Don't Ever Quit! An Uplifting Finding a  Good Job after Four Years of Unemployment Story

A lot of people have been out of work in this recession. 

After one, two or three years passes, they give up. They may still be pretending to look for work, answering an occasional ad, but they have really stopped looking, and are spending their days painting the garage or watching NCIS. 

These people have decided that employers have decided they are unhirable. Some sink their savings into a carpet cleaning franchise (unemployed executives are prey for the franchise sellers – click here to learn why you should stay far away from these franchise sellers). 

But more often, the long-term unemployed simply give up, and maybe get a job at Home Depot to pass the time.

A friend of mine lost his job four years ago. He worked 50 hours a week, week after week, for four years straight at finding a new job. He networked. He contacted retained search firms. He used direct mail. He answered ads.

He had numerous interviews. Every job hunting technique mentioned above brought him interviews. So many times it seemed like something was really close.  But he kept coming in second best.

I agonized as I listened to his struggles. I knew him too well – there was nothing wrong with him. He was pleasant, had a solid track record as a senior executive (no job hopping, and a history of producing sound results). He didn’t restrict himself geographically – he interviewed in all corners of the United States, as well as in London, Abu Dabai and Singapore. Even though his industry was battered by the economy, I couldn’t figure out why he wasn’t getting hired.  I remember telling him on New Year’s Day 2012 that the preponderance of his efforts would lead to something, and it would come from an unexpected place, as most job offers do.

Ten days into the New Year, he received an oral offer. A few days before that, he had interviewed for a position at a different company that would pay twice as much. He called to tell this other employer that he would need an answer quickly, or he would be off the market. They put him on the next plane to meet their board, and a few days later made him a salary offer that was roughly comparable to what he had earned in the past, along with an exceptional initial stock grant.

His determination eventually won out.

By the way, if you’re wondering how he got these two jobs, the low-priced one came from answering an ad (and that was a job that paid well below market value). The job he accepted came from networking, and in part from favors he had done in the past. A retainer recruiter called him about the job. The recruiter knew him well – my friend had referred two candidates to the recruiter that had enabled him to fill two searches. My buddy is the kind of guy who always does favors for people (he even spends Thanksgiving serving food to the homeless). He had networked relentlessly, but he had also remembered the prime rule of networking – you have to give something to get something (for more on making someone want to network with you, click here).