The Holiday Season is a time for celebration and hope but for the 15.1 million unemployed in the US is a time of deep growing and reflection. Among them, there are 1.3 million discouraged workers. These are the ones that believe no jobs are available for them. Going beyond geographic bounderies there are more than 50 million jobless folks around the world.Most of the clients I talked to throughout 2010 shared a common concern: the unavailability of some of the high level contacts they had working at key jobs in big companies.
I have also heard the other side of the story which is the impossibility to refer a colleague with a poor resume to anyone or how the hectic business schedule makes helping others on this situation a not very feasible task on the daily to-do-list.
1. Extend your expertise to a contact. We all know people who are job transitioning on the current economy. Choose to believe in the potential of at least one of them to switch his/her situation. When we support someone to get closer to a goal is because we actually believe that person has what it takes to make it happen with some help.
2. Construct positively to add value to the person’s resources. Some of these folks feel beaten down after having applied to many jobs and contacted lots of their acquaintances with no feedback or response. This does not mean you won’t tell them what needs to be changed but also remind them that they have some strong and valuable talents/capabilities they are failing to articulate effectively into the current job market needs.
3. Be a mentor. Do not just leave it to a meeting to expect that a person will successfully launch but commit your time to follow up with him/her periodically to check on progress and offer advice and resources.
4. Provide a public positive referral. Recruiters are using social media intensively to source key candidates to their positions. Those who happen to have profiles with +5 referrals by strong advocates (e.g. LinkedIn) will have a better chance to land those jobs than their competitors. Also, refer the individual to at least 3 potential key contacts or employers.
5. Refer to appropriate resources. It may be that the person has financial constraints (e.g. pending home foreclosure), legal or emotional issues due to the length of the unemployment that go beyond your expertise or comfort. Feel free to offer community resources available on the area to facilitate a solution to the individual’s problem. Do not just leave it to the person to do it on her own but offer a list of potential resources that could be used to ease the situation.
Dare to be good! It is the Holidays after all. It is not about feeling sorry for them but to act upon the belief those people are qualified and deserve a change in their situation. They’ve got what it takes and as they’ve done it before they’ll repeat their successes if you intervene to help.
Be inspired by our own success story. I am sure you have been helped along the way by mentors, friends, relatives, neighbors and even strangers that surprised you with a great opportunity.
Move on and enjoy the joy what the kindness and generosity to others provide to your soul. After all, what most of these 15.1 million people want for Christmas is a job!
Happy Holidays!
Your Career Coach,
Mariela Tinoco-Aramburu
25 positive referrals available at www.linkedin.com/in/marielatinoco
P.S. If you still need additional inspiration to act, go and click on any of these links below:
A Real life story: http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/8806478/
Good deeds for the unemployed: http://tinyurl.com/jobless-yoga
http://preview.tinyurl.com/jobless-surprise
Ideas to help: http://hubpages.com/hub/No-Christmas-This-Year
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