A consultant whom I met last week, has a very topical niche market: individuals who have been retrenched or who will be retrenched soon.
What in a nutshell does this consultant do? He runs workshops and his services are retained by owners of companies who have a sense of responsibility and who foot the transition bill.
Anyone who stands on the verge of a retrenchment needs a new mindset, a positive mindset. There is no point in feeling sorry for yourself because of the “predicament” in which you find yourself. In fact, it may well be the opportunity of a lifetime.
Andrew, my new acquaintance, and Stephen Covey of Seven Habits fame, have the same approach: If you might be entrenched do not only draft a perfect CV and simply send it out to all and sundry, including head hunting and employment agencies and possible companies or organisations who might have an opening. In doing so, you are adding yourself to the pile of problems that the recipients of your job solicitation have. They have to wade through hundreds of applications and you are adding to their burden.
Instead, see yourself as a consultant. Make a list of “customers”, that is, companies with whom you would really love to work as they develop and offer products and services in whose development you could make a meaningful contribution, given your strengths (talents, skills and experience). Google them. Visit their websites. Research them. Make appointments with them. Prepare yourself as would a consultant and view them as prospective customers. What are the problems they tackle and solve? Identify these issues. How would you solve them?
What contribution could you make on their team? How could you prove that you have what it takes? Do you have a track record? Then state what you have achieved. Develop a number of brief case studies in which you had a strong hand in arriving at solutions which satisfied clients.
To quote Covey: “You are going to have to be enormously resourceful and creative in learning about the organization you want to work for. Creativity is a unique human endowment, and is a powerful capacity that lies largely dormant in most people. Unfreeze yourself from the panic and nervousness you may feel about not having a job, and start immersing yourself in the realities of the company you want to work for. Creatively find ways of talking with and learning from the company’s employees and managers—talk to their suppliers, their customers, and even their competitors. Reach the point that you can describe their challenges and needs as well as or better than they could themselves. Then you can position yourself—your unique background, skills, education, experience and talents (some of which you may need to further develop first)—in the context of their needs.”
Luck has nothing to do with it. Being retrenched might exactly be what you need at this stage of your life.
You might even decide to start your own company.
Albert
keywords: new jobs, organisation, personal development, retrenchment