I use JibberJobber.com as a database to organize my contact information, so I signed on and started entering the information regarding my new contacts and active leads. I mentioned to Paloma that I wished someone would help me type in my entire shopping bag full of contact information—because the task was too daunting for me—and Paloma immediately offered to help.

Paloma and I started corresponding by email regularly and then we started talking daily on the telephone. Paloma said she was determined not only to help me find a job,  so that I could get back on my feet and reunite my family, but she said she would also help me take control of my career.

Famous for Being Unemployed

On the verge of desperation, I got inspired and tried something different. I went out to the corner of 50th Street and Park Avenue wearing a sign board advertising my search and contact information. I thought I would hand out some resumes and generate a few new leads.

Once my story and image went viral, it took me hours to sort through the flashflood of calls and emails. Most of the people who contacted me were well-wishers offering prayers and encouragement, but I also was contacted by many people with relevant job leads. Some of the people whom I met on the street also sincerely tried to help me find a job.

Suddenly, as a result of my sign board publicity, I had dozens of calls to return and half a dozen meetings on my calendar.

As the summer progressed and my fame spread, I had many interesting conversations and meetings—and I came close to landing several exciting jobs.

Furthermore, the media loved my story and instead of my publicity flaring up and flaming out just as fast, every time I thought it was over, I would get a call from a major television network, radio show or newspaper requesting another interview.

Each time I thought my fifteen minutes of fame had come and gone, my picture would suddenly and unexpectedly pop up on the main page of Yahoo.com, CNBC.com or CNN.com.

I could tell when something was up, because my cell phone would go into convulsions, and I would get a flurry of emails from people telling me where they had seen my picture and wishing me good luck finding a job.

When I was interviewed on Fox and Friends, Fox Business, MSNBC and CNN, the newscasters all touched me with their warmth and sincerity and said they wanted to help me find a job. They didn’t make promises but strongly hinted that I would find a job within hours or days as a result of their interview—and told me to keep in touch with them to let them know how things turned out.

I was overwhelmed by their concern and efforts, and my expectations soared with each exciting interview.

As a result of the publicity, I received hundreds of calls and emails—but a job offer remained elusive. I had everything going for me—including the help of major television networks, newspapers and popular Internet sites—but I couldn’t make anything happen.

Was I jinxed?

Then I received an email from Paloma Bowland.

A Convenient Time to Meet

As part of my networking efforts, whenever I could, I tried to meet with people. That was my goal, as I knew it was the most effective way to find a job. Whenever I contacted people, whether by email or telephone, I asked, “When is a convenient time to meet?”

It is amazing how difficult it can be to arrange a simple meeting. Some people seem to always have time for meetings, but most people are so busy, they barely ever have time for even a single meeting, spontaneous or not. I arranged meetings whenever I could, but often it took weeks or even months to find a convenient time—if my contact was willing to meet at all.

I also attended professional networking events and presentations sponsored by the International Association of Financial Engineers (IAFE), Professional Risk Managers International Association (PRMIA) and the MIT Sloan Club of New York.

The presentations and panels were usually interesting, but sometimes I just did not speak with anyone other than the person sitting next to me.

At successful events, however, I had captivating conversations with at least several small groups of people over wine and cheese and went home with half a dozen or more business cards and plenty of follow-up work for the next day.

I thought I was doing all the right things—networking, making calls and sending out hundreds of resumes—but I still could not find a job.

Nyetworking

In addition to my online efforts, I tried to call at least several people every day—and my shopping bag full of contact information I had collected over the years was a great resource. It usually took a bit longer than planned to find anything specific for which I was looking, but after sifting though a stack of old emails or a rubber-banded pile of business cards, I could usually locate the sought after name and telephone number.

More often than not, I would just sift through the organized chaos, pulling out the names and numbers of people whom I thought it might be worth calling.

In retrospect, I wish I had been more disciplined about organizing and recording my collection of contact information.

To supplement my own online and calling initiatives, I also networked regularly over the telephone. My family, especially my mother, supplied me with new leads on an almost daily basis—and those leads often started with a friendly call which was a lot more pleasant than making a cold call.

When I made cold calls, I usually ended up hearing a recorded message, and when I did get to speak with the person I was trying to reach—or more often than not, with their assistant—they would invariably tell me to email my resume. I would actually feel great hearing that, as if they were telling me they would give me some consideration—but I did not get any better results from the resumes I forwarded after cold calls, than from the resumes I launched coldly into cyberspace.

Lost in Cyberspace

When I had lost my job at Houlihan Lokey, I thought I had known exactly what to do—and that’s what I did. I updated my resume, signed on to numerous job search boards, compiled lists of companies to contact and took out my shopping bag full of business cards, old emails, notebooks and pieces of scrap paper containing the contact information of professional colleagues and acquaintances.

I had been through the job-hunting routine before—and although it had never been an easy process—I had always managed to succeed on my own or with a little help from my family and friends.

I did not think there was anything new anyone could tell me about how to find a job. My resume was strong. I knew I had to network among family, friends and professional peers. I was not completely comfortable making cold calls, but I knew it had to be done and was actually pretty successful at engaging potential employers once I had them on the line. I was not at all comfortable leaving telephone messages for complete strangers—but that is how cold calls often start out.

On the other hand, I was completely comfortable sending emails to anyone and everyone—and I knew it was a numbers game. The more people I could get to look at my resume, the better my chances of finding a job.

Although I disliked having to retype my personal information for each different job site and online application, it was still an efficient way to find leads and apply for jobs. On some sites, I could apply to job after job with a few clicks of the mouse.

On a typical day, I would do some research and apply to half a dozen targeted jobs online, but sometimes I would get enthused and blindly apply to a dozen jobs of all sorts with a last minute, end of the day flurry of emails and online activity.

I knew I would be lucky to get one response out of a hundred emails and virtual applications, but I kept trying—and I usually got that one response. Even if my applications for specific jobs were not fully targeted, I sometimes got responses and established new relationships with recruiters or potential employers after forwarding my resume or applying for a position online.

Nevertheless, ninety-nine percent of my emailed resumes and online job applications seemed to evaporate into cyberspace. Even when I applied to highly relevant jobs on the job board of my alma mater, the MIT Sloan Alumni Job Board, I rarely received a response. I was excited about the positions and had the required experience—but no one ever seemed to be on the receiving side of my emails and online applications or be available to speak when I called.