Assymetric Information

A fairly prominent blogger just posted this note on a Facebook job group:

"Gentle suggestion to job seekers - if you respond to a job eagerly and then fail to follow-through on simple requests for information, it doesn't reflect well. If you have a change of heart on a position, just be up front about it, don't be passive-aggressive and just go off the radar. Unless of course you've been hit by a truck in which case it's understandable."

Once I got beyond the Jewish mother memories this invoked, I quickly concluded two things:

1) Perhaps more frequently, the word "seekers" can be replaced with "posters"

2) The entire job search process is just so danged assymetric. It's a gentle jig of information-sharing. Does the side of the table with the most uncertainty depend on the state of the market (i.e. supply & demand of labor)? Why does it have to be such a guessing game?

The whole dance of information disclosure and timing is, as I often say, dating on steroids: the ultimate in inference. I'm SO glad I'm not actively 'dating' anymore. But it was a precursor to finding something sustainable. Must the job search process always be the same for a thriving career?

I'm searching for other paradigms.

Encouraging good behavior

Last month I noted - dumbfoundedly - how certain people make use of the LinkedIn professional networking tool. I subsequently published a counter-example because I was so heartened that all people are not, in fact, utterly clueless. 

And this week I received a message which not only restored my faith in human discretion, but serves as a hallmark example to those who struggle with how to respond to someone else's unfortunate circumstances. 

It is, in short, to be emulated. As such, it also bears publishing.

Subject: Hey Diane,
Just noticed that you are no longer at Schwab. I've got quite a few connections in NYC, SF, LA if you are looking for something, just let me know I'd be happy to poke around for ya.

Although having some time off, I'm sure is fabulous! :)

Take care

--Mike

And on this note, I officially end my own job search. Hallelujah!

How desperate must the measures be?

I mean, times may be desperate...but I'm not sure a bong ever motivated me to do much more than grab some munchies.

Michael Phelps

The Greatest Olympian of All Time

Redemption

For every yin, there's a yang:

LinkedIn

Date: 2/05/2009

Subject: Hey!

You are no longer in the White Pages!!!!! You must have been impacted! I hope this email finds you well. Someone with your credentials I'm sure will soon, if not already, be in a place where you want to be. Take care and keep up on your blog!

Notes:

• "White Pages" = Schwab employee directory
• "Impacted" = current HRspeak for being laid off and used interchangeably with the oh-so-lovely term "severed".

Core competencies

Life outside the confines of employment has been utter bliss! Spending each and every minute doing exactly what I want. Sleeping when I want. Seeing who I want, when I want. Working out.

But here's where I need YOUR help: I think there's a socialization piece that may be getting lost. What do you think?:

I just received an invitation from a friend who has her PhD in education. She is putting together an event that costs $15/person to:

Come to dance and PLAY together...giving adults the opportunity to rediscover the joy of play alongside their children as well as meet other like-minded families....inside developmentally appropriate ways of playing and engaging to support critical thinking for children ages two through eight years-old.

The evite responses were private, so I failed to exercise developmentally appropriate restraint and fired off my "no" RSVP:

Pay to play? What is this world coming to!

Hey, but maybe it's not unemployment. I think I just didn't play well enough as a child.

Suspending...

Suspension of disbelief: the audience tacitly agrees to provisionally suspend judgment ...

My current attempt to suspend disbelief comes in response to this unsolicited note from a friend who noticed my changed LinkedIn status:

Subject: Bummer!

You got laid off? I know you are so good at what you do, but you were certainly in the wrong industry at the wrong time, huh? :(

So sorry.

I hereby suspend any judgment as to the value of this message or its author!

Of course, the alternative to such suspension - actually sending my response that is currently saved in my "drafts" folder - may not really build bridges anyway....

Subject: Bummer back!

Hey, thanks for the note. Guess NOBODY'S safe these days: I just read that (your industry) is due to shrink by a gazillion percent this next quarter. But I'm sure you'll recoup at some point. Hope you don't lose your shirt in the meantime!

Diane Bisgeier is exploring opportunities in SF and NYC.

Discordance

In college I did a spring break "experiential learning" program where we explored homelessness. We even spent one night at a homeless shelter. When it came time to share what our main take-aways of the week were, I shared this pearl:

" I learned that I never...ever....want to be homeless."

Fast-forward to a few months ago, when I participated in a "peer coaching" group through my business school. The peers? A bunch of unemployed MBAs. Though I was employed, it certainly left me with a very similar feeling I had all those years ago in college (simply replace "homeless" with "unemployed").

This is why I am bristling at the thought of outplacement services! Hanging out with other unemployed people + a chipper, theoretical organizational development 'professional' rather than with real, productive, employed people somehow does not feel helpful to me...

Perhaps akin to locking up felons up with other felons and expecting it to be "correctional"?

I love you, Mike Judge. You get discordance.