A job-hunting challenge

Dear Bob …

I’ve been unemployed for over 9 months, am ready for “voluntary” retirement, and my few remaining hairs are either gray or white with no intention to go the Grecian Formula route.

I have about 20 years experience using SAS (not SAP) for employers in a variety of industries on all platforms, Windows, Unix and mainframe. I’m up to date on the technical developments which impact my field, subscribe to the relevant SAS e-newsletters, attend conferences occasionally, use Internet job boards such as Dice, ICrunchData, Monster, and Career Builder yet no nibbles much less no job.

One other thing. I am not willing to relocate since our children and grandchildren live nearby. The few interviews I did get, since being let go in February, went nowhere and seemed to be the exception rather than the rule.

Also, I have no clinical trials experience.Where I live, pharmaceutical companies are the biggest employers of SAS Analysts/Developers, but it’s a “Catch-22”: “We’ll consider you if you have experience” yet how do get the chance if you don’t have any?

Lastly, my networking skills seem non-existent; maybe that’s not exactly true but it’s something I don’t enjoy doing so I guess I do it poorly.

Any thoughts?

– Looking hard

Dear Looking …

It doesn’t matter whether your few remaining hairs have any intention of going the Grecian Formula route or not. I’d say they have no choice in the matter!

Sorry. I have no intention of either that or Hair Club for Men, so I understand completely.

Reading through your letter, what struck me is that you seem to be following the find-a-job-posting-and-apply-for-it methodology for finding employment. This doesn’t even work well in a good economy. In a bad economy, you might as well improve your skills at computer solitaire.

Well, not quite, but it’s a low-probability approach even for finding a position, let alone finding a position you want.

If your networking skills are non-existent, that means you need to work harder at them, not to give up on them. Or, give up on them, and instead develop your cold-calling skills, because what you’re doing isn’t “trying to find a job.” It’s “selling the product called .”

Once you understand this, you’ll understand that your resume isn’t all that important — it’s your brochure: You have one because not having one raises red flags. You’ll understand that your cover letter matters more, because it’s where your selling arguments go.

And, you’ll understand that the most important activities you can engage in are (1) research, to find potential employers; (2) more research, to understand who the logical hiring manager is; and (3) even more research, if possible, to figure out what the logical hiring manager’s problems are.

I also recommend you learn as much as you can about the conduct of clinical trials, so the next time you’re in front of someone who raises that issue you can say, “While I don’t have experience with clinical trials, I do have experience that’s directly parallel, doing whatever-the-heck. Here’s what it’s like … see, the protocols are the same, the data quality issues are very similar, and the statistical techniques aren’t very different either. I’m confident I could come up to speed in just a couple of weeks.”

You also need to learn some cold-calling techniques, to find out how to get past this individual’s barriers so you can get in front of him or her to have a productive conversation.

Understand, the logical hiring manager doesn’t have to have a position open. The logical hiring manager has to have a problem you can solve.

Since you’re selling a product called , you don’t need to ask for a job. You can offer to provide some consulting, at reasonable rates, to help solve the manager’s problems. If you make the sale, you can try to turn this into a permanent position later on, after you’ve established yourself.

You can also ask if this person knows anyone else who might benefit from what you do. That’s how networking happens.

In this economy in particular, those who look at their job searches as marketing, advertising and selling are going to do better than people who look at their situation as “looking for work.”

I’ll also tell you, I run into a lot of people who tell me, after I give them this stump speech, “I’m just not very good at this sort of thing.”

My answer is always the same — when they started writing code I bet they weren’t very good at that either. This is a learnable skill, and while some people have more natural talent at it than others, that’s also true of programming. In both cases, most people can become competent at it if they decide to.

– Bob