The following is from frequent contributor Kosmo

Three years ago, I was in the middle of a job hunt.  I took you along for the journey.  I eventually landed a position about a month before my old job ended.  For those of you who weren’t along on that journey, the company decided to get rid of remote workers, and I was one of hundreds affected.

I’ve been in my current role since March of 2018, and it has been an enjoyable experience.  The work has been interesting, and I’ve worked with great people – both my co-workers and the business partners we create systems for.  I’ve even interviewed for some manager positions.  It has been pretty awesome.

A reorganization was announced a couple of months ago.  One hundred and fifty people in our IT department were laid off.  The programmer who sat next to me was one of the people affected.  I was moved to a new team and immediately went from being the top expert on my old systems to a complete novice on the new ones.  Even the potential of a manager role became less interesting as a result of the changes.  This isn’t the first reorg in recent years, but it’s the first one that has had a direct impact on me.

In the coming weeks, I lost much of the fire that had made me a dynamic employee.  The effort to handle the fallout of multiple recent reorgs is taking time away from more productive work.  It’s frustrating.  I want to do work that is difficult and challenging.  Many of my recent tasks fall short of that bar.  Eventually, I made the decision to begin a new job search.  This job search is different than the previous one in a lot of ways.

1. Urgency

My previous job search was driven by the fact that I would be losing my job on a particular date.  I left no stone unturned in an effort to make sure I had a new job by the time the old one ended.  I ended up in one of the best possible jobs.  A lot of the jobs I applied for had some serious warts. Many weren’t a great fit for my skills or had long commutes.

There is no urgency in my current job search.  Although my new area doesn’t see me as quite the rock star that my old area did (and still does – as I’m still pulled in when needed), I’m relatively safe in my position.  I can afford to take my time and wait for the right position.

2. Preparation

When I kicked off my last job search, I had been caught completely off guard.  My resume was outdated and I hadn’t done even casual job hunting in a decade.  I wasn’t even sure how the industry even referred to someone with my skill set.  It took quite a bit of time to get my resume squared away and to get my job search focused on jobs that would be a good fit.  I needed to figure out a new-fangled thing called LinkedIn.

I have made an effort to keep my resume updated recently.  Every couple of months, I pull up my resume and make relevant changes – adding recent accomplishments, new responsibilities, and any recently acquired skills.  At the same time, I also removed aspects that are no longer relevant.

3. Location

My last job search was limited to companies within an hour drive of my home.  We have roots in this area – my wife’s career is with a local organization, and we have two kids in school.  Relocating for a new job was a last resort.

As a result of COVID-19, A lot of companies have become more accepting of remote workers.  Some even advertise themselves as “remote first” organizations.  This means that geography is no longer a limiting factor.  If I can work from my dungeon basement, it doesn’t matter if the team is located in New York City, Miami, or Topeka.

The flip side of this is that the companies are also able to cast a wider net.  They aren’t limited to employees in their geographical area.  So, while there might be more potential jobs for me, there are also more potential applicants.

Overall, I see this as a net gain.  I should be able to focus on the jobs that are the best fit for my skills, instead of simply looking at the jobs that are nearby.  Being located in Iowa also gives me a cost-of-living advantage over applicants from large metro areas.

The search begins

I’m writing this on Christmas Eve.  I kicked off my job search on December 12.  How’s it going?  Well, it’s definitely starting off better than the last one.

A friend and former colleague works at a company about an hour south of where I live.  It’s a considerably smaller company than the one I currently work for, but still a company that does more than a billion dollars of business every year.  The upside of a smaller company is that there’s considerably more autonomy and not as much red tape.  In other words, more time spent on productive work.  It’s a similar position to my friend’s, but with a bit more focus on technical skills, such as a bit of minor data wrangling.

My friend – let’s call him Bryan, because that’s his name – has mentioned the position to me multiple times in the past few months.  It has always sounded like a great fit.  The reason for my lack of interest has always been the same – the commute.  A commute of an hour each way isn’t the greatest sacrifice in the world, but it’s simply not something I’m interested in doing.

I pinged Bryan a few days ago to ask if there was any chance his company was considering 100% remote candidates for this position.  No, but they were looking at 2-3 remote workdays per week.  I spent a weekend thinking about this and decided that a split of 2 days in the office and 3 days remote would be acceptable.

Bryan put my resume in front of his boss on Monday.  His boss reached out via email and we set up a call from Tuesday afternoon.  I wasn’t technically a candidate at this point – I hadn’t formally applied through the standard process.  This was probably the first time in my life where I had used my social network to gain an inside track for a position.

Interview

Tuesday’s call went well.  The position seems interesting.  I would basically be coordinating a multi-year implementation of a new HRIS (human resources information system) system.  I’ve taken a look at the vendor solution and it looks like an interesting and complex system to implement.  Lots of moving pieces.

The manager is a little bit on the fence about whether the position will require two days in the office per week, or three.  I’m pretty confident that if everything else aligns, I can convince him to do two.  The company’s location works against them in attracting candidates.  They’re located in a small city (those of you from large urban areas would call it a town), and it’s a fairly long commute from any of the surrounding metro areas.  They’re growing and want to attract high-quality candidates.  To do that, they’re most likely going to have to be more flexible on work from home.  Management is slowly coming around to this idea.  Their employees have been working from home for about nine months now, and they’re realizing that an employee who’s working from home is actually working – they aren’t just playing Mario all day.

At the end of Tuesday’s call, the manager asked me to formally apply for the position, so that we could move forward with the process.  On Wednesday, HR contacted me to set up a panel interview for the first week of January.  Things are moving about as fast as possible, considering the fact that it’s impossible to arrange interviews during the holidays, due to too many key players being out of the office.

The future

My friend won’t be a part of the interview panel.  This makes sense, as including him would compromise the integrity of the process.  He has, however, been able to give me good insight into the different roles within the company.  I’ve also asked him questions about how the company approaches certain problems.  At this point, I’m getting a lot of good answers.  Although it’s a smaller company than my current one, it seems to be well-managed.

I’ll spend a lot of time in the next week preparing for the interview – and watching football.

This is a continuation of Kosmo’s Job Search Journey, but you can read it as a standalone article.

The Whole Job Search Series:
1. You’re Fired
2. Assessing the Situation
3. Networking
4. Learn
5. The Interview
6. Frustration
7. Success
8. Sink or Swim
9. Search for Stability
10. Job Search Journey: The Interview the Lasted for Seven Months
11. Advice

Two years ago, I was facing the impending loss of my job.  I was nearly three months into my job search, and barely three months from the point where I would no longer have a job.  Panic had begun to set in – I was wondering how long we might have to survive on one salary, and how I would avoid getting bored while unemployed.  For that matter, what was the process for filing unemployment?

Happily, it never came to that.  I ended up finding a job about six weeks before the clocked stopped.  I coordinated my start date with the termination date for my old job, so that I’d qualify for my severance. After eight months as a contract employee, I transitioned to permanent employee status.  My employer is one of the most prestigious companies in the area.  Overall, things worked out really well.

Now, I’m looking to take the next step in my career.  My boss left for another job.  I applied for his job, interviewed for the position, and am awaiting the decision.  My interview wasn’t perfect, but went well.  I was able to make most of my key points.  I think I have a decent shot at the job.  If not now, I think it’s just a matter of time.

Why become a manager?

I was a regular employee at my previous job for more than twenty years.  During that time, I never had an interest in becoming a manager.  Why not?  Mostly because I was always surrounded by very experienced teams members on autonomous teams.  Honestly, as a manager, if you have a twenty year employee with a track record of success, you should have a fairly hands-off approach.  Be available for guidance, make them aware of any new information (changes in policy, etc), help remove roadblocks, but don’t micro-manage.  Stay out of their way and let them get work done.

At my current company, there are a lot of people who are less experienced.  Many of these people are bright, but they simply don’t have the experience to have learned some life lessons.  You learn a lot by making mistakes – and often times, they haven’t yet made those mistakes.  They may need explanations of why things are done one way and not another.  Many times, the answer is that the approved way has more safeguards and exposes the company to less risk.  They may also be unsure of what their career path will be, and may need someone to show them the options, and help them take the next steps.

I’ve spent my career helping to build IT systems for people.  This work is akin to picking the fruit from a tree.  When you retire, your legacy disappears fairly quickly.  I want to become Johnny Appleseed (Johnny Careerseed), helping employees become productive and happy (akin to planting fruit trees instead of merely picking up the fruit).  The legacy of Johnny Careerseed will live on after Johnny has retired.

How to become a manager

Obviously, you can’t simply decided to become a manager and have your wish granted.  You have to take some steps to prepare.  Here are a few of those steps.

Be good at your current job

If you have a reputation as a poor performer in your current job, you’re not going to be seriously considered, even if the jobs are completely different.  If you’re a mediocre performer at your current job, focus on improving your performance, before applying for manager positions.

Initiative

The analyst I replaced wasn’t someone who showed a lot of initiative.  I was able to make an immediate positive impression by jumping in and taking some initiative to move my project forward.  At this point, I am the project lead, and I do many of the task which typically fall to a project manager.

Interpersonal skills

You don’t need to become best friends with everyone you work with, but it’s helpful to at least have a positive or neutral working relationship with everyone.  In your current role, you might be able to avoid interacting with certain co-workers.  As a manager, you won’t have that ability.  You’ll need to interact with all of your employees in a fair, non-partial way.

My boss also “volunteered” me to work on a committee for his boss.  This ended up being a good opportunity to have face time with his boss – the guy who happens to be the hiring manager for the job I applied for.

Interview experience

If you become a manager, you’ll have the opportunity to hire new employees at some point.  Interviews look very difference from the other side of the table.  If possible, gain some experience on an interview panel.  Be an active participant, but also pay attention to the other people in the interview.  If you hear an insightful question steal borrow it for future use.

In the past year, I’ve been involved in about a dozen interviews.  Recently, my project manager asked if I’d be interested in being on the panel for a position she was trying to fill.  It’s not even a position on my team, so it helps bolster my reputation as a team player, while also gaining me valuable experience.

One thing I always try to do is smile and nod a lot during the meeting, to help put the interviewee at ease.  The goal of an interview is to determine if the applicant can do the job; often, nervousness during the interview makes it more difficult to determine how well the person can do the job.

Fun fact: the project manager was initially interested in poaching me for the position, until it became apparent that she couldn’t afford me.  That made me feel better about my negotiating skills – I’m apparently doing quite compared to others in my role.

Training

Take advantage of any training your company offers.  I was able to take a course on “difficult conversations” that I found useful.  Historically, I haven’t been great at confrontation, but I’ve improved pretty dramatically in recent years.

Advice

Finally, look around you and get advice from family or friends.  I have several friends who are IT managers, serving in similar roles to the position I’m seeking.  I’ve reached out for them for their thoughts and advice, and I’ll continue to do that in the future.  Shared information makes everyone stronger.