Discouraged, deflated and disappointed — losing your job hits the ego hard. Suddenly you find yourself questioning your worth and wondering about your abilities. Do you really have what it takes?
Michael Walker knows it’s easy to get down on yourself after being let go by an employer. After losing his IT job at a PR firm, he wanted help to find his way through the unexpected career detour. Fortunately, he found more than just career guidance at GetFive — he found a confidant and trusted friend in his coach, Celia.
“You’ve just lost your means of employment and you’re questioning yourself, your abilities, whether you’re marketable or not,” recalls Walker of his immediate feelings after becoming unemployed. “You may have done a perfect job in the past, but your ego was a little bit crushed.”
Celia not only provided guidance to help him rev up his career search, she also helped him regain his confidence.
“People like Celia are able to remind you what value you bring to a position and start getting your mind focused in terms of properly marketing yourself,” he says. “You have to sell yourself and you have to remember what value you bring to the company.”
After doing the seven stories exercise and practicing his elevator pitches, he felt confident he had the skills to bring value to whatever company he worked for next.
“I participated in the weekly conference calls for our group,” he says. “You were pretty much put on the spot because every week when you called in you were expected to practice your 30-second or two-minute pitch. That was one of the most excellent things that we could do because we got a lot of practice introducing ourselves and being able to do so comfortably. When you’re sitting down in front of an HR manager or a CEO interviewing for the position, to be able to speak confidently without thinking is a huge benefit.”
Walker stayed in close contact with Celia throughout his job search and often emailed her for insight. From sharing interview invitations to requesting edits on thank-you notes, he was able to get her expert advice.
“It’s very important that anything I say or write has my voice in it,” he says. “Even though Celia was looking at these documents and helping to refine them, she has this super ability to make sure that those documents retain my voice. It looks like something that came from me. It doesn’t appear as if somebody wrote a document on my behalf. She really does an excellent job in terms of enhancing what it is that you want to say.”
Walker’s time working with Celia helped give him an edge against the competition and today he is happily employed as an IT manager at a New Jersey-based credit union.
