Your Unemployed Daughter

I recently got this note from Judd Marcello, fellow blogger, music aficionado, and husband to one of my college roommates: “I’m about to be unemployed once we move to London. Does YUD need guest bloggers? A “YUS” [Your Unemployed Son] perspective? A UK perspective?”

To update you briefly: J, my roommate, then housemate, now simply good friend across the world, moved to Boston after we graduated from our esteemed East Coast university. She took a job with a certain established company and has been with them ever since, moving, along with her promotions, from Boston to Miami to Sydney and now to London.

Judd has carved out his own career in each of those locales, bypassing established career path norms and hurtling conventional ladders to do what works for him—and what he’s really good at.

Now, he’s choosing unemployment, embarking for the land of tea and biscuits, and deciding what will come next. He says, “I’m an American in Australia moving to London, where the economic situation is at record lows where unemployment is concerned. I’ll have a good job hunt story to talk about.”

Indeed he will. Read on for more, and stay tuned for more of YUP’s (Your Unemployed Partner’s) adventures in unemployment.

In Judd’s own words: “Sometimes with being unemployed you have the chance to hit the reset button. If you liked what you were doing…get back on the horse. If not…choose your own adventure.”

I loved those fucking books.

Take This Job and Shove It
“Gloriously unemployed” is how I have been describing myself of late—usually followed with an ear-to-ear-shit-eating grin. “Willingly unemployed” is another way to describe my situation. I just quit my job without having anywhere to go … aside from London.

You see, my situation is a bit unusual. I am currently living in Sydney, Australia, and have been for nearly five years. In a couple of weeks my wife and I move to London, where she has accepted a promotion with her company. This means that I’ve had to fire myself again. This is the third time that I have done a big, fat, gratuitous belly flop into the unemployment pool.

A quick timeline of events to get you up to speed:
2002: Wife and I are living in Boston, MA.
2002: Wife gets promoted and we move to Florida. I quit work at Welch Foods as a Trade Marketing Manger and look for new job in Miami.
2005: Wife gets promoted and we move to Australia. I quit work leading the Customer Business Development team at Black & Decker and look for new job in Sydney.
2009: Wife gets promoted and we move to the UK. I quit work at as the Brand Manager of Digital Video at Canon Australia and look for new job in London.

Get the idea? Willful unemployment and I are old friends. It is a bit of a love/hate relationship, but it works. I choose unemployment, it shakes its head at me in disgust, and we agree to disagree and get on with it. “Choose” is key here. My wife doesn’t just tug on my leash and I nip at her heels (I swear). We make the best decision for what we think is right for us … and for my career as well.

Chopping the corporate ladder into kindling means that my career has morphed into a collection of rewarding experiences that don’t follow a traditional linear pattern. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. Right? That’s what we are told when we start a career. Find a path and dry-hump it until you make it to the top of the ladder, or toil away at your middle management job while someone better than you gets the corner office.

But my situation has taught me that there are other options. A bag of tricks that incorporates a number of different roles, departments, people management experiences, and countries can give you more flexibility in the path(s) you take in your career. I’m not suggesting that bank teller, lawn mower, and dog walker gigs are going to make you CEO of Proctor & Gamble, but sometimes there are benefits to be gained from doing things a little bit differently.

For example, originally I was hired at Canon Australia as a category manager. A brand manager position opened up, which I saw it as an opportunity to get experience in a pure marketing role with a strong brand. The position required someone who’d held traditional marketing/brand management roles … of which I had had none.

But the digital video business was struggling and needed a solid commercial backbone to create a stronger brand presence in the market. I applied and got the role based on my experience as a sales manager, trade marketer, and category manager —even though I had no traditional brand management experience.

I left the role having achieved unprecedented levels of internal support for the brand, set a few revenue and profit high water marks, and learned a hell of a lot about how to market brands and reach consumers—none of which I would have achieved had I been afraid to forgo the traditional course.

This unconventional path has given me flexibility and, over time, has allowed me to focus on what I do best and what makes me unique: I am good at understanding the big picture and being able to take disparate pieces and put them together to drive the right business outcome, creating strong relationships to help achieve this.

Now, if I want to be the best of the best as a marketer, I have a lot of catching up to do. I think I would benefit from spending a bit more time in a brand role, but not as a long term, one-track-mind type of brand marketer. I would do it to broaden my perspective of how this “piece” of the “whole” works in context.

So, here is the truncated version of my Job Find Manifesto, the London Edition: Find a cultural fit where my talents can be used to the greatest effect. Work in an environment that rewards risk-takers. Ensure the leadership mix in the organization has healthy doses of both experience (older) and upstarts (younger).

Fortunately my wife’s visa also applies to me. I won’t have to request sponsorship from the big companies. This makes things much easier: More companies will be willing to have a look at me knowing they don’t have to spend up to $5,000 to sponsor my visa.

Yes, I am fortunate to be afforded such opportunities in life through my wife and her work. Some people call me a “kept man” or even better … “The Purse.” I think from here on in, on this blog, I will refer to myself as “YUP” (Your Unemployed Partner). While I don’t have a boss, I still have a wife/partner that I need to keep happy. I like YUP because it is positive. Here, let me show you:

Wife: You look for a job today?
Me: Yup.
Wife: You have any leads?
Me: Yup.
Wife: You have any interviews lined up?
Me: Yup.

See? That sounds positive and, dare I say it, proactive.

Ok fellow YUDdites, I think that is enough for now. I will check in weekly as my unemployment progresses. You can play along at home as we move from Sydney to London and I ramp up the search.

I leave you with a short playlist. Unemployment doesn’t mean you can’t kick out the jams when you need to—if anything, it’s a stronger call to action. Pour a drink, click on the links, and take a scroll through the job listings.

—Judd Marcello