Ian Griffin is our fifth Fifty-Over-50 to be featured. Like the other four, Griffin is a unique role model for those of us who are determined to stay working.
After a lucrative run in all sorts of high-tech jobs in "The Valley," Griffin found himself challenged in 2009 to figure out how to make a living. He tells his story how he got on the other side of that as well as he's factoring in aging in his career planning.
Ian Griffin came to America from England to attend Tufts University. In some ways, it's a classic immigrant story, but at the high end. After he studied sociology in college and get the picture that it wasn't all that marketable in the U.S. of A., Griffin took an inventory of what else he might have to sell. That turned up the rudimentary computer skills he had used in college.
"Those days when I set out to seek my fortune in America were the early 1980s," said Griffin. "PCs were simple and they used Wordstar word-processing. Although very primitive, that knowledge base was enough to get me a job in Silicon Valley on a tech support line."
A friend of his had gone to California and told him that there was opportunity in the emerging high-tech industries. He was single, had nothing to lose, so figured why not. He's been there since.
Alert, Griffin noticed that the technical side couldn't tell the story that needed to be told about the products, the company, the brandname, and the implications for the future. He migrated from System Engineer positions to Executive Communications, that is, creating speeches, presentations, and scripts for senior executives, including the chief executive officer. The brass loved him since he not only had the intuitive feel for narrative but the technical background. He talked their language.
But all did not go smoothly. Actually it never does in high-tech.
"The mindset in Silicon Valley is very Darwinian," Griffin philosophically sighed. "Companies come. Companies go. And the people in them have to, you might say, learn to jump from lily pad to lily pad. I learned that. And that's very different from how I was brought up to see the world in England. There, when I was young and even up to today - 2010 - if you fail, you're finished. Here in The Valley if you fail you figure out how to get to the next lily pad. Incidentally, Jane, venture capitalists want to see some track record of failure in order to be assured that you've knocked around enough."
Soon after, Griffin had been hired by Sun MicroSystems in Executive Communications. However, the company then decided to outsource the function. He made it to another lily pad, and then others after that.
"In high tech, and maybe more professionals should adopt this perspective, Jane, we never consider our W-2 position as a job for life. It's just a job for right now. You are very much responsible for our own career, not the company."
What company that job is with, who the boss is, and how that boss views you aren't all that important to The Valley residents. Several years ago, human-resources visionaries predicted that professionals would identify more with their peer group of "craftspeople," than with their companies or superiors. Griffin lives that.
"Organizational life is lots less stressful when you don't take 'their' evaluation of you, be it a lay off or a performance review, too seriously. I value the most and gain the most from what others in my direct line of work, like you for instance, say to me. With so much volatility even in the most traditional workplaces, I have a hunch that sooner than later the typical Organization Man and The Professional Woman will have to integrate such a mindset. Right now, there are a handful of my peers who I look to for validation and criticism. The rest, I couldn't care less about."
However, we all do age. And that can be a game-changer, for even the cool customers among us. I asked Griffin if aging has made the lily-pad style of earning a living more challenging.
"Jane, yes, aging has to be factored in. I look around and see that the newer companies such as the Googles and Facebooks tend to have an organizational culture tipped toward youth. Not that an older person couldn't get in or fit in. But that is probably not where I'm heading. In fact, at this time, I am beginning to take the long view on my career. Eventually I would like to do more public speaking and training. I have done some of that, including internationally, and am good at it. Down the road, I can shape my professional life to have more of that and less direct service in speechwriting."
When I interviewed Griffin, he was in Detroit to deliver a speech at a communications conference. One distinct advantage he has as a speaker on the circuit is his British accent. In most circles, that's an edge.
In 2009, for many of us, the jump to the next lily pad seemed a lot longer and harder. Griffin had under his belt several years of W-2 employment as a speechwriter with Hewlett-Packard. Then, as is typical in The Valley, he was again laid off. He had one daughter in college. Another child, a son, would be heading there. The cost of living, especially housing, is high in California.
I bluntly asked Griffin, "How did you get through 2009?"
"Well," he answered, again philosophically, "I realized quickly that the usual suspects such as the big high-tech companies weren't going to be doing much external outreach. That wasn't a good market to attempt to sell my skills to. I had to tap into other markets. I hired a coach to train me how to make cold calls. What I did was phone smaller non-high-tech businesses such as accounting firms and pitch my services. I wound up creating commercial scripts they would use in their own marketing and sales. In addition, I provided training in social media. Still, it was tough. I took out a home equity loan on my house."
I told Griffin, "We are in the same club. I took out a bridge loan to keep my business going."
"But," continued Griffin, "Things worked out. My daughter is attending college in New York. She loves it. And she was fortunate to be awarded a scholarship to bridge the gap on what my wife and I couldn't pay that year."
Currently, Griffin has a pile-on of assignments in just about every area of his expertise. He has built a solid network through the National Speakers Association and also leverages digital media as a way to let folks know what he can offer them in the way of his communications services. He has been Past President of the National Speakers Association in Northern California.
Readers and prospective clients can reach Ian Griffin on his website www.exec-communications.com, ian.griffin@exec-comms.com, or 510-962-4721.
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For additional information, insight, and inspiration on making a living in any economy at any age, please purchase my new book OVER-50: HOW WE KEEP WORKING. Last month I delivered a talk derived from OVER-50 to the New York State Bar Association. VITAL SPEECHES OF THE DAY just published that speech. Here is a complimentary copy Download NYSBAtalkinVITALSPEECHESOFDAY.
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