Published to FB Notes on March 22, 2017
In late January, after eight amazing years with NBCUniversal, I was laid off when Esquire Network shuttered. For the first time in almost a decade, I found myself on the job market and I was scared. Was I employable? I was competing with a lot of younger people willing to get paid less than me. Would I be able to find a company, like NBCUni, willing to pay me what I was worth? The unknown was uncomfortable.
I knew the trades were talking about my company’s uncertainty before I knew about my OWN outcome. So I decided to let everyone know that I was alright and that whichever way fate turned out for me that I had no regrets and that I was proud of what we did at that company. That the things I would miss most are the friendships that I made but that those would be coming with me if I stayed or went.
An unintended consequence of my coming out were hands from every direction reaching out and letting me know they would help me find my next forever home. Before I knew if I continued to have a job or not, I had an interview for the next day. Then another. And another.
I ended up not being safe but approached looking for a new full time job like it was my full time job. I followed up with all the friends who said they’d help. I applied for jobs and on LinkedIn added recruiters at jobs I was interested in. I let myself feel good about the ones who reached out and tried not to dwell on those who passed.
Within a week of the layoffs, I had verbal offer from a company for my DREAM job, but not a formal one. There were a lot of moving parts and no rush to get the formal offer in on either side. I stopped “looking” but continued corresponding with those who had expressed an interest in me.
Four weeks later, that offer was off the table when a new GM at the company slashed all budgets and redlined all open head counts. So I went back to looking for work. I reached out to friends. I followed back up with old leads. I hit the pavement.
On March 20th, the two month anniversary of my getting laid off, I received a vague rejection letter from a company I had done free and questionable spec work for. A company I was so certain I would 100% be getting an offer from. It was the first time in this entire time that I allowed myself to feel bad about myself. They loved me. I did great work. We were all such a great fit. It was PERFECT for me. It was like a really bad RomCom where you realize that the person you’re in love with doesn’t love you back. I was fairly destroyed by it.
That email came in at noon. At 4pm that same day I got a call from one of the other companies I was interviewing with. They wanted to offer me a job.
At 4:59 that same day? ANOTHER JOB OFFER.
All three of the jobs, the rejected one and the offered ones and even the previously offered then rescinded one, were opportunities presented to me by people I had worked with before. This really WAS like a RomCom, but the one where you may have been focusing on the wrong thing all along when the person(s) who appreciated you all along and never took you for granted were there to make you understand that you are valuable and worthy.
So thank you to all the people who helped me along this search. Thank you LinkedIn for being an amazing tool for all of us in the job market. And Thank you, ME, for not giving up on me.
The moral of this story is, finding work is a full time job, treat it as such. And like a full time job, ASK FOR HELP and ACCEPT HELP WHEN IT IS OFFERED. I could not have done this on my own. Literally, I would not have any of these offers if it weren’t for the references of ex-coworkers turned friends. So remember, when you have a job, do good work and be memorable. If you approach work with the mindset of “I’m not here to make friends,” then you won’t have them to call upon when you need them later on in life.
I cannot wait to tell you guys where I am going to land. But for now there are days, maybe weeks, of red tape that will need to be gone through before I start.
