How to come back for that better job

What did you do while you were “between jobs”?

If you’ve been out of work, there are plenty of reasons why employers will ask that question. You’d best come up with an answer that rings true.

I’m thinking of the hundreds of thousands of federal non-exempt employees, including many in San Diego, now wondering what’s going to happen next. 

It appears they’ll be forced to wait days or even weeks to find out.

For currently unemployed workers, we’re hearing that it takes an average of six months to land a new position. That’s especially true, painfully so, for recent college graduates. 

Even if you had a thriving career and decided on your own to drop out of the job market for very legit reasons, what did you do with your time off?

When you’re entering or re-entering the job market, it’s a logical question to ask, and interviewers, either live or avatars, will ask it in a variety of ways. 

Responding with, “Well, I took time off for child care” or “I was taking care of my aging parents,” may earn points for empathy, especially if it’s true.

But you’d be far better off if you’re able to say, “I just completed an internship and I’m ready to take the next step.”

As I’ve written many times before, I’m a huge fan of internships. 

They’re not only the best way to land a permanent job, they’re also a respected (and maturation) event, proof that the intern has spent time in an adult work setting. 

In my mind, there’s no better way to enter (or re-enter) the job market.

He graduated a few months ago

Recently, I interviewed the son of a friend of mine for a job opening with one of Manpower’s clients. He had graduated a few months ago and hadn’t taken looking for a job seriously until now.

Now he was in panic mode. 

When I casually asked him how his summer went, he first proudly pointed out that he had dropped three strokes off his golf handicap. 

Good for him.

But he wasn’t at all pleased when I told him that the candidate before him had worked part-time during school and every summer worked as an intern in his chosen field. 

And that the other candidate before him had spent his summer volunteering in Guatemala to build schools for needy children and had an internship waiting for him when he returned.

As I often do, I asked the new grad to figuratively switch sides of the desk with me, and which candidate he’d move forward in the interview process.

Who showed the most ambition? Who sold his capabilities to win an internship and worked as an intern in the field he was majoring in? 

Who, if I gave him a project, could I be most confident in him taking it on and staying with it until completion?

He got the message. 

But by this point there was no way he could rewrite his resume to catch up with those other candidates. 

Federal workers across the country

As for those hundreds of thousands of furloughed federal workers across the country, most are non-exempt employees, meaning they’re paid hourly and qualify for overtime.

They’re deemed non-essential, thus only temporarily furloughed and not fired. As soon as the federal funding is approved, they will likely receive all of their back pay. 

But if their job is deemed essential, such as TSA workers, they’ll still have to work a normal schedule with no paid time off.

If you’re trying to return to work, for whatever reason, how do you come back better than when you left?

Are there certificate classes that will raise your skill levels? How about online courses that will teach you a new skill, like Excel spreadsheets? Or volunteering in a field that improves your soft skills?

If you’re concerned (as you should be) about how AI will impact your work, use this time to “AI proof” your career.

Be the candidate that improved their skill set. Not the one who improved their golf handicap. 

Fore!

Blair is co-founder of Manpower Staffing and can be reached at pblair@manpowersd.com.