4 Actions for Federal Employees to Take Right Now to Start New Careers: Don’t Wait to be Unemployed!

Federal employees, some universities, and school systems got good news regarding actions that could cost jobs. According to Government Executive Today, a judge has paused most federal layoffs—for now. Another judge, according to press reports, has paused an Administration effort to bar Harvard from enrolling more than a quarter of its students—a move that would no doubt cut revenue and cost jobs. Another judge has barred the federal government from ending funds for school systems that have DEI programs—another move that would cost perhaps thousands of jobs.

Federal workers and former federal workers may not want to stay even if their final “RIF” is postponed or their agency rehires them. “What is the point” two workers told me “The agency will just fire them again.”

It’s wise to have a strategy for finding a new job as a result of this instability in the federal government and university sectors. Here are a few ideas for getting started:

1. Remember that hope is not a plan,
2. A plan is a dream with a deadline,
3. Treat your job search as a job and
4. Be prepared to change your plan.

Those of us who have worked in public agencies and universities–organizations that do a lot of planning–may find these statements obvious. But things are different when you are doing a full-time job search or career marketing campaign. You will not have a team reminding you of schedule, meetings, and deadlines. Instead, your new project will succeed based largely on your initiative alone.

Hope is not a plan.

It’s fair to say most of us hope court and legislative actions will curb federal efforts to fire its own workforce and cause educational institutions to fire theirs, too. But hope is not a plan. Those who have been put on leave or terminated should start navigating what’s next, rather than waiting for the “powers that be” to offer them their jobs back.

Start by thinking: “What can I do this week to make things happen?” For example:

• Are there networking events I can attend?
• What friends and acquaintances in my field can I contact for a chat?

No doubt you’ll think of many other things you can be doing right now to turn your hopes into plans. Whether you undertake one of the steps above, or devise others. The important thing is taking action in addition to hoping for change.

Hope is good. A plan is better.

A public service announcement on TV featured an entrepreneur who described a plan as a “dream with a deadline.” You have to set a deadline, she said, to make a dream happen. You already have the deadline when you are being downsized.

Donna Shannon, in her weekly “Down & Dirty Job Search column on LinkedIn, described job search as a job. In fact, we believe it is more than a job. Job search is an entrepreneurial and sales endeavor, as discussed in a previous post. You are working for yourself, and have to get it done without support from an organization.

Approaching job search with an entrepreneurial mindset may be especially challenging for those of us coming from public sector and educational organizations. Typically, we have not had to market or sell our own services. Some of us did not even have to manage our own work schedule and budget—our work came to us and others told us when we had to do the work.

There are strategies in coaching and project management that will help you turn hopes and dreams of another job into a plan. For instance, write your plan down, break it into steps, and assign dates to complete the steps, just as you would for a project at work. You may even be able to use your favorite calendar, CRM system, or project management tool to guide you if your favorite tool has a free, personal, or “lite” version.

Then tell people close to you about your plan. Whether you ask them to hold you accountable or not, you will be more likely to act on your job search plan if you have told other people what you are doing.

Unemployed jobseekers may also be required to participate in publicly-funded employment programs or demonstrate that they are job-seeking when they collect unemployment benefits. While this seems like an imposition, these programs help with job search accountability. State unemployment insurance rules in New York, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere may require jobseekers to present proof of job search periodically. The number of required job search contacts is, in my view, minimal—three contacts a week in many cases, but the requirement reduces the chance you will do nothing. Use these bureaucratic requirements to help jump-start your efforts when you are out of work.

Your plan should change if it is not feasible.

Another issue I noticed at job clubs and networking groups is that a few participants stuck to an inflexible plan that was not working. A member of my non-profit networking group, for example, wanted to be a controller for a symphony orchestra. He stuck to this plan long after it was clear that there were too few jobs of this kind available in his commuting area. It’s appropriate to change plans when you find job market conditions that make the plan infeasible.

Set your goal, break it into steps, and set target dates. Be prepared to change your strategy as needed. A way to think about this is “stuff happens.” (And some substitute a stronger word for “stuff.”)

When “stuff happens, “change your plan. This time you won’t need approval from your department head.

If you can dream it, you can do it.

An executive coach I spoke with several years ago assured me that if I could dream it, I can do it. This is not always literally true, in my opinion, because technological and financial constraints limit what is possible. Explore the dream anyway, and find out what is possible. Sports coaches say “you miss 100% of the shots you do not take.” Don’t wait for political or economic conditions to change. Develop a job search, or career communication plan. Then be prepared to change it as conditions change. Career change is up to you!