After weeks of forced resignations, there has now been a significant federal government reduction in force. This is happening to some of my own friends, former clients, and current clients so I wanted to put together something for you as you're working through this.
First and most importantly, I'm so sorry this is happening to you. It's awful, and it doesn't matter if you chose to take the package or if you were forced out. Either way, this wasn’t your choice. When your work is disrupted in this way, it's very disconcerting, affecting your family, your livelihood, and your health insurance. I'm so very sorry, and you get to feel however you want to feel about it.
Although there's nothing comparable to what you're currently experiencing, I too was laid off, having no choice and experienced chaos and so much fear because I was the sole provider for my family, and we were losing our income as well as our insurance. It was a very, very difficult time. I also have helped hundreds of people, including career changers and folks that have been laid off. I've even worked with people who pivoted into or out of the federal government. Additionally, because the federal government is contracting, it's very likely that you're going to have to make a career pivot yourself, because there will be fewer positions available and more people going for them. Because that’s my area of expertise, I wanted to give you some tips to consider as you decide “What next?”
The three things I want you to be thinking about are pivoting, coming from an unexpected job loss, and then translating your experience. Let’s dive in.
Pivoting from your federal career
If you're pivoting, there are three ways that you could possibly think about it. One is the idea that you're changing your industry. The other is that you're transferring your job function. And then third, it's isolating your individual job duties down to a single function.
The first one is the simplest, I think, the idea of changing your industry. You keep the same role type; you're just doing it in a new place. If you were a project manager at some federal government agency, you would become a project manager in tech, for example, or any other industry. You could even go to another government entity like a state or a local government. Another example, let's say you're a program manager at an agency. You could become a program manager in a health care system. A variation on this would be if you were doing something related to health care, you could would then do your same role, but on the private side. You were e a healthcare program officer at the NIH, you could become a program officer in a healthcare system. This is the simplest sort of pivot you could do with your career.
Now, something else you can consider is transferring the job function of what you do to another space that does and needs the same thing. For example, let's say you do something with diversity, equity, and inclusion for the federal government, some sort of agency work, and then you could transfer that to something like cross cultural communication in student affairs at a university or working with international students at a university. You could do the same sort of job function at a corporation also.
Another example is let's say you do some sort of support services in an agency. You're supporting different departments, getting them things they need, and maybe you take that same job function and you become a customer success manager in a tech company or some other tech company or in healthcare or anything like that. You're taking all the function of what it means to be someone who supports others either across an agency or interagency or something like that and then you're doing that same thing but for customers.
Now let's look at our third option. The third pivot option is about isolating job function, and I thought the easiest way to show this would be if we looked at an actual job posting. This is an actual job posting from USA Jobs dot Gov, and this is a number of job duties from that posting. Work includes:
- Effective guidance for development of long-range strategic and short-range tactical plans
- Directly assist director in the management of all administrative support program functions
- Serve as a resident subject matter expert for all mandated administrative support programs
- Maintains viable organizational structure and quality programs to ensure accomplishment of the task assigned to and by director of the test wing commander
- Participates with key personnel in defining credit goals and objectives in preparing master plan for accomplishment
- Participates in planning developing and monitoring long range strategic plans relative to enhancements of the call for range complex
When I read this posting, what I see here is in this first bullet point, very much focused on strategy. That job function – strategy – could be then deployed in another role type in another industry. The next is administration. That, of course, can also be a function that is very transferable to many other types of industries. And then this fourth one, maintaining the organizational structure and quality programs, I could see that both, it could be an operations management, or it could be a program management. Of course, if I was working with this person, I would ask more questions to get a solid sense of it, but I could see how both of those would be possible within that work. And then lastly, participating in the planning, developing, and monitoring of long-range strategic plans, that sounds like project management to me.
You could do this also. You could look at the total job function that you do across your role, and then see what is that closest role type, and then isolate down to whatever that is for your career pivot.
Unexpected job loss
Now, the next consideration I really want you to think about when your work ends unexpectedly and also in what is a traumatic way – sometimes you want to forget it.
And the thing is you will forget it; partially because you want to and partially because of time and you're not doing it anymore It will help your job search tremendously If you do actually remember, and so let's talk about how you can do that.
First, you can start by reviewing your life. You can review your:
- social media
- calendar
- messages
- DM’s
- emails
- personal notes
- cell phone photos
- Voxer / Signal / audio notes
Now what is this going to help you do? It’s going to help orient yourself in space and time.
Next, who do you talk to about your life? You can talk to these people directly. You can talk to your family members, your partner, your friends. You can also talk to former co-workers. What was I working on? What was I talking about? This work is what you’re going to want to be highlighting on your resume. The specifics, the details, this is what is going to make your resume pop. These details are what make your interview stories land.
Another exercise that works for a lot of folks that I have worked with when they can't remember their work any more, is to think of a moment in time, typically it's a moment that you consider the start of something, and work your way forward in time. Root yourself in that routine. Let’s say you consider the start of some facet of your work to be in the Fall. Picture yourself in August or September. What’s the kickoff? And what happens next? This will help you remember.
Maybe it didn’t start at the beginning of a season, maybe it started in a certain month – maybe January, maybe April. Maybe it’s the start of a certain project. Maybe it’s not a season or a month but when a type of thing happened. Start at what you consider the beginning and work your way through it.
Now that we have these different ways for you to access the work, what next? Ideally you brainstorm:
- I did what?
- For whom?
- For what purpose?
- What was the result?
If you achieved the desired result, all the better! Even knowing what you did is useful to you though. Jotting down every detail you remember. These notes will be what you build your resume from. And right now, this current moment, is the time you are most likely to remember what you did.
Now how can we collect this brainstorm? There are a few different ways, contigent on your preference and best ways to work. You could write it down, either stream of consciousness or write a list. You could create a mind map visual. You could also talk it out. You could record yourself, and then you could pull a transcript from the audio. I do this myself sometimes, record myself talking to myself (my neighbors enjoy it quite a bit!), and then I review the transcript. Lastly, some people work best when prompted. You could hop on a Zoom call with someone else and record the meeting. That person could be someone who knows nothing about you and is good at asking questions, or it could even be a former colleague and you are helping each other.
Translating yourself
The final consideration I want you to keep top of mind is translating yourself and your experience. This is very difficult for most pivoters, but it’s a crucial part of your search.
There are a few common mistakes that people make related to this. First, a lot of people believe that they should present themselves as they normally would and that the person reading or the person listening, either someone reading your resume or listening to your interview, that they're going to translate you. They’ll make sense of what you’re saying. That is 100% not true.
Not only is someone not going to translate you, they likely actually can’t translate you. It’s possible that if you’re interviewing with someone who previously pivoted out of the federal government, in the same or similar area as you, will understand you. My colleague Ed Herzog calls that idiosyncratic fit, and it’s not something you can depend on. It’s much more likely the person will have no idea what you speak of.
Another common mistake that people make is that they think that it's wrong for them to talk about their work in a different way. It feels unethical, or it feels disingenuous. That is just not true. The likelihood is that you already talk about your work in different ways to different people. For example, I went to the school for theatre. Based on where you trained, you even spell “theatre” differently (theater). If you apprenticed at one theatre or went to one graduate program or trained with someone specific, you might call the exact same item, or process, or methodology a different name. You learn all the terms eventually because you all have to be able to talk to each other, and that’s not disingenuous. That’s communication!
You probably also speak differently about your work when talking to someone in the same department, versus in the same field. That’s different than you would talk to someone in a different department, versus how you might talk to a supervisor. You might even “manage up,” providing an executive summary without too many details so you can move forward what you need to. You adjust so you can get what you need. Is that unethical? Or is it communication? It makes sense to change your language based off your audience and your objective. That’s all we’re doing.
Now, the last mistake people make is they generalize everything. If I am super genetal about everything I say, then people will really understand me! What sadly actually ends up happening is people understand nothing of what you’re saying because you’ve essentially removed the details, the story, and the plot points that ground them. What you need to do instead is be specific about the part that is relevant to the pivot, and then generalize any of the parts that would either create confusion or would cause the person to consider you irrelevant.
Free resources for you
I have a number of free resources I'd like to share with you.
First, I myself was laid off. I was laid off in September of 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was very hard for me. I had a very difficult time, and I really had to work at resolving the way that I felt about the situation. I had to come up with my own way to manage it, and I have since shared that process with many clients over time. You can read that here.
I also have a general pivot resume template that I created. This covers the general job functions that cover most pivots. It is set-up Mad Libs style for you to fill in.
If your position has not yet been eliminated and you just want to start thinking about how to prep, I have a layoff prep checklist that you can go through.
And then lastly, if you are looking for more direct support, I'd be very happy to talk to you. I do a free virtual strategy session that you can start at any time of the day.
I am so sorry this is happening to you. Our hearts are with you. We are sending you all our good thoughts.