Getting back to executive suite can be tough; But as stocks slip, ex-managers knock on doors
by David Bushnell (The Boston Globe, March 22, 2001)

In the 1990s, many middle managers and senior executives left the corporate world. Some were pushed; others left voluntarily. But almost all had something in common: bulging stock portfolios, thanks to ever-rising markets.

So, with nary a financial care, many of these corporate dropouts set out to indulge themselves, whether by traveling around the globe or resuming their avocations. The world was their oyster—or so they thought.

Now, with financial markets taking a beating and stock values down 50 percent or more since a year ago, many former managers are knocking on the doors of employers and executive search consultants in an effort to go back to work.

"Six months ago, I would have said that boredom," was the main motivator of people looking to get back into the workplace. "Today, however, financial concerns are weighing more heavily on their minds," said Joseph Daniel McCool, editor of Executive Recruiter News, a newsletter published by Kennedy Information of Fitzwilliam, N.H.

"Just when they thought they knew the rules of the game, the game changed," said Zelda White, who has her own career consulting business in Brookline.

For those who are now on the outside looking in, the challenge will be to persuade employers that they still have the managerial skills to deal with ever-changing technologies, other employment counselors and headhunters say.

And that will not be easy to do, these specialists suggest, especially since some large technology companies, including Cisco Systems, are no longer on a hiring spree. Cisco, which has a large corporate presence in suburban Boston and Southern New Hampshire, recently said it will shed thousands of jobs nationwide. The total could be as high as 5,000, the company said.

There are also indications, employment counselors said, that other companies are not as anxious to fill positions as they were in the late '90s and early last year.

Moreover, if someone has been out of the corporate scene for, let's say, five years, "that's considered a lifetime" by some employers, said Paul Reardon, a partner in Reardon Associates, an employment agency with offices in Burlington and Dedham.

However, a person who is able "to make a compelling case for joining the corporate ranks again" can often prevail, McCool said. That's particularly true, he added, "if he or she is obviously reenergized" from having taken time off.

People seeking jobs as managers should not discuss "their financial neediness, or what's happened to their [stock] portfolios," said James Poe, an owner of the Wellesley executive search firm Nagler, Robins & Poe.

White, the Brookline career counselor, has been in the field for more than 20 years. She said that while she's privy to clients' special circumstances, clients are not about to air them in public.

Reardon agreed: "There's the pride factor."

White, who does business as ABC (A Better Career), said she has helped several middle-age people get back to full-time work over the last year. Two clients got management jobs, she said; a third, who had relied for a while on a trust fund after her corporate job was eliminated, is launching a computer services consulting firm with a partner.

Contract work is appealing to many who want to jump-start their careers because of financial considerations and who have a desire to be involved again in creative business pursuits, White said.

Sometimes, though, a desire for consulting work can mean something else, said Nick Hurd, managing director of the Boston office of Russell Reynolds, a national search firm that specializes in finding senior executives.

"A fellow who had been out of the banking industry for three years called me and said he only wanted some consulting projects. That told me that he really didn't want to do any heavy lifting anymore" as a senior corporate officer, Hurd said.

However, some former executives who opted for consulting a few years ago are remaining in this line of work "because their portfolios have been decimated," said Poe, whose firm has a nucleus of high-tech clients.

Entrepreneurial types have a difficult time being away from hard work for too long, Poe said.

"These people frequently leave start-ups for a sabbatical," he said. "They recharge their batteries by doing community work and similar things, which they ordinarily wouldn't have an opportunity to do.

"But after a year, most of these people want to look for another venture that they can get closely involved in."

Middle managers who want to jump on board again sometimes make the mistake of thinking they can get a job "at the same level, or even a step up, that they were at at their previous employer," Reardon said. "But that type of thinking can be unrealistic if they've not worked for a while."

One of the best tacks a person can take while trying to climb the corporate ladder again is to showcase his or her skills and then prove, by citing an example, that they are up-to-date, he said.

© 2001 The Boston Globe.