RIFfed? Turn That into a Good News Story
Have you been a victim of one of the many recent reductions in force (RIF)? With so many tech companies shedding people, it may be time for you to rethink your next career move, and make it your own!
This is not the first time, and it won’t be the last. It often seems like technology companies all hit a bad patch simultaneously. It might be because of the vulnerability of tech companies to changes in the overall economy. It may be caused by the adjacency of each technology to others. It may just be bad ju-ju. Karma.
Whatever “It” Is, It Spells Opportunity
If you’re the one who’s lost their job due to no fault of your own, it really doesn’t matter why your company chose to release you. You’re out of a job. Now you need to have only one goal in mind:
Turn this negative into a super-positive!
You always have the right to choose your own response to a given situation. That’s not my thought, it was first shared with the world by the incredible concentration camp survivor Viktor Frankl in his master work, “Man’s Search for Meaning.”
Frankl was imprisoned in several of the Nazi concentration camps during WWII. He and his friends and family were subjected to the worst kinds of human degradation imaginable. Yet, fellow prisoners once liberated cited Frankl as the one amongst them who kept their hope alive. Asked how he managed to maintain a positive, hopeful attitude, his response was that they could take everything away from him except for his right to choose his response. Amazing.
This is instructive to all of us. No matter how bad our plight, it’s hard to take the position that we have it worse than Frankl did. His suffering is unimaginable. Ours is, well, less awful. Much less awful.
So Where Do We Go Looking for a New Job?
You don’t.
If you seek to replace your lost job with another job you have just as good a chance of someday losing that job too. Nobody wants to keep uprooting and changing, and nobody wants a series of hops on their resume. The wear and tear on our souls that comes with every change becomes more and more unbearable.
So, instead of looking for a new available job, take this circumstance to be a positive opportunity for you. A much-needed “kick in the pants” encouraging you to move in a better direction.
How?
Instead of seeing the next job as the high-value target, consider yourself to be the high-value asset, the incredible opportunity for some fortunate employer to hire. That’s not as crazy as it sounds!
Managers Seek Great Employees
Smart managers don’t just look to fill open positions. They seek to attract top talent to their team to keep on improving their performance. What they want most is incredible people.
What you want most, if you were to stop to honestly ask yourself, is to work in a company that you can really enjoy working in. A place where their values are consistent with your own. Where you can feel like you belong. Where you can find the right kind of encouragement and enablement to get you creating the kind of results you can really feel great about. Really be proud of.
Why not?
Why should you not be working in such a wonderful environment if it truly exists?
Start to think about this. What companies are out there that you’d just love to be working for? Which have you found yourself admiring? Perhaps you’ve met some of their people and secretly envied how great they feel about their company. If you’ve spent more than a day in the information technology industry its almost a given that you’ve seen such companies. If not, once you start looking you are almost guaranteed to find them.
Seek Your Opportunity
Instead of scouring the “job boards” or classified ads or other listings, start doing your homework on your targeted preferred employers. Who does the hiring? What do they need? How could you be valuable to them? What kind of positions could you fill for them?
Who do you know who knows people who work there? These can provide personal introductions where you need them to put you in direct touch with the people most likely to recognize your value and offer you the employment you actively seek!
In the proverbial nutshell, go out and find the role you wish to play in a company you’d be proud and happy to join. Target the right executives and find contacts you have in common with them to help make the connection. Be prepared to impress them with just how ideal you and your experience and skills are for their needs, and be ready to describe many of the contributions your participation can afford them. Make yourself as valuable to them as they feel to you.
You Are Not Words on a Page
In February 2023 we talked about how “The Network Works” in which I asked which you’d prefer, being introduced to a potential employer by a piece of paper, or by a person they know and trust who also knows and values you.
Mailing or emailing a resume is a complete waste of your time and energy. The likelihood of attracting attention is minimal at best. You want people to introduce you to the right people.
It is also altogether possible that the people you know and trust may know of opportunities with companies they know you’d like. That’s a great conversation to have with anyone you know, like, and trust. We’re all in that same boat of wanting to find rewarding ways to invest our time and passion. And people love to help and to give. Give your friends the opportunity to help you in your search.
“Honey, Good News! I Got Fired Today!!”
It may sound ridiculous now, but many have gone before you and discovered that being fired was the absolute best thing their employer could do for them. Like them, you may very easily find yourself feeling lucky a little bit down the road when you realize just how much better your life has become since your last employer let you loose to seek the future of your dreams.
Go for it!