Following from the last post, I wanted to share another innovative job search story.
Harvard Business Review published a story in 2005 called 'Two Executives, One Career'. Two senior executives shared a job at a bank for six years before being retrenched. This article is the story of their job search as they went about selling themselves as a team. They had one resume.
Some people to whom I've mentioned this story have been skeptical. Understandably so - innovative ideas always engender a healthy dose of cyncism. Can such a job search approach work here in the real world?
Yes.
Recently a pair of senior communication and public relations professionals did exactly this. Inspired by their cohesion as a working team, they stayed together after the project they were working on finished.
Working with their consultant on a Career Transition program, they developed a comprehensive job search campaign including a joint approach (one resume, both attending interviews) and seperate approach (independently following leads, networking).
They secured a senior management position in their chosen areas of communications and stakeholder management. In this tighter labour market it is even more important to implement a well planned job search strategy.
There is always room for innovative approaches. Remember, companies will make room for great people. You just need to find those companies and convince them of your value.