Looking for a job can feel mighty good or feel mighty bad. It all depends on your frame of reference. Two individuals share what appear to be very different perspectives. First…
“I’m looking and it feels mighty good. I have a job I’ve never liked that’s paid the bills, put the kids though school, and taught me lessons in patience, humility, and accountability that I otherwise might not have learned. Now, twenty-five years later, I can finally afford to figure out what’s out there that I can enjoy doing that gives me the energy my job has always taken from me.
My wife says I deserve to be happy. I’m grateful for that. Our grown children think I should have changed jobs years ago. Easy for them to say. My closest friends think I’m making a mistake to give up something I know, although it’s boring, to take on something I don’t know, that sounds exciting. I think all their feedback says more about the people giving it then it does about me.
I’m careful when I say what I’m doing. I may not be the sharpest pencil in the box but I know enough not to share my job search secret with people at work or outsiders who might know insiders. I’m not working with a search firm, either. I want to be in control of who sees my resume. I want to jump, I don’t want to get pushed.”
Second…
“After nineteen years on the job, I was let go when the company went bust. Looking for work at this point in my life isn’t a good thing; it’s the last thing I want to do and last thing I thought I would be doing. The market’s tight, the competition’s tough, my confidence is shot and I’m questioning my ability to make good decisions. My greatest concern is that I’ll jump at the first thing I’m offered, and then have to live with it. My next greatest concern is that I won’t be made an offer worth jumping at. I’ve been looking for 14 months. I’ve been on three interviews. I’ve come up empty three times. I’m running out of options as quickly as I’m running out of money.
It’s easy to look for a job when you have a job and you’re in control of the process. Your outlook’s optimistic, your attitude’s positive, you’re feeling centered and just a bit smug. You’ve got a great little secret that no one knows until you choose to share it.
It’s not much fun if, instead of feeling in control, you’re feeling controlled by an impersonal economy over which you have no influence. It doesn’t feel good if you feel ill-treated by a system that hasn’t a clue how steady and reliable you’ve been, how dutifully you’ve taken orders and how quietly you’ve obeyed them, even when they weren’t in your best interest.”
There are as many similarities in these two stories as there are differences. Each individual perceives himself to have been manipulated by something over which he had no control. Each placed service above self, patience above personal potential. The first individual worked 25 years waiting to do something he liked better. The second individual gave his all to lose it all when he waited longer than was prudent and was laid off when his company went under.
You can choose to wait and do work that neither engages your imagination nor stimulates your thinking. You can choose to wait and stultify your potential by saying “yes” when integrity tells you the words you need to say all begin with “no”. You can choose differently while you still have the time, health, energy, and opportunity to enjoy a better outcome.
