Personal Branding

It was mid-February and it had been a while since I had any interviews, The Search. Nothing happens in the Australian summer, everybody is on holidays as school children get 6 weeks for their summer holidays. And then it takes a month or so to get back into full gear when hiring.

Days had been very hot and humid, nothing to do but sit in front of the fan and not move . Then one week it felt like everybody was having a say about my situation. My mother had a go, as mother’s do ; a note from a friend commenting I needed to look within myself, not the first one I had received; a comment from a friend whom I had only recently met saying, “are you even trying”, I lost count how many times I heard that; and then another note. I love my friends dearly and they know that I am grateful for all their support but there are some things an unemployed person does not want to hear.

The final note did it to me. I did not know this person in real life, we had worked at the same office but our paths had never crossed. I had connected to this person when I started my campaign as I could see we had many shared connections, all ex-colleagues. (This is why I am against people hiding their connections as we are here to be social and sharing). She had asked me to join a group she managed. Reached out to me and helped with my postings in the group, which many group managers have been very supportive of my postings and others not so

This person was “curious” and was “puzzled” as to why I had not found work. Well, that was it. I listed everything and every reason and then ended it with “it is extremely depressing when…”. I was rude .

The return note was so nice, reaching out to me, giving me direction and asked what type of role and company I was looking for. I felt sooo… bad. I was extremely apologetic about my rude note. They didn’t think I was rude, “just frank”. Then offered an opportunity working for them at Cisco. Extremely excited or what!

We met and she was very pleased with the interview. But I had many interviews to go before anything was going to happen. I had a panel interview with 4, and a dotted-line report interview. If I got through those, then another 2 interviews. Ok, long interview process. After the first 3 interviews, it was down to me and another. I was getting excited and was given a date and time for my 4th interview.

We had been doing all our communicating through the email and the recruiter. When I received a call from her, calls are not good before the interview process has finished. 

“I have some good news and some bad news. The bad news first, I have chosen the other candidate because … The good news is everybody that has interviewed you liked you so much that we have been searching for another opportunity for you and we have found another role which is better for you and no boring bits. Your resume is being forwarded now“.

Didn’t hear a word after, ”I have chosen the other…”. I got off the phone and had a cry, the process had already taken over 4 weeks, very straining, including nightmares . Although after a few of hours of disappointment, I realised situations weren’t as bad as I had thought. I still had another opportunity at Cisco and another opportunity from my favourite recruiter. I was happy again, sort of. Just had to let the disappointment fade away but another series of interviews .

There is a scene from a sitcom, the woman is looking for work. She receives a call from a hiring manager and assumes she has the job. She puts down the phone before he has finished his sentence, dancing with her arms in the air and screaming, “Whoohoo!” She has heard incorrectly. This is how excited I thought I would be when I would receive an offer but I was not. When I was offered the role at Cisco, I had to think about it as I had another opportunity. When I finally made my decision, I spoke to the recruiter at Cisco and her reaction was similar to that of the woman in the sitcom. She was so excited that after the excitement had faded, she had to ask to make sure that I was accepting the offer .

I felt relief, this was a day before my birthday, I could not have asked for a better birthday present. All this weight had been lifted off my shoulders, I finally had a closing chapter for the job hunt. I had a job which I received the following comments;

I’m glad you did not settle for something mediocre just to end the search.
What a great role you have – well worth the wait!
It was always in the cards.

So how did I land that job?

1. A failed job opportunity which leads me to start social networking.
2. Finding a conference that had a presenter who had connections to ex-colleagues.
3. Winning My Personal Brand so I would have something to post about in my groups.
4. People reaching out to me after my first posting in groups.
5. Communicating with those who have reached out to me.
6. Having one of these people convince me that I could write and people would be interested in what was coming out of my head. My blog is born.
7. Reaching out to others who had connections to ex-colleagues.
8. A failed job opportunity that leads me to start writing about data analytics, showing that there was something in my brain other than my “fluffy stuff”.
9. Having many group managers reach out to me and give direction, the ongoing support from my connections and followers which keeps me upbeat and the blog continuing throughout this very awful period .
10. One of these people has worked with an ex-colleague who has given me a recommendation.
11. This person opens the doors for me at Cisco.

My journey has been very long and difficult. I pulled through with a lot of help from people who reached out to me, people who came from nowhere to encourage me in my quest. I have been blessed and am very grateful to be touched by so many selfless people. Thank you. 

How is my job at Cisco? I have only been here for about a month and has taken time to settle in. Most of my team, including manager, and the people I deal with on a daily basis are not in Australia. There is a lot to learn and I am very excited about the global projects I am working on. Though global does mean we have to share the hours, I had a 2 hour call the other night that started at 11pm or the early evening meetings with the Europeans and my lunch time meetings with the Asians. But is certainly better than the endless interviews I went to over the past 16 months or so.

Is this the end of my story? Definitely not! I still have a continuing social media story to tell . I will be taking a break from The Story to concentrate on my Data Analytics and being a business analyst.

Thank you! Thank you! To everybody who has been reading my story to find that job. I hope the story will continue to be read by others looking for work and inspire them to think differently about their personal brand. The image you perceive to others, those you have worked with and those you want to work with, is important if you want to stand out from all the other candidates and have people approach you with opportunities. Building a personal brand is like any brand image, not only glossy but must also have substance and quality.

Good luck if you are looking for work. To others, I hope that you also think about your own personal brand. Not that I would wish unemployment on anybody but you don’t know what is going to happen next. Our destinies’ are controlled by what is happening in the global sphere, our disasters – the natural ones and our many, many man made ones.

I hope you will continue to follow The Story when I start again after my break. Until then…A BIG CHEERS!!!