My Movember 2010 Story

Movember Austin Growing By Leaps and Bounds

Movember, movember the second movember . . . there's a quote that goes something like that.

This is my second year to participate in the Movember movement. See my post from last year here.

If you aren't familiar with Movember it's a movement that started down under in Australia in 2003 to both be a silly way to bring back the mustache (Mo) and in turn as a way to raise awareness and funds to fight cancers that affect men's lives.

'Cmon. When you see pink what do you think? Breast cancer awareness, right? When you think about what cause is talked about the most during October it's what? Cancers that affect women.

But did you know that in 2010 tragically more than 32,000 men will die as a direct result of prostate cancer?

My husband, Charles was diagnosed with prostate cancer and subsequently underwent a radical prostatectomy last October. I blogged about it as "Our Life After Three Words."

In the last week he's had a one of many followup appointments with his urologist and he's completely cancer free and has NO PSA level.

Men, it's so important to talk about PSA levels with your physician. Women, it's so important to encourage the men in your lives to get consistent checkups that can catch things like cancer.

Charles' doctor told him that his cancer probably grew over a period of about five years. Yikes. That's a long time. There were definitely symptoms that were disregarded and thank God that he decided to get a check up and be completely honest with his physician when he did.

If you'd like to get involved with Movember please visit www.movember.com. If you're in the Austin area we're hoping to have 250 members by the end of November and as of tonight we're at about 150. Join us - Team AUS!

If you aren't in the Austin area, see if you can find a team near you or consider making a donation.

And tell me about your stories either here on this post or on my Movember page. We'd love to have you share!

Time to Post

I think about it often. I know I haven't posted in a long time. Okay - six months. How did that happen?

Since my last post I've been busy working, working, working.

I launched The Talent Sleuth almost immediately after I found out I was going to be affected by a lay off in March. I use the site to post positions I'm recruiting for in the Austin, Texas area and beyond.

I've also been doing some Human Resource consulting.

Immediately after I left Kershner Trading Group I went to work onsite in both an HR and recruiting and front desk capacity at Hall Plastic Surgery and Rejuvenation Center. Tricia Hall and her husband Jeff own the company and even though I've been a client of hers for almost a decade, working in the beauty industry again was fun and enlightening. While there I consulted on HR practiced and located and hired a new front desk person.

As that position was wrapping up I came across my next position - a contract HR Manager at CSIdentity. An amazing group of people and amazing technology. This organization works to fend of identity theft. Sadly, it's also an industry that I don't think is going to go away anytime soon as there will always be horrible criminals out there.

In between both of those positions I was also recruiting for a few various positions at Convio here in Austin. I was able to locate and Convio hired a new PMO Director. This organization went public early in 2010 and helps non-profits with their fundraising efforts.

After CSIdentity I went to work on a full-time contract basis at PayPal's Austin office where I'm still working as a Sourcer in their Talent Acquisition group. I've always been a PayPal (owned by eBay) admirer, so the work I do in finding top talent for them is very rewarding.

I'm continuing to pick up extra work on the side as well including a position I start recruiting for this week for Illuminas' New York City office. I flew up there about a week ago to get to know the staff a bit better and had a great, albeit quick trip in NYC. Hmmm . . . how do I get back there and Jane Quigley, can we go back to The Cafeteria? Okay, I'm sure there are plenty of breakfast places we can try!

I've also, via The Talent Sleuth, met and career counseled a number of people in person and over the phone. I'm always amazed when we wrap up our sessions at how they tell me how much they get out of our conversations.

The last six months have been a whirlwind of possibilities and fun, intriguing, insipiring and challenging work. I'm so glad to be so busy and thankful for the opportunities that continue to open up in front of me.

As much as I joke that I need to learn to say no, I think I'm not quite to that point yet . . . bring it on. All of it!

Free Agent in the House

About a year ago I started a website - Help I Was Laid Off (and on Twitter as @HelpIWasLaidOff).

As a recruiter I was often approached by people who had been laid off, those thinking about leaving their jobs and others keeping an eye out for friends and loved ones. They'd ask if I could help with their job search or review their resume. I was getting invited to coffee and breakfast and lunch left and right. My dance card was filled.


Then it dawned on me. I was repeating much of the same information time and time again.

Lightbulb - Hey, why don't I create a place where I can dispense all of this information at once?!

Thus the site began. But I also didn't want it to just be me. I, by no means have all of the information where job searching is concerned. Don't get me wrong - I think I have a lot to offer and having been laid off in September of '01, but I also thought it would be interesting to also have others' vantage points.

I solicited a few friends and acquaintances that I'd met along the way from various places and asked that they write about what they'd like where job searching was concerned and it's been a pretty successful endeavor. Great information and lots of folks reading the information and telling me how helpful it's been for them.

So . . . when I received news a couple of weeks ago about my impending lay off - my last day is tomorrow . . . I wasn't nearly as frightened as I might have been.

The site was preparing me for a day in which I might hear those words.

And you know what I did? I followed the suggestions that I've made to hundred of other folks and the suggestions that my writers dispensed.

I immediately reached out to my network! I received my notification before it was officially announced to anyone else, so I made sure that the people I reached out to in the first 24-hours would honor my request for confidentiality.

Then my network went to work.

I'd recently given a talk to the Austin Women in Communications Association and reminded the 70 or so in attendance to get to work on building their network before they needed it. If you start building your network once you need it, it will simply take longer to get to your desired destination.

What does my network look like?

• I run Help I Was Laid Off's site and Twitter account (over 400 followers combined)
• I run AustinTXJobs on Twitter (over 400 followers)
• I run the Out of Work Austin group on LinkedIn (currently over 800 members)
• I have over 1700 followers on my personal Twitter account
• I have over 900 direct connections on LinkedIn
• I belong to over 40 groups on LinkedIn
• I belong to a confidential group of HR professionals in the Austin area comprised of over 60 companies and I manage their social network
• I serve as the communications chairperson for our home owners association.
• I've attended the same church and been involved in various areas for over 10 years

Within 24-hours of my news, a contact in Atlanta put me in contact with a recruiter in New York looking for a sourcer (someone to search for candidates) and within 48-hours I had a signed contract to work with her on a project basis as her sourcer.

It's now been two weeks since I knew I'd be joining the intervewing circuit. I have had a well networked recruiter calling me a couple of times a week about opportunities. I've been on two face-to-face interviews, turned down one opportunity and have calls on schedule with a couple of others about specific positions.

It's nice being a free agent. Not something I necessarily wished for or hoped for, but I'm looking at it in a very positive light and feel good about the possibilities of where I'll land next and how I'll spread my wings.