Job-Search 101

by David Madison, Ph.D.

Getting It Right with The Two-Minute Pitch
 “When Phyllis first gave her Two-Minute Pitch to the group, everyone said ‘What?’ Nobody got it.” So remembers the Five O’Clock Club counselor who coached Phyllis’ group. “But she delivered her pitch every week and used the feedback to perfect it. She came consistently and picked up momentum.” And Phyllis herself feels that the Two-Minute Pitch played a major role in her job search. “It helped me to write it. It helped me to practice it endlessly to anyone who would listen. It gave me a lot of confidence that I had something to offer—and it actually helped clarify what I was looking for, which was very vague in the beginning.”

But Phyllis found that the Two-Minute Pitch also helped her to recognize the right fit. “Having mastered the recitation of my skills and goals, I recognized a good opportunity when I found it. If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll probably end up somewhere else!”

Of course, the Two-Minute Pitch had a solid foundation in Phyllis’ case. “I know some people hate doing the Seven Stories—but I enjoyed it. I liked thinking about the high points of my life.” Her only regret in working the Five O’Clock Club methodology was failing to get 6-10 things in the works. “I was working full time, so I wasn’t able to get that much going, which was a handicap: it made it harder when an opportunity came up to know if it was the right one.”

But Phyllis landed well after 5 sessions at the Club. She found a position developing and coordinating training programs for a not-for-profit organization near her home. The lead was a result of intensive informational interviewing. “I always asked for names. Now I’m keeping in touch with my contacts. I called everyone I talked to—in any way, shape or form—to let them know I got a job. People love to hear good news. I may want to help them someday, or be helped by them again. And I’m keeping active in a professional organization I joined. It helped me with contacts and networking.”

It helped me to write out my pitch and practice
endlessly with anyone
who would listen.

Success Through Networking and Consulting
 “Networking had been a dirty word, I wasn’t used to it. I was so sheltered I didn’t get it. So I was trying to get my job through the Internet.” Julius confesses that it was an exercise in frustration. “I was looking on line all the time, thinking that was the answer. But I wasn’t getting any feedback. I was beginning to wonder if I was hirable.” But Julius connected with the Five O’Clock Club and heard other people talking about how networking produced results. “I came to the meetings more and more, and listened to peoples’ stories…it was about getting the word out, ‘I’m looking for X, or XYZ,’ spreading the word.”

After a decade with a company in TV-film production, Julius had formed his own consulting firm and landed decent assignments. “But I actually spent a year trying to figure out what I wanted to do, licking my wounds.” However, the ongoing consulting and the fresh networking proved to the key.  

“Although I had a lot of contacts from my years in the business, it turns out that the people I met in the last four months were the key—I planted the seed with the right person.” It took more than a month to get in for an interview for an opening he’d heard about (from a person who had turned it down!). Then for over two months he got mixed signals from the company: “There was a job, there was no job, there might be a job, we love you, but we can’t hire anyone right now.”

When Julius finally got the word that they wanted to hire him, he was on a consulting assignment. “They called with the offer and wanted to know when I could start. I said, ‘When I finish this project…. and this is the money I’m looking for.’ I was in a position of power.”

Julian attended the Club for 12 sessions. “Part of my motivation for getting a job was to be able to stand up here and report on my success. I saw people doing it week and after week, wondering when it was going to be my turn!”

Cooking Up the Right Opportunity   

Claudia, a native of New York, found herself accepting a job in a major mid-western city—“they don’t have decent bagels and only one opera a year”—and wondered if she was crazy. “But the Seven Stories Exercise and the Forty-Year Vision were incredibly important for me. I want to be working when I’m 75 or 85, in a job that’s interesting and intellectually challenging.” So when the job came along that positioned her for the future—although it was far out of state—she had no trouble making the decision to leave. “I got a lead from a friend for this ‘perfect job,’ which, as it turns out, the company filled internally. But then they offered me an even better position.”

The goal is to have a
few job offers at the
same time. It builds up
your confidence.

Claudia was actually an alum of the Five O’Clock Club, and decided to come back when it was time for a new search. “I really, truly believe in this methodology.” But she looks back on her first experience with the Five O’Clock Club with some regret: “I did the right things, but I didn’t do them the right way.” Specifically, she recommends taking to heart having 6 to 10 things in the works at the same time. “Originally I tried to do them serially, which is bad. Having so many things going is psychologically difficult at times—it’s like dating 6 to 10 people at the same time—you’re operating on all these levels. But actually it’s more like being a chef, creating six gourmet meals that have to be ready around the same time. You’re turning up the heat on one, taking another off the fire, shaking this, stirring that. But the goal is to have a few job offers at approximately the same time. That builds your confidence so much, and enables you to take the job that really positions you for the long term.”

 Claudia attended the Five O’Clock Club for 13 sessions. “She was working full time all through the process,” her counselor points out, “but she only missed one session. She was incredible organized.” “I like the Five O’Clock Club methodology,” Claudia admits, “because it’s so much like project management.”

A Cup of Tea and Back to Work 
Alicia returned to the Five O’Clock Club when she found her business drying up. “I had done marketing consulting for a variety of blue chip clients for 12 years, and needed to re-strategize. I had stalled out, there was a lot of stop/start, stop/start.” She had attended the Club in that past, “but I had not really implemented the whole methodology.”

I would get right back on the phone, get right back on the Internet, and get letters out. I kept that pipeline full.

 “This time I did the Seven Stories and the Forty-Year Vision and I combined the group meetings with private coaching. The meetings generated tremendous energy, but meeting one-on-one with a counselor was great. It helped me focus on specifics, and we talked about handling complicated questions in the interview process.”

But the part of the methodology that paid off most dramatically for Alicia—as so many others have testified—was getting 6-10 things in the works. She realized that this wouldn’t happen without hard work, and didn’t allow herself to coast: “Even when I was busy interviewing and networking, I would come time, have a cup of tea, and get right back on the phone, get right back on the Internet, and get letters out. I really worked at keeping the pipeline full.”

Her efforts yielded three offers at the same time, two for consulting assignments and one for a full-time position. Alicia attended the Club 3 sessions this time.