An Open Letter to Five O’Clock Club Members 
 by Steve Sidorsky

Successful job-hunters are always encouraged to return to the Club after landing new jobs or consulting assignments. In lieu of a personal appearance, Steve addressed this letter to Jim Borland, the head of the Manhattan Central branch of the Five O’Clock Club group that he attended:

"What a long strange trip it’s been.  It really doesn’t look like my schedule (and, frankly, the traffic) will allow me to make it into New York to get my seven minutes of fame, speaking to the group about my successful job search.  On the other hand, if I don’t find a way to do it, I really feel I’ll miss the sense of closure, as well as the chance to share with others how helpful the Club was to me.  So I thought I would write down some of my thoughts and you can use them as you wish.

 The experience of being in the Club was enormously helpful, in terms of enabling me to organize and focus, and keep up the momentum of searching.  My field is social work and the non-profit sector, and I had always done job searches the old-fashioned way.  That is, you create a chronological résumé, answer some ads, sit back and wait for the phone to ring (which it usually did), go on an interview and show up for work.  Obviously, that era is over and it took a lot of rethinking to make the adjustment. 

I had always done job searches the old-fashioned way. That era is over.

Don’t Skip the Assessment
 The Seven Stories exercise was extremely helpful and enlightening, in part because it enabled (or forced) me to recognize the ways in which my interests had evolved, how my skills had developed and what really had become important to me—as opposed to what I had always felt should be important. I can’t emphasize enough how valuable this has been and how it has helped me really enjoy and do well at the job I finally landed.
The Club also showed me how to create a series of résumés designed for a variety of positions and roles, how to approach an interview as a consultant and how to redefine my experience and my perspectives in order to answer the unspoken question, “So what could you really do for us if you got this job?” 

I kept dead ends in perspective and tried to move on.

Learning From All Interviews — Good and Bad
 I went on almost every interview that I was offered, even for positions that I knew I wouldn’t want.  I’d be leaving the house in the morning and my wife would ask where I was going and why, and sometimes I was hard-pressed to explain it.  But I found that no matter where I went I learned something—about my field, myself, what it was like to cross the Tappan Zee Bridge at 8 a.m., a better way of framing an idea or an experience, a couple of questions it would be good to ask the next time. I also learned that it’s important to interview for the job that you are actually applying for, not for the job you would like to have or the job you wish it would be.

 I tried to follow through on everything. In one interview I was asked to write an essay on my vision of the position, and I did it even though it was clear that the interviewer was probably just collecting ideas and pieces that she could convert into her own article. What was valuable was that writing the piece, which came to four pages, really helped organize my thoughts and ideas about a lot of issues and areas. Eventually, I was able to use a version of the article to address two more opportunities as well, and in several follow—up notes after other interviews.
I also learned—well, I don’t know that you ever really are able to do this—not to take personally the rejections, the unreturned messages, the lack of follow-up after interviews, the people who forgot my name during the interviews, etc. I always tried to remember that scene from Godfather II, when Hyman Roth is telling Michael Corleone about how he reacted when he found out that his protégé, Moe Green, had been murdered.  Roth said, “When I heard the news, I didn’t get angry. I didn’t ask who gave the order. I just let it go. Because it was business and this is the business that we’ve chosen.” 

Networking to Build Confidence
 After what I thought were good interviews, I did tend to fixate and get hung up on several positions. It turns out I was fortunate not to have received offers, although it certainly didn’t seem so at the time. As the process evolved, I tried to make a conscious effort to keep dead ends in perspective and to move on when I could.
I discovered that some of the oddest people were very helpful—people whom I called on a lark, or people whom others suggested I call even if I had never met them. Some of these people gave me their time, as well as names of other people to call and some really great suggestions.  In some of these cases, what really mattered was not where these contacts led (if they led anywhere at all), but that they validated who I was, what I had accomplished and what I had to offer. That often gave me the energy to renew my search and to keep going.  At the same time, some of the people I expected would be helpful really tended to disengage from me—or perhaps it just seemed that way.  

 In addition to my Two-Minute Pitch, I had to develop two other pitches. One was in the form of a pre-emptive strike describing why I wasn’t working and why, if I was so great, I had been let go. The other addressed the question of why I was looking in very different areas and what made me think I would like them—since so much of my work was in clinical services and in several specialized areas.

 So…. where did I end up?  I became the director of a fairly large and forward-looking grant-funded program serving the senior population, their families and the agencies that work with them in Northern and Central New Jersey. It is, in many ways, a dream job, as I am able to repeat many of the things that ended up in my Seven Stories, plus I am not locked into a rigid agency structure.

The Importance of Staying in Touch
 Here’s the part, though, that I feel is important: I got in the door because of professional contacts I’d made over the years. What really made that happen, was staying in touch with them, sending them proposals and ideas that spoke to their plans and offering to work with them in consulting or part-time capacities. I revised the piece that I mentioned earlier (the essay for another interview) and used it to describe how I would develop some projects and also to give them a sense of how I think about things. I tried to stay on their radar screens, and by the time this position emerged, it almost seemed like a natural next step for me to move into it.

 I’d like to say that all of the above was thought out, well planned and intentional on my part. In reality, of course, it wasn’t as much as it should have been. But the foundation that the Club provided—the lectures, the small groups, the books—was invaluable and, looking back, I can say it all really works.

 So, many thanks and best wishes and keep up the good work."