The Laid-Off Life: Spring Training – It’s Not Just For Phillies Anymore

“‘In-between’. There’s a phrase that is far too underappreciated. What a great day it was, what a moment of pure triumph, to have discovered that there are in-betweens. What freedom it is to live in a spectral world that most people take for granted.” – Elizabeth Wurtzel

This wasn’t the column I was planning on writing today. But in The Laid-Off Life, things change every day, and you have to go-with-the-flow, steady-stand while the boat rocks and rolls, have emotional resilience. Opportunities can pop up at the drop of a hat. And even then, the rules of the game can change in front of your eyes. And if that’s not enough metaphors for you, no worries: I got more.

The baseball season starts each Spring at quaint stadiums and practice fields in Florida and Arizona. You have your established stars – your Ryan Howards, your Jayson Werths, your Roy Halladays – whose positions on the team are concrete and are simply there to knock off winter rust. And you have the prospects and utility players, guys scratching just to make the team. But there’s another category of player, usually hanging around the batting cages wearing uniform numbers like 77 and 93. They’re ‘non-roster invitees’, players in kind of a no-man’s-land. They’re not officially on the team, or any team for that matter. They’re usually veterans just looking for one last shot, a high-level try-out just to stay playing the game they love.

They’re the definition of ‘in-between’. Not here; not there. Now here is nowhere.

I went to an interview today. Nice place, clean, homey looking. No apparent structural damage. No slave-drivers wielding riding crops. I could work here. I had what I thought was a good interview. I was charming and engaging and I was sure to corral all extraneous conversation back to my résumé. Not the first interview I’ve had since I’ve been laid off, not by any stretch. So I expected the usual options as a result. I’d interview, and wait, and one of two things would happen:

• I got the job.
  
• I didn’t get the job.

Those would seem to be the prevailing choices for my would-be employers. But there was another option I hadn’t considered. An option I am finding to be more and more common these days in our ‘new economic and employment climate’.

An in-between.

I was offered a try-out. I was going to be given a chance to prove myself before anyone made a commitment. It seems this is more frequently becoming a new option for commitment-phobic hiring managers. A non-roster invitation with no obligation. A Broadway audition. That was great. Leave your head shot with the director’s assistant. Next!

I don’t think it was that callous. I think they truly liked me. And for once, I’m going to see this from the employer’s point-of-view. I don’t have to tell you, there are a lot of job hunters out there. This small company placed an ad on Craigslist. No promotion, no pushing to an email database, no listings on Career Builder. As passive a job listing as listings can be. And within two weeks, they received over a thousand résumés. That’s 83 times their actual number of current employees. That’s the jungle we’re hunting in: so many hunters, so little game.

But how is a small employer to know you’re the right person for the job? Anyone can put together a winning résumé, anyone can knock an interview out of the park. After all, last year, 30,000 students applied to Harvard. Just 2,100 of them were accepted. I presume a great many of those 93% that didn’t get in had 4.0 GPA’s and awesome interviews. So an excellent way for a company trying to emerge in the spring of a (very very) slowly-improving economy is try-outs. Low risk, high reward, and that’s music to the ear of any CEO beginning to make it out of the recession relatively-unscathed.

Imagine what it costs a company (literally and figuratively) to hire a new employee, train them, bring them in on important or proprietary projects, take the time and effort to bring them up to speed, give them a coffee mug, and stop any further applicant search. Imagine if that person doesn’t work out in a very short period of time, and must be let go. That’s a grave financial loss for a company, and a lot of unneeded emotional turmoil. Not to mention, as always, possibilities of legal action. So, the ‘in-between’: give someone a try-out. No commitments, no muss, no fuss. No messy divorce.


From the job-giver’s point of view, it’s a win-win. If the non-roster invitee works out, sign that man to a contract with a no-trade clause. If not, thank you very much, and good luck on your search. From the job-seeker’s point of view, it’s most certainly a chance to be given a fair shake in a job without losing out to a less-than-qualified employee who was hired on résumé and not merit. It’s not the best of all worlds, but it’s a fine new compromise in a New Job-World Order. Employers are more careful than ever when hiring new recruits, and playing your cards right, you may be the beneficiary.

So, my advice to you, for the little it’s worth, is be ready for this possibility if your chosen field allows for it. It’s an option now that wasn’t as much of one before. No one’s trying to get work out of you for nothing; make sure they’re paying you a fair price for your try-out. You’re still working. But don’t worry too much about negotiating price for a try-out, if you’re as good as advertised, you’ll earn your rate.

And look at it this way, they’re not just trying you out, you’re trying them out. In a time where so many are unemployed and looking for work, you may be tempted to grab any hook out there, no matter how good or bad the worm is. But make sure the job is right for you, the company is right for you, the environment is right for you. Because if you’re miserable in your new job so soon, how are you going to feel in a few months? But that’s a column for another day.

So, wish me luck. Either I may celebrating a new job should this try-out work out, or I will be back for more stories from The Laid-Off Life.


Michael Hochman ◙ LaidOffLife@yahoo.com ◙ twitter.com/PhillyPartTwo

Michael is a Copywriter, Creative Marketer, and Broadcasting Professional still in search of full-time employment after 10 months of full-time job hunting, thanks to an “involuntary career sabbatical”. A Philly native and Syracuse graduate, Michael will gladly accept any job offer you may have for him. Any. Really. Please give me a job??