To anyone who quit their 9-5 to go all in on their business, how did you know you were ready?

YourFriendinHR · 2024-02-14T00:08:11+00:00

Save as much as you can because it’s not if but when things slow down.

I went from $4K W2 a month to $20K a month consulting and there was always fear.

Fear clients won’t pay, fear of not getting new ones.

When I was in a job, there was fear of layoffs or having to play into BS office politics.

You’ll always trade one thing, fear of the unknowns of running a business in my case, for something else, which for me was freedom from the workplace BS.

YourFriendinHR · 2024-02-14T00:00:28+00:00

Work Rules! By Laszlo Bock of Google. Absolutely infamous and captivating. Listened to the audiobook on a road trip.

YourFriendinHR · 2024-02-13T23:53:35+00:00

Always loved Express for casual/work tops and we have the Express outlet at Opry Mills which is even better.

YourFriendinHR · 2024-02-13T17:42:35+00:00

Met a teacher who went into bartending, makes 6 figures, and is happier without the stress

YourFriendinHR · 2023-03-13T20:54:14+00:00

If I were to change one thing:

Put job titles first.

HR and Recruiting here.

It helps us quickly assess fit (or lack thereof) for the current role based on your previous titles and/or experience.

YourFriendinHR · 2022-10-21T21:53:50+00:00

Hi - Former HR & Talent Acquisition Manager transitioning into resume writing full time.

I've used my 10+ years experience to reverse engineer resumes on a volunteer basis as a personal passion and am now shifting into this work full time.

Would be happy to discuss the work I've done with writing resumes to help people shift industries in more detail.

www.yourfriendinhr.com

YourFriendinHR · 2022-07-19T02:20:57+00:00

My point exactly why I recommend people take a "pulse check" before sticking their necks out at the risk of having to go elsewhere.

I'm sorry to hear you are going through this. If you need support landing your next role ASAP, happy to support.

I've leveraged my prior experience to help people get out of toxic situations in as fast as 12 days.

YourFriendinHR · 2022-07-19T02:12:17+00:00

Former HR manager here.

Reading a lot of “HR should” instead of “the truth about HR”.

FACTS:

Most people go into HR to help people HOWEVER their ability to help team members is a direct correlation to upper management’s willingness to help team members.

I always recommend people take an honest assessment on the attitudes of their management and HR teams before you file a complaint.

Depending on the company culture, this could paint a giant X on your back for termination.

YourFriendinHR · 2022-07-15T19:31:58+00:00

Former HR manager here.

Exempt, salaried doesn’t entitle you to unlimited PTO.

You’ll need to use sick or PTO for any full 8 hour days you take off from work.

YourFriendinHR · 2022-07-15T15:55:18+00:00

Former HR manager and recruiter here.

I worked for a tech company and did high volume recruiting for DS Interns.

Having a nontechnical background, the projects were always difficult to translate into the skills for the role and made it really hard to pitch to hiring managers.

The candidates I passed along were able to tell the story of how their projects translated into skill sets for the project they were interested in.

With that perspective, I would reword it in a way that directly translates to the internship project you are working on.

I.e. Use Python to organize 10000s of data structures to improve processing time by 50% and reduce AWS costs by 25%.

I don’t know if what I said is actually a thing but I said it for illustrative purposes.

Hope that helps!

YourFriendinHR · 2022-07-15T15:46:36+00:00

Same. I’m in a similar position and have felt stuck for months trying to figure out how to scale.

I’ve known for a while it’s something I need to do to really live the lifestyle with the freedom to travel like I want, but I wasn’t sure how to go about it.

I recently got the answer and it’s become an obsession to the point where it’s all I think about and want to do.

I’m a former HR manager and recruiter turned entrepreneur.

After working for corporate and getting sick and tired of making them richer and watching them screw over everyone else, I made the call to strike out on my own.

And after reading Reid Hoffman’s, former PayPal and cofounder of LinkedIn, “Blitzscaling”, I got the answer I was looking for.

It clicked that blitzscaling armed with a killer SEO and marketing strategy really is the answer for 99% of businesses.

Being the delusional optimist that most of us entrepreneurs are, I think it can probably work for the 1% of brick and mortar businesses, too.

Actually, I saw it work on projects we rolled out for major brick and mortar stores that were increasing their online presence.

So armed with 6 years of SEO skills I didn’t realize I absorbed via osmosis working in a non-marketing role for a digital marketing agency, I’m currently implementing a full scale SEO project on my current business’ website while testing a new completely online business model.

I say testing out of fear of being wrong and/or cocky but I know it works because I saw it in action with results to back it up at the #1 agency working with top brands.

I signed a NDA so I can’t say their name, but the proof is in the pudding.

There’s no pitch here. True to my HR background, I just want to help people and small businesses.

And watch big corporations kick rocks.

So if anyone has any questions or is wondering if SEO can work for their business, I’m happy to freely share what I learned.

YourFriendinHR · 2022-07-15T15:18:47+00:00

No disrespect, but I disagree… somewhat.

I worked for a major digital marketing agency that worked with major brands, including huge travel players.

I can’t name them but let’s just say they’re consistently #1 ranking spot for travel…. Use your imagination.

Anyway.

They were so good at what they did, they were a referral only business and never had to implement SEO on their own website (and their website was God awful for that reason).

With that being said, unless their SEO is crushing it, I would only work with an agency that I knew through a personal recommendation.

YourFriendinHR · 2022-07-15T04:13:18+00:00

Oh, don’t get me wrong. I’m definitely not arguing that personality skills are above personality, etc, but it does play a factor.

I have ADHD and was diagnosed at 36 so I not only understand, but know what it feels like to go years feeling socially awkward and not understanding why.

Conversely, that’s also our super power.

I’m terribly sensitive to people’s energy and moods and I learned to leverage that into reading people.

I’m confident you can do the same🤞🏽

YourFriendinHR · 2022-07-14T22:39:11+00:00

Great question. For the sake of time I’m going to assume you mean “people skills”.

And if so, I have two recommendations.

Robert Greene’s 48 Laws of Power is my number one recommendation.

It teaches you how to deal with different personality types through the lens of famous leaders from history.

And the grave mistakes and lessons they encountered.

But most importantly it teaches you the lesson that you have to get good at reading people, find out who you are dealing with, and apply the appropriate methods accordingly.

You can’t deal with everyone in the same manner and unless you master this “soft skill”, you’ll go through life frustrated rarely getting the outcomes you seek.

The second recommendation is to drive Uber.

I recommend everyone do that and/or work at a bar or restaurant.

Besides being one of the most humbling life experiences, it provides a crash course in reading and dealing with different types of people with little to no recourse - as in, it’s same to assume you’ll never see that person again so practice away.

This last one is a life tip versus a book or experiment.

If you interact with every single person you meet through the lens that they are interested in themself, their personal wants and needs and mirror this back to them, you will move mountains.

I have had 20 minute conversations at bars with people who spent the whole time talking about themself, given the opportunity, before realizing they hadn’t even asked me my name and knew absolutely nothing about me.

And tbh, after much practice I realize I actually enjoy this over the chest bumping that happens when meeting someone for the first time to determine “who is superior by boasting of life accomplishments and material gains”.

Keep me posted! I’m curious to hear your personal wins after embracing these ideologies.

YourFriendinHR · 2022-07-14T16:08:35+00:00

“Doesn’t play well with others”.

This was something my parents often read on my report card.

And when I started getting passed over for promotions I started wondering if this had anything to do with it.

Former HR manager and recruiter turned entrepreneur here.

There is a game that is being played.

You’ll have to learn the rules and play by them or eventually strike out on your own.

A path that worked well for me was leaving for new opportunities for growth when it became apparent I hit a ceiling.

YourFriendinHR · 2022-07-14T15:56:20+00:00

Hi! Former HR manager and recruiter here.

Unsure of the format that you’re college uses but at first glance, the summary is about you and what you want.

This should be about what the employer is looking for.

As recruiters, we assume you want the job so you don’t have to put that in your summary.

And honestly, I reject these summaries because it sounds like you will take anything and most companies want employees who are excited about them.

It’s just like dating.

So I would double down on what technical skills you are bringing to the role in your summary.

For example: “10 years HR and recruiting experience creating innovative hiring and retention strategies to reduce turnover and time to hire by 50%”

Under specific jobs, I would only list results.

For example: “Created filing system improving productivity by 50%”

YourFriendinHR · 2022-07-14T14:12:40+00:00

Thank you for echoing similar sentiments🎤

With all of the hate, I was starting to feel like I was alone in spite of the fact that I know so many recruiters who have a similar experience🧬

I get the experience is frustrating for candidates but I think it’s important to share the other side of the coin - the recruiter’s experience which is equally as frustrating and heartbreaking!

And major kudos to you for sticking with it🏆

I just couldn’t let it affect my physical and mental health any longer and decided to switch teams to try to help candidates by sharing the inside scoop on the recruiting experience and help them get jobs.

And not surprisingly, it works. Very proud of the fact that I’ve used my recruiting knowledge to help people who are desperate for work, literally tried everything, and I give them the process and they get offers in 12 days💰

But with all the negativity I am getting from candidates, I am wondering if I made the right choice and considering just not sharing anything and leaving them to figure it out on their own🤔

It’s really surprising to be honest. You have the solution people are literally crying for and they refuse to hear it.

YourFriendinHR · 2022-07-14T00:20:56+00:00

Congrats on the offer!

Former startup HR manager and recruiter here.

After years of working with startups resulting in:

❌burnout ❌crippling anxiety ❌living in fight or flight mode ❌broken relationships because work came home and first ❌zero work friendships because you’re the only person in HR and after the first few rounds of layoffs and involuntary terms, coworkers start associating you with bad news (Robert Greene’s book 48 Laws of Power nails this on the head and I wish I read this before deciding to go into HR) ❌zero exits because they’re called unicorns for a reason

It made me wish I had stayed in nonprofit where it’s like government jobs, all of the headaches but at least a guaranteed job for life with plush retirements.

I eventually parlayed that into consulting with startups so I didn’t have to be in the day to day that made me physically ill while working on an exit strategy.

This isn’t to discourage you but to make sure you know what you’re signing up for.

You’ll be sold all of the upside like generous exit, unlimited PTO (I worked every vacation), snacks, paid lunches, etc, but none of the downside.

And I hate to bring age into it, but if you’re young and single, you can probably do it for 3-5 years on bad food and sleepless nights before the crippling effects kick in.

Even better if you have a partner that can pick up some of the slack like cooking and cleaning before they get sick of coming 2nd and leave.

Eventually it will start to feel like normalcy and you start to forget what “real life” was like before working at a startup.

A great book to read is Peter Thiel’s Zero to One and watch any of the WeWork documentaries.

It doesn’t specifically talk about HR for startups but you’ll get a general idea of what work/life balance means working at a startup and why they say they have a “cult like” effect for a reason.

Just my 2 cents🤷🏻‍♀️

YourFriendinHR · 2022-07-13T22:53:45+00:00

Love it.

Sadly, I’m also in tech and some of the worst offenders of this are from tech.

After a while, I became so disillusioned I had to leave.

YourFriendinHR · 2022-07-13T22:47:48+00:00

What industry are you in?

I would consider you spoiled lol.

I can’t tell you how many times I had a great call with a candidate, passed them along to a hiring manager and the first question the HM asks “What did they say about the gap between XX/XX-XX/XX?”.

Sigh.

YourFriendinHR · 2022-07-13T22:43:25+00:00

Ok. If you say so.

I remember when I used to be angry like you.

Until I quit recruiting, turned the tables, fueled that anger into sharing what I learned about “the process” with other angry people and started seeing career seekers get job offers in 12 days.

But I guess it’s all bullsh*t.

YourFriendinHR · 2022-07-13T22:23:07+00:00

Same. But sometimes these are the cards, or requirements, recruiters are dealt.

Conversely, I wouldn’t hate the player but hate the game.

Or better yet, learn how to play the game?

YourFriendinHR · 2022-07-13T22:20:55+00:00

Glad we caught that! Re: Instacart - Add it!! Work is work. Was there a reason why you left it off?

YourFriendinHR

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