In this podcast Jo Attard speaks with 2UE Talking Lifestyle Radio’s Suzy Yates about How to cope with retrenchment.
Listen now
Shownotes
Retrenchment can carry negative connotations. However, it can be a blessing in disguise and a great motivator. Listen to Jo Attard’s interview with Suzy Yates on Talking Lifestyle to learn how retrenchment can be used to springboard to the next stage of a career.
Key topics covered in this podcast interview:
- How retrenchment allows a rare chance to sit back, take a breath and plan for the future, allowing you to push onto greater things.
- Why it’s imperative that you don’t react out of hurt, anger or desperation in the aftermath of being retrenched and why you should give yourself time to process the situation carefully before deciding on your next move.
- Instead of updating your resume, why giving it a complete overhaul is the way to go.
- Learn how far you should go back with your work history when developing your new resume.
- Why an achievement based resume is the way to go. Show the employer the value you brought to prior workplaces as opposed to simply the tasks you held. It will also be easier to speak to these achievements in an interview.
- How to handle interview nerves.
- Why it’s important that you seek independent financial advice if you have received a decent pay-out after being retrenched.
Set up a meeting with Jo today to discuss your career here.
Connect with Jo
More about 2UE Talking Lifestyle
Talking Lifestyle Radio | Home and Holiday
Read the transcript
Suzy Yates:
Last week, we spoke to principal consultant of PeopleEdge, Jo Attard, and we were talking about applying for jobs in the new year, although, we didn’t cover all the areas, because we ran out of time, so I’ve invited Jo back to have a quick chat about those people that may have found themselves retrenched in 2017 and looking for new work in 2018, and she joins me now. Good morning, Jo.
Jo Attard:
Good morning, Suzy, happy new year.
Suzy Yates:
And the same to you. Retrenchment, it’s a two edge sword isn’t it really, because it comes across as a really negative thing, but I know some people who have embraced retrenchment and loved it.
Jo Attard:
Yes, and I think that’s the key to it really. It used to have a real stigma attached to it, but now most people will find themselves in a position of being retrenched up to three to five times in their working career.
Suzy Yates:
Is that many times?
Jo Attard:
Yeah, and more and more organizations are providing people with support through that, and often, even prior to retrenchment, they’re providing them with opportunities for redeployment within organizations. But, if you find yourself in the situation, it is really important to take that time and really take a breath and use it to your advantage to work out what next for you, because that’s something that we don’t necessarily have the opportunity to do in our careers.
Suzy Yates:
Our number is 13 12 83 if you have questions for Jo Attard, who’s with me this morning talking about retrenchment. So, what are some of the mistakes that people make when they either get wind, or they are advised that they’re no longer going to have a job due to redundancy?
Jo Attard:
Yeah, I think the main thing that happens is emotion takes over, and the typical thing is someone finds out that it’s going to happen, they quickly update their resume, don’t really have a good look at it, just quickly update it and start firing it out to everybody, letting everybody know that they’re not going to have a job, and really acting on that, or reacting, rather than really thinking through the consequences of that. And you’re not necessarily in the right frame of mind at that time do to something in a very positive sense, and, often, you might even get an interview and get in front of someone, I’ve known this to happen a number of times, and start bad mouthing your previous employer, because you’re not quite over that anger, and, obviously, that doesn’t go in your favour.
Suzy Yates:
No, that’s not the good way to get a job.
Jo Attard:
No, no, it’s not. So it really is about taking that time and really rewriting your resume rather than updating it, so starting from scratch and rewriting it. Looking at what’s current at the moment. Take some time to understand what your industry is doing, or what your profession is doing in the market. Doing some research. Engaging with your networks. Re-engaging with those networks we spoke about last week is really important, and it’s actually really important to have those networks set up when you don’t need them, so when you do need them, they’re there, so reconnection isn’t that difficult at that time.
Suzy Yates:
Can I just concentrate on the resume for a moment, Jo? Because they have changed dramatically. So, if somebody has been in a role for, say, 10 to 20 years, and they suddenly find themselves faced with retrenchment and then having to write a resume, how much information … See, I’ve been told you don’t put on every single job, because that makes you either look like you’re really old or you job hop, but, yet, I think, well, if you put on every single job, it shows how much experience you’ve got. How much is too much and how little is too little?
Jo Attard:
Well, I suppose it really depends on the individual and the industry that they’ve worked in, but there are certain resume techniques that we use to, I suppose, best showcase what it is that people have and have done in their past. One of those is to you only really highlight the last 10 to 15 years of work, and anything previously to that you can just make a note that, you know, previous to this.
Suzy Yates:
Yeah, I have a full career doing a whole lot of stuff, yeah, okay.
Jo Attard:
Exactly. So really concentrating on that, but, also, rather than just listing your responsibilities, because I don’t know about you, but any position description I’ve ever had has not really represented what I’ve actually done in that role, but have an achievement based resume, so make sure you have five or six achievements in each role you’ve actually done, that actually show what you’ve delivered in each of those roles, and through that you’ll actually showcase your skills and capabilities. And don’t be shy about it, really put your best foot forward in doing that. And make sure you have some achievement stories around those, so when you get into your interview, which you’ll get because you’ve got such a fabulous resume, you’ll be able to actually speak to those achievements in a very succinct way.
Suzy Yates:
Right okay. And make sure they’re your achievements, don’t steal them from somebody else.
Jo Attard:
Oh, yeah. Yeah, you’ll quickly be found out, particularly now. I mean, there’s more and more organizations doing full background checks on individuals as well, rather than just reference checks, so anything that you fib about on your resume will certainly come out at some stage.
Suzy Yates:
I’m talking to Jo Attard from PeopleEdge. Our number, 13 12 83. If you have questions on getting a job in 2018, updating your resume, if you’ve recently been retrenched and you’d like some advice, Jo’s [00:06:00] with me on 13 12 83. Yeah, just on that, I do remember interviewing a particularly young, enthusiastic person about a job, who’d come to me and said well I did a particular project, it was in the area of PR, and I actually knew the person that had done that project. It was a big, big mistake, and I said, “Oh, so tell me how did you actually go about that?” It’s like please don’t lie about what you’ve done. You’ll be found out. It’s a small industry, everybody knows everyone. Okay, so we’re in the job interview, we’re highlighting our achievements, it’s a real fine line, I think, Jo, between coming across as confident and coming across as a little bit arrogant.
Jo Attard:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). And I think, if you look at an interview as a conversation rather than an interview, or even just a meeting, and you really do have your, as I call them, achievement stories. If you have them prepared and they’re relevant to the situation, you will talk confidently about them, because you know them, and you won’t be coming across as cocky, you’ll be coming across as something that you’ve done. And if you look at it as a conversation, I mean, we all get nervous in interviews, but having that basis of real stuff there that is you to talk about will come across as very authentic for a start, and will also help alleviate any nerves that you have, but, also, come across as somebody who’s just at their game.
Suzy Yates:
So just going back to the area of retrenchment, should you tell a prospective employer that you have been retrenched?
Jo Attard:
Yes. Well, there’s not the same stigma attached to it as there used to be. I think because so many people have been there, and I’ve been there a number of times. I’ve had five role redundancies actually. I’ve been retrenched three times. Twice I was very, very happy about, but I think it happens. Most people know someone or have been there themselves, so trying to hide it is not going to help. All it does is it drags the emotion back for you, which means that you’re not going to perform well in an interview with that emotion hanging over your head.
Suzy Yates:
Yeah. So there’s a couple of opportunities. You can embrace it, as we were saying earlier, and look at it as a positive. Sometimes it’s a motivator to get a … You can actually get a better job than the one that you had. You don’t even realize. Say, if you’ve been with an organization for 10, 20 years, you don’t really know that there can be better organizations out there. But the other warning I think we should give too is, if somebody does receive a rather large retrenchment payout, don’t spend it all at once.
Jo Attard:
That’s right, and I think getting financial advice in those situations is paramount. It’s very tempting, you’ve been in a job for 20 years, all of a sudden you’ve got this little pot of money, and it might not be so little, well, might not seem so little, then, “Oh, I can go on a holiday now,” and you blow six months’ salary on taking a nice trip to Croatia or somewhere. You come back and you go, “Oh, now I’ve got to find a job,” and it might take you … The more senior you are in an organization, the longer it will take you. It frequently takes senior executives 18 months to two years to find their next gig.
Suzy Yates:
Well that’s that conversation that we were having last week about people over the age of 50. It can be more difficult, can’t it?
Jo Attard:
It can, and so you really have to pace yourself. I think a little break is good, I think a holiday is good, just don’t make it overly extravagant, and really get good advice, because it’s not only your retrenchment package, but it’s also your superannuation comes into it and all of your other financial pieces also come into it, so it’s really important to get that good advice from a professional, who knows your particular situation.
Suzy Yates:
And that’s one of the things we have here at Talking Lifestyle, we have so many great experts. Thank you for joining us over the last couple of weeks.
Jo Attard:
No problem.
Suzy Yates:
We’ll find you at PeopleEdge. Is it peopleedge.com.au?
Jo Attard:
That’s right, yes.
Suzy Yates:
Okay. Thank you, Jo. Lovely to have you on the show.
Jo Attard:
Okay, thanks, Suzy.
ENDS