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Is it time to commit?

by Em Are · May 12, 2014

I read a post today from LinkedIn Influencer, Raj De Datta, CEO and Co-Founder at BloomReach. “Entrepreneurs don’t Interview. They Commit.” . At first glance I passed over it as something I didn’t want to get into on a Monday morning; but then something pulled me back to it as I read through some of the other Pulse news from today and this past weekend.

I am now into the second week of my second trip down the unemployed path of life. My wife and I have been reworking the budget, reshaping upcoming plans and trying to put a framework around what has the potential of being another extended period of greatly reduced income.

Last time, I began putting the pieces together for my business. Business plan, 5 year plan, researching the market, pro-bono clients, all while still looking and interviewing for the right career job. The job offer did come along and I took it with some trepidation. I had to. The hours at the local orange big box home store were taking their toll on both me and my marriage.

I could go back there – that big box store, I’m confident of it. Or, I could tweak the resume and polish up the job agents and get the search thing working again in earnest. I could put in the time and find that corporate job – along with all the security it offers [sarcasm implied].

Or, I could make the commitment this time. College tuition bills have ended; the car is paid off. Is it time to commit to being an entrepreneur? Is that person inside of me confident enough to move forward and commit? Do I truly want to start a company?

I do.

God, I hope it is not the hi-test coffee in me screaming this morning.

Another chapter begins, a door opens, [insert moving on cliche here]

by Em Are · May 3, 2014

Hmmmm, just about 16 hours ago, about 15 minutes before it was time to leave the office for the weekend – that would be 4:45 pm – manager IM’s me asking me to step into his office. Note to self – this is a bad omen – prepare yourself. After some light pleasantries, a couple of moments of banter, him writing 1 or 2 more emails and taking the phone call – all while I’m sitting in his office – he turns to me and says, looking above my head, we’ve decided to part ways with you.

Part ways with me! Are you leaving me? Sounds like a very awkward breakup if you ask me. To paraphrase, it seems like the directions manager gave me last week were incorrect, and the powers that be were not happy with the progress I was making on the items that manager told were not an issue. Manager deflected all responsibility to powers that be. Effective today. Insurance through the rest of the month. No severance. HR will get your PC from you and escort you from the building. By now it 4:55 and most everyone has left. Guess that is good so I won’t make a scene!

Said goodbye to a few remaining souls – two of which were most helpful to me as I tried to learn the company and its direction as quickly as possible – not fast enough, as it turns out.

Packed up my box of stuff, deleted my password manager from my work laptop, signed out of my cloud storage/work area, handed over my super-special, handy-dandy key fob, aka key to the kingdom. And was escorted out. On the way home realized that I left my prized Phillies magnet on the side of my desk. Damn, I gotta go back next week and retrieve it. Along with a termination letter. Realized the last time around that it is necessary to prove that I didn’t quit – for a number of reasons.

Fell off the wagon last night. Oh well, it WAS a very stressful event. I’ll climb back on today and start again.

Back to my networking with a host of new skills. I am now a strong cold-caller, have tripled the size of my LinkedIn network to 1600+, and have gotten used to a daily commute for the first time in years.

Thanks for listening. I’ll be back.

It’s been a long time. How are you?

by Em Are · May 31, 2013

Well it really has been a long time since I've written anything. I'm going to try this again.

It' has been a little over 9 months since I wrote those first couple of entries. I've been hitting the networking activity hard through LinkedIn, local networking groups, one-on-one meetings. It's funny, but most of my outbound calls start with the line …”it's been a long time. How are you?” … followed by a brief one-liner about why I'm calling / emailing / standing in front of you.

Today I got my first job offer. Looks like next week I'll start training and orientation so that I can become a part time cashier at The Home Depot just down the street. I have exhausted my 26 weeks of unemployment compensation and have just filed for my first of 14 weeks of emergency UC. So I need some extra $ to help get us through.

I've had a few face to face interviews, a few more phone screens, but no offers – except Home Depot. Funny, I used to be in the orange box almost every weekend when I was working. I used to joke that they should set a $100 cover charge to walk in the door. It would make it much quicker for me as it seems that was the magic number for my project of the weekend.

Some nuggets I have learned over the past few months. LinkedIn is a really good tool to use. It can consume your time, but it can bridge miles and years of neglected relationships. It's well worth the effort to learn it, use it, embrace it, at any stage of your career. I'm already on my sons' backs about getting their profile up to date. I've gotten good at it and I am now helping others learn to use it.

I'm very involved with MyCareerTransitions (www.mycareertransitions.com), a fabulous professional networking group that meets monthly at Penn State Great Valley. I volunteer as a monitor for their LinkedIn group, posting emails one day a week. I'm active with Joseph's People in Downingtown and just this past week wrote my first networking newsletter. I'll put it up here later.

This unemployment cycle is a roller coaster ride. Good and upbeat one moment, and then down and beaten the next. Prayer and good friends are helping me through it all.

Have a good weekend.

A Prayer to find Employment

by Em Are · Sep 10, 2012

God be with me today in finding employment.

Lead me to work that I love, and that has value.

Guide me to a place with an atmosphere of respect

And cooperation, in a safe and happy environment.

Help me to find fulfillment mentally and financially.

Thank you God, for bringing this to me today!

Difficult decision?

by Em Are · Aug 23, 2012

“…we have made the difficult decision to eliminate your position effective today…”

It was just about 48 hours ago that I heard those words. I don’t think it has still fully sunk in yet. Really? Are you kidding me?

I guess I figured something was odd, after all, the CEO was standing in the door to my office, and he has NEVER been to my office in the 8 years I’ve worked for him. He did text me about 15 minutes prior to his appearance asking if I was going to be in my office for the next little bit. Of course I’m going to be in my office. We have a standing 10a video call every week. Why wouldn’t I be here in my office. Now I should point out that I work remote from the office, I guess “worked”, is the correct term now, and my office is a little over 2 hours north of the company headquarters. So, it is quite unusual for anyone from the corporate office to show up unannounced at my office.

About 11 minutes later he was back on his way to the safety of HQ, but not before requesting that I unplug the laptop and give it to him. “Do you have anything else that is our’s” he asked. Really? Are you kidding me? I know I am repeating myself but I guess the absurdity of the whole thing still hadn’t passed. “Sure, here’s the power cord and the dock station” I said. “I’ll get the office supplies and phone back to you.”

So I am now one of the victims of the economic downturn, the recovering economic downturn. It’s time for me to now put into practice all those things I would offer as nuggets of help to my friends as they were downsized over the past half dozen years or so. Network, update resume, network, tell everyone, network, get active on LinkedIn, network, update your skills, and oh, by the way, did I say to ‘network’.

I think that this little blog will help me get through the whole thing, at least its a first step. We’ll see how it goes. I’m hoping to keep track of progress, throw in a little self-pity wrapped up with a good deal of optimism as I embark on a path to “explore new opportunities” as my LinkedIn headline shouts. Will I end up in a corporate office job (hmmm, been working remotely for well over 10 years now), is it time to do my own thing (right, with 2 college tuition bills and a mortgage), or some combination. Lots to think about. Like I said at the beginning, it has only been about 48 hours since everything changed, and the thoughts are still trying to get themselves in some sense of order.

I need to find my last resume and update it. I still do need a paper resume, right?

Kind of ironic that the last line of the letter he handed me says “…we greatly appreciate all the work you’ve done in an effort to help make [us] a success…”