S5E59
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Alright. So I am on the go for this Career Convos episode and headed to get my baby from practice as usual. It feels like just year round sports at this point. There are no more seasons. The the the lines between seasons and off season are so blurred in sports in in high school sports these days.
Nikki Winston, CPA:But, anyway, I was saying, let me write down some notes so that when I get back, I'm a hop on the mic, and I'm a record this episode. But this what I'm wanting to say is just going. It's spinning in my mind and in my spirit, and so I need to get it out. Now I'm hands free. Y'all know I don't play around.
Nikki Winston, CPA:Y'all know I don't text and drive, do all of that. So I'm hands free. And the the thing that I I wanna talk about today is a plethora of things. Y'all know I can I can go on a tangent in a minute, but I wanna try to keep this conversation focused on how to deal with or not even with, how to deal emphasis on deal, how to deal when you are laid off, let go from a job, impacted by a RIF, all of those things? But not only that, that transition period where you're trying to adjust to, okay, I'm not getting up to go to this job anymore.
Nikki Winston, CPA:And in many cases, I'm wondering, I'm starting to wonder how I'm gonna pay my bills, even though I was laid off yesterday, but, and I still get another paycheck, but it's still swirling in my mind. Like, how am I gonna pay my bills? And so how do I find the next job? Who's gonna hire me? Let me see what job posters are out there.
Nikki Winston, CPA:So we get into this space of trying to deal with trying to cope with being laid off, and then we just immediately try to jump into the next thing. And I think that before we jump into the next thing, which is natural, you know, most people are not working for fun. They're working for a living to take care of themselves and their families. And so it's it's only natural to feel like, okay. My my source of income and how I make a living has been cut off.
Nikki Winston, CPA:So what do I do next to make sure that financially we remain intact? Right? The one thing that I, a sentence that came to my mind is you lose your job, but you find yourself. And what I mean by that is before you jump into another job, sometimes you you voluntarily leave a job. And you say, I'm leaving this job because I got a better one.
Nikki Winston, CPA:And I put in my notice, but I'm gonna take a week or two off before I start my new job. And that's because you wanna go on a vacation. You want to decompress and come down from all that was your previous job. And you wanna just go in fresh into this new job, right, that's when it's it's more of a controllable situation. But I'm thinking about you get that fifteen minute touch base meeting on your calendar, and you have to have that conversation where somebody tells you that your role is being eliminated and your last day is sixty days away or two weeks away or today even, And you have to pick up the pieces from that and figure out how to move on.
Nikki Winston, CPA:It's so important to pause. It's so important to pause and think about what was I doing in the job that I was just in. Why did they keep me there as long as I did? What is the value what is my value prop that I brought to this company? Because most likely, your skills are gonna be needed at another company.
Nikki Winston, CPA:Right? And, again, it's it's it's somewhat innate in us to wanna just jump from one to the other just to not create any financial instability for ourselves. But if we pause on the financial side of it for a moment and talk about the mental wellness side of it and just think about what was I doing there? What what impact did I have? What projects did I lead?
Nikki Winston, CPA:What new things did I bring about? And start really keeping the list for yourself, not only to use those as talking points in interviews, but to remind yourself of who the fuck you are and that you are that girl or you are that guy regardless of the outcome of this job. Don't let a decision that that was beyond your control control how you feel about yourself and determine what your next move is gonna be. And so a conversation that has really come up a lot lately is people reaching out to me and looking for guidance with that next step, with that outplacement type of coaching. How do I how do I prepare myself to go back into the workforce?
Nikki Winston, CPA:Or not not go back into the workforce, but how do I prepare myself to go out into the job market again? Because I was at this job for ten years, for twelve, fifteen years, and now I haven't interviewed in a decade. And what do I even do? What is it even like these days? And so I think it's important for us to pause when we're in these situations and talk through that because you wanna make sure that as cliche as it sounds, that your next move is your best move.
Nikki Winston, CPA:And you wanna make sure that you can go into an interview and clearly articulate who you are and what you bring and figure out if this company is the right place for you. You don't wanna walk into a job interview still hanging on to the baggage of your last company and still feeling bitter about it. Like Maxine on Living Single felt about Greg leaving her. She was bitter about it. She said she wasn't bitter, but she was.
Nikki Winston, CPA:And so you don't wanna be in a place where you're sitting across the table from a hiring manager or you're on a video interview and you're still talking about things, you know, that hit dog energy from your last job. If anything, you should not be referencing your last job at all. It's easy to talk about what you did, what responsibilities you had, things like that. But no need to talk about the company, how much they paid you, all those sorts of things. And so the the first thing that I really wanted to share is make sure that you give yourself the space and the grace to come down from that job.
Nikki Winston, CPA:Whether you quit and you're starting a new job in two weeks, whether they laid you off and you're about to be on your last day or your last paycheck, whatever the situation is, make sure that you give yourself time to come down from that job, purge that from your system, and start refilling your energy with what's next for you. This is also a time where people start to think about if I've worked in sales, do I wanna keep working in sales? In case of accountants, do I wanna keep working in general ledger accounting? Do I wanna do audit? Do I wanna do controls?
Nikki Winston, CPA:Do I wanna do my own thing and do tax or do consulting? So some a lot of times I say, I was gonna say sometimes, but a lot of times I say, pull that silver lining no matter what. There's always gonna be darkness in the cloud, right? And sometimes that silver lining is not going to be as visible as the darkness and the gloominess of the cloud, but make sure that you pull something good out of it. You know what?
Nikki Winston, CPA:They laid me off, but I've been building my business at night for the last year and a half. This might just be the push that I needed for me to jump off the porch and go after what really makes my heart sing. So you gotta look at things like that. Maybe this means it's time for me to start my business. And keep in mind that the blessings, the things that you want, the things that you ask for, you put them in the universe, you pray for them, you work for them, and they come to life.
Nikki Winston, CPA:Right? And in many cases, and this is this is personal experience, I can tell you that you pray for things. You work for things. You put them in the universe, and you keep working. And you you check-in with God, and you wait for them to happen.
Nikki Winston, CPA:And it feels like it's not happening or it's not coming fast enough. But the truth is it's coming to you. It's just not showing up in that cute Chanel outfit that you thought it was gonna show up in. It might show up as not an investor dropping $6,000,000 in your lap. It might show up as you being laid off from this job because you need to really focus your energy on what makes your heart sing and not just what pays your bills.
Nikki Winston, CPA:So don't always look for your blessing to be in acute box with a bow on it, because sometimes it's gonna show up after some struggle, after some discomfort, after some frustration, after a whole bunch of no's, after a whole bunch of no's, after countless no's, but it only takes one yes. So I want you to keep that in mind. The second thing that I wanna talk about is going through that process. So you come down, you decompress from this job, you have mentally gathered yourself, and you've gone through the self exploration exercise to say, what am I good at? What am I strong at?
Nikki Winston, CPA:What is my value prop for my next potential employer? You've gone through that process, and now you're you're applying the jobs that align with your self ex self exploration exercise, which is part of the Career Convos resource library. So it's on the website, nick mundson c p a dot com forward slash career, and it's a very important exercise that I recommend that professionals do as they change jobs. Again, controllably or uncontrollably, whether you leave on your own or you were laid off or let go, it's an important step for you to walk through before you go into another job. And so once you do that exploratory exercise, that helps you frame what jobs you should be applying for.
Nikki Winston, CPA:You should only be applying for the jobs that align with what you want. And going online, mass applying the jobs is not it. If you really want to tailor your job search and make sure you you wind up in the right place, then it's important for you to understand your what do I wanna call it? Not just your skill set, but you need to understand what's important to you as an employer. What type of company do you wanna work for?
Nikki Winston, CPA:What industry do you wanna work in? How do you wanna work? Are you okay with working a % remote for a company where you may not see your boss or your colleagues in person or maybe a few times a year? Are you okay with going in the office? What type of manager do you wanna work for?
Nikki Winston, CPA:Do you wanna work for a publicly traded company or a private company? A lot of questions to consider, but also looking deep inside yourself to say, why was I in that job that long? What kept me in that job? What did I enjoy doing? What did I have to do every day that absolutely just frustrated me and and that I I dreaded doing?
Nikki Winston, CPA:What type of relationship did I have with my managers, with my peers, with my skip levels, with my stakeholders? So taking some time to invest in yourself in that way really helps set you up for success when it comes to looking for your next opportunity, the one that loves you back. Right? And so that that's another part of the the the new job package is you go through these exercises and you try to align. You you all you almost build a job avatar.
Nikki Winston, CPA:You build your ideal job, and then you go out and find it. And so a big part of that is the interview, preparing for the interview, going into the interview, and and even before we get there, understanding what the purpose of the interview is. A lot of times, and this is how it was framed. I'm speaking from a millennials perspective. A lot of times, the interview was framed as this is a continuation of a phone interview or a first interview where you walk me through your resume and told me about your experience.
Nikki Winston, CPA:And after that or and and when that happens, you'll go on this interview and you'll be quizzed or interrogated by a hiring manager or a panel of people, and then they'll give you a couple minutes to ask questions, and then they make a decision about whether or not they wanna hire you. The reality is the purpose of the interview is a get to know you type of conversation. But what's important about this is this is a mutual get to know you conversation. It's like a two way street. You should be interviewing these companies the exact same way, if not more, than they are interviewing you.
Nikki Winston, CPA:Because think about work from an accounting perspective. You're working minimum forty five hours a week. That's nine hours a day, five days a week. That's a lot of time to be doing something, to be working with people, to be doing something that you can probably feel with other things that you'd rather be doing if you think about that window of time. So you have to think about where in my professional development plan, where does this job land?
Nikki Winston, CPA:Does it help me acquire the skill sets that I'm after? Does it help position me in some way? Am I working for a company with a cause and they they provide a product or service that's important to me? What has been the evolution of this job that I'm that I'm interviewing for? So there's so many things, so many questions that you should have when you walk into an interview.
Nikki Winston, CPA:Because if you get to the interview phase, that's usually at least step two, where step one is somebody has looked at your resume and or cover letter, and they have determined that based on what they've seen in your resume, that you have something that could potentially feel a void that they have right now. So there's something about you, about your background, about your resume that has got you a foot in the interviewing door. And, of course, there's gonna be questions about, tell me about a time or walk me through your resume even if they ask you that the first time. But you have to be able to articulate your experience and your alignment to this role in a way that you can almost see that they can almost see you in the seat is how you need to articulate that. So when we get to doing interview prep and things, which is one of the things I love to do.
Nikki Winston, CPA:I love doing doing interview prep and mock interviews. When I do mock interviews, this is the way that we prepare. We ask the real questions. We're taking the emotions and the awkwardness off of the table. Because sometimes people go into an interview and they have these burning questions that they hesitate to ask because because they feel like I don't want them to think that I'm aggressive or that I'm asking too many questions.
Nikki Winston, CPA:I just really want them to like me so I can get this job. And those are usually the mindsets that have people starting a new job, and then nine months later, they back on the job market. Three months later, they back on the job market. This job is not what I thought it was, so I'm out here looking again. It's not what you thought it was because you didn't ask the right questions.
Nikki Winston, CPA:And so the other reason I'm saying that is going back to something I mentioned earlier where we might get a Dear Nicole email. Nicole, thank you. We appreciate your interest in this role. Your qualifications were impressive, but we are not considering you for this role or but, Right? And it's like, wow.
Nikki Winston, CPA:Another rejection letter? Like, what am I doing wrong? What am I missing? Is it because I'm black? Is it because I'm I have x number of years of experience?
Nikki Winston, CPA:Is it because of this and this and this and this and this? Many times and and we're not gonna be we're not gonna act like those type of things don't exist because it does. But looking at the full picture, also think about there are several other reasons that excuse me. There are several other reasons why you didn't get the job, and those reasons are beyond you. They have nothing to do with you.
Nikki Winston, CPA:And one thing I told somebody who we were having a were having a coaching session. And one thing I said to her is, you know, you have to control what you can control. And there are instances where you will be interviewed for a job as a formality. That job might have already been earmarked for somebody else who was being groomed and positioned to step into this role. And in lieu of just giving the role to them, they have to interview internal and external candidates as a formality.
Nikki Winston, CPA:There are situations where companies post jobs. They start collecting resumes. They start interviewing people. They even go as far as extending offers to people. And then that offer is rescinded, or you go through an interview process and they boasted you.
Nikki Winston, CPA:And it could be because internally, things are falling apart, and they need to get their shit together before they even bring on anybody else into the environment. So roles get cut. Headcount gets cut. Budgets get cut. Things get shuffled around.
Nikki Winston, CPA:And so as much as we wanna think about taking the route to beat ourself up to feel like we didn't get the job because it's something that we did, understand that it's not always something that you did and something that you've done. And so I don't want you to adopt that energy and feel like, well, I'm never gonna get a job. Everybody keeps rejecting me and this, this, and this, this, and this. And one thing I wanna say, somebody said it to me, and it has not this was a while ago. Somebody said it to me, and I never forgot it.
Nikki Winston, CPA:That sometimes rejection is protection. And I said that to somebody when we were having the conversation, and then somebody else chimed in and said, and sometimes rejection is redirection. And so that no could be a blessing in disguise. That no could be the no that you needed to hear to be like, you keep applying for jobs that you don't even want. You keep applying for jobs because of how much they say you pay, And that's all you worried about when you know that you really deep down in your heart wanna launch your own business.
Nikki Winston, CPA:Or you keep trying to go back to certain jobs that don't fit you, that are of no interest to you, and now your job search has turned into, I'm looking for a paycheck at this point and I'll take anything, to the point where you're willing to lowball yourself and say, you know what? I'm gonna take a pay cut if that's what it takes for me to have a job. And there's nothing wrong with that. You have to do what works for you. And so I want us to keep in mind that it's not always something we did.
Nikki Winston, CPA:Don't be quick to beat yourself up. And just because you got one no doesn't mean that that's always gonna be the norm. It doesn't mean that the right job, the right manager is not out there who's gonna see something in you and say, yeah. This is our person. This is the one for the job.
Nikki Winston, CPA:Let's make them an offer. It's out there. It takes some patience. It takes some strategy. And and and and you will be in your feelings.
Nikki Winston, CPA:It's an emotional process because you prepare you can have these situations where you prepare so hard for an interview, and you're you're asking all the right questions and you're doing all the right things and it just doesn't work out. But that doesn't mean stop. That means keep going. That means continue to hone your skills in how you advocate for yourself. And so going back to losing your job but finding yourself.
Nikki Winston, CPA:You get to learn a lot about yourself when you have to transition to another job, when you have this extra time where you would have been working, but now you're at home and you're on the computer or you're doing the double take at your flowers. Like, you know what? I really do like flowers. Or you know what? I've been trying to get to a Pilates class for the longest, and they have a free one at the library.
Nikki Winston, CPA:So I'm going over there. And I'm gonna work out, and I'm gonna take time for me. And I'm probably gonna meet some people who we share some common interests. And I get to get out the house and get some fresh air. Oh, wow.
Nikki Winston, CPA:I'm looking for a job. So you have to think about it that way. Don't just hang your hat on, I've been at this computer for six hours, and I applied to a hundred jobs, and nobody's calling me back. And I don't know what I'm gonna do, and I feel like I'm sending my resume, and nobody sees it, and it's going into the black hole in the Internet. Lose that line of thinking.
Nikki Winston, CPA:You have to encourage yourself even if you're the only one doing the encouraging sometimes. Encourage yourself. Train your mind to think about not what if it doesn't work, but what it does? What if I submit this resume and they call me back? What if I go to this interview and they offer me the job right there on the spot?
Nikki Winston, CPA:What if I negotiate this job offer and get 30% more than what they were trying to initially offer me? You have to switch your mindset to what you want and to to start to lean towards what you how you want your life to look, how you want your career to look. It starts with what you tell yourself. Once you tell yourself, I got this, and I'm gonna land the job, your mind starts to do that. Your body, your energy, the the chemicals in your body start to acquiesce to that, and then your actions start to reflect that energy.
Nikki Winston, CPA:And then and then what you want comes to you. And, I mean, it's easier said than done. I'll be the first to say that, but I'll also be the first to say that I'm I'm sharing something with y'all that I've personally done for myself. And this started with me telling my mind how to how to process things and telling myself that what I wanted was gonna manifest and that it was gonna work out and things were gonna happen, and they happened. So I'll pause it there.
Nikki Winston, CPA:I'm almost to the thirty minute mark. I know that life be life, and we all have shit going on. So I wanna make sure that I give y'all what y'all need, but I also give y'all time to get back to the other things that are important to you. Because I appreciate you hearing me out on this, especially from the dome. I'm still on the way to pick my son up.
Nikki Winston, CPA:But one more thing I wanna I wanna note, and then and then I'll be done as long as I don't go on a tangent. But the one thing I wanna talk about is these job descriptions and what you should be looking for in the job description and what the most important line the most important sentence in the job description is. Because, you know, you see the job description. You post to the job. You get you go to the interview.
Nikki Winston, CPA:You do well. You get the offer. You start. You onboard all that good stuff. And you start looking at how does this job description look relative to what I'm actually doing.
Nikki Winston, CPA:They said I was gonna have to do these seven or eight things. Like, what do those things look like? So, typically, a job description is something about the company at the top, then it's a quick overview of the position they're trying to fill, ideal candidate, bullet points about job responsibilities, more bullet points about education and qualifications and experience, and then, typically an EEOC statement, maybe some salary, maybe some work remote work, hybrid work type of information. And you go in and you do that job according to those bullet points and what they tell you to do. The most important line on a job description is the one that says other duties as assigned.
Nikki Winston, CPA:The reason why that's the most important is because that can be anything. That could be an ERP implementation project. That can be all the unsexy cleanup work that needs to be done. That could be some conversations or a steering committee or some type of task force to automate and streamline some of the manual work that the team has to do. That can be anything.
Nikki Winston, CPA:And I'm heavy on the unsexy because a lot of times those other duties are things that people have either put off doing, so now it's out of control that people don't know how to do because they haven't had the right talent in place, and they haven't outsourced the work. Or it's something that is just such a big undertaking that it requires effort, probably equivalent to another full time job. And so that's where the value is. You have to get into a job and unpack what does other duties as assigned even mean? Great question for an interview.
Nikki Winston, CPA:Great question for an onboarding process as you get into a job. Great question for your manager, your peers, your skip level, as you start to set expectations about how you operate and what you bring to the table, as you start to lay out goals and objectives for yourself to say, what are my priorities? My priorities might not be in these seven or eight bullet points. My priorities might be in this other duties as a sign. That's where the value comes.
Nikki Winston, CPA:That's where the people are who are recognized and getting visibility and landing the promotions. They're really zooming in on the other duties as a sign. So I can talk about this all day long. I would love to continue this conversation. So I'm a be done there because I'm past the thirty minute mark, and I just I can keep going.
Nikki Winston, CPA:So I'm gonna pause there. If you have any questions about this conversation that you wanna keep going, definitely reach out to me, Nick Winston c p a dot com forward slash career. You can also find me on LinkedIn. I'm on there a lot. I'm on threads, which has become my new favorite platform at NickWinstoncpa.
Nikki Winston, CPA:So let reach out. Let's continue this conversation. And I just wanna just give some encouragement to anybody who's listening to this and looking for work or feeling defeated or feeling hopeless because you've applied over and over and nobody's calling you back, or maybe you've gone on these interviews and you keep getting that that Dear John email notification. I just wanna encourage you and tell you it's one day at a time. It might not look good today, or you might have got a couple of rejection emails today.
Nikki Winston, CPA:And you can turn around tomorrow, and somebody's in your inbox asking you, inviting you for an interview or asking how they can support you. And the other thing I wanna say about LinkedIn is leverage your network, especially if you're looking for work. Reach out to those 500 plus connections that you have because y'all are connected in some way or fashion for a reason. And so don't be too proud to draft a a message to somebody on LinkedIn. One of your connections, hey.
Nikki Winston, CPA:I hope all is well. I'm the market for new opportunities and blah blah blah blah blah. You know, not making it so transactional, but kinda kinda so. Hey. How are you?
Nikki Winston, CPA:Touch on something. You know, I appreciated the support when we worked together years ago or something like that. And I'm in the market and this is what I'm working on. Do you know of any opportunities? Don't be afraid.
Nikki Winston, CPA:Ask your neighbors. Ask your family members. Ask your network. Most of the people who land in jobs land in jobs because of somebody that knew them and somebody that helped plug them into an opportunity. It does happen where you found a job on the Internet and you post your resume and they call you back and interview and that process goes like that.
Nikki Winston, CPA:But in many cases, people land in roles because somebody they've worked with somebody in the past who reached out because they're they're plugging people in. They're letting people know what they're doing. A lot of times people unplug you into an opportunity because they don't know. They don't know that you need to be plugged. So at least put it out there.
Nikki Winston, CPA:Don't worry about if somebody doesn't reply. Life could be happening for them. If they might feel a certain way. In many cases, people are more than happy to be a connection and and and be a a vessel for you to get to where you wanna go. So I just wanna leave y'all with that.
Nikki Winston, CPA:Y'all are welcome to reach out to me on LinkedIn. I'm happy to connect you with anybody in my network and and make an introductory email or message. So if there's somebody that I can plug you into or an opportunity, then I'm more than happy to do that. But I will be done there. And I I mean, I can talk about this all day.
Nikki Winston, CPA:I think we need to talk about it more. But let's pause there. Listen to this episode. Share it with somebody who you think can use it. Feel free to share it on social media as well if there's something I said that resonated with you.
Nikki Winston, CPA:But until then, until next time. I will talk to y'all soon. Let me get this boy from practice. Y'all be good.
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