The gray area -You are not specializedThe gray area… There was a time in my life when I was wielding years of experience in several thriving industries and I had my degree….I was ready to take the world by storm….until I met with a kind old man who told me the dreaded truth. He was a retired chemist in New Jersey who traveled the world for 35 years and lived a full life filled with family and friends and adventure. He was 85 and living comfortably on his pension while collecting record albums that numbered in the tens of thousands. He filled two spare bedrooms with his collection and would alternate between vinyl record albums and compact discs. He would host and record the regional piano prodigies who played his 7 foot grand piano while he used his state of the art recording equipment. What does this have to do with the dreaded truth? Everything…this man was my greatest influence as I grew up idolizing him…I loved his stories, his stereo and his way with words…he had the life I wanted. I never ask for advice unless I already know the right course of action…and I want confirmation..but I never tell the person I “need” advice. One day I asked him to listen to a situation I was in…I had many choices and they all seemed quite good…but I could not see any clear option standing out…and I had a deadline to make a decision. On the one hand I had a safe and conservative option...not great…not horrible…just decent. Another option seemed risky…with great rewards if I could handle the risk….but if I didn’t handle it right everything I worked for could fall apart and it would take a long time to rebuild… The other option was to sit still and see if the other options would assert themselves and I would let myself be recruited without making much of an effort other than listening to my gut instinct. My mentor listened carefully without interrupting…he mulled it over and said:“You are a general purpose utility worker…you are not specialized and there are hundreds of people that can replace you without your company spending much time looking. You have too much experience in some areas and hardly any experience in your areas of interest. Your college degree is not an asset because it is in a discipline that seems to be unrelated to your job search…and it makes you look overqualified. You are in no man’s land…over qualified yet not specialized” I was shocked…how could this man say this and hurt my feelings? Easy….while everyone else was killing me with kindness…this man was trying to get me to see how the job market viewed me. His experience told me that I was stuck in the middle with nothing to make me standout…nothing too objectionable…but nothing to recommend me either. He asked for a copy of my resume and he critiqued it as if he were an employer and he insisted I make some changes for my own good. He said I needed to have several versions and when I sent my resume to a job that didn’t specifically require a degree…he said do not send the version that listed my education…unless I wanted to gamble…he also said that gamblers don’t get the job…they only get the opportunity. "The gray area" written by Ken Bownes "The gray area" blogHave A Great Story About This Topic?Share it! "The gray area" - Most read articles Home |
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