Jul 3, 2008

BUSINESS MATTERS: Look at all options when job searching

By Mildred Culp / Daily News Columnist

Q: Dear Ms. Culp:

I have extensive experience in the legal field - as bookkeeper, legal assistant, paralegal, office manager, and personnel manager. In September 2006, I was laid off because of the firm's financial difficulties. The position I took the following January was all right for six months, until two women staff members, intent on securing their positions, became disgruntled with me. The mental abuse led to physical problems and declining performance.

They let me go 11 months after being hired (and having received a bonus and much praise) saying that the chemistry wasn't right. My attorney and office manager thought I was imagining everything. Since January 2008 I've had no work, despite having sent out a multitude of resumes.

Sinking

A: Dear Sinking:

Start swimming. Don't just send out resumes. Get out and about. Talk to people. Get referrals from people you've worked with over the years - bosses, co-workers, vendors, clients. Go where legal administrators congregate. Look at large, mid-sized and small firms. Your experience is so broad you should be able to find one firm that needs a person who's ambidextrous.

If the legal field isn't growing in your geographical area, excise all of the legal terminology from your resume. Find an industry undergoing a lot of legal difficulties. Use its language. Talk to people there.


Independence

Q: Dear Dr. Culp:

My husband is seriously ill. He travels to customers in three states and has a machine shop providing special machined parts. I take care of our auction business and do all of the administrative work for his other jobs. We have health insurance through his main job.

What will happen if he can't keep this job? I'm seriously considering going back to work for insurance. I have one year of college but good, varied experience in addition to my current work. I want to move into our new phase with as little stress as possible.

Concerned

A: Dear Concerned:

There are group insurance policies for small businesses with two people in them if you can prove that both of you receive money for the work you do. The cost seems exorbitant to people who've been sheltered by company insurance.

Figure out how much money per month you'd need to earn if you were the sole provider. Could you run or sell his machine shop? How much does the auction business provide? Could you sell it? That should tell you whether you need to consider job hunting or launch a new product/service or business to bring in more revenue.


WHY SHAKE?

So what's shaking? Or not? There might be good reasons not to shake hands.

Andy Birol (andybirol.com) handed a contract to a business owner, only to have it rejected. "I'm old-school," the man explained, "and only do business on a handshake basis." At the time, that was OK (or almost) with Birol.

Down the road, the business owner "lied to me, breaking every promise he made," Birol reports. "Months later, his son, my client, told me that that's why he doesn't sign contracts."

Prafulla Pande (pandeassociates.com) recalls the time he was meeting a buyer for a large organization. "As I was introduced to her," he says, "I extended my hand. She politely stated that she didn't shake hands."

Several months later, after the two had worked together, Pande asked her about it over lunch. She claimed that one man, shaking in overdrive upon getting a contract, fractured her right hand.

On an even more serious note, consider the possibility that your recipient might have religious reasons not to shake hands. Cindy Rakowitz (brpublicrelations.com) points out that out of respect for women, an Orthodox Jew, if single, must not touch them. If married, he may touch his wife. She says that "these laws were established (so that people didn't) cross inappropriate lines."


E-mail your job-hunting questions to Dr. Mildred Culp at culp@workwise.net. Copyright 2008 Passage Media.