The job counseling firms come in a wide variety of names and services but what they basically say is that they will prepare a written resume for you, give you "x" number of copies and supply you with a list of names of companies who employ people in your job category. Some of these firms in addition promise such things as introductions to important executives which are seldom made. They will give you a battery of tests to determine your best field. Usually these can be taken from a job counselor at many universities and some high schools, sometimes for a small fee and many times for free if you have a past or present affiliation with the school.
These job counseling firms unfortunately have a tendency to make many implied promises, charge very high fees (usually between $500 and $1000) and deliver very little more than a standard form PD sheet. Perhaps the worst part of the whole show is the fact that their standard forms become known and tend to be immediately disregarded by the receiver, who knows immediately that the applicant hasn't enough personal imagination or self-discipline to make up his own.
These firms are successful and make money from the lazy that have more money than good sense or the willpower to do it themselves. So if you end up with one it probably means that you didn't really want the right job very much in the first place.
The head-hunters or executive recruitment firms work for their client firms who pay them to find the right person for them, usually in middle or top management positions. They are usually after the person who is already employed and is doing a good to excellent job.
You may, if you wish, get a list of these firms from the library and write them, enclosing a copy of your resume and letting them know of your availability. Almost without exception you will receive a form type response saying they are happy to have your resume and although they are not at the moment looking for someone with your qualifications they will be happy to put your PD sheet on file, period. That will be the last you will hear from them. This is only fair since they are not paid by you but by firms looking for a particular individual to fill a specific job.
Once in a great while you will make a match when the head-hunters are looking for just what you have to offer. Not often, but it does happen, particularly if you happen to have some unusual skills which are in short supply at the time. But if you have them, you will probably not be looking for a job in the first place.
The employment agencies, and there are thousands of them all over the country (just check your local yellow pages to see how many are in your own town), work in different ways. Some only charge the employer, others the seeker, you; others split the fee between both, and some get away with getting a full fee from both. So if you go to an employment agency make sure you have in writing that pays what and for what and for what period of time.
Many of these firms offer personal data writing services, testing, counseling, printing, mailing and the like. Almost without exception you can have these same things done for you much cheaper than they will do it for you. They can do it faster but you will pay more and end up on a standard form which has the distinct drawback of looking Hike everyone else's they handle.
This is not to say that many of them cannot put you in touch with a number of jobs. They often can but the question is-"Is it worth one month's salary in order to get what very often could have been yours by merely reading the Help Wanted section of your local paper?" They have their place but they are usually no substitute for imaginative and thorough work on your own.
There are others such as the industrial psychologists, career planners, and various occultists who will offer a varying range of services, always for a fee. Many of these firms perform a useful service which is fundamentally sympathetic handholding. This can be particularly helpful for the newly-canned middle management executive who never thought he or she could be fired until it happened to them (often through no fault of their own but through a corporate merger or the like).
Like death, being fired is something which happens to "the other guy but not to me." If this unfortunate thing happens to you, you will find a number of problems which have very likely never occurred to you. Such as:
Who can you talk to? Sound funny? Well, it really is not. Take it from one who has gone through the humiliation of being fired, it's not fun and very few people will tell you anything about it, in order to prepare you for it, if it ever happens to you.
Once you have been given notice and it is now no longer a fear but a reality, you will at the same time be mad, hurt, ashamed, panicky, proud, and perhaps most of all lonely. So who do you talk to? Your wife or girlfriend? Probably, but maybe this has never happened to them either. They will try to be sympathetic without ever really knowing what you are going through. Then there is the fear in you that inwardly they will start looking at you as a failure and hence with more pity than understanding. This may worry you so much that you continue to play "going to work" to a job that no longer exists.
Or you may opt to talk this over with your peers, either at the former job or just buddies at other jobs. Lots of problems creep up in this one.
Unfortunately, most people do not like to be around losers. Whether you are a loser or not, and no matter what the real reason for your dismissal, many of your former friends will think the worst and not particularly want to be seen with you or relish your company in private. Actually, you may not be a very pleasant person to be around for a while.
There are some lines of business where being laid off is so common that no one thinks anything of it, like "show biz." advertising, TV, and construction. But for most jobs and most of us it is not all that common and unfortunately you may find that all those "old" buddies are somehow busy for lunch or not very helpful, if at all, helping you to find another job, much less wanting to be around you. It's something like being the new divorcee in the neighborhood; it's amazing where all those friends went. So don't be surprised if the phone doesn't fall off the hook with truly helpful ideas. It probably won't, at least after the first week or so, and it will probably take you a lot longer than that to relocate.
Then you have your good old family you can talk with, right? But chances are that at some time or other your "old man" has held forth Archie Bunker style on what an unmitigated bum you really are and probably always will be. Maybe it was deserved at the time, maybe it wasn't, but nonetheless it has stuck in your craw and you probably won't be too happy going back home with such unpleasant news. Even if your family understands and very nice and comforting, will they be able to really help you get another job? This is not to say that you won't need lots of Tender Loving Care, but TLC alone may not be the complete answer.
So in essence I'm suggesting that it may not be as easy as it looks to find people to talk this over with and it may very well be that industrial psychologists are actually worth all they charge. They are not cheap, but the price may be worth it.
There are other problems connected with an untimely dismissal, such as;
- a. Trying to make yourself accept the unpleasant fact that you are out of a job and not spending most of your waking hours cussing and damning those fools who got you fired, etc. There is likely to be one hell of a lot of hostility in you, which is all quite natural, and something is probably wrong with you if it isn't there. The problem is not that it is there but how to control it so you can, as soon as possible, start constructively looking for a new job and not become an active paranoiac.
- b. Missing the time estimate involved in getting a new job can be terribly discouraging. You may have known someone who got fired on a Friday and started a new and better job the following Monday. Please believe me, that's an exception and won't happen often. Usually it will take three to six months and often longer, particularly if you are in a fairly senior position. It can be much shorter if you are going for a quiet routine or manual job, but for a semi-skilled or middle-management type spot don't let yourself panic inside of six months, and that's assuming that you have quickly licked your wounds and gotten cracking on really doing your homework to find the new spot for you.
- c. Accepting that six-months-to-relocate time schedule. Which actually means you should now be planning to have enough in savings or other liquid assets available to tide you over an unexpected disappointment. If you ever do hit the bumps and have the reserve to tide you over, it will take an awful lot of the panic out of the situation and allow you to approach your own campaign much more rationally.
- d. Overcoming the loss of self-respect you are very likely to feel. This can be truly difficult. 1 would be really stupid to try to solve the problem for you here, not knowing you at all. But perhaps it does some good to point out that it is likely to happen and it is natural.
