Advice for a Laid Off Friend
March 5, 2022 1:21 PM Subscribe
My friend was laid off from his job last summer. He had been with the company for over 20 years, and received 2 months of "outplacement assistance" to help with the transition, which was mostly webinars on networking, updating your LinkedIn profile, that sort of thing - not services specific to his situation. He is over 50 years old, so not yet retirement age, but it's been tough for him to figure out how to find a new job, as many of his skills are out of date, thus the layoff. Does anyone have any advice or recommendations for recruiters or career coach-types who have had success with clients in this type of situation? The field is Business Analyst - supply chain/sales operations.
FWIW, when this happened to me I signed up with a couple of placement agencies. One thing to bear in mind—they aren’t really proactive. They try to give the impression they’re carefully vetting you and your skills, and then looking for suitable opportunities for you. The reality is that they’re pretty passive. They wait for companies to contact them with openings, and then put forward their most likely applicants.
It’s a scattershot approach, and most interview opportunities I was given weren’t appropriate for me at first. But I’d say your friend should accept the first couple of interview offers, and see what happens. If the agency isn’t quite getting it right, it helps to chat with them. My task became helping them to help me, by just repeatedly telling them what kinds of things were right for me, and which things weren’t. They got better eventually.
What strikes me about your friend’s background is their solid employment history. That’s something most younger applicants won’t have, and employers will be impressed by it. Also, that business sales experience seems to me a desirable thing to have.
Working with an agency is a lot more effective than applying for jobs online. The placement coordinator will rave about their applicant to the client before the interview. It adds a human aspect to the process, and it’s an advantage that isn’t available with LinkedIn, for instance.
Here’s hoping your friend gets some good opportunities soon!
posted by cartoonella at 4:27 PM on March 5, 2022 [2 favorites]
It’s a scattershot approach, and most interview opportunities I was given weren’t appropriate for me at first. But I’d say your friend should accept the first couple of interview offers, and see what happens. If the agency isn’t quite getting it right, it helps to chat with them. My task became helping them to help me, by just repeatedly telling them what kinds of things were right for me, and which things weren’t. They got better eventually.
What strikes me about your friend’s background is their solid employment history. That’s something most younger applicants won’t have, and employers will be impressed by it. Also, that business sales experience seems to me a desirable thing to have.
Working with an agency is a lot more effective than applying for jobs online. The placement coordinator will rave about their applicant to the client before the interview. It adds a human aspect to the process, and it’s an advantage that isn’t available with LinkedIn, for instance.
Here’s hoping your friend gets some good opportunities soon!
posted by cartoonella at 4:27 PM on March 5, 2022 [2 favorites]
Sorry to hear your friend is going through this. Sounds like his biggest issue with getting a new job is that his skills are out of date. Could he work on getting back up to date?
At the risk of sounding like a corporate shill*, Salesforce offers free training to anyone wanting to learn the platform, and they have business analyst roles that they train for, on www.trailhead.com. You're not guaranteed a job, but getting a certification would put a current, marketable skill on his CV.
Good luck to your friend.
*yep, I work for Salesforce. But I'm not in sales and I have no incentive to bring new users to the platform, just saw a possible solution to your friend's problem.
posted by nadise at 8:31 PM on March 5, 2022 [2 favorites]
At the risk of sounding like a corporate shill*, Salesforce offers free training to anyone wanting to learn the platform, and they have business analyst roles that they train for, on www.trailhead.com. You're not guaranteed a job, but getting a certification would put a current, marketable skill on his CV.
Good luck to your friend.
*yep, I work for Salesforce. But I'm not in sales and I have no incentive to bring new users to the platform, just saw a possible solution to your friend's problem.
posted by nadise at 8:31 PM on March 5, 2022 [2 favorites]
it's been tough for him to figure out how to find a new job, as many of his skills are out of date, thus the layoff
BAs are needed in all industries so if your friend's got 20 years experience he should find work. However, his job prospects are not going to improve if his skills are out of date. An agency might be able to find him opportunities and talk him up but that's not going to help if he doesn't have the chops to do the job.
My concern as an employer would be that companies don't lay off their best employees and a lay off after 20 years suggests that either your friend is too expensive (in which case no problem because if he's good he'd be snapped up by another company) or that he's spent 20 years doing the same thing and the company has moved on but he hasn't.
Now, he might not have moved on because the company didn't push him to but that doesn't show a lot of initiative on his part. He needs to prove that he is willing to learn new new skills because otherwise he's trading on Windows XP skills when everyone needs Windows 10/11 skills.
Does he know what skills he needs? If so, the best advice is for him to find all the (free if possible) training he can to bring himself up to a level that will make him an attractive hire. If he doesn't know then he really should, at minimum:
1. Read the BABOK (Business Analyst Book of Knowledge) cover to cover (and try to take in key concepts).
2. Learn as much about Excel as he can.
3. Find and connect with some recruiters on LinkedIn and ask them what skills a good candidate has. This can also be done by scanning lots of job ads to find out what skills are repeatedly asked for. Then upskill as much as is feasible so he can show prospective employers he's got what it takes to learn and adapt to help them.
I wish him luck, and I'm sure he can find work again.
posted by underclocked at 1:13 AM on March 6, 2022 [3 favorites]
BAs are needed in all industries so if your friend's got 20 years experience he should find work. However, his job prospects are not going to improve if his skills are out of date. An agency might be able to find him opportunities and talk him up but that's not going to help if he doesn't have the chops to do the job.
My concern as an employer would be that companies don't lay off their best employees and a lay off after 20 years suggests that either your friend is too expensive (in which case no problem because if he's good he'd be snapped up by another company) or that he's spent 20 years doing the same thing and the company has moved on but he hasn't.
Now, he might not have moved on because the company didn't push him to but that doesn't show a lot of initiative on his part. He needs to prove that he is willing to learn new new skills because otherwise he's trading on Windows XP skills when everyone needs Windows 10/11 skills.
Does he know what skills he needs? If so, the best advice is for him to find all the (free if possible) training he can to bring himself up to a level that will make him an attractive hire. If he doesn't know then he really should, at minimum:
1. Read the BABOK (Business Analyst Book of Knowledge) cover to cover (and try to take in key concepts).
2. Learn as much about Excel as he can.
3. Find and connect with some recruiters on LinkedIn and ask them what skills a good candidate has. This can also be done by scanning lots of job ads to find out what skills are repeatedly asked for. Then upskill as much as is feasible so he can show prospective employers he's got what it takes to learn and adapt to help them.
I wish him luck, and I'm sure he can find work again.
posted by underclocked at 1:13 AM on March 6, 2022 [3 favorites]
Don't forget USAJobs (or equivalent civil service jobs in your country)
posted by ctmf at 3:55 PM on March 6, 2022
posted by ctmf at 3:55 PM on March 6, 2022
My friend Erin Berkery is a career advisor who "specializes in people who have gone through a traumatic layoff" - might be helpful as a career coach-type.
posted by brainwane at 8:20 AM on March 7, 2022
posted by brainwane at 8:20 AM on March 7, 2022
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by cartoonella at 3:15 PM on March 5, 2022 [3 favorites]