Job search: the value of seizing the moment
Carol Gibson was just trying to get back to Austin after Christmas break. Hanging out during an airport layover, she wasn’t focused on trying to find a job, but, somehow, a job found her. This is her story. It’s about crazy weather, Twitter, the media, an inspired moment, and chance.
crazy weather
Carol was visiting her parents for the holidays at their home in sunny California, about 3 hours from San Francisco. Crazy weather was actually happening on the East Coast. Unusually heavy blizzards delayed flights across the country. Carol learned that her flight was canceled 8 hours before the scheduled departure time. She called the airline to rebook, but she couldn’t get through. So her only option was to make the 3-hour drive to the San Francisco airport, hoping to catch the next available flight.
When he got to the airport, he was told he couldn’t fly home for another 3 days! The only alternative was to change airlines. Although the flight with the new airline would not leave until the next day, she took it. She was forced to spend valuable funds from an already tight budget on a hotel room.
One Twitter user, Carol (@gibsonic) posted occasional progress reports or “tweets” about her situation using her mobile phone.
Dec 27: “In SFO wondering how I’ll get back to Austin. Flight canceled. Maybe this is a sign Cali wants me back. Or bad weather out east…”
December 27 – “I’m at San Francisco International Airport”
December 28: “Redo (@San Francisco International Airport)”
Dec 28: “Progress!! (@Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport)”
The media
So there she was, preparing for her layover in Phoenix on December 28. Then, out of the blue, she got a tweet from a stranger: “Are you late? I’m an AP reporter and would like to chat if you are.” The tweet included a phone number to call.
She then replied, “@AmandaLeeAP yes! I was supposed to fly SFO to aus yesterday but had to change plans. I left my info on the phone number you provided.”
The reporter interviewed Carol on the phone and asked her to quote her for a print story. Then, while Carol was on the plane from Phoenix to Austin, she was featured in an article that appeared in the St. Louis newspaper, MSNBC.com, and Yahoo.com.
When she landed in Austin, a second reporter contacted her and asked her permission to record the phone interview. A local radio station picked up the story, quoting Carol on the air over and over again at the beginning of each hour. Unaware of all the press she was receiving and happy to be home, her friends started contacting her. Either they had read about it online or heard it on the radio.
Later, when Carol recounted the details of her crazy two-day trip, she told me that she didn’t think she said anything remarkable to the reporters: “My comments were things like, ‘Why get mad? Everyone’s human, it’s a thunderstorm.’ snow. And I guess he had a sense of humor about it. The way I looked at it, I was just uncomfortable: I didn’t miss a wedding or Christmas. I didn’t have to sleep in the airport or travel with little kids.”
an inspired moment
Carol apparently said something special to the media, something that, in hindsight, came out of her during a moment of inspiration. When the AP reporter asked her about her profession, she wondered if she should mention that she was unemployed. She decided “what the heck” and blurted out, “I’m an unemployed business analyst.” It turns out that swallowing the shame of being unemployed was a smart move.
Serenity
Several weeks later, Carol received an email on LinkedIn from a representative of a startup called Helical Plane: “I saw the story in the news. We’re hiring and I’d like to talk to you.”
After a couple of rounds of interviews, Carol was offered a contract job with the opportunity to be considered for a regular full-time position in the future.
“I agreed,” Carol said, “because it’s like a first date. I can see if it works out.”
Meanwhile, Carol is covering her bases. She recently created her own DBA, Crossbrook Consulting. “I plan to help nonprofits, SMEs, and startups with their events, promotional products, etc. I love creative communication work; I guess you could call it ‘unconventional marketing.’ This experience with Twitter and the media reinforced my desire to work with creative communications like social media to promote causes I believe in.
Carol’s big takeaways from her experience with Twitter and the media during her job search:
– You never know who is listening to you and your story.
– Always use positive language about your situation.
– Keep your sense of humor.
– Do not be ashamed to say that you are unemployed.
– Use all the tools at your disposal.
Looks like Carol learned the value of seizing the moment too!