In Transition
As part of my severance package, my company gave me "career transition" assistance. First, weeks of phone calls, where no one can pronounce my name, or even actually answer the phone, for that matter. Every call goes to a machine, and I get a call back a few days later. I finally get scheduled (after massive confusion), and schlep into Boston for the meeting.
So the meeting kicks off when the leader announces that he's filling in for the regular instructor, who has a spinning injury. Then he spends the first ten minutes cracking jokes about how we all look so serious. "Why is no one smiling?" Ass.
It starts out ok, we introduce ourselves, talk about what we dide, what are strengths are. I'm pretty much the only one who isn't in financial services (hi Fidelity!) or biotech. Most of them are "project managers" or "program directors" but even after they give their little intros I have no idea what they actually do.
The woman sitting next to me has been a senior administrative assistant at a major financial firm for the last 30 years; she's floored "I've never written a resume. I have no idea what to do next."
For people like her, I think this sort of thing is useful. For me, I don't know. The next two hours are spent on how to write your "personal statement," finding buzzwords for your resume, and psychological babble about how you shouldn't be depressed because it will show up in interviews.
At one point, the speaker has drawn a chart on the whiteboard and is talking about how you should focus your resume on the 25%, not the 75%. I finally raise my hand and say that I'm not really following, can I get a concrete example? The answer clearly is no, after another 10 minutes of babble, where he asks what an editor does, I give up.
Toward the end of the meeting, the guy starts talking about some of the courses offered by the program, and says "we have one on LinkedIn." The bald guy who worked at a design firm, who clearly knows and uses LinkedIn, questions this, asking for more info. The instructor starts to explain what LinkedIn is, and as bald guy and I roll our eyes into the next room, he says in a tone of awe "did you know they have job listings there?"
I head for the door.
So the meeting kicks off when the leader announces that he's filling in for the regular instructor, who has a spinning injury. Then he spends the first ten minutes cracking jokes about how we all look so serious. "Why is no one smiling?" Ass.
It starts out ok, we introduce ourselves, talk about what we dide, what are strengths are. I'm pretty much the only one who isn't in financial services (hi Fidelity!) or biotech. Most of them are "project managers" or "program directors" but even after they give their little intros I have no idea what they actually do.
The woman sitting next to me has been a senior administrative assistant at a major financial firm for the last 30 years; she's floored "I've never written a resume. I have no idea what to do next."
For people like her, I think this sort of thing is useful. For me, I don't know. The next two hours are spent on how to write your "personal statement," finding buzzwords for your resume, and psychological babble about how you shouldn't be depressed because it will show up in interviews.
At one point, the speaker has drawn a chart on the whiteboard and is talking about how you should focus your resume on the 25%, not the 75%. I finally raise my hand and say that I'm not really following, can I get a concrete example? The answer clearly is no, after another 10 minutes of babble, where he asks what an editor does, I give up.
Toward the end of the meeting, the guy starts talking about some of the courses offered by the program, and says "we have one on LinkedIn." The bald guy who worked at a design firm, who clearly knows and uses LinkedIn, questions this, asking for more info. The instructor starts to explain what LinkedIn is, and as bald guy and I roll our eyes into the next room, he says in a tone of awe "did you know they have job listings there?"
I head for the door.
Labels: transition
posted by Magpie @ 8:29 AM
1 comments
