Untacking and Stabling My High Horse.... To Stay on the Trail of Positivity

‘When are you going to get a job…?’ asked my children.  A valid question, as I had been searching for many months, but, not necessarily one that I expected to hear from a 5 and a 7 year old.  I had stopped working while pregnant with the 5 year old and committed to returning to work once both children were settled in primary school. My departure from full-time corporate work was in London in investment banking after a 15+ year career in banking and financial services.  As I had earned a graduate degree in finance and a CFA charter and there was a lot of ‘buzz’ on social media about hiring women in executive positions, board diversity improving productivity and decision making and the ‘talent drain’ as baby boomers retired, I assumed that I would quickly and easily find a job.  In fact, if I’m honest, I more expected to be choosing from a VARIETY of job offers.  It did not quite happen as I expected…

I began searching in earnest in January, 2017 by getting out the ‘big guns’; I hired a resumé writer and a coach to kickstart my search.  I had decided that I wanted to return to work in financial services; I had largely enjoyed a really amazing career and had been lucky enough to mostly love my job day to day and love the lifestyle it afforded me.  However, being back in Boston (from London) and having two small children, a return to investment banking seemed like… not the best move for me.  I had done credit analysis within the investment bank to assess hypothetical ratings agency ratings and cost of debt ranges.  So although I didn’t want to go back and be directly in investment banking, I assumed that this ‘valuable’ skill set would be sought after and an easy sell into other related areas of credit analysis.  Additionally, I felt well rounded because I have both client facing experience with C-level executives as well as buy-side investment committee experience.

I exuberantly sent application after application online, mostly never even hearing a confirmation of my candidacy, a request for interview…. That’s ok, I told myself.  It takes time.  I kept going.  Contacted recruiter after recruiter.  Even ones I had worked with before and knew socially didn’t respond in anything but a vague dismissive way. The utter lack of response continued.  I started to consider positions significantly below my experience and skill set and applied to those.  I began to doubt, but told myself, you know, it just takes some time, be patient (ok, not one of my fortés).  Not going to lie… it was rough.  I did after a few months get a few ‘thanks but no thanks…’ type emails, but it would often be for jobs that I didn’t even remember applying for.  I upped my game in networking and was very surprised that there were several situations where there was a ‘warm lead’ and I was still not contacted, not by the hiring manger, the company contact or even by HR.  That was a huge shock to me and to be honest for a few weeks, it was pretty disheartening.

   

I had told people, people being basically anyone that would listen, that I was looking for a job. After a few months people started asking ‘Oh, wow,… you’re still looking?’  OBVIOUSLY IF I HAVEN'T FOUND ANYTHING YET?!? I mean, yes, in fact, I am. Thanks for asking. “Oh, you’re so smart and your resumé is amazing, I am surprised you haven’t found anything,” they’d say.  Um, yeah.  So am I….  I ultimately decided I had a choice to either continue trying, which could lead to my actually landing a job.  Or I could succumb to my fears and doubts and just give up because with the success I was having… really, what was the point?  After a few weeks of flirting with the latter, I chose the former.

I cannot overstate the importance of staying positive in your job search.  It is better for your mental health, people are more willing to help you if they like you and you are positive and expectations have a way of coming true… It’s not to say there may not be days of despair and doubt but keeping yourself positive and surrounding yourself with a network of other people who can help support you and keep you on your path when you are faltering is so important to both the endpoint of finding a job (not to spoil the ending of my story… but….!) and for the journey.