No job. Now What? Some thoughts from one who’s been there…

You’ve heard the old joke line, “When you’re up to your eyebrows in alligators, it’s hard to remember that your original objective was to drain the swamp.” The current translation is, “When you’ve just lost your job, it’s hard to think creatively, beyond survival.” Whether you were fired or “let go,” “right sized” or RIFed (Reduction in Force), Baby Needs Shoes. It’s incredibly difficult to think freely and creatively when survival needs press you to the wall, so you bid farewell to your office and work colleagues…and head for the want ads and Internet job listings as fast as you can go.

However, in the bible for job hunters, What Color is your Parachute? 2009, (Berkeley: Ten Speed Press. 2009) Richard Bolles cites research reporting that both sending out resumes randomly to potential employers and answering ads in professional/trade journals have only a seven percent success rate. Answering local newspaper job ads is a successful strategy five to twenty-four percent of the time; the success rate is higher the lower the salary. Similarly with private employment agencies and search firms. Here’s the surprise: 33 % of seekers find positions by asking for leads from family/friends/high-school and college career centers. Forty-seven percent are successful by knocking on doors at any companies that interest them, even if they have no current openings. Sixty-nine percent are hired when they visit interesting companies by phonebook listings. Eighty-four percent of the successful job hunters combine that with membership in a job-club meeting with other seekers. Finally, eighty-six percent engage in a process of assessing their transferable skills, preferred work environment, and intensive advice-and-information interviews. So answering newspaper ads and random distribution of your resume may fill your empty days with something like work, but will probably not result in a satisfying position. And Baby does need those shoes!

As ACPE/NACC supervisor with my own history of periodic joblessness, I’m really convinced that markets shift rather than disappear, even and perhaps most often in an economic downturn. For example, hospices did not exist years ago, but now, JCAHO is becoming increasingly stringent in requiring that hospice staffs include spiritual caregivers with CPE and/or seminary degrees. The National Institute of Business and Industrial Chaplains includes members employed in airports, tourist centers, funeral homes and other settings where spiritual care is vital.

If you have the luxury of accrued vacation or severance pay, begin your career planning by thinking of it as your new full time job. Even if you have to take a stopgap job for survival, save a bit of time each day for yourself and your future. Find a support group, or if your church or community doesn’t already have one, start one. Give the group a positive structure by using a guide text such as Bolles’ book. Browse Borders store shelves with an open mind. Use your prayer time to wonder with God about your wildest dream occupations and work settings. Write a resume that reflects your skills and dreams rather than your old jobs; you’ll find lots of models at the library. By all means, process your disappointment and grief, but also ask friends, family, neighbors, and chance encounters to suggest contacts who could give you advice, even if they don’t have job openings. Conduct “advice and information” calls, with formal letters of introduction and follow-up thank you. Aim for twenty of those each week; that seems to be the critical mass for positions to surface. Above all, use your support systems to think of yourself as a CEO; you are making executive decisions about your future, not begging.

Although NACC’s thrust has traditionally been healthcare chaplaincy, we would be enriched if our membership stretched to include spiritual care venues not yet explored. It will be the gift of members now in the job market to challenge the imaginations of the rest of us.

Margot Hover, D.Min. ACPE/NACC Supervisor Emeritus