My Job Offer Was Rescinded Due To The Economy! What Do I Do?

iStockphoto.com | RomarioIen

It’s a nightmare scenario for any job seeker. You’ve accepted an offer to work for your dream company. After signing and returning the offer letter, and cancelling interviews with other firms (or, worse, given notice to your current company), you get a mysterious message from the human resources team at your new employer asking you to give them a call as soon as you can…

And it’s horrible news. They tell you that due to no fault of your own, the company is rescinding the offer, and you’re left without any job at all.

There are myriad reasons a company will go through the painful process of cancelling a job offer after acceptance, but in most such cases, it boils down to one of three reasons:

1.     A major economic downturn. When economies go bad, aggressively companies cut cost to compensate for the grim market outlook. And to many companies, it’s more palatable to eliminate the role of the person who hasn’t started yet, rather than an existing employee. 

2.     A sudden and dramatic change in fortune of the specific company involved. Internal scandals enveloped Enron and Theranos, driving them to extinction. But even in less dramatic cases, companies that need to rapidly eliminate overhead will turn first to labor.

3.     A change in corporate strategy. The folks in the C-suite are constantly playing chess with the different departments and products, trying to optimize the P&L. It might mean that a project you were going to join gets cancelled unexpectedly, resulting in excess staff.

These situations all stink, and they put the job seeker in a horrible position. Whether you’re a recent graduate, or a professional who wants to make a jump to a bigger better job, or an unemployed professional who’s been aggressively pounding the pavement for a while, you’re still caught in Limbo. And under COVID-19, this has happened with more and more frequency.

Your options to mitigate the damage are limited, no doubt. But there are steps you can take to try to make the best of the situation (please note - this is not legal advice; for solid legal guidance, always consult an attorney):

• Keep Your Cool: When you receive the news, don’t unleash your anger on the company representative that reaches out to you. It’s in your best interest to maintain a collaborative dialogue to try to squeeze the best possible outcome out of the situation. A combative tone risks an emotional backlash from HR or hiring authority. It’s in the company’s best interest to resolve the situation as smoothly as possible - use that to your advantage.

• Ask For Details: If you’re able, by all means press HR for as many details as possible as to why your role was eliminated. The reasons given may help you understand the degree of support you may be able to obtain from the company in resolving the situation. A full company closure obviously has less potential for another opportunity than does a situation in which a small group is impacted.

• Find The Hidden Opportunities: Your dialogue with HR might uncover the potential for the company to follow through with a job opportunity or other outcomes. Consider asking:

  • If business returns to “normal”, might the job be reinstated?

  • If so, how would I be considered and prioritized?

  • Am I eligible and qualified for any other open position with the company?

  • Is the company offering any sort of severance payment in consideration of what’s happened?

• Understand Your Rights: If you have a signed/counter-signed employment agreement, review it carefully, and consider having a good labor attorney review it, to see if you may be entitled to some form of compensation or other consideration.

• Find A New Job: Y However, you are now in a more unique situation that may benefit you during your new search. You had a job; you just never had the chance to perform it. In interviews, use this as a selling point, especially if the company that rescinded the offer was a well-known brand that carries prestige in the talent market.

• Rebuild Bridges: If you were fortunate enough to have multiple job offers, do not hesitate to reach out to the companies you turned down. Likewise, if you’ve given notice to your current employer, they may be willing to keep you on.

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Philip Roufail contributed to this article.

Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, career coaching services, and outplacement services. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.

Should I Drop Out of the Workforce and Go Back to School During the Pandemic?

iStockphoto.com | kzenon

In our recent past, deciding whether or not to go back to school was a big, life-altering, decision (“Do I Need to Go Back to College to Change Careers?” / “5 Pieces of Good News for Online Students”). Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, this already difficult decision is even more complex.

It’s no secret that COVID has fundamentally altered every aspect of life, transforming business, labor, and education. There is no reliable way to predict how deep the changes will be and how long they will last.

Thus, it may be tempting to ditch this horrific job market (with a national US unemployment rate of 8.6%, and much higher in places), and go back to school full time to earn another degree. Is that a good idea right now? There’s no easy answer.

Pandemic or not, the first and primary step, is an objective assessment of your personal circumstances and an informed projection of the Return on Investment (ROI) you can realistically expect under the best circumstances. According to U.S. News, “tuition and fees for the 2020–2021 school year was $41,411 at private colleges, $11,171 for state residents at public colleges and $26,809 for out-of-state students at state schools.” When you consider that colleges have been consistent in raising tuition on a regular basis, the above numbers are starting points. 

Ask yourself:

• How much will it cost to earn the degree I want?

• How long will it take?

• What is the average market salary for professionals with the degree I wish to obtain?

• If I do not have the resources, how does a student loan alter my calculations?

• How long will it take to pay back, and what kind of salary will I need to pay it back?

Really run the numbers, then add 10% for good measure. And keep in mind, an MBA, law degree, or other advanced diploma doesn’t come cheap, and can be more expensive per credit than other programs. But with COVID-19, we’re in uncharted territory and even the questions above might not provide a complete picture.

Let’s look at the arguments for returning to school:

• The labor market is crowded and uncertain. By returning to school you are taking yourself out of a hyper competitive and uncertain labor market. In traditional downturns, economists are able to make reasonable projections about the course a recession will take and steps that can be taken to alleviate the crisis. In our current situation, there is no reliable historical data to make predictions with any kind of certainty.

• When you return to the workforce, it may be less competitive in an improved overall economy. Consider the normal time frames required to earn  bachelor and advanced degrees – four years for most bachelor degrees, four years (+ residency) for an M.D., four years to become an RN, three years for a law degree, three years for many Master’s degrees, and two years for an MBA. There are intensive one-year diploma programs and Associate degrees of various types that may take less time, but you get the idea – the economy may or may not be better by the time you earn a degree, but you know for a fact that right now it’s terrible. This might be a good time to take a break.

• When you return to the workforce, certain degrees should put you in a better position. Depending upon your starting point, if you’ve earned an MBA, or a J.D., or a specialized Master’s Degree from a highly ranked program, it could potentially make you a stronger candidate for more types of positions at higher salaries than you historically earned.

• If you are in an industry that’s becoming obsolete there may be no better time to return to school than right now. For example, brick and mortal retail was a rapidly shrinking sector before COVID-19, and now its troubles have accelerated. However, virtual retail is booming. A shiny new degree in Digital Marketing or E-Commerce may an intelligent path forward.

Let’s look at some of the unique challenges of returning to school:

• Schools are operating on the fly, already demonstrating a start/stop pattern and operational uncertainty when outbreaks hit. This could be the standard for a while; if you return to school now, you should expect an uncertain first year, at minimum.

• Many schools and programs are going all virtual. You must determine for yourself how you believe virtual learning affects the quality and value of the education you receive; however, collective in-person learning can have a great amount of value through interactions with peers and professors. In addition, virtual learning requires a different level of personal discipline than showing up to class. Do you have the discipline?

• One of the great assets of earning a degree are the connections you make while you do it. Some of the people you meet in school will become the foundation of your new professional network. Are the connections as strong and actionable in a virtual environment? Just as interaction with one’s peers is important from a scholarly perspective, establishing long-lasting professional connections requires it. In the current environment, new students may find these connections lacking.

• COVID-19 has curtailed campus recruiting. Many colleges maintain regular relationships with corporate recruiters, serving an important nexus for graduates launching new careers. Much of these relationships is based on personal visits and interaction with both students and staff that have now been disrupted by the pandemic. While both schools and employers are working hard to maintain these relationships, it’s stressful for everyone.

• Internship programs can be a bedrock component of a particular degree. For example, MBA candidates often use their summers for internships, and law students perform clerkships or summer associate roles. These not only provide the student with experience; they also make them more valuable upon graduation. Many of these programs have been scaled back, eliminated, or made all-virtual.

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Philip Roufail contributed to this article.

Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, career coaching services, and outplacement services. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.

6 Simple Ways to Stand Out in A Crowded Job Market

iStockphoto.com | farakos

It’s crowded out there and it’s getting more crowded every month. The unfortunate reality is that the economy and labor market will continue to be roiled by the Covid-19 pandemic for the foreseeable future and the buzzword of the year is “uncertainty.” Do not get overwhelmed. Focus on what’s in your control. Be kind to yourself. Get to work.

1.     Work harder and smarter. It can be more than demoralizing to be unemployed, or to be in a job with little security or satisfaction, and sometimes the obstacles seem or have proven to be all but insurmountable. It is easy yet catastrophic to slip into a state of professional paralysis at the time you need to be the most proactive. Whatever you planned for tomorrow, do today. Take whatever extra initiative you can to stand out. Be aggressive. Set realistic daily goals that will move the needle of your job search forward each week. For example, spend one day targeting companies for which you already know you would like to work and the next day researching new companies and opportunities. Nobody knows everything that’s out there. Do a little extra digging and you may strike gold.

2.     Be part of the LinkedIn community.  LinkedIn is a vital component to any job search. It may seem intimidating, but take the time to develop a strong professional story through your LinkedIn profile and it will eventually pay off. Take advantage of the extra opportunities LinkedIn gives you that a traditional resume does not. For example, each of your work experience entries can include links, documents, photos, and a variety of other data/visual rich content that provide a much more in depth panorama of your skills and achievements. LinkedIn is a large community, but as a percentage does not have that many “content creators”. If you post or share content, you will stand out and may drive traffic to your profile. The greater your activity the more potential traffic you may generate.

3.     Join LinkedIn Groups – Sure, you want to drive traffic to your profile, but LinkedIn is not a social network in the traditional sense; it’s a professional network, so if you are involved in a job search it’s not beneficial to drive other job seekers to your profile. You need the right kind of traffic. Join LinkedIn Groups. It’s part of the basic LinkedIn account, and recruiters and other professionals are in these groups and they’re often looking for great future employees. Shift some of your social media energy to LinkedIn Groups to increase your visibility, find out about job openings that may not yet be posted on LinkedIn or other job platforms, and keep up with trends in your field.

4.     Find a Hiring Manager at Your Target Company.  This is one of the trickier things to pull off and there’s no guarantee that you will be able to determine with certainty who is the actual person that will make the decision on who to hire. There are no foolproof ways to determine who the hiring manager may be of that dream job posting you just saw, but your best bets are some combination of company websites and LinkedIn. If you can determine this vital information, be sure to address any correspondence directly to the hiring manager. If you are a LinkedIn Premium member, you also have the option to send InMails (notes you can send to someone in LinkedIn without being a direct connection) to the job poster, who may be a recruiter, an HR staff member, or a hiring manager.

5.     If contacted, don’t delay. Make communicating with potential employers your number one priority. Be prompt. If you receive a call, return it as soon as possible and be prepared! Whether it’s the hiring manager or the receptionist, you should be prepared to provide relevant information and/or answer pointed questions about your interest and qualifications. If you are contacted by email, also respond as soon as possible. If any documents are requested, include them in your response. Respond once with any requested information and in a timely fashion.

6.     Pay it forward. Life challenges us in ways that are profound and unexpected, yet it is unlikely that any of us have lived through any stage of our lives without some type of support from friends and family, and, in turn, each of us are an important part of someone else’s support network. Now is the time to be selfless. If someone reaches out to you for help, give it without conditions. Karma can work in your favor during these unprecedented times – or any time, for that matter.

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 Philip Roufail contributed to this article.

Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, career coaching services, and outplacement services. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.