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Job search coaches? How about $20k the first year if I find a job in my career path?
I have had four job search coaches in 3 1/2 years on whom I've spent a total of $5000, and also worked with two alumni career development people. I have been disciplined and compliant with their guidance. I have told everyone I meet that I am looking for a job. And it comes up - because I am always working on adding to my skills. For example, I have been taking data science courses for the last 18 months. Before that, in 2017, I got certified in data privacy. I talk about this, just hoping that they know somebody...
Examples of my "homework" for the coaches: I have sent 410 LinkedIn tailored invitations to connect, in addition to sharing 30-40 articles and publishing 4 articles. I have spent 18 months and countless hours volunteering for an industry association (IEEE) and an alumni association (University of Chicago- Harris). I have had about 30 informational interviews by phone and 5 in person. I have only been to three conferences total, two industry conferences and one for women that turned out to be job seekers and career coaches looking for clients.
I have applied to 230 jobs all of which I have met at least 80 percent of the requirements and half of these satisfied all the requirements. I have customized a resume and cover letter for each one that allows cover letters. I have researched every company to which I have made an application. At some large companies, I have had employee referrals (11 in total), but only one who knew the hiring manager. I have gotten zero telephone interviews and one in-person interview. In the latter situation, my contact knew the top executive.
My background: I had a 20-year (total) career in 3 different industries before 2010. I have transferable skills (based on a masters in evidence-based public policy) and a technical aptitude. In 2014, I tried to make up for a 4-year gap in my career with a 2-year master's program - which refined my skills and made them more current. I graduated with a 4.0 in December 2016. Before my gap, I was a Policy Director (2007-2010) at a sustainable energy trade association. I am in my 50s. (Probably, I also am fighting two VP positions I held from 2002-2007.)
For my $500O spent on job search coaches-
The first coach required $2000 up front for: optimizing my LinkedIn profile; writing a generic resume for customizing; teaching me to use a keyword cloud on job postings to include in my cover letters and resume; giving me LinkedIn contacts for recruiters in the geographic areas and industry I was looking; and contacts at 10 companies of my choice. However, the recruiters and contacts were worthless because the job search coach never understood what my jobs entailed (predominately policy programs and regulatory planning initiatives). These positions don't generically reside in a particular business unit or corporate level.
The second two coaches had "foolproof " ways of building a network because my network had gotten stale after 6 years (4 gap + 2 masters), and I preferred to change industries. What I learned from these building-a-professional-network experiences is the quality of the contacts is crucial. First the contact needs to respond; 30% of people would connect on LinkedIn and about 5 percent would talk with me. The alumni I contacted, (some of which I shared two schools with, UNC and UChicago) had a reply rate of 35-40% but once I suggested a 15-min chat it went down to 10-15%. Some would agree and then ghost me Except for one alumni, no one knew hiring managers and most didn't even know anyone in the department I was trying to get into. Some people didn't know where the company's policies or policy strategies are generated.
I have found that, unless they can look on their company intranet, they are unwilling to take the time to find out who is posting the job, much less asking someone to differentiate between public policy, government affairs, operations compliance, public relations and corporate responsibility groups.
And I do get it! I am a stranger and I can offer my assistance, but it may be of little help to them. For example, if they are in software development, or sales, or marketing, or accounting...
The fourth job search coach was an entry-level (college) recruiter at one of the companies to which I was applying. After 2 sessions at $180/each (45 minutes), she dropped me.
All the coaches have said that the quality of the research and of application materials is preferable to the sheer quantity of job applied for. All have recommended contacts on the inside and have supplied templates for reaching out on LinkedIn and on email. Most of these are not significantly different from what you find online. If you need that guidance or a roadmap with milestones (i.e., tasks), then spend the money. Not one of them can control response rates, what a stranger will or will not do for you, or getting through an ATS with built-in biases.
I have relocated from Raleigh to Richmond to New York for job searching in the past 3 years. In the last 5 years, I have: 1) gotten a masters in conflict analysis and strategic communications (applied to technology issues like privacy, content policy, data governance/security, artificial intelligence, IOT risk/benefit); 2) training and certification in privacy (IAPP - CIPT); and 3) learned R for data visualization and natural language processing/sentiment analysis; and am learning Python for machine learning. This is all to tell employers that I am up-to-date on issues and fluent with data (- which I thought was an antidote for ageism). This learning has been a comfort to me because I can control what I do and learn to feel productive every day.
I also have applied to five companies for "returnships" and have been rejected from four, one is pending
So, I am frustrated with what job search coaches have to offer me. I would be willing to pay them (or anyone, if it can be ethically done) 20% of my first years' salary, up to $20,000. I have loved my career and am driven to make an impact.
Have you considered a professional resume writer to revamp your resume? I must say I am glad I spent the money on it!
I started my search after a grad school with a professional (and renowned) resume writer. All the job coaches have tweaked it a bit.
I understand and can imagine your frustration. In 2019, I released a now best selling book just for your situation, Job Hunting. NOW What?Keeping it Real in the Modern Career Search.
If you're interested in going deeper and 1:1 coaching, please reach out to me [email protected]
That is kind of the problem- I don’t have any more resources to have 1:1 coaches because they have all been a waste.
I can't agree with everything you said, more! Except my total spend on the coaches was closer to $8000 in the last 5 years. People I tell about my experience and now the skills I've amassed knowing the coaching industry better than some of my past coaches say I should become a coach because I know so much! Then, when I have offered my services, even for free, I hear crickets. Good Luck to us in 2020! I for one will keep an eye open for things that may be of interest to you.
Thank you!
Angelique Rewers - consulting for small businesses to acquire corporate contracts by leveraging your network (top tier =0, strategic tier=stale) and public speaking.
User deleted comment on 12/29/19 at 5:30AM UTC
Why not consult , at this point in your career? It could potentially lead to a full time role...
What do you mean by "at this point in my career?" At this moment, I have a stale professional network, so I couldn't consult in the industry I left in 2010. I have spent 5 years making a pivot to another industry by leveling up and specializing my skills for which I have no professional reputation. Finding clients sounds like a very challenging situation indeed.
However, what I have done, and propose to do for organizations, make evidence-based policy decisions and lead teams to launch products and execute programs, is not consulting type work. Not all types of work can be contracted out. The whole evidenced-based concept is contextual. For example, I've never seen an operations lead be a consultant.
(The one exception I have seen partially did my sort of work was from Accenture. I don't have top tier management consulting firm experience and that cultural fit was questionable.)
I am uncomfortable with "at this point in my career" because I don't know what assumptions underlie it.
With ALL of your background and experience consulting/contract roles at a high level is not unforseeable and the fact that your work is contextual is precisely why an organization would hire you for specific long term projects. Corporations set aside, in general, about $70 million toward outsourcing, a year. You bring a ton of value to the table, as an expert. My suggestion is you look into fostering work with specific corporations. A recruiter is not going to do that either is a career coach. So , what I am proposing is a shift to leverage your expertise and retain corporate clients. A person in particular who offers this is Angelique Rewers of the Corporate Agent. Just a suggestion...
Jackie, thank you! I appreciate the suggestion and the name.
User deleted comment on 12/28/19 at 2:52AM UTC
My last position was in the energy/utility space, I'm happy to connect with you here and on LinkedIn. I can make an introduction if I know someone at a company that has a job you are interested in.
You seem to be well experienced and connected . I read your comments and impressed w diversity and experience you have .
Are you in a career development industry ? I need suggestion how to find commercial real estate firm in nyc w monthly salary plus commission. Any suggestions? Thank you Barb-Hansen
User deleted comment on 12/28/19 at 3:27AM UTC
Hi Barb, thank you too. I was a product manager and an owner (P&L) for an early SaaS product targeted at the energy space - but that has truly been a long time ago.
I am trying to transition from energy. It proves to be as hard as any other industry to re-enter after a gap.
Also, I would hate to think my whole last 5 years where I have been trained and have applied policy and concepts for preventing contention (internally and externally) to the technology industry is just wasted. Technology public policy issues are huge - ethical AI operations, the digital divide, data governance, privacy...
Nevermind transferable skills - one area of my knowledge-based crossovers that I have explored is corporate responsibility - environment, energy, technology. With climate change activities being led by business, I thought it was a natural fit. My resume doesn't mesh with what the job descriptions want.
Have you joined a Women In Energy (https://www.womensenergynetwork.org/) group to network?
HI Julie - thanks for the suggestion.
Ironic - just this summer, one of the "contacts" that ghosted me was the head of the local chapter.
However, I decided that I would shift away from the energy industry (in for 12 years) early in my job search. Not only had I applied my master's research to technology (not energy, perhaps the intersection of energy and technology: IOT, data governance, security), but also I was applying for jobs where I should have been a sure thing and not getting interviews. Even an energy recruiter who was friendly with me in my most successful period said that he couldn't recommend me to clients because I had not been working for 6 years. Really?