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Dear Lloyd: I was laid off

September 9, 2021 by Dan Gusz Leave a Comment

As a career co-pilot, Lloyd has created a new advice series titled “Dear Lloyd” to answer your burning career questions, anonymously.


Dear Lloyd, I was recently laid off from my startup due to COVID-19 related downsizing. How are others dealing with being laid off during this time? – Unemployed and Unsure


Dear Unemployed and Unsure,

Lloyd knows this may be a difficult time and hopes that you and your loved ones are safe and healthy during these unique times–in other words, sending you a big, socially distanced hug. Being real here, Lloyd wants to acknowledge there may be a range of feelings, including feelings of anger, frustration, sadness, questioning, relief, uncertainty, shame, and many others for those laid off or negatively impacted professionally by COVID-19. 

Over the past few weeks, Lloyd anonymously interviewed multiple individuals who experienced a layoff due to COVID-19’s impact on their startup. Below, Lloyd shares a collection of raw and unedited responses, so we can better understand what this experience is like for many around us today. Lloyd hopes this is informative and helpful to everyone during these times, and thanks the participants.

What do you feel are misconceptions people have about getting laid off during this period? Maybe that you even had yourself?

“I think there is truth that being laid off doesn’t mean you’re not good at what you’re doing or not valuable … The reality is that some roles are necessary, other roles provide incremental value, and other roles provide multiplier value. My role, as a product manager, is by nature a multiplier role. You don’t need a PM. It just means everybody needs to do more work . . . Coming out of this, I recognize I need to be able to show why the role is a multiplier in value consistently.”

“In some ways, I feel like we’ve shifted too far to the camp of ‘It’s not your fault.’ While it isn’t completely your fault, there’s some ownership you have to take. Think about what value you actually brought to the business and how effective you were at your role, and reflect on that for a bit instead of 100% excusing yourself.”

“I think a lot of people feel like they did something wrong to deserve to be laid off during this time. I’ve definitely struggled with this a bit in the past few weeks, but ultimately I know this is not the case. You have to take a step back and look at the larger picture of the impact COVID had had on the world and the workforce.”

What is the emotion you felt in the moment when you got laid off?

“Frustrated that the company didn’t try to be proactive. A crisis is a great time for people to come together to preserve. Making decisions top-down shows that there was never really much belief / trust in the people doing the work.”

“Frustration and resentment.”

“I had a feeling it was coming the day of, but it was still dreadful in the moment. I completely blanked and couldn’t think of the important questions to ask. Luckily I was able to email them afterwards and get them answered.”

“I definitely felt abandoned by my employer. It was an isolating feeling, especially during this time when I’ve been spending so much time at home alone already. But, I found some consolation in knowing that so many peers were in the same boat, in my company and around the world. The communal grief has also inspired a feeling of camaraderie, knowing we’re all experiencing this shared pain and trying to get back on our feet together.”

What would you want people to know who haven’t experienced a layoff?

“It sucks. And it gets better. This is my second recession / layoff. You won’t be on your deathbed one day thinking ‘if only I didn’t have the recession . . . ;’. Yes, other age groups who were just before / after you may prosper more. But ultimately, the things that matter, health, family, friends, etc. they’re not job-dependent.”

“It’s painful and makes you feel devalued, but you’re still in control of your career: you can launch into a job search immediately, work on a shelved project, or take time off for other purposes.”

“No great athlete didn’t lose a game … The reality is that you couldn’t control what happened to you. You only control what happens next. Would you regret not trying ‘hard’ enough or not trying at all? Whether it’s to find a job, learn a new skill, start your own thing, or just enjoy yourself. The most important thing is to choose what you do next.”

“It can happen to anyone at any time, I like to expect the best but prepare for the worst. In these uncertain times I don’t think it’s unrealistic to have a conversation with yourself about a calm and strategic fallback plan should the worst happen. Also, please try to think of those affected by COVID-19 layoffs when hiring for your current companies!”

“No one knows how the crisis will play out yet, and it’s fortunate if your company has been able to retain you, but I think we should all anticipate tough times ahead across almost every industry. It could be a good time to update your resume now, just in case. If your company is lucky enough to be growing and hiring, reach out to your network and let them know; lots of folks could use an extra hand right now.”

How has this experience impacted your career plans?

“It’s been a hiccup for me, but has not deterred or changed the short or mid-term career goal.”

“Job searching has been a bit tricky. Part of my previous job responsibilities were done in office, such as office management and company events. 2020 will be looking a bit different so I need to focus on other skills for my next role.”

“I’m not quite sure yet. I had planned to stay with my previous company for the foreseeable future, so unfortunately that is a change. I haven’t landed my next role yet so I can’t say if it will differ from where I thought I would be by this point in my life.”

“It’s made me think more conservatively about my life in the medium term and in planning my next opportunity: looking for roles at larger, more stable companies where I can learn and grow over the next few years and ‘ride out’ the economic storm. I’m less likely now to take a role at a smaller, VC-backed startup, and anticipate having to accept a lateral title or slight demotion for my next role.”

“It’s forcing me to consider non-optimal roles. In some ways, it’s great, as I’m now considering companies I didn’t realize before – and finding they’re great opportunities. Nevertheless, it doesn’t feel like I would have ‘planned’ my career with these roles. Perhaps the lesson is that life will always throw curve balls . . . and if you decide to hit it right, you can still get a home run.”

Lloyd owes a debt of gratitude to the individuals who provided these responses. Human and real. This column will be back next week, but for now, stay safe and healthy.

– Lloyd

Filed Under: Dear Lloyd, Extra Information

Dear Lloyd: Should I start a career side project?

September 9, 2021 by Dan Gusz Leave a Comment

As a career co-pilot, Lloyd has created a new advice series titled “Dear Lloyd” to answer your burning career questions, anonymously. Inspired by the greats of advice column writing, we anonymize or generalize questions, so ask away! 

– – – – – – –

Dear Lloyd, I’m looking for ways to diversify my strengths and skills beyond my 9-5 job. What can / should I be doing to remain competitive, especially if I’m hoping to shift career paths? 

– OffTheClock

– – – – – – –

Dear OffTheClock,

There are many ways you can remain competitive and diversify your strengths and skills–many are even free or low cost from reading up on a topic, to enrolling in a course, to having a conversation with someone who has expertise in your area of interest. Lloyd also is a big fan of applied experiences–where you can really jump into something–leading to the ever popular side project. 

People take on side projects for many reasons, but Lloyd shall focus on the career area of the world, since that seems to be where your question resides. Below are three steps and a framework to help you think about your career side project.

Step 1: think about your career goals

It’s always good to start with a bit of introspection–what do you want to achieve with your career side project? Perhaps there is a goal you want to reach, a skill or expertise to build, or a new field to explore. If you’re not sure, browsing a few “dream” job descriptions (without falling down the internet rabbit-hole) can be helpful. Businesses often perform a gap analysis to identify the distance they need to travel to reach their goals, and you can, too, by considering where you are at and what you need to reach the ideal job.

One topic we do like to differentiate between is a hobby (from our perspective, an activity you enjoy or are interested in, but not necessarily relevant to career) and a career side project (from our perspective, a specific skill / experience you’re looking to gain to make you more marketable in a certain job or industry). Lloyd is not a dictionary, but shares this working definition to recognize there are many wonderful hobbies in the world that result in oodles of joy, but to help keep focus on the purpose of a career side project, particularly. 

Step 2: find a career side project that advances your goals

Once your goal is in focus, it’s time to do a little career side project searching: 

  • Decide on the people, organization, or structure where you want to invest your time. There are many ways to reach a goal. If you are going to work with others, try to find people who you’re excited to work with and will help build the strengths / skills you desire. Or, look for organizations that you believe in the mission or the work. Ideally this is a “yes, and” and you find both, but if not, Lloyd tends to side with great people who can support your growth, development, and network. Organizations with less resources (i.e., startups, nonprofits) may be more willing to work with you, but contract / volunteer work can exist in a lot of places. Be creative (moving forward on your own is an option as well). 
  • Ensure you (and your career side project colleagues) are clear on expectations, bandwidth, scheduling, etc. It is important to be clear early and often about the slice of their world you want to be part of–and how you plan to commit to it. You’re likely career side project-ing on top of a day job, so be realistic to set yourself up for success.
  • Align with others–and mostly, yourself–on compensation. Take a broad lens to what compensation means to you–it could be financial, but it also could very well be skills, opportunities, and / or a network. If you’re a novice at something and people are taking a risk to teach you and have you learn, don’t expect to be paid like an expert. This doesn’t mean pay is not an option, just be realistic. If you’re an expert and have a lot of value to provide, ask for what you’re worth. 

The Career Side Project Framework below can help you assess career side projects coming your way.


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Lloyd

Dear Lloyd: Should I start a career side project?

May 25 Written By Dan Gusz

As a career co-pilot, Lloyd has created a new advice series titled “Dear Lloyd” to answer your burning career questions, anonymously. Inspired by the greats of advice column writing, we anonymize or generalize questions, so ask away! 

– – – – – – –

Dear Lloyd, I’m looking for ways to diversify my strengths and skills beyond my 9-5 job. What can / should I be doing to remain competitive, especially if I’m hoping to shift career paths? 

– OffTheClock

– – – – – – –

Dear OffTheClock,

There are many ways you can remain competitive and diversify your strengths and skills–many are even free or low cost from reading up on a topic, to enrolling in a course, to having a conversation with someone who has expertise in your area of interest. Lloyd also is a big fan of applied experiences–where you can really jump into something–leading to the ever popular side project. 

People take on side projects for many reasons, but Lloyd shall focus on the career area of the world, since that seems to be where your question resides. Below are three steps and a framework to help you think about your career side project.

Step 1: think about your career goals

It’s always good to start with a bit of introspection–what do you want to achieve with your career side project? Perhaps there is a goal you want to reach, a skill or expertise to build, or a new field to explore. If you’re not sure, browsing a few “dream” job descriptions (without falling down the internet rabbit-hole) can be helpful. Businesses often perform a gap analysis to identify the distance they need to travel to reach their goals, and you can, too, by considering where you are at and what you need to reach the ideal job.

One topic we do like to differentiate between is a hobby (from our perspective, an activity you enjoy or are interested in, but not necessarily relevant to career) and a career side project (from our perspective, a specific skill / experience you’re looking to gain to make you more marketable in a certain job or industry). Lloyd is not a dictionary, but shares this working definition to recognize there are many wonderful hobbies in the world that result in oodles of joy, but to help keep focus on the purpose of a career side project, particularly. 

Step 2: find a career side project that advances your goals

Once your goal is in focus, it’s time to do a little career side project searching: 

  • Decide on the people, organization, or structure where you want to invest your time. There are many ways to reach a goal. If you are going to work with others, try to find people who you’re excited to work with and will help build the strengths / skills you desire. Or, look for organizations that you believe in the mission or the work. Ideally this is a “yes, and” and you find both, but if not, Lloyd tends to side with great people who can support your growth, development, and network. Organizations with less resources (i.e., startups, nonprofits) may be more willing to work with you, but contract / volunteer work can exist in a lot of places. Be creative (moving forward on your own is an option as well). 
  • Ensure you (and your career side project colleagues) are clear on expectations, bandwidth, scheduling, etc. It is important to be clear early and often about the slice of their world you want to be part of–and how you plan to commit to it. You’re likely career side project-ing on top of a day job, so be realistic to set yourself up for success.
  • Align with others–and mostly, yourself–on compensation. Take a broad lens to what compensation means to you–it could be financial, but it also could very well be skills, opportunities, and / or a network. If you’re a novice at something and people are taking a risk to teach you and have you learn, don’t expect to be paid like an expert. This doesn’t mean pay is not an option, just be realistic. If you’re an expert and have a lot of value to provide, ask for what you’re worth. 

The Career Side Project Framework below can help you assess career side projects coming your way.


Step 3: launch side project and measure progress

Now with a career side project in place, it’s beneficial to continually measure your progress. Ideally on the framework, you continue to build your mastery / knowledge (move down) and increase your relevance to your future career path (move right). Some people are so successful / rewarded by a career side project, it actually becomes their full time career (bottom-right corner). 

One important note: as you move in either direction with a career side project, you may find–you hate it! That is ok, too–it’s a learning experience, and after all, that is what career side projects are about (and aren’t you glad you didn’t do this job full time?). See if you can readjust your scope, or wrap up your career side project and test out your next area.

In summary, Lloyd thinks career side projects can be immensely rewarding and insightful. Please get in touch with our team to learn more!

-Lloyd

Filed Under: Dear Lloyd, Extra Information

Dear Lloyd: Assessing Culture During Interviews

September 9, 2021 by Dan Gusz Leave a Comment

As a career co-pilot, Lloyd has created a new advice series titled “Dear Lloyd” to answer your burning career questions, anonymously. Inspired by the greats of advice column writing, we anonymize or generalize questions, so ask away! 

Dear Lloyd, I’m looking for my next job, and the most important part to me is finding an organization with the right team and right culture. How do I figure this out in the interview process? –Culture Connoisseur 

—

Dear Culture Connoisseur,

You ask a great question, as there is plenty of data to back why company culture is key for organizational success (including the bottom line) and individual success. To get additional perspectives on your question, we reached out to Friend of Lloyd, Lauren Hodgson. Lauren is Head of Employee Experience + Employer Branding at Pluralsight (ranked on multiple Fortune Best Company/Workplace lists) and spends a lot of time thinking about this specific topic.

Lauren emphasized the importance of your question, saying, “Yes, your future team and culture is where the magic happens! It can be tricky to uncover true team dynamics in just a few interactions during the interview process, but there’s a couple of things you can do.”

Here is Lauren’s list of three ways to assess culture during the interview process:

1. Do your research.

In doing your research, explore past the interview process to understand the team better. Check out their reviews on Glassdoor and Comparably and even better, their response to those reviews. Hop on LinkedIn, see which employees you are connected with and do a quick call or take them to coffee to hear their experience. Attend a meetup or event they’re hosting and get to know the people that work there. Talking to other people that work there is one of the best ways to understand what it’s like to work there.

2. Ask good questions.

In chatting with the team, try to ask questions like, “What’s the decision making process like?” “What are some of the philosophies of how the team creates?” “What obstacles are you facing as a team right now?” “What’s a problem you are solving right now?” “What’s the process for solving it?” These types of questions tend to uncover more of the why and how, which is important to understanding not just what they are working on but how they work together to get it done.

3. Observe it for yourself.

Interviewing for a company is a lot like dating, so take the opportunity to get to know them in a myriad of ways to see if it’s the right fit. During the interview experience, consider how they show up. Is the process more transactional or collaborative? Are there longer response times or proactive communication? Do they show up on time? With a beer in their hand? Or a mix of it all? It’s in these small moments where culture is created. So, look there. Culture is a living, breathing thing, built by all of the behaviors over time. And the more casual settings bring it out, like if you have the opportunity to go to lunch with the team or shadow them for a day. Observe the moments at the edges of the formal interview process to better understand their typical working culture. This is where you’ll get the best picture. It’s in these moments collectively that you’ll find an organization that is a good fit.

Lloyd also likes taking quick notes after conversations, as feasible, to keep track of gut reactions and colorful specifics for thank you notes. One note: there can be slight industry variations/organizational recruiting specifics, so just make sure you’re aware of those (i.e., some places may be less able to engage/or have rules regarding how to engage candidates during an interview process–or differing levels of beer in the office). If you feel more comfortable asking these questions once you receive a job offer from the company, that can be a good strategy as well.

Lauren closes by saying “There’s no one thing that will show you–instead, each interaction and response is a data point that will inform you on the full picture of what it’s like to work at that organization. Good luck!” Lloyd couldn’t agree more. 

Have more questions on this career topic? The Lloyd team is available to discuss more so please reach out here! 

-Lloyd

Filed Under: Dear Lloyd, Extra Information

Dear Lloyd: Leaving Management Consulting

September 8, 2021 by Dan Gusz Leave a Comment

As a career co-pilot, Lloyd has created a new advice series titled “Dear Lloyd” to answer your burning career questions, anonymously. Inspired by the greats of advice column writing, we anonymize or generalize questions, so ask away! 

– – – – – – –

Dear Lloyd, I’m a management consultant in my 20s. While I’m grateful to be employed in a good paying job, I’m feeling like it is time for a change–maybe a startup, maybe grad school, maybe something else. What should I do next?

–Managed Out

– – – – – – –

Dear Managed Out,

A good portion of the Lloyd community came from a management consulting background, so we totally get how you might be feeling. Don’t get us wrong, consulting can be a valuable career experience for many, but few decide that the “Path to Principal” is for them (the 6am flights and “turning the deck” quickly lose their luster). In fact, at least 1 in 10 of your colleagues are having similar thoughts right now. As this is on the minds of many management consultants, Lloyd surveyed a group of folks that were management consultants in their 20s or 30s for their advice, and this is what they had to share:

As you can see, most former consultants value the problem solving and “consulting toolkit” skills gained in consulting. Most also advise current management consultants to be thoughtful about the job / industry you move to next, whether that be an MBA, startups, private equity, industry, or somewhere else. Be intentional with this move. The key is for you to think about how this move may fit into the broader career journey you are looking to follow. 

Have more questions on this career topic? The Lloyd team is available to discuss more so please reach out here! 

–Lloyd

Filed Under: Dear Lloyd, Extra Information

Dear Lloyd: Evaluating A Startup Offer

September 8, 2021 by Dan Gusz Leave a Comment

As a career co-pilot, Lloyd has created a new advice series titled “Dear Lloyd” to answer your burning career questions, anonymously. Inspired by the greats of advice column writing, we anonymize or generalize questions, so ask away! 

Dear Lloyd, I received an offer from a startup that includes salary and equity, and I’m trying to figure out if it is a good offer. How should I evaluate this offer? -Equity and Exit

– – – – –

Dear Equity and Exit,

First of all, congratulations! Getting an offer from a startup is often the product of many months of networking, interviewing, first child naming rights reserved (we kid, we kid, etc.) so congrats! You’re right, there are many variables to consider. I’d divide them into two categories: 

1) Financial value to you. Whereas with a corporate job you may assess your salary (and potential bonus), for a startup job the two main components of compensation are typically salary and equity. These two components should be evaluated both separately and independently. To use round numbers as an example, perhaps you get an offer from a startup for $100,000 in annual salary and 1% of equity (in the form of either shares, units, options, etc.). Here is our recommendation for a simple way to assess this offer:

  • Analyze salary alone. With startups, it is always wise to be conservative and assume your equity will be worth nothing. Obviously, you don’t hope that is the case, but we advise you to be conservative. Assess the salary against your perceived market salary and also your living costs. Are you comfortable with the salary if it didn’t change meaningfully for the next 1-2 years?
  • Analyze salary and equity. When considering your offer over the next 4 year period (since most equity vesting periods are 4 years), a simple model can be created to compare your perceived market salary vs. the combination of your startup salary and equity grant. Are they equivalent based on future estimates for the startup value? (Please email the Lloyd team if you would like to use Lloyd’s version of this model: team@withlloyd.com).

Other questions to consider are the class of shares you’ll receive, how long until you can sell the shares, etc. It’s often wise to inquire with the company about these questions if they aren’t outlined in the offer, even if it’s a little bit awkward to ask such direct questions. 

2) Non-finance value to you. These are less the dollars and cents pieces of the opportunity (though long term could add to that if you develop marketable skills) and include factors like: opportunity for your personal/professional/skill growth and development, alignment of your personal values and those of the company, and ability/interest in tolerating risk (i.e., you may love or hate the vulnerability of a young company). 

For example, you might be willing to take a pay cut (i.e., less of #1) to go to a company because the personal growth may be much higher (i.e., more of #2). Perhaps you are earlier in your career with minimal responsibilities and looking to “accelerate” your career trajectory, this all could make sense. You can fill an afternoon clicking thought pieces (often written by people who work in startups, of course) about how working at a startup allows you to grow/develop your skills faster. Our take: joining a well-led, culture-focused, nimble team that encourages growth is probably most important, and those can be found in many places, not just startups. 

As you evaluate the company, recognize that startups can take many different shapes and sizes. For instance, despite the mythology around college dropouts starting the next unicorn (thank you, The Social Network), the average age of a successful startup founder is >40 years old, and female founded startups are more likely to be successful. Lloyd thinks it is important to know your non-negotiables, but be flexible from there, taking your time getting to know the company and the team.

This is a big decision. You may be interested in a session the Lloyd team is offering about startups called, “Get Hired at a Startup” with four startup CEOs on Wednesday, May 6th. As always, feel free to speak with the team about this topic during free office hours.

-Lloyd

Filed Under: Dear Lloyd

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