Winning Formulas from the Inner Circle
Small-Group Counseling by Teleconference
by David Madison, Ph.D.

The Five O’Clock Club in the Middle of the Night
“I had been looking for over a year and a half, and easily had sent out 500 résumés.” After 15 years with an investment firm in Switzerland, Al was conducting a long-distance job search, looking for the right niche back home in the US. The Internet made the mass distribution of his résumé possible, but it also led him to the Five O’Clock Club, which proved to be the key for conducting an effective job search.  The Wall Street Journal lead Al to the Korn-Ferry site, which is linked to www.fiveoclockclub.com. “When I first heard about the Five O’Clock Club, I thought it was just for people in New York. Then I found out that the Club has the Inner Circle branch by teleconference.” 

I thought the Five O’Clock Club was just for people in New York. But most Five O’Clock Clubbers are in the Inner Circle teleconference program.

 Al called to sign up for 10 sessions, despite the fact that his small group started at 7:30 EST—he would have to stay up til 1:30 in the morning in Switzerland!  Since he joined just before the Christmas-New Year break, he had time to do serious homework before his first group session. “I went through all the books and tapes. I tried to take all the lessons to heart—it really became kind of a religion for me. And learning the Five O’Clock Club method brought about a night and day change in the way I was going about things. During that year and a half of sending out résumés, I had a few interviews, but then when something fell through, I’d not do anything for the next six weeks. The Five O’Clock Club is always pushing you to do something.”

 As with most successful job hunters, Al discovered that proper assessment had been a missing ingredient. “What really helped was the Seven Stories and the Forty-Year Vision. About a year earlier I’d actually had an offer for a job in New York, and I saw now that it didn’t fit anywhere in my Forty-Year Vision. I wasn’t suited for it at all. The money was okay, but it didn’t play to my strengths.”

I listened to the whole set of tapes
four times. On my way to work, instead of listening to the radio, I put in a tape.

 After completing the assessment, Al took his cues especially from the tape on effective networking. While previously he had sent out the 500 résumés “applying for everything under the sun,” now he sent a targeted mailing to fellow members of a professional association. He crafted a cover letter with bulleted accomplishments, and began with a simple question: “I’m thinking about moving back to the U.S. I’m interested in your organization—can you steer me to someone who might be interested in my background?”

 “I got lots of response. By my fourth or fifth session with my Inner Circle group, I was talking with five companies.” With laptop and a box of stationery, Al made a trip to the U.S. after getting several interviews lined up. He was in touch will all his targeted companies by email, and was able to hand-deliver polished follow-up letters during his week of interviewing stateside.
“I learned from the Club not to write ‘thank-you’ letters. Instead, in my letters I  suggested solutions to problems. I made specific legal and portfolio management proposals to people I’d met. I never talked about applying for a job. I always talked about what needed to be done.” Within a few weeks, and by his ninth session with the Inner Circle, Al had the offer he wanted. He booked a private session with his counselor to discuss salary negotiation. The insurance firm that eventually hired him, by the way, had called him in for an exploratory interview (“we don’t have anything right now, but we’d be pleased to talk to you”).

Looking back over the whole Five O’Clock Club process, Al values the Two-Minute Pitch especially. “I practiced it to death. At the Inner Circle teleconference sessions, every time someone new joined the group, the counselor had us recite our pitches. And I really got a lot of practice because all my first interviews were all on the phone. When it becomes second nature, you’re much more prepared—you come across as a different kind of person.”

I learned from the Club not to write ‘thank-you’ letters. Instead, I suggested solutions to problems.

 Coming to the Five O’Clock Club after a long and unproductive job search, Al was pleased to discover a methodology. “The Five O’Clock Club process forces you to do everything systematically. You’re expected to figure out what you do well—and enjoy. You’re expected to figure out where you want to go, and then to work out the possibilities to get yourself there.”

Learning Five O’Clock Club Method On the Road
 “I listened to the whole set of tapes four times.” With a forty-minute commute each way, Bernard decided to put time in the car to good use. Feeling unchallenged after 15 years with an insurance company, he knew that finding a new path would require hard work and concentration. “On my way to work, instead of listening to the radio, I put in a tape. This got me thinking about what I needed to do that day, who I needed to call. And on my way home, I would listen for ideas, so that after helping get the kids to bed, I would know what I needed to do to keep the search moving.”

Bernard also devoted about 20 hours to Targeting the Job You Want, especially on the assessment. “The long-term vision was the most helpful concept. So many people are  focused on ‘What am I going to do now for a job?’ versus ‘What do I really want to do down the road?—where do I see myself in 15 or 20 years?’ So many career books tell you how to get the next job, rather than help you reach your career objectives.”

But Bernard wanted human interaction to supplement the books and tapes. Since he is on the West coast, he signed up for 10 Inner Circle branch sessions and connected with a counselor by phone for several private sessions as well.

Bernard devoted about 20 hours to Targeting the Job You Want. “So many career books focus on getting the next job, rather than helping develop career objectives.”

 He settled on four initial targets, but serious drawbacks in three of them soon became clear. He decided to launch a major campaign in the fourth: executive recruiting firms. “I did my research, identified A, B, and C lists and mailed résumés and cover letters to 88 companies. I got calls from 15—most on the B and C list. But I was glad to start my meetings with them. I went on 10-12 interviews, just so I could master the terminology. By the time I got into the high end firms, they almost looked at me as if they were recruiting someone from another firm.”

 Bernard got into the high end firms by making the requisite phone calls—to the remaining 70+ companies on his lists. This produced 25 interviews, which resulted in several offers. Having more than “6 to 10 things in the works” helped Bernard negotiate from a position of strength. “One of the firms told me they were giving me the best offer they ever made any candidate. They said, ‘What’s your next step?’ I said, ‘I’ve got to evaluate your offer in comparison to all the others I’ve received.’ They kept pursing me.”  It was around the time of  his 9th teleconference group session that he landed his new job.

 Bernard now recruits and places executive level candidates in a niche market. And he sees first-hand the need for career assessment that helped him so much. “As a recruiter, I see people change jobs as fast as they change pants. A lot of them really don’t have any idea what they want to do—and these are very senior people.”

Making Connections at Professional Associations
 “Whenever I got depressed during my job search,” Vincent points out, “I picked up one of the Five O’Clock Club books and read something, or I picked up the phone to call somebody—that’s what the methodology said I should be doing.”  Attempting to change direction with his career, he stuck with his Inner Circle branch sessions for 16 weeks, and had a couple of private counseling sessions as well.

Having 6 to 10 things in the works helped me to say, “I’ve got to evaluate your offer in comparison to all the others I received.”

 Vincent had left a long career in banking to take a position in new business development for an energy company. He knew he faced an uphill battle to return to a financial institution, but decided to target project finance positions with major money center and foreign banks.

 Having come across the Five O’Clock Club through the Korn-Ferry Futurestep website, he immediately adjusted his approach to the job market after reading the books. He put in the hard work to redesign his résumé the Five O’Clock Club way. “My initial résumé, which I’d done on my own, got zilch!”

Members of his strategy group at the Inner Circle urged him to join key professional associations—and this proved to be a major breakthrough in his search. At his fourth meeting at one of the associations, he met an executive from one the banks on his target list. Having sent his résumé to several people at the bank—with no response—he asked her in a humorous tone, “How do I crack into your bank?” “May I take a look at your résumé?” was her response. Vincent wanted her input as much as anything. “Could you just review it and tell me what you think?”

A few days later Vincent received a call from one of the bank’s Senior Vice Presidents, asking him to come in for an interview.  The first interview ended up being six hours long, and he was brought back three days later. An offer soon followed—for a position the bank had been trying to fill for six months! The face-to-face meeting at a professional association had proved to be the key.

Whenever I got depressed during my job search, I picked up one of the Five O’Clock Club books and read something.

 Not long after starting the new job, Vincent saw further payoffs of the Five O’Clock Club method. Over the weeks attending the Inner Circle sessions, he’d worked hard to get “6 to 10 things in the works,” and three job offers came in from companies in his secondary target. Happy to be in a position to turn down these offers, he gained more confidence about his worth in the market.

Three job offers came in from
companies in his secondary target—
after he was on the new job.

 But he had also gained an appreciation for the value of networking. He had learned the value of professional associations, and during his weeks working with the Inner Circle, he had contacted members outside the weekly sessions. He plans to keep up the relationships. “I know one thing: I don’t want to lose the network.”