Thursday, July 29, 2004

Making connections
Networking is key for executives, who fall harder and recover more slowly in the job market.

By CATRINE JOHANSSON
The Orange County Register

So, a chief executive loses his job. All he has to do is call his golf buddies or country-club pals and a new job is his, right?

Far from it.

In many ways, top-tier executives fall harder than others. There are fewer job opportunities, and it's more difficult to get to the decision makers who do the hiring. While it's commonplace for rank-and-file workers to change jobs every few years, top executives often have the same job for many years, even decades. If they change jobs, they often go with their boss. Therefore, they often don't have resumés, don't have the necessary networks and don't know how to look for a job once they no longer have access to daily contacts with their peers.

"I was probably a little naive," said David Skinner, 46, a former vice president of international sales for an integrated circuit laser manufacturer who has been looking for a job since December, when his position was eliminated.

Recruiters used to call all the time when he had a job, Skinner said.

"Now they are suspicious and wonder why I'm not working," he said. "It's a different position to be in."

This is the first time Skinner of Carlsbad finds himself without a job. He said he's surprised how long it's taking him to find a new position. At his latest job, he traveled up to 250,000 miles per year, mostly to Asia, and developed a huge international network. Those contacts are his personal references on his resumé, but they won't generate jobs Skinner can consider.

Skinner, like many top executives, is tied to Orange County by family. Such executives often have teenage children – Skinner has two – and are reluctant to move.

"I am willing to relocate for the right opportunity," Skinner said, "but not to Shanghai, China."

So Skinner beats the pavement, the phones and cyberspace, trying to find a position in north San Diego or Orange counties. He finds it a humbling experience.

Meanwhile, Skinner and his wife try to minimize the effects of the job loss on the children. It's not entirely possible. The family doesn't buy as many clothes or eat out as much, Skinner said.

"The ups and downs in self-esteem are difficult to deal with," Skinner said. "It can be demoralizing."

Skinner's experience is common among job-seeking senior executives, said Rodney McDermott, managing director of the executive search firm McDermott & Bull in Irvine.

Like most search firms, McDermott & Bull works for the companies – not for the job seekers. But it still gets lots of phone calls from people like Skinner, asking for help. To give them some guidance, McDermott & Bull started an executive networking group about two and a half years ago. It has swelled to 350 executives. About 100 of them meet every few months for networking and to listen to tips from executives who have had successful job searches.

At the meetings, the former executives are handed business cards made by McDermott & Bull that include the job seeker's contact information, the job they had and what they are looking for. The executives sit in groups of four or five, and for 20 minutes go around the table, sharing tips, contacts and talk about their ambitions.

All is designed to get the executives into the groove of looking for a job.

Networking groups are good "rah-rah sessions," Skinner said. They help boost motivation, but few jobs are found in a room filled with other unemployed people.

"What I need is to interact with senior-level executives," Skinner said.

That takes work. More work than a full-time job, said John Hall, an Irvine career coach.

He advises his clients to write short stories on how they turned companies around, how much money they saved or how they increased output. He also has them identify 30 companies they would like to work for, and then approach them with a special report on the industry.

Hall encourages job seekers to network with professional associations – maybe even speak at their meetings and write articles for their trade publications.

That way, Hall said, the job seekers can talk to people who have jobs and are in a position to hire.

Andy Berry, senior vice president at TRC Solutions, a civil-engineering firm in Irvine, landed his job through a combination of Internet resources, networking and corporate research.

After divesting Pacific Bay Homes for Ford Motorland in 2002, Berry had effectively planned himself out of a job. After finishing a contract job after that, he started looking for a permanent position.

He quickly ran into the same difficulties as Skinner, realizing how few top jobs there are and how hesitant companies are to hire people who make six-figure salaries.

Berry embarked on a full-scale attack, making sure his "game face" was on every time he left his San Clemente home.

He began subscribing to www.leads411.com, which provides information on new hires and corporate expansions. He also joined the McDermott & Bull network and got a subscription to its newsletter. There, he read that McDermott & Bull had lured the chief financial officer from TRC away for another position. Hence, Berry figured, TRC should be looking to hire. He got the contact information for the chief executive at TRC through the leads411 Web site, and that contact eventually led to a meeting, which led to phone interviews, which led to his job.

Interestingly, he wasn't hired as the CFO. He was hired as the director of the newly formed Sarbanes Oxley Program at the firm, a service to help companies comply with new reporting regulations.

"I pitched myself as someone who can wear several hats," Berry said, "so maybe you can consolidate several positions. That saves on overhead."

Even though Berry has a job now, he keeps on networking, saving all his contacts on an Excel spreadsheet that he carries with him everywhere.

"It enhances the job performance today," Berry said, "but it can help, just in case I have to look for a job again."