What is it like to be an Unemployed IT Professional?
The year was 2008. The economy tanked, my 401K Retirement Plan was trashed by Wall Street, and the company I was working for went under. The unemployment rate was 10%.
We recognize this is nowhere near as high as it was during Covid. The difference was that in 2008, it was the professional class – you know - you and me, not the Hospitality Industry that was hit hard.
Where were all the jobs in our field?
The local Unemployment Office had 96 Unemployed Professionals meeting once a week to be encouraged and compare notes as to what was working. What wasn’t working was getting a job in our field. And this was just the tip of the iceberg for the thousands of Unemployed Professionals located in Portland, Maine at the time.
We even started a non-profit called “Work-It-Up” to showcase our talent on small projects for local businesses, in hopes that as the economy bounced back, they would hire some of us. I ran out of fuel (money, USD, Greenbacks) and needed to leave the startup before the showcase worked for me.
Sell Benefits, Not Features…
The day the tide turned for me was in early May 2010. I sat through a “Jump Start” Marketing Workshop given by Doug Hall, Eureka Ranch, to Unemployed Professionals for free (hold this thought – we will come back to it later in the article).
The highlight of the message was to sell benefits, not features.
Features for me were the many career accomplishments listed on the Resume. The benefits were the impacts to the Employers’ bottom-lines. Doug had said to limit the message to 2-3 bullet points max in any Marketing piece because the mind cannot comprehend more than 3 things at a time.
*Side note: then why do we expect Techs to keep up with a list of 20+ Tickets or say they must multi-task on 4-5 tickets at a time? There seems to be a disconnect here
While I am very proud of my illustrious career, below are the “Benefits” that I put at the top of the 2017 resume (the last time it was updated).
FYI: the idea of adding graphics/logos to be more eye-catching came from Guerrilla Job Hunting, with the statement that “Any Employer who sues an Unemployed past Employee for copyright infringement would be laughed off the planet and the Unemployed would be employed by the end of the day.”
Two hours after changing the heading and posting the Resume, the phone started ringing. It rang every day until I was back to work a few months later.
Focus on Giving Rather than Getting.
Doug Hall taught me a major lesson. Not about Marketing, but about life in general: Live a life of gratitude and focus on giving rather than getting..
I am proud to say at Advanced Global, we live this mantra to the hilt. 25-30% of the value we offer to the Autotask MSP community is given away. And now it’s time we step up and give even more. This time to the Unemployed IT Professional.
If you are a Service Delivery Professional looking for your next opportunity, with Resume Submission, we will provide you with the following:
1) 6-months complimentary access to the Advanced Global Service Delivery Gladiator’s Community where you can:
a. Post your Resume or V-Resume.
b. Network across all forums.
c. Encourage, compare notes, and give to others in the Service Delivery Unemployed Professionals channel.
2) Resume review by myself.
3) 30-minute Free Job Hunting coaching calls.
4) Pro-Bono opportunities to showcase your skills and keep your spirits up.
5) Anything else you need to get you through.
To say we are passionate about Autotask or Service Delivery Improvements is an understatement. But neither of these hold a candle to how passionate we are about helping the Unemployed Professional.
Send us your resume to info@agmspcoaching.com, and we will do the rest.