Difficult Job Searches
Yield to The Five O'Clock Club Methodology

by David Madison, Ph.D.

It's not uncommon that people with the most difficult job searches end up at The Five O'Clock Club. They might be career changers who are attempting dramatic "course corrections," or they may simply be seasoned professionals who have discovered that the job-search methods they learned 10 or 15 years ago don't work now. When they read the Five O'Clock Club books and brainstorm with peers in their small groups at the Club—under the guidance of trained counselors—their searches usually take on substance and yield results. We offer below the reports of several job hunters who applied our methodology energetically and reaped the rewards.

From Banking to the Arts: Backing Up a Well-Crafted Pitch with Research.

 "I was determined to follow the Five O'Clock Club methodology," Monique admits—perhaps because she sensed that her search might be a difficult one. After 10 years in banking as executive assistant, Monique was frustrated that her love for art and antiquities was not being nurtured. She had taken courses at an auction house, but she knew that moving beyond finance would not be easy.

 "I spent a lot of time on the Seven Stories and on refining my goals and objective." Her counselor comments, "Doing the assessment was key for Monique. She was able to focus on aspects of her background that she wanted to bring forward—to change her r¯sum¯ and her pitch, and be able to deal with the questions about why she wanted to move from finance to the arts."

 But Monique put just as much emphasis on in-depth industry research, and is confident that this aspect of the Club's methodology paid off too. "When I got the offer, it was a match made in heaven, because I had done all the necessary research. If I had come across the job earlier, I probably would not have recognized what a good opportunity it was." The "heavenly match" was as assistant to the head of a start-up dot.com dealing with the marketing of arts and antiques, with good prospects for an expanding role in public relations; the interview had come through a personnel agency.

 Monique attended the club for 15 sessions and landed her job the day before Thanksgiving.

Overcoming a Two-Year
Bad Job Search

 Angela's passion in life is jewelry design, and she is the first to admit that job searching in this field can be daunting. "I conducted a two-year job search, by which I really mean I would look for a job for a week, then get very discouraged and put it all away for six months. But I'd be carrying the job hunt with me even though I wasn't actually doing anything about it other than feeling depressed."

 She began attending the Five O'Clock Club at the suggestion of a friend, and discovered the structure and format for a good job search. "It gave me focus. I read the books and did the Seven Stories—I got clear on what my real talents are." But Angela had not been idle in her "depression" months; she had been savvy enough to know that her marketability depended on state-of-the-art skills as well as on talent; she learned computer design software and studied package design. After she discovered the Five O'Clock Club, she used the self-assessment exercises to visualize and target her dream job.

 She landed a position in jewelry design, working three days a week. "I got my dream job, although not my dream salary. But now I will build my portfolio and be able to move on. I give all the credit to The Five O'Clock Club because it gave me focus; it clarified things for me. I felt empowered." The woman who once was too discouraged to job hunt claims a new outlook: "Nothing is going to defeat me now."

Strengthening the R¯sum¯ with
Consulting Assignments

 Unexpectedly in the job market after the death of his boss, Nicholas found the Five O'Clock Club after a narrow and frustrating job search for a public relations job. "I had answered a lot of ads and contacted head hunters. Absolutely nothing came of that." Nicholas feels that two aspects of Club methodology especially helped get him on track. He put a lot of effort into targeted mail and took to heart our message that "acting like a consultant" can play a role in getting ahead. In his targeted cover letters, he decided to stress that he was open to full-time or consulting assignments.

 His targeted mailing soon led to a two-month consulting assignment, and others followed. Nicholas is enthusiastic about the role of consulting in helping career-minded professionals. "If you're not sure of your next step, consulting gives you an opportunity to work again and get new experience. It restored my routine of getting up, going to work, getting a paycheck. It also gives your self-confidence a boost, and gives you flexibility for exploring the market and going on interviews."

 Nicholas' group counselor played a role in helping him face what he regarded as most painful aspect of targeted mailing: making the follow-up phone calls.

 "When do you plan to make the calls?" she asked.

 He admits that he hadn't planned to make them at all, but he managed to blurt out, "Well, tomorrow."

 "What time?" she responded.

 "One o'clock," he said.

 "Good, you call me after you've made those telephone calls."

 "It worked," Nicholas says, "I felt like I was in third grade-admittedly—but it really worked. One of those calls was to a CEO I'd written to two weeks earlier. I got him on the phone and we met for two hours the following week. The painful follow-through is so important—it can yield valuable results."

 Nicholas is now on a long-term consulting assignment with a Fortune 500 company; he attended 9 sessions at the main branch in Manhattan.

"The Five O'Clock Club

system really works.

You've got to keep at the system."

Follow-Up Is Crucial for Another Consultant

 Anthony decided to go the consultancy route after losing what he describes as the "the job from hell." His morale was low because of the loss of income and damage to his self-confidence. He also realized that he wasn't sure what direction to go in. "I needed time to decide what I wanted to do next. Interim consulting was a natural. It was a way to make money and I felt under less pressure in looking for a full time position."

 Anthony applied several Five O'Clock Club principles in his approach. On one interview for a consulting assignment, it soon became clear that the company didn't even know what it needed. "I realized that I had to tell the client what was required. I got the assignment because I took the initiative and made a proposal on what to do to go forward. They accepted the idea and hired me." He landed another role because of persistent follow-up. The interviewers had stressed their urgent need to get help, yet he didn't get a call on the day they promised to "get back to him." Anthony realized that they were probably swamped, so started trying to reach them, taking to heart the Five O'Clock Club rule that it will take 8 attempts to get through. Also, he didn't call to "check on the status." When he finally reached the hiring manager (after more than 8 tries) he asked if there were any issues about his candidacy that might be troubling them. The answer was "no"—they had just been too busy; they appreciated his persistence and made him the offer.

 Both of Anthony's consulting assignments were at high profile, high prestige firms, which gave more weight to his r¯sum¯; he attended four sessions of the Five O'Clock Club.

Getting the Target Right

—with the Forty-Year Vision in Mind

 In her attempt to move from corporate finance to strategic planning, Connie came to appreciate our warning that, if your targets are wrong, everything is wrong. She had targeted smaller firms, which didn't have the flexibility to accommodate her background—and couldn't afford her. When she finally did get an offer 9 months into her search, she made the brave decision to turn it down and re-evaluate the search. To get an offer was gratifying—and accepting it as a triumph was tempting—but the money was a disappointment, and she had the gut feeling that it wasn't the right match.

 Connie took a fresh look at her goals, and, following the advice of one of her networking contacts, shifted her focus to major firms. Her small group counselor says that Connie "üwent through a great deal of soul searching. She knew, based on her written Forty-Year Vision, that the job she turned down really wasn't the right one for her. So she managed not to get waylaid by the wrong offer. She pulled herself together, retargeted, and kept her Forty-Year Vision in mind. Approaching her new targets, she managed to get where she wanted to go."

 Three months later Connie landed an offer from a major firm, at 40% more money than the job she had turned down. She attended the club for 15 sessions.