Guest
Editor’s Note: The following guest blog post is the first in a series from a dear friend, A. Scot Tedisco. Scot is one of those rare breeds of professional who believes in long-term commitment to a company, so long as it’s reciprocated. At one point or another, many of us have changed employers seeking a challenge. Scot always seeks those challenges internally.
His dedication has worked well for him. So much so that the economic meltdown of 2008 didn’t seem to affect him, even though he worked in the construction industry as a Senior Project Manager. He was gainfully employed through all the rough patches of our Great Recession.
…And then the day came when he was asked to come into the central office, instead of going to the work site. He was given a three-months notice to find new employment. The company recognized his dedication to the firm and extended him the courtesy of looking for work and remaining with the company through the holidays at the end of 2010. Nevertheless, he was out of work.
Given he’d spent the greater part of 15 years with one company, he’d not spent much time building relationships outside of it…or so he thought. In this and the posts that will follow, he shares his story and the lessons learned along the way.
I originally received a copy of this story in August of 2011. I asked to share it in this blog since there was so much that others could relate to and learn from. So, keep that date in mind as you read these posts. Also note that Scot’s former employer was Bernards.
Enjoy!
Well here it is… I’ve been unemployed for about 8 months. It doesn’t seem that long. Time has flown by in just a wink of an eye. Sure, some of the time has been spent helping [my significant other] set up her office, but that was not all. I spent time filling out the unemployment forms too, with the most time spent looking for work!
Thanks to advice from a best friend (who shall not go unnamed, Arash) I learned how to search the job boards for possible opportunities, [network] and to completely rework my resume. So, week after week, I searched and shot out ever-revised resumes to companies large and small, with prospects strong and weak.
Most leads quickly went nowhere, as would be expected in this market. Then, six plus months into bouncing off walls, Arash says, “this is when your initial contacts dry up and a new flurry spring up” [Editor’s note: From the onset of unemployment, Scot had begun attending industry events and making new connections, helping the people he met along the way. This was the main reason for the resurgence of leads].
How right he was!
On the same day he made this comment, I noticed one of the former Executives from Bernards, Randy, had moved to a new company. I quickly shot him a congratulations message through LinkedIn. Later that same day, I received a message through LinkedIn from Erik, an internal recruiter at another company. This third company is a General Contractor with which I was familiar in that a project manager from Bernards, Doran, had taken on duties there. Doran and I had collaborated on writing subcontracts for his last Project at Bernards, and I remembered we’d worked well together.
Eric’s message asked for a copy of my resume. So, I thought things were looking up. This took a couple of emails over a few days, during which, Randy (remember him formerly from Bernards?) shot me a message thanking me for congratulating him, and asking for my contact information.
I wondered. Would there also be an opportunity with Randy’s company? So, I shot Randy my info and waited to see.
Less than a week from Erik’s introduction, I get an odd voice mail on Google Voice from someone named Patrick. I listened to it a couple of times. It turned out that Patrick was a recruiter for the Construction industry. He was given my resume by Erik.
Odd, I know! Why would a recruiter from a GC give a resume to another? Patrick explained in a later phone call that he used to be Erik’s boss and they maintained a collaborative relationship. Patrick also mentioned that he was the one that introduced Randy to his new company. Are you lost in these circles, yet? Don’t feel bad, it was quite odd to me too, even being there first hand.
Over the next couple of days a lot happens: I shoot a message to Erik thanking him for passing me on to Patrick. Not ten minutes later, an auto-email response tells me that Erik is no longer with that company.
What the…?
Continue to Construction Work Ahead, Part Two…
What do You Think?
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