I joined Mike and the Trajectify team as Business Coordinator in September. Rewind to March, I was scared. After graduating from college, a few years of office experience, nine years in hospitality, and earning my way to a position overseeing three restaurants – I didn’t know what I was left with.

During the initial pandemic shutdown, I had to tell teams of people their jobs were gone. I felt panic rise as I shared that we would be closing for the foreseeable future. I had no answers and was met with mixed emotions: confusion, desperation, even hostility.

The initial shock subsided leaving the future of hospitality looking bleak. I soon saw the necessity of securing a role outside of the food and beverage space. As I write this, restrictions are being re-imposed on businesses to curb current contagion trends, resulting in more people scrambling in a highly competitive job market.

My own job search was not easy. I feel very privileged in my situation to have the skills to switch industries, to have access to technology, to be a college-educated white woman, to have a safe home from which to work, to have received unemployment benefits… the list could continue.

I didn’t want to stray from my envisioned path formed pre-pandemic, but I certainly had to adjust and work with new coordinates. This meant doubling down on my long-term goals, trusting myself to stay the course, and figuring out what opportunities outside of my present industry fit into the story.

FINDING A PLACE IN HOSPITALITY

I went to college in North Carolina at 23 with no real career goal. I worked hard to pay for school myself and savored the inherent value of my education. At 26, I graduated with my Bachelor of Arts in French and International Studies along with a handful of unpaid internships in my back pocket.

Looking for more opportunities after school, I moved to Philadelphia and landed in the city’s Office of Health and Human Services as an AmeriCorps VISTA. The position was a year-long program where I built a strong foundation for project management.

Next, I returned to the service industry as a stop-gap to graduate school. I worked in restaurants to pay my way through college so this was a familiar world. One job fell into the next and I found myself working in a company where I built a strong relationship with the owner. Fast forward two years and the stop-gap had turned into something more. I was overseeing his three restaurants as Director of Operations.

The restaurant industry pulls you in with serious moments of magic. In between those moments, it is brutal and challenging. Big egos, irregular schedules, and narrow profit margins make stress a way of life. As most people do when they find themselves knee deep somewhere unexpected, I asked: Is this really what I am meant to be doing?

Taking stock of my experiences, I made a five-year plan. I wanted to help solve the problems that made the industry unforgiving and support teams through workshops, F&B program assessments, and professional development opportunities. The sum of which I defined as some sort of consultancy. I took my first step in the right direction. Knowing I needed to have my hand in different operations, I left the company I was with for a management position at a more robust hospitality group that shared a vision in supporting my growth.

ENTER: THE PANDEMIC

I finally felt a solid sense of direction, but it didn’t last. Two weeks before my new position started, everything shutdown and it was in the wind. Companies furloughed entire teams, letting go of most. For restaurants that stayed open, skeleton crews of the lowest paid hourly workers were tucked behind plexiglass to handle take out options.

In the beginning, I welcomed the pandemic offering of schedule-less days. It was the first time since 2012 I wasn’t pulling 50 to 60 hour weeks. I was happy to have mental and physical rest. But I had my plan – my benchmarks. Did any of that matter? The magic was gone, the industry was unstable, and I needed a new path.

NEW JOB. NEW INDUSTRY.

Getting out of the restaurant industry is a unique feat. I have been asked why I worked in restaurants for so long and now wanted a real job. Interviews would often digress into casual talks about the food scene. This was to be expected – it’s the job of good restaurants to make it look effortless.

Nonetheless, it was frustrating. I knew the extreme demands of hospitality – operationally, physically, emotionally. Holidays and weekends don’t exist. Every guest is a client. The fires are both metaphorical and literal. I trained myself to bring conversations back to the programming and systems I built to increase sales or develop staff. It was my job to underline and translate.

I interviewed constantly and was offered two positions over four months. Neither were ideal because of significant salary reductions, but what options did I have? Both offers were rescinded. One because of sudden budget cuts and the other had funding tied to a postponed project. I got to the final round with two more companies. Nothing solidified.

I had the skills. I was in the (virtual) room. I was used to rejection, but this was different. My “stay the course” mentality for a five-year plan went out the window and I started applying for roles that didn’t fit into my core mission. This was a mistake and resulted in lots of wasted time.

It’s safe to say I was in panic mode. Being a victim wasn’t an option and I trudged forward with empathy for the businesses straddling the line and exceeding operational capacity with reduced budgets. The lifeline of the government stimulus was my safety net, but I saw its end quickly approaching.

FINDING TRAJECTIFY

I was first drawn to the Business Coordinator role at Trajectify because it sounded like a real person wrote the job description. It was also one of the few posts that mentioned the personality and strengths of the supervisor (Mike). Awareness of team strengths is something I’ve found endlessly valuable in past roles. I saw alignment in my skills and also room for growth. It fit my mission. This was in the realm of consulting (re: temporarily abandoned five-year plan). But I didn’t know anything about startups or bootstrapping or tech.

I did know how to wrangle business owners with big ideas, distill action steps, and execute. I knew how to build relationships with vendors. I knew how to manage unexpected problems with 20 minutes on the clock and make resources appear with the right connection. And all that other helpful stuff – Excel, QuickBooks, scheduling, et cetera.

Mike saw synchronicity between my past work and the responsibilities of the role. I began onboarding at the end of September 2020, six months after my job search began. Trajectify allows me insight into a new side of business. I get to work with an incredible team of experts and it has provided a stage to collate skills from all my positions. I’m still amazed to have found an opportunity that allows me to steer directly toward my planned benchmarks.

YOU ARE HIRING PEOPLE

Just as business plans had to pivot, so did the professional track for millions of people. Better understanding and communication with the talent you want to hire will help ease the process immensely. If your company is looking for new talent, I encourage you to:

Hire for skills, not for experience. Branch out of your industry. People with strong skills will adapt, learn, and bring something different to the table.
Be transparent about your hiring timeline. If a candidate needs to be prepared for seven rounds of interviews, give them the autonomy to commit to the process.
Use an assessment to refine your candidate pool. Indeed, for example, allows you to add questionnaire assessments to the application.
Remember people are looking for work in a new world. Have empathy for the person you are interviewing and their bad internet connection.
Post salary ranges. Be forthright so they can decide if it fits into their bottom line.

FOR THE SEEKERS

For those looking for a new position, maybe in a new industry too, here are insights from this formerly unemployed pandemic job seeker:

Cover your bases for the short term. Plan for the long term. Take a serious look at your financial situation and benchmark critical dates. Fiverr and UpWork are great freelancer resources to find temporary gigs. Reading Buddha quotes about how all is temporary is also helpful.
Do NOT compromise on non-negotiables. My #1 non-negotiable was that I would not work directly with the public amidst a pandemic. Company size was also a priority to me. I wanted to dedicate my time to a small to mid-sized, independent business.
It is your job to find a job so treat it as such. Follow up, send reminders, and schedule networking calls. Dedicate time to it Monday through Friday.
Make a website. Hiring managers spend about 7 seconds looking at your resume. This will get you extra screen time and give your work story some bones. I saw an immediate increase in responses when I made a site three months into my search.
Always ask why they didn’t choose you. Every time. Take advantage of an opportunity to make yourself better.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Switching industries with a pandemic backdrop was a necessary step for me to combat stunted career growth. In April, every state saw unemployment rates higher than the Great Recession with the leisure and hospitality industry experiencing an unemployment rate of 39.3%. While these numbers have improved, many talented people are seeking to dive into new fields. This is a real opportunity to grow your company’s collective acumen.

If you’d like to talk more about my job search experience, the restaurant industry, or what my five-year plan looks like now – connect with me on LinkedIn.