Writing new lyrics for the out-of-work blues: as corporate America continues to slim down, black managers develop innovative strategies to find new jobs - includes related article on personal marketing - Cover Story

Black Enterprise, Jan, 1992 by Roz Ayres-Williams

A pessimist is an optimist who has all the facts, goes the saying. And for today's corporate worker, the facts are grim indeed.

Fact: Today, nearly a half a million managers and white-collar professionals are out of work and looking for jobs. Twenty percent of them have been out of work or underemployed for more than a year.

Fact: Over the past 10 years, the nation has been shocked by the laying off of approximately 400,000 workers in the manufacturing industry. However, in 1991 alone, the service industry laid off more than half that number.

Fact: Seniority, good performance and loyalty are no longer protection against job loss in corporate America. Men and women, nonwhites and whites of all age groups, salary levels, professions and backgrounds are all at risk.

Fact: Corporations are no longer interested in returning to the old ways. Half the Fortune 500 companies have restructured, shed businesses and laid off workers during the 1980s and will continue to streamline staffs, levels of management and budgets.

And with a surplus of highly qualified managers seeking to fill the fewer slots available, hiring standards have gotten tougher. So what can any one professional do to stand out from the crowd?

Face the music, say the experts, and start singing as loudly as you can. The more in tune you are with today's focus on profitability, the better your chances are of being heard above the clamor of highly qualified competitors.

An Unsettling Environment

Ten years ago, white-collar employees watched with detached interest as manufacturing began laying off tens of thousands of factory workers. But when the stock market crashed in 1987 and pushced 60,000 Wall Street workers on to the streets, the bell also began to toll for high-salaried employees in real estate, banking, retail, insurance, publishing, broadcasting, computer, airline and other service companies. In attempts to staunch the flow of red ink from over-rapid expansion, burdensome debt, poor sales and aggressive foreign competition, major industrial and service corporations began dumping workers left and right.

Look at the computer industry, for example. In two rounds of cuts, Unisys Corp. reduced its work force by 15,000. Digital Equipment Corp. cut 3,400 people last year and IBM, after coaxing 10,000 more out the door, announced plans to fire thousands who fail to meet new tougher performance stadards.

In banking, the numbers have been especially grim. Citicorp, facing huge profit losses after cutting 4,400 jobs earlier last year, plans further layoffs, and the marriage between Chemical Banking Corp. and Manufacturers Hanover Corp. has separated 6,000 employees from their jobs. In fact, industry experts predict that 500,000 jobs, nearly a third of all of the nation's banking jobs, will disappear over the next 10 years.

Today, corporate workers must be more wary about the fiscal health and future plans of their companies. And while mastering corporate politics and positioning yourself as a team player and leader with vision may be distasteful, it's more important than ever.

However, these strategies alone won't guarantee job security. "The truth of the matter is, job security is a thing of the past," says Charles Grevious, vice president of the Johnson Group, an executive search firm in New York City. "The only thing you can do now is work on employability security--building the right skills and learning to market yourself aggressively."

Two years ago, banking Vice President Kenneth D. Hedgebeth found himself in the unsettling position of having to scale down his own organization within Bankers Trust Co., a prestigious financial institution on Wall Street. In charge of the Clients Directed Products division, Hedgebeth knew he was at risk when he helped to sell off four of the businesses in his portfolio and downsize a fifth.

A 25-year veteran of the firm, Hedgebeth reasoned correctly that things would not get better on Wall Street, and that upcoming mergers would only put more bankers on the streets. Rather than wait for the ax, Hedgebeth opted to leave the company last January.

Hedgebeth wasted no time in looking for his next job. The day after leaving Bankers Trust, he went to the company-appointed outplacement agency in full suit and tie. He followed this routine every business day for nine months, arriving at 8:30 a.m. sharp, treating his job search as if it were a fulltime job. "I reported in, checked my calendar, made calls, wrote letters and thank-you notes, networked and went on interviews," he says. He also used an aggressive headhunter who helped keep his name on the market.

Once a week, Hedgebeth attended a church-sponsored support called Job-Seekers, a group in Princeton, near his home, where out-of-work professionals encourage one another and share leads.

Within nine months, his offensive strategy paid off. Following up on a lead from his headhunter, Hedgebeth landed a securities management group vice presidency at The Boston Co., in Boston, making the same salary he had earned at Bankers Trust.