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 Sometimes,
all you need is a Jewish family. That's when you come to Jewish
Family Services.
Aynn talks to Artie Isaac about her JFS
experience
Aynn arrived at work on Friday morning.
She grabbed a cup of coffee at 9 a.m. and settled into her work.
"I had worked for years as a copywriter at this major company.
My work was expert. I was a valued member of our communications
team. That's how I had been recently assessed by my
supervisors."
By 9:30, she was fired.
"I'm in the middle of my career and I'd never been fired from a
job before," Aynn says. "They told me that the position was no
longer needed. It wasn't my work that was the reason. And that
was that. I was out, box in hand, on the way home."
What would you do? You're a talented person. You've been well
employed throughout your career. Then, suddenly, it happens.
You're out of a job. At 9:30 a.m. on a Friday morning. The
coffee is still hot in your cup. It's the job that's turned
cold.
What would you do? Perhaps you have wealthy, well-connected
friends you can turn to. How nice. What if you didn't? Maybe
you're independently wealthy. How nice. What if you weren't?
Then what would you do?
None of us wants to think that we are so vulnerable. We like to
think that our good fortune will continue as long as we continue
to work hard, continue to be smart, continue to produce smart
decisions. When we're lucky, we start to think that luck has
nothing to do with it. But luck does play a role in fortune.
It's said that any great business is only three bad decisions
from going out of business. We are all vulnerable to three bad
decisions. That's also surely true of any great career path. For
decades, the bills get paid, the work is challenging and
rewarding. Then, suddenly three bad decisions and that career
hits a wall.
What if that career is yours? And what if those bad decisions
are not yours? They are someone else's bad decisions. Maybe they
aren't such bad decisions in the scheme of the entire
organization - but they are definitely bad for you. You're
suddenly out of a job. Your luck has turned.
That Friday morning, two years ago, Aynn went home.
She went into her house with the coffee, the box, and bad news
for her family.
What next?
Aynn wanted to find a job and fast. She likes to work. Her work
really is valuable and she's truly a team player. But looking
for a job is the one job for which she is most unqualified. "I'm
not good at looking for a job," Aynn describes. "I'm sure that
some people can just pick up the phone and start tapping their
networks. They can call friends and former colleagues and say,
'Connect me.' But that's just not wired into my personality."
You know someone like Aynn. You can understand who she is. She's
a talented writer. She likes to write to tell other people's
stories, in favorable ways, so that she can bring people
together for mutual benefit. She's quietly humble. She doesn't
toot her own horn. She writes to help others. Touting her own
talents makes her uncomfortable. "Very uncomfortable," admits
Aynn. "I just can't do that."
How does this strike you? Do you think Aynn ought to just buck
up and get it done? Do you think that Aynn ought to get over her
professional shyness, pick up the phone and mobilize her
network? If so, you are asking Aynn to do the one thing she
simply cannot do. We spend too much of our lives trying to get
people to do the one thing they simply cannot do. It's futile.
So, let's not ask people to do the one thing they cannot do.
Let's focus them on what they do best.
As her severance package ran out, Aynn sought help. Here's what
happened, says Aynn:
"First, I heard Fred Points, a JFS career consultant, when he
gave a free seminar at the Grandview Heights Public Library on
career development for the displaced worker. Fred spoke to me
afterwards and sent me to a community job fair. When I arrived
at the job fair, I immediately saw the JFS booth and met Karen
Hughes, the coordinator of the
SUCCESS
program at JFS. Karen told me about SUCCESS. I signed up.
"Signing up for SUCCESS was the most effective action I took
during my job search. It might have been the best career choice
I've made in my entire life."
"The program offers a speaker each week at JFS. Other job
seekers share successes and failures. You find out that you
aren't the only person who didn't have an interview even though
you've sent out hundreds of resumes. You learn that you aren't
the only person who's nervous."
But it was the "behind the scenes work" that Aynn most
appreciated:
"As a writer, I thought that I'd be my own best resource when it
comes to writing my resume. As part of the SUCCESS program, I
submitted my resume, though really I didn't expect it to change
much. But, wow, it came back almost completely different. It
really was a sea change, and I really was surprised. It was
shorter without losing any content.
"In one week, my resume won me my first interview." Karen is a
certified resume writer. Who knew you could be one of those?
"As the months passed, I grew nervous. Jim Hatch, another JFS
career consultant, formed a smaller Monday group for more
sharing. Jim reads every job advertisement in the newspaper
every Sunday and clips them for the Monday meeting. This was
over and above anyone's expectations.
"So Jim found an advertisement for a 'customer experience
designer.' He gives it to me and I say, 'But I'm a copywriter.'
I would never have answered that ad."
"Jim says, 'I see it as a job for a writer.'"
"Turns out, Jim was right. That's where I am now."
Along the way, the entire team supported Aynn's job search:
"Everyone was so enthusiastic. You'd have though they were out
of work! They always knew what I'd been doing in my search. It
was like having a whole other family that cared whether I had a
job."
"Other organizations that offer to help with job searches are
not as helpful as JFS. The other ones might teach you how to
fish, and they might give you a pole and show you where the pond
is. But only JFS fishes with you, helping to land the big fish.
They model the most effective job searching behaviors."
"They made calls on my behalf. They would hear about
opportunities and chase them down. They would find people who
could call ahead, before my interview, and tell the interviewer,
'Aynn is great. You'll like Aynn.'"
"In SUCCESS, the JFS team lists who has which interviews. And
the team gets to work. They scour the list of JFS board members
and other potential contacts who might be able to put a good
word in for the potential applicant."
"For example, when Mindy Agin, another JFS career consultant,
saw that there might be a copywriting job at a local office of a
regional bank, she went into action. She found a friend who
simply had an account at a local branch of the bank. Mindy asked
her friend to introduce her to the branch manager. It was simply
amazing. Mindy swam upstream so deftly; she made it all the way
to the marketing department head in the bank's headquarters
city. She told the marketing director, 'You simply have to meet
Aynn. You'll love Aynn.'"
How magic is this, Aynn?
"I can't network. I'm not going to lunch and ask someone about
his or her job. I just don't have that in me. Every job I've
ever taken, I've found in the newspaper. It seems presumptuous
to ask my friends for help. I don't like the rejection. I guess
I presume rejection.
"Having Mindy make calls for me was like having my own Jewish
family, rooting for me, applying professional assertiveness on
my behalf."
How is Aynn repaying JFS? By being able to get to work at
Quantum Health as a customer experience writer/designer(!), Aynn
has made sure that the human resources folks at Quantum Health
are connected to the career counselors at JFS. That relationship
is resulting in a corporate relationship, where Quantum Health
can contract with JFS for services in locating and training
talented workers.
How does this result in tikkun olam, the repair of the world?
When Aynn is working, she is able to serve the community as a
volunteer. "I have long donated and volunteered for Pilot
International," says Aynn. "We prevent head injuries through
education."
And, of course, Aynn can be counted among the financial donors
to JFS annual campaign.
This essay was written by Artie Isaac, and is based on an
in-person interview with Aynn on May 9,
2007.
Artie Isaac writes Net Cotton Content at
artieisaac.com, is the
re-founder of Young Isaac,
and served as the chairman of the board of directors of Jewish
Family Services of Columbus from 2005-07. Artie is also a
satisfied former client of the career counseling services at
JFS.
The SUCCESS program for Dislocated Workers is funded by the
Central Ohio Workforce Investment Corporation (COWIC) to assist
professional, Franklin County residents, who have lost their
jobs due to corporate mergers, downsizing, and/or plant
closures.
SUCCESS participants will receive one on one and group support
to identify transferable skills, create a job search action plan
and fine tune their self-marketing strategy.
To learn more about this program, contact our SUCCESS
Coordinator at 614-559-0177 or
SUCCESS@jfscolumbus.org.
For detailed information on JFS career services, please select
from the following:
Career
Management Coaching
Professional Résumé Writing
Services, Member PARW ®
PEAK © Interview Coaching
Career Testing
2 Young 2 Retire ®
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