WHY THE LAST LAP OF A JOB HUNT IS CRITICAL KEEP THE INTERVIEW FOCUSED ON YOUR AGENDA ARE YOU READY FOR POST-RETIREMENT LIFE? IS IT TIME TO MAKE A MOVE? CONSIDER THESE TRENDS. MY ADVICE IS . . . WHY THE LAST LAP OF A JOB HUNT IS CRITICAL  We've had more than one client who has been job hunting for up to a year, has had multiple interviews with each of several potential employers but never got an offer from anyone. What happened? Often this was the reason: Between their final interview with a hirer and the time they expected to receive an offer, they became over-confident and stopped keeping in touch with the decision maker. Most were so relieved to be done with the search (they thought) that they relaxed too soon. That's a mistake. In today's cautious, slow-as-molasses job market the employer isn't truly sold until you show up for work on day one. Here are some truths to ignore at your peril: An offer is never certain until it's actually been made. Is this too elementary? Sure, but why do so many otherwise-prudent adults decide an offer from XYZ is a dead cert and stop generating or pursuing other leads? There's no question they're often led astray by hirers who all but promise a written offer is immediately forthcoming. The candidates are dying to relax because they haven't paced themselves. Always assume that a job hunt will take twice as long as seems reasonable or possible. Remember: A pessimist has no ugly surprises. Another last-minute offer might engender a counteroffer from your hottest prospect. It's unlikely you'll be able to negotiate a higher salary than offered from your preferred hirer (they sense this is the company you're most enthused about) unless it's known there is serious competition for your services. You could fake another offer but we'd fight you on the wisdom of that strategy. Getting caught in a lie is the end of the line. It's far better to generate some real competition so keep your options open until the deal is done. You are not making a choice if you accept the only offer you get. That may sound cavalier in this tight market when people have been job hunting for months without any offers. Still, six months from now, when you ask yourself why you took this job, we'd hate for the inner voice to say, "It was your only offer, dummy!" If possible, wait until you have more than one offer to consider. You'll be positioned differently and far more positively to yourself - your most important audience. The moral is: Don't put your contacts or your leads in mothballs just because you've gotten a job with a company you love. Jobs have a lamentable way of going sour often enough to make it prudent to keep your contacts warm and job intelligence - even real leads - flowing in until you've had a chance to settle in and make sure your choice will last longer than a few months. Suppose you're on the street again in six months? You will be back in the fast lane in half the time. It sure beats any other kind of career disaster insurance. Plus, as long as you're still active, you can pass along leads to others. They'll owe you forever regardless of whether they're hired. This is an enviable position. Here's another reason to keep your search alive past the offer stage: We're seeing a much higher rate of withdrawn offers than at anytime in the recent past. If you come to a dead stop and an offer is withdrawn - the current euphemism is "tabled" - you'll be frantic as you resume your search. How much better if you're still in that mode? Finally, after you're hired (in case you've forgotten the rules) allocate some time each day to e-mail everyone who helped you, tell them about your new job, and promise to keep in touch. Anyone who did yeoman service in your behalf gets a handwritten note by snail mail - always. Don't drop out of sight. Regular coffee dates are essential. Even if you don't need a job anytime soon you may need a mentor or a new contact. If you're invisible who's likely to help? TOP KEEP THE INTERVIEW FOCUSED ON YOUR AGENDA Bob is 62. He dresses expensively and looks intelligent but he couldn't fool anyone about his age. He has been in corporate fluff jobs for 25 years, peripheral marketing, strategic planning, task forces, and so forth. He has never had much impact on his company's profit and loss statement. He is an excellent writer, presenter, and internal salesman. However, he can see in the interviewer's face that he's been dismissed because of his past roles. To add insult to injury, the interviewer is under 30 and perceives Bob as positively elderly. This interview is going nowhere. Mary is fit and attractive but she's 52. She wants to return to work after 20 years of raising her family. She's a computer whiz, thanks to her teenagers. She's also a pro at organization, having chaired many large charity benefits. Her first interview was with an office manager who's 40. Mary sensed immediately that the interviewer was looking for someone half her age. She felt the interview had already gone south so she began to give perfunctory answers and the interviewer responded by asking non-content questions. The interview was carne muerto. Justin, a new college graduate, got an interview for a trainee position with a bank. He's very keen because trainee positions aren't plentiful. He's a liberal arts graduate from an OK-but-not-great school. It's obvious in the first minute of the interview that the recruiter wants a business major and is only being polite to Justin, whose self-esteem is seeping into his shoes. These situations are not unusual but they don't have to become natural disasters if the interviewee anticipates the problem and prepares a preemptive strike. For example, Bob needs to point out why his experience can help the company. "Most organizations are so short-handed these days they can't afford a specialist in each area. A generalist who's had experience in several specialties can be useful." Mary, knowing that she will have to address the factors of her age and lack of experience, might say, "As I came through the outer office I noticed many of your workers are very young. Who provides role models and mentoring? Given my age and background I think I could help many of them develop their skills." Whatever the interviewer thought up to this point she may be willing to re-evaluate Bob and Mary as candidates. Will either get the job? Maybe not - but it's a dead cert each will have a better chance if they lead the interviewer to rethink her assumptions. This advice is not what you would get from most career planners. They'd suggest that all three candidates "out nice" the interviewer or try to raise guilt. That won't work. You get no benefit from being "nicer" than the person whose attention you haven't captured. Justin has no age issues but he's in the same spot. The recruiter thinks only a business major will excel as a trainee. Why did she agree to interview a history major if that was her conclusion? She wanted to be nice; it is her good deed for the day and makes her believe she's fair and balanced. Justin must shift the interview to his turf immediately. He might say, "You'd be surprised at how entrepreneurial a liberal arts major can be. I've had a great deal more practical business experience that you might think and, I'm willing to bet, more than many business school graduates. For example, while I was in school, I was the treasurer for Dance Marathon which most people don't realize is a 501(c) corporation. I learned a lot about non-profit finances. And, I single-handedly raised $2,000 by selling magazine subscriptions on campus." Can the interviewer claim that studying business is more important than actually engaging in it? Not really. At the least, Justin will be given an opportunity to explain what else he knows about business from first-hand experience. If nothing else, shifting the conversation to a subject of his choice serves to make Justin feel more confident. If you politely accept the interviewer's assumptions, your chances of being considered a serious candidate are doomed. Instead plan a strategy that may change the interviewer's perception of you. Age, educational background, sex, race and ethnicity all engender strong assumptions about job candidates. Clearly you have nothing to lose when you attack any of these head-on. ARE YOU READY FOR POST-RETIREMENT LIFE? According to "Retirement Goes Boom" in American Demographics (April 2004), at least 30 percent of Baby Boomers (born between 1946 and 1959) expect to work until they reach age 65. Why? It's not so much that they need the money as it is the inability to entertain themselves for five minutes. Not only are members of this generation as well as the one preceding it (the Pre-Boomers, born between 1934 and 1945) highly social, they are highly competitive. They will find it difficult, if not impossible, to suddenly switch gears from working flat-out with a group of like-minded people to the prospect of enduring possibly twenty years of dead calm. The key to surviving - and thriving - during your retirement years is to engage in some self-reflection and planning before you take the leap. One idea is to get a five-year planning calendar with space to write on each day. (Day-Timers sells a calendar to start any month or year you choose. Check www.Day-Timers.com.) Contemplate the acres of white paper to be filled. How will you fill your time? Most of those who say, "I'm going to relax, read, and play golf" are kidding themselves. That might be attractive for a month or two. A recent retiree observed, "I always loved to read when I didn't have much time. Now that I have plenty of time, I'm less interested." Another retiree - an avid golfer - found that even four days a week on the course paled fairly quickly. Welcome to the great unspoken truth: Most of the interesting people are working. They don't have time to spend with people who have no agenda. Think it over. Here are the issues which require realistic exploration before you plan your farewell party. TOP How much will you travel? You'll visit the grandchildren every month? It probably won't happen after the first year. Other family members have lives. Besides, traveling non-stop appeals to very few of the people who initially thought it would be great fun. They start longing for their own beds and washing machines sooner than you'd think. A more realistic expectation might be one or two big trips a year and several long weekends. TOP Will you pursue your hobby? In what way and to what end? For money or not? For instance, you've always loved collecting antique jewelry. You think you will now sell your collection. You could consign the jewelry to a store but how will that fill your time? If you consign it to an antique mall you'll probably have to commit to a couple of days a month there but that still leaves 29 other days. Even if you decide to go the antique show route - buying your own showcases and paying the vendor's fee and travel expenses - it will command a dozen weekends a year maybe. TOP Will you take up a new hobby? Our experience, based on much anecdotal evidence, tells us that if you didn't have a compelling hobby before retirement you won't develop one after. TOP Will you volunteer? Maybe. Perhaps there are worthwhile causes you've supported but in which you've never had time to become actively involved. The trick is to find a role within that cause that is intellectually stimulating as well as meaningful. That's not always easy. Often the interesting volunteer positions are taken by someone who's been active for years; the newcomers are relegated to stuffing envelopes. Do some homework before you think you'll fill a lot of time this way. If you can think of a desirable life plan, chances are someone has written a book or started a web site on how to accomplish it. Do you want to grow prize-winning roses in a greenhouse all winter and sell them from the back of a van in the summer? We have a client who's doing it. Do you want to make community theater happen for the deaf? Hit the computer and Google for others who have done it. It doesn't matter what you want to do, you need a plan. (This is especially true if a spouse or partner needs to be considered.) Never mind that your priorities will undoubtedly change; plan at least the first 18 months of your retirement. Virtually every gerontologist believes that not planning retirement can be detrimental to your health - if not fatal. Nothing to look forward to is a recipe for disaster. Our experience is that people who are over-scheduled and over-committed to things they enjoy - even if it's just rowing at the gym two hours a day - are happier and live longer. According to Larry Cohen of Princeton, NJ-based SRI Consulting Business Intelligence, many wannabe retirees are now pioneering a new way to be retired called, "Revolving-Retirement." That means episodic work and episodic travel, made possible by an investment portfolio designed for ongoing wealth accumulation. For many the goal is to work 36 to 40 weeks a year, thirty hours a week. It may mean a three-month assignment that's very intense followed by travel or time with friends and family. It may mean six months on, six months off. College professors who long for warm winters take winter assignments in those climates and then back home for summer school. What's emerging is a demographic of people 55- to 65-years-old who are going to reach out, not draw back, as their parents did. When social security was established the average life span was 63. That's why benefits weren't paid until 65. Today the average life span of people 55 to 65 is 83. Those contemplating retirement need to think in terms of a second career spanning as much as 25 years. What can you do in that time frame? Consider that 30 percent of medical students and 27 percent of law students in school now know they will not retire from those professions. They're telling us something important: multiple careers are the norm, not the exception. TOP IS IT TIME TO MAKE A MOVE? CONSIDER THESE TRENDS. Here are some early signs you should factor into your thinking about jobs and careers when you're ready to move to the next step in your work life. TOP Episodic employment. Companies are so reluctant to put people on the permanent payroll that there are thousands of temping opportunities out there. Could a temp position be an opportunity to change your career or your direction? Might it help you test the suitability of a role, an industry, or an organization? TOP Post-graduate internships, paid and unpaid. Doing multiple internships is the norm for undergraduates but the post-graduate internship is becoming an effective way to test-drive jobs and organizations. We predict it won't be long before mid-career people use internships - typically three to six months long - to update their skills or recharge their thinking. The drivers for this trend will be the women, now rearing children, who decide to return to the workplace. TOP Career graveyard for the techno-twits. The forty- and fiftysomethings don't believe this but it's already a cloud on the horizon. In the back of the mind of every computer semi-illiterate is the idea they can always become self-employed, work in retail, or go into any kind of sales. Oh how wrong these people are! Technology is everywhere and it's not going away. Even the self-employed aren't protected unless they plan on working in a vacuum. Customers and consumers will prefer to deal with the most up-to-date and efficient provider. TOP Competition for ideas, not resources. The quality of ideas is prime currency in most companies. The largest budget goes to the person whose ideas are more likely to result in profits than to the person who's respectful of fiefdoms, top management, and organizational politics. In a murky world where advertising may, or may not, work ideas seem tangible. Are you showcasing your best ideas or hoarding them? The blowhard in the next office may move ahead simply because he threw out more ideas than you did. TOP Worker shortages driving business decisions. Nothing can slow the self-service trend. Unless there is a 180-degree change in immigration policies, we will soon exhaust the supply of $8-per-hour workers. It's not just banks, supermarkets, and other retail establishments will cut back on "full-serve." Soon, you'll find the most common services available only on a do-it-yourself basis. Already it's difficult to refill a prescription by talking to a live person; you have to punch in numbers on a phone or order from a web site. Movie tickets purchased online will cut down on box office personnel. There are self-serve cleaners. What is the Curves franchise but exercise without a trainer? What service could you help people perform themselves? TOP "Senior citizen" redefined.  When you hear someone say, "Sixty is the new forty," one thing is clear. The individual who said it is not looking forward to sixty. Anything you can think of to help people feel or look young will sell. The Boomers are not going quietly into the night. The opportunities to coddle them - for a price - are unlimited. These are just a few trends to consider when mapping your next step. There are others which will be revealed to anyone who keeps his eyes - and his mind - open. The good news is that any of them may provide an opportunity. The bad news will be a warning that it's time to change your thinking, your job, or your career. Don't block the negative information. The unemployment rolls are rife with those who've been laid off not because they didn't do their jobs but because they refused to accommodate changing realities. TOP MY ADVICE IS . . . "My boss wants me to leave my job so he can promote another person.. He's only been in place six months. Until my previous boss retired I got excellent performance appraisals. I've been with the company 20 years and it feels like age discrimination although the new boss is older than I am. I'm positive my new boss is waiting for the first performance appraisal to tear my work to shreds. Even though he has no grounds, his hostility is obvious. I want justice." Forget justice, how about money? What your boss is trying, albeit crudely, is to bring in his own team. You are resisting this process. Rest assured: He will get you but it will take at least a year to amass enough detail to cause you to be fired. Talk to him. He might be receptive to a package out. The job market is improving. Ask for think two weeks severance for every year of service. You will get COBRA automatically. If he knows you will go for a price he'll have every incentive to try to get you that package. Don't ask for anything ridiculous that would make him look foolish if he asked his boss to approve it. You won't get years of severance even with a lawyer. Speaking of which, don't even consider signing any agreement until a paid (not Uncle Larry) attorney who specializes in labor and employment law looks at it. "I have a subordinate who's driving me crazy. She refuses to do the job she's supposed to and insists on doing work that's not in her job description. When I point out both these facts she becomes defensive. What should I do?" Meet with her and go over your expectations with her. After you explain each one task, ask her if can she do it. She is likely to agree. If she doesn't, tell her you will expect her letter of resignation on your desk by the close of business today. If this is going to bother you, practice with video before you do it. She will be outraged, shocked, resigned, whatever. None of that matters. Here's the rule for future reference and current discussion: The manager tells the employee what his responsibilities are and how they are to be met. The discussion may include input from the employee but the manager has the final say. The employee's choice is whether to do the job as designated by the manager, to find a different job within the organization, or leave. You are not living up to your responsibilities as a manager if you tolerate any deviation from this rule. Furthermore, letting people off the hook is not humane. It breeds resentment in every other employee watching this person defy you. Not enforcing the rules of engagement will always come back to bite you. TOP
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