Memoirs of a Frequent Business Traveler

One of you readers made a special request a while back to have me recount my very worst business trip experience ever, so here it is.  A client meeting was scheduled on the Thursday before the Easter weekend in April 2003.  At the time, I was working as a regional operations manager for a corporate travel agency with headquarters in Philadelphia.  Three previous attempts to visit this client at their Milwaukee headquarters had failed earlier in the year, including a meeting in January that was cancelled (after I landed in Milwaukee) due to a bad snowstorm less than an hour before it was to start.  I was able to leave Huntsville on an early Thursday morning connection through O’Hare/Chicago to make the early afternoon meeting, and take a return connection in the early evening, so no over night stay was required. My client and I were successful this time to have our much-delayed meeting.  I took the cab back to Milwaukee airport looking forward to getting home in time for the Easter weekend as thunderstorms started to move in over Milwaukee from the west.  Just as I arrived to my American Airline gate for the short hop to O’Hare, the weather closed in and within a few minutes the airport was shut-down and all flights grounded.  After waiting in a long line at the ticket counter, the agent told me that all other flights that evening and all the next day were sold-out due to a busy holiday.  The first flight she could re-book me on was Saturday morning.   An announcement came over the airport PA system saying that shuttle buses where available for transportation to O’Hare, which is 95 miles south for those who wanted other options than waiting for the airport to re-open. The agent told me if I left right then, I could still make my connecting flight in O’Hare to Huntsville.  I dashed out the door and jumped on the first Chicago-bound bus that pulled up to the curb.The bus I boarded was a typical shuttle bus used by hotels and rental car companies.  It was configured much like a mini school bus with bench seating in rows.  The bus was packed with other stranded travelers, and I was able to get the last seat in the very back bench next to the window.  We quickly shot out into the blinding rain storm and soon racing along I-95 south towards Chicago.About 45 minutes into the ride, my daydream stare out the window was interrupted by a loud scream near the front of the bus.  About that same moment, I had the sensation that the bus had become air born and was careening off to the right and down into a large canal that was parallel to the Interstate.  Something was wrong with the bus driver, and someone was yelling to “wake him up!”  The bus landed in the canal with a huge crash but still on all four wheels, and I could see water and cat tails flying up past the window as we continued to plow ahead at high speed.  Everyone was screaming now and trying to hold onto something as the bus continued to race through the canal and then up an embankment, through a wire fence, and eventually coming to a stop in a freshly plowed field.  The bus was so packed with people that I couldn’t see much past the next row of flaying passengers.  Finally, we came to a stop and miraculously did not roll over, but I could hear the engine revving and mud was flying out from the rear tires.  The driver was slumped over the wheel and his foot still pressing the accelerator to the floor.  Finally, one of the people in the front was able to wrench the driver out of his seat and onto the floor of the bus, and kill the engine.Everyone was frantically making calls on cell phones, as two passengers laid the driver out and began doing CPR. I looked out the bus rear window and could not believe how far we had traveled off the pavement, and more amazing that we hadn’t flipped over in the slide up out of the canal.  Cars on both sides of the Interstate were pulling off and people were wading through the canal towards us.  The storm continued to rage on outside and the two passengers continued to administer CPR.  I caught a glimpse of the driver, then, and I could tell by the shocking white color of his face that he was probably beyond help.   A fire truck and several ambulances arrived within 10 minutes and began the challenge of crossing the canal with emergency equipment. The canal was swollen from the heavy rain and getting deeper by the minute.  When the paramedics and state troopers boarded the bus, they told everyone  to evacuate so that the paramedics could work.  For those of us in the back (about 15 of us) we were told to leave the bus through the emergency exit window at the back.  The first person out was a young woman who managed to fall out head-first and into a big tangle of the barbed wire fence the bus had snagged when it topped the hill.  She screamed for help and was immediately assisted by a couple bystanders.  The wire fence had slashed her face badly and more paramedics were rushing to assist her.  After more volunteers pushed and pulled the ball of wire away from the exit area, the rest of us made the awkward  7-foot jump out of the window. I landed feet-first in black, sticky mud that came up past my ankles.The rain continued to pound down, and the crash survivors were huddled in little circles giving statements to the state troopers.  I was drenched to the bone in my wool business suit, and not one of us had umbrellas.  The trooper that interviewed me was trying to write information down on a wet note pad.  Finally, another fire truck arrived to the scene and began handing out blankets to those of us standing in the rain and mud.  I was so cold my teeth began to chatter as the paramedics continued to make an attempt to resuscitate the bus driver.  It took almost two hours for another bus to arrive to get us on to Chicago.  By that time, I had missed my Huntsville connection.  The woman injured in the jump from the emergency exit was taken in a separate ambulance to a local hospital about the time our new shuttle arrived.The medics were not able to revive the bus driver, and the local coroner was enroute.  Because of this, no one was allowed back on the bus except officials, so personal items were retrieved by the troopers and piled up in the rain on a wet blanket.  It was nearly dark when we made our way out of the black muck, across a now rushing canal and up to the waiting bus on the Interstate.  The rescue squads had rigged up a makeshift bridge using body boards to assist in crossing the deepest part of the canal.  It was slow going and a little scary crossing the water on an unstable flotation device, and the guy in front of me somehow managed to lose a shoe crossing over.  Several of us spent a few minutes fishing around for it, but it was never found, and the poor guy had to board the new bus without it.  Chatting with fellow crash victims during the hour-long ride on down to Chicago, I learned that the two people who had initially performed CPR were soccer coaches enroute to a conference in Dallas.  Another young couple was on their way to a honeymoon trip to Tahiti, and had now missed their connection and was trying to figure-out how they could salvage their trip plans.  While I was miserable and filthy with mud, my situation was not as bad as some others were.  I never got a real good look at the bus driver while boarding in Milwaukee, but several others in our group said he had looked sickly while getting luggage stowed in the baggage area.  We all suspect he had either a massive heart attack or stroke.  He simply slumped over the steering wheel with his foot planted on the accelerator.  Moments before the accident the bus had crossed under an overpass, so we were lucky the timing was such that we wrecked the way we did.  We could have as just as easily lurched to the right into on-coming traffic, or hit another car or tree.  Other than the bus driver and the woman who fell into the fencing wire, no one else on the bus was hurt. I had assumed that once we got to Chicago we would be escorted as a group to a private lounge area and offered dry clothing or something.  Instead, the shuttle driver dropped each of us off at the assigned airline drop-point.  I had missed my Huntsville flight by almost four hours.  My wool suite was beginning to smell like a randy billy goat, and my muddy shoes squeaked as I made my way to the American Airlines ticket counter.  I was a sorry sight, and when the ticket agent got a look at me (and a whiff of my wool suite) he made extra efforts in trying to get me home.  He was able to book me a seat on the first flight to Huntsville in the morning, and provided me a meal and hotel voucher.  It was after 11 pm when I got checked-in to a hotel room and able to get out of the wet and muddy clothing.  I washed both my shirt and pants in the bathtub, and used a hot dry iron to dry the clothes before I fell into bed.  The hotel was able to provide me a shaving kit and hair brush, but they were out of toothbrushes.  To this day, I always carry a toothbrush and small tube of toothpaste in my laptop bag where ever I go.  I was embarrassed to be seen in public the next day with my stained business suit and ruined dress shoes, but I made it home by early afternoon on Good Friday.  Milwaukee and I are jinxed, as I have had one other bad travel experience in Wisconsin a few years later.

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Posted on May 6, 2020 at 9:13 am by salaryfor.com · Permalink · Leave a comment
In: Business Stories

Using LinkedIn For Your Job Search

Using social media tools has become a very common and effective way to assist in your search for a new job.  The most common of these tools are LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.  In this article, we will focus on the use of LinkedIn for connecting you with potential recruiters and hiring decision makers. Recent statistics show that those who use LinkedIn in their job search are 40 times more likely to be hired that those who do not.  The simple fact in this changing job market is that recruiters love to use LinkedIn to source their potential candidates.  You can use this reality to build relationships with them and showcase your skills.

The 3 focus areas to focus on in LinkedIn are as follows:

As you begin to build your LinkedIn profile, remember to use your resume as the foundation.  Include a current and professional personal photo and your profile will be 7 times more likely to be viewed than those without a picture. Your contact information can include your job search email and a cell phone number, but it is inadvisable to include your home phone number or address.

The “Summary” section of your profile should use action verbs.  Conduct research on your target companies and choose wording that closely aligns with what they are seeking in a candidate in their job postings.   Focus on showing results or solutions that you have achieved in each of your past work experiences.

The “Education” section can include such things as GPA, group memberships or any additional training you have received.

“Recommendations” are very helpful and serve as validation for the experience you highlight.  These can come from former bosses or clients and it is a good idea to have a couple for each past employer.  You can also add additional sections such as Certifications, Languages, Publications or Volunteer activities.

There are 6 basic components of a good LinkedIn profile.  They are:

Privacy Settings is an area that should be given consideration as you develop your LinkedIn profile. Under “Connections” and then “Contacts”, if you choose “Add Connections”, this will pull all your contacts from your email address book.  If you do not wish to be connected in this way, you can go to the bottom left of the page, and choose the contact by individual email option.

Once you have your basic profile developed, you can begin connecting with others and be well on your way to finding a job.  Keep in mind that you can’t find a job if employers and hiring managers cannot find you so having a LinkedIn profile will ensure that you are visible and have an edge in this increasingly and ever more competitive job market.

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Strategies for Job Search and Networking

Although the job market is improving from its bottom in 2009, there are still many challenges faced by those seeking a new opportunity.  In this article, we will attempt to outline the various options available to the job seeker.  By using a combination of these options, the odds of landing a new and better job will increase substantially.

Only about 25% of all jobs out there are being advertised.  The rest of them are being filled through internal promotion or employee referrals via networking.  The 3 doors you can open in your job search are as follows:

The job search process is composed of 2 different components.  They are firstly the “Vision” and secondly the “Action.”  It is important to address each of these by making a list of the parts contained within each of them.  Begin by creating your “Vision” by using this outline and making a list of the following:

From the above list, you can prepare your branding statement or what is sometimes known as the 30 second commercial.  By using the above criteria, you need to create a compelling story of your accomplishments.  Practice this so that you know it well but try to make sure that it does not sound rehearsed.  Use your own words and keep it in mind because it will be an important reference point when you are face to face with potential networking contacts or in the actual job interview.

The next step will be your “Action Plan” which will establish the direction of your job search.  It is very important to have a plan because remember without one, all roads can lead to nowhere.  The downfall of most people in their job search is to have a haphazard approach akin to throwing spaghetti at a wall and hoping some of it sticks.  Moving forward without a plan rarely works.  Each plan should contain the following 3 components:

Now you are ready to make your next move.  You can begin to utilize Job Boards, Recruiters and your Networking contacts.  Several good Job Boards to target are CareerBuilder, HotJobs, and Monster. Many Recruiters will list positions on these sites.  Recruiters fall into 2 categories which are the Headhunter and the Retained Firm.  A Headhunter will be paid when the position is filled and the Retained Firm is under contract with an organization to fill all their open positions.  They will usually present between 3-7 candidates to the prospective employer.

Your networking contacts will fall into 2 categories which are Informal and Targeted.  It is possible for a contact to be both.  Essentially, the Informal contact is a person that you may just know as an acquaintance from which you are asking for feedback.  They may work in the industry or company you are targeting.  Ask them for their feedback on where you might potentially fit into the organization.  Do not ask them point blank if the company is hiring.  Keep it as a soft sell and casual conversation.  What you are looking for is for them to suggest another contact for you to reach out to that falls into the category of the Targeted networking contact.  This will be the person that is more closely connected to those in the hiring circle.  It may be an HR contact or a hiring manager at the firm.  Continue to pursue this strategy in all your personal interactions and you will find it will start to yield positive results.    Other areas open to fostering networking opportunities are groups such as the Chamber of Commerce for your community, industry clubs, alumni organizations or other formerly advertised networking events.  Most of your energy should be spent in this type of tactical networking since this is the door where 75% of all candidates who are hired are entering.

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