Outplaced

OutplacedOutplacedTo research his new movie, The Company Men, Director John Wells visited outplacement centers and interviewed hundreds of job seekers. Their stories are the movie.Ben Afflecks expression is a mixture of dejection, despair and pained embarrassment as he looks around the crowded boardroom. Up Up Up Lets go This is called The Tiger. We do it when we need to get our energy up. The motivational chant is led by a Suze Orman look-alike dressed in a chic black pantsuit. The participants, all in business attire, rise from their chairs. Come on, I know you are sitting around feeling sorry for yourselves, she continues, her voice building in power. I - will - win. Why? Because I have faith, courage, enthusiasm Good Affleck stands and joins the rest of the group in the chant, a sheepish smile spreading over his face.In The Company Men, Ben Affleck plays Bobby Walker, a sales executive who is one of the first to lose his job at Boston conglomerate GTX when hundreds of employee s are laid off in a consolidation decision designed to appease shareholders. Brash and self-assured, Bobby regards himself as a top-flight company man, a winner with all the charm and the drive necessary to soar to the upper echelons of management. So when he finds himself unemployed he is initially incredulous but assumes that it will be only a matter of days before hell secure another high-paying position.As part of his severance package, Bobby is offered career search assistance at an external job placement center. The outplacement services - which include advice on resume writing, networking tips and pep talks - are provided in a building that in many ways mirrors Bobbys previous work environment, including cubicles for laid-off workers from middle management and eckball offices with nice views for former VPs or CFOs.These people come in looking like they have just been in a major automobile accident. I think of myself as a physical therapist. I go into the room right after so meone comes out of major surgery and say Get out of that bed and you have got to start walking. I know it is painful. I know you dont want to. Get up and walk. That is how I perceive myself. This welches the explanation given to John Wells, the director of The Company Men, by the motivational trainer he met at an outplacement center while researching his film. I visited them. I didnt make that chant up, the 54-year-old writer-producer-director said. The Tiger chant is something I saw them do in Los Angeles. The trainer was very bright and savvy. Afterwards, I said to her Dont you feel vaguely ridiculous doing that? And she said, Oh, yeah. It is completely ridiculous but you dont understand. These people are in shock. Look Like SuccessBobbys shock turns to anger and then shame. I need to look successful, he tells his wife (played by Rosemarie DeWitt). I cant just look like another ahole with a resume To which she replies You are another ahole with a resume Her wake-up-and-smell-the- coffee plea to him is ignored. Bobby tries to maintain his plush suburban dream, continuing to play golf at his country club and refusing to tell family and friends that he has lost his job.I think this is particular to American men and our society, Wells said. We define ourselves through our work. Who we are is based on what we do and how much money we make. He points out that many white-collar workers are defined by appearances I am successful because you see I am successful.The Company Men, it would seem, is tailor-made to reflect the soaring job losses and crippling unemployment of our times, but the movie was, in fact, conceptualized over 10 years ago. The impetus for Wells to write the script was rooted in the boom and bust of the dot.com years in the late 90s. Wells brother-in-law, along with many others, lost his job at the time, and while the script is not his story it inspired Wells to dig deeper into the repercussions of job loss. Wells also interviewed several hundred pe ople in researching the experience of job loss before and during production.I talked to men who had been vice presidents. I talked to men who were doing all kinds of service jobs, like managing a Chuck E. Cheese because they still wanted to work, to be useful but there was no opportunity for them, he recalls. He received more than two thousand responses when he posted solicitations in chat rooms, requesting anecdotes about being laid off. At the time he had not heard about outplacement services.Writing the Last RecessionWells drafted a script incorporating all hed learned but by the time he submitted it to Warner Bros., the mini-recession at the end of the last millennium had faded. In 2007 he worked on a substantial rewrite of his script. Each recession has its own individual motor in the way in which it works. I rewrote it assuming that by the time we did it, it would be a historical document. And clearly we are still in the midst of it. Now, weve got tens of millions of people wh o have experienced unemployment. We do test screenings and at the end we always ask how many people have had this personally happen to them or someone in their immediate family or a close friend and everybodys hand goes up. Everybodys going through it.And there are people who are being completely left behind, Wells observes. In this country, the underemployed is a huge statistic that nobody really talks about, with many making 40 or 50 percent of what they did before, doing jobs that are substantially below their experience level. They are just happy to have a job.The current recession, Wells believes, is going to have a much longer-lasting effect than the impact of the economic downturn that inspired his script. There is a huge portion of older workers - who arent particularly that old - who still have a lot to give but are not going to find new places in this economy, post-recession.In the Midst of Something SubstantialThe Company Men, it could be argued, has elements of a cauti onary tale. When Bobby is fired, he is overextended on his credit cards and within months he is struggling to pay the mortgage on his house. Yet he chooses to ignore these realities and continues to try to keep up with the Joneses.I think that we are in the midst of something substantial changing in the way in which we perceive our financial security as a nation, Wells said. It has happened to too many people. In the short term it is tougher for the economy but in the long term it is better for everybody involved. Wells points out that his grandparents and parents had been very affected by the Great Depression and made decisions about their finances and jobs based on their experience of that era I think that my generation, and the people who are younger than I am, have ignored that because we havent really had that experience.Ben Afflecks character, Bobby, is written with a certain amount of arrogance for his own invincibility, Wells said. I dont overstate it but I think there is a bit of that in how we perceive ourselves as Americans. We make decisions that we shouldnt make based on this sense that everything is going to go our way. That is not particularly healthy for any individual or for the country. We cant be this overextended.He was attracted to the notion of a character like Bobby whom you sort of dont really like but you come to feel sympathy for the human situation that he is in. I think that there are many more people out there that are versions of Bobbys character. It can be anybody who was making $50,000 or $150,000 to $200,000, a group of people that have had to completely rethink what their future is going to be. And that is a huge portion of the population.Bobby eventually learns to abandon his arrogant attitude and reorder his personal and career priorities. Wells notes that in his research he realized that people who found themselves out of work eventually learned important life lessons through the hardship they faced You discovered who your friends were. You saw your family gather around you. You discovered that your children didnt really care so much what you do but who you are. The film is trying to get at the journey that we go through in difficult times. Its not necessarily easy and not necessarily better in many senses of the definition. But it is uplifting. And you end up stronger.

3 Tips for Interviewing the Interviewer

3 Tips for Interviewing the Interviewer3 Tips for Interviewing the InterviewerInterviewing for a job feels kind of like datingthe excitement, the nervousness, the prospect of life-changing possibilities. But unlike dating, interviewing can feel emotionally one-sided, especially if you are new to the dance. It may seem like those in the interviewers chairs are the ones who hold all the cards. Sometimes in your efforts to impress them, you may forget that you have power in this conversation what you think of the organization and the staff that facilitates the meeting matters, too.You are not the only one being interviewed here. You are doing that very same reconnaissance to see if you can be happy at this organization and in this role, so take full advantage of the opportunity. Ask your questions and be aware of any red flags you notice about the staff, the company or the position. Viewing the meeting as an equal exchange between interested parties will boost your confidence and calm y our nerves.You bring value to this meeting, and if all goes well on both sides perhaps you will reach a mutually beneficial agreement. If its not a fit, you will have that much more experience as an interviewee, and that is always helpful to have in your toolkit. Try not to emotionally inflate the meeting. Life is full of interviews. Do your homework, and do your best. Then be at peace your work is done.Keep in mindOrganizations recruiting new staff are eager to find qualified candidates. The staff you are meeting with is probably swamped with work because of the open position, and they are anxious to get their team up and running at full speed. Its very likely that one or more people conducting the interview are temporarily doing the work that they will give back to this position once a candidate is hired. If thats the case, they want to fill the position ASAP. Its helpful to identify who on the interviewing team is currently filling this role because that clues you into who will b e training the new hire. That also tells you who can answer your most targeted, task-based questions.The hiring process is a long road, and employers are as eager to make the right hire as you are to get the right job. They are looking for the person who is a good fit and also whom they think will be relatively easy to onboard. They also hope to find someone who will stick around for a while, so they dont have to go through this process again anytime soon. Institutional knowledge is a precious commodity, and turnover absorbs a lot of time and resources. Qualities that make you easy to onboard and likely to stay are always attractive to an interviewing team.Do your homeworkAn interview is like any other professional meeting, so use your time and the interview teams time well. Research the names of any interviewers you receive in advance. Learn about the company. Dont wait to be asked for relevant materials bring a simple writing sample, lesson plan, diagram or report as long as its n ot cumbersome, no set-up is required and it enhances the meeting by concisely demonstrating a particular skill or example. Be prepared and mindful of everyones timeincluding your own.Ask questions that will inform your decisionYou are invited to ask questions. Use the invitation well. Ask about the history of the position for which you are interviewing. How long was your predecessor in the role? How about that persons predecessor? If you learn that the position has had a lot of turnover, you want to learn more about that. You may find that the job was just restructured and you may think that the revised position sounds like a great fit for you. Dont be shy about asking direct questions. Be professional, of course, but get the facts you need to make a good decision. A job change has a huge impact on your life and even if you are unemployed, you dont want to take a job that has a poor track record of success.Often, you get the chance to meet with various people on the team including p eer staff members. This is a great opportunity to learn what it is really like to work at the organization. Get down to the nitty-gritty with them and find out how long they have worked there and what they like about their jobs. If you have questions about work-life balance, this is a good time to ask those. It is also a good opportunity to ask about the leadership at the organization in high-level terms for example, what is it like to work for the manager and what is his or her leadership style like?Identify red flagsJust like with dating, be honest with yourself about things that dont sit well with you, no matter how much you like other things about the company. These red flags may not be deal-breakers, but they are issues that you need to resolve as you grapple with your decision, so pay attention to them and trust your instincts.If you find that there have been five people in the position you are applying for in the past eight years, that is a serious red flag. If you find that there are four open positions on a 13-person team, you may want to ask about that. If the interview team indicates that the president or CEO of the company is difficult to work with, and the position you are interviewing for directly supports that person, you need to consider whether or not you want to invite that stress into your life.There are toxic relationships on the professional front just as there are in the dating world. Know your value and trust your instincts.

Is your dream job what you want Ask yourself this question

Is your dream job what you want Ask yourself this questionIs your dream job what you want Ask yourself this questionAsk most people what their dream job is, and theyll tell you the opposite of whatever theyre doing right now.If theyre working in a cubicle, theyd rather be travel-blogging their way around the world.If theyre driving for Uber, theyd rather be writing Grammy-award-winning hit singles.If theyre slaving away at an advertising agency, theyd rather be making strides toward becoming the next great entrepreneur.Heres the thing about dream jobs though99% of the time, theyre unrealistic.I dont mean unrealistic in the same way your parents probably used the word, telling you something is impossible.I mean unrealistic in the most basic sense.Your dream job is unrealistic for you, because you dont actually love the work itself.You just love the IDEA of the endresultIts very easy for someone to say, I would so much rather be a famous musician, a multi-millionaire tech entrepreneur, a world-traveling chef, an Instagram influencer.Thats because the end result is so easy to imagine. Were surrounded by it every single day?- ?on magazine covers, in viral social media posts, on television, even in the conversations we have with our friends and family members.Everyone loves the IDEA of the end result. And so they spend their lives telling themselves that same narrative, over and over again, criticizing their 95 job while simultaneously daydreaming about the life they could be living.The irony, however, is that nobody ever achieves that end goal by being in love withitAsk anyone who has achieved something great in their lives about their journey, and they wont tell you about the rewards at the end.Theyll tell you about the day to day habits that went into it. Theyll talk about the work itself, the mindset, the motivation to improve and master their craft, the exploration process.The end rewards? Those are just byproducts.They are not the underlying purpose.When peopl e imagine their dream job, they dont realize they are in love with the end result more than they are the work that goes intoitWhich means, in bestellung to find out what your dream job really is, you cant ask yourself what end reward you want.That question is elusive, and often times leads you astray.Instead, you need to ask what activities you enjoy doing on a daily basis.How can you expect to become a famous musician if you dont enjoy practicing the guitar?How can you expect to become a super successful entrepreneur if you cant find the joy in early morning meetings, traveling, and a high-stress lifestyle?How can you expect to become a best-selling author if you despise sitting by yourself and writing?You cant.Finding your dream job is all about reverse-engineering what activities you enjoy doing on a daily basis, that will allow a desirable end result to manifest on itsownMost people never understand this concept.Instead, they spend their entire lives wishing they were living a l ife that, in all honesty, they really dont want. Thats not how they prefer to spend their time?- ?because if it was, theyd find a way to do it.What you need to ask yourself is, in a perfect world, how would you spend your morning?What activities would you do?And in the afternoon, how would you like to spend those hours?What activities would you do?How would you like to spend your dinner? With whom? Where?How about your evenings?Once you lay out all the different activities youd like to do on a daily basis, compound those activities over five, ten, or twenty years, and imagine what might manifest as a result?You are the product of what you spend your timedoingYou cant say, I want to be this insert end reward and then not enjoy spending time on a daily basis practicing and working toward that end reward.So, if you want to figure out what your real dream job is, ask yourself what you would enjoy doing on a daily basis.Then compound the result of that activity over X number of years.Tha ts where youre headed.And if you dont like where youre headed, change what youre doingright now.This article originally appeared on Inc. Magazine and then Thrive.com.Is your dream job what you want Ask yourself this questionAsk most people what their dream job is, and theyll tell you the opposite of whatever theyre doing right now.If theyre working in a cubicle, theyd rather be travel-blogging their way around the world.Follow Ladders on FlipboardFollow Ladders magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and moreIf theyre driving for Uber, theyd rather be writing Grammy-award-winning hit singles.If theyre slaving away at an advertising agency, theyd rather be making strides toward becoming the next great entrepreneur.Heres the thing about dream jobs though99% of the time, theyre unrealistic.I dont mean unrealistic in the same way your parents probably used the word, telling you something is impossible.I mean unrealistic in the most basic sense.Your dream job is unrealistic for you, because you dont actually love the work itself.You just love the IDEA of the endresultIts very easy for someone to say, I would so much rather be a famous musician, a multi-millionaire tech entrepreneur, a world-traveling chef, an Instagram influencer.Thats because the end result is so easy to imagine. Were surrounded by it every single day?- ?on magazine covers, in viral social media posts, on television, even in the conversations we have with our friends and family members.Everyone loves the IDEA of the end result. And so they spend their lives telling themselves that same narrative, over and over again, criticizing their 95 job while simultaneously daydreaming about the life they could be living.The irony, however, is that nobody ever achieves that end goal by being in love withitAsk anyone who has achieved something great in their lives about their journey, and they wont tell you about the rewards at the end.Theyll tell you about the day to day habits that went into it. Theyll talk about the work itself, the mindset, the motivation to improve and master their craft, the exploration process.The end rewards? Those are just byproducts.They are not the underlying purpose.When people imagine their dream job, they dont realize they are in love with the end result more than they are the work that goes intoitWhich means, in order to find out what your dream job really is, you cant ask yourself what end reward you want.That question is elusive, and often times leads you astray.Instead, you need to ask what activities you enjoy doing on a daily basis.How can you expect to become a famous musician if you dont enjoy practicing the guitar?How can you expect to become a super successful entrepreneur if you cant find the joy in early morning meetings, traveling, and a high-stress lifestyle?How can you expect to become a best-selling author if you despise sitting by yourself and writing?You cant.Finding your dream job is all ab out reverse-engineering what activities you enjoy doing on a daily basis, that will allow a desirable end result to manifest on itsownMost people never understand this concept.Instead, they spend their entire lives wishing they were living a life that, in all honesty, they really dont want. Thats not how they prefer to spend their time?- ?because if it was, theyd find a way to do it.What you need to ask yourself is, in a perfect world, how would you spend your morning?What activities would you do?And in the afternoon, how would you like to spend those hours?What activities would you do?How would you like to spend your dinner? With whom? Where?How about your evenings?Once you lay out all the different activities youd like to do on a daily basis, compound those activities over five, ten, or twenty years, and imagine what might manifest as a result?You are the product of what you spend your timedoingYou cant say, I want to be this insert end reward and then not enjoy spending time on a daily basis practicing and working toward that end reward.So, if you want to figure out what your real dream job is, ask yourself what you would enjoy doing on a daily basis.Then compound the result of that activity over X number of years.Thats where youre headed.And if you dont like where youre headed, change what youre doingright now.This article originally appeared on Inc. Magazine.You might also enjoyNew neuroscience reveals 4 rituals that will make you happyStrangers know your social class in the first seven words you say, study finds10 lessons from Benjamin Franklins daily schedule that will double your productivityThe worst mistakes you can make in an interview, according to 12 CEOs10 habits of mentally strong people