Abbajay is co-founder of the Careerstone Group, which helps people, private companies and government agencies develop organizational and leadership skills needed for success in the 21st century workplace and provides advice for the newly unemployed. She lives in the District.
What kind of help are companies looking for?
We help organizations develop their workforces. They are struggling with the different generations in the workplace and struggling with doing more with less. Right now, the economy is bad and they don’t have a lot of money but still have the same amount of work to do. And they are struggling with keeping their best talent. Even though over the last couple of years people have been reluctant to leave their jobs, once the recession is over people are going to start job jumping like crazy.
Are their common problems in company management?
Companies still do not understand how to manage and how important communication is down and across the workforce. Companies over and over reward people for their technical skills and put them in a management position. And these people don’t know how to manage.
What is a common mistake made by the newly unemployed?
They don’t tell people they are newly unemployed. Jobs are mostly found through other people, so you are much more likely to find a job through a contact or a friend who knows you are looking for a job than just sending a resume blindly or through monster.com. And they vastly underestimate or overestimate what it is going to take to get another job. In this climate, it could take up 9 to 12 months to find a new job.
You recommend volunteering when jobless, but why should anyone work for free?
It helps you keep your job skills honed and enables you to develop new skill sets and expand your network a bit more. – Susan Ferrechio
