I stood with toes curled over the concrete edge of the pool looking down. Goose bumps crossed my skin. My chest concaved a little in fear of the cold water below. It had rained the night before.
This was Florida in May – North Florida mind you – but Florida all the same. I’d have been damned if I wasn’t going to go for a swim on what may very well have been my only vacation this year.
My wife laughed at me. She’s like that. There was no way she’d jump in. But yet she was coaxing me all the way. I felt like a kid trying to build up the courage to eat a gooey pile of cream of spinach off his plate.
Dread
I don’t know anyone who doesn’t dread the Job Hunt. Its one of those things, like eating your cream of spinach or jumping into a cold pool – you don’t want to do it. You dread doing it. But we all know from experience, that cream of spinach isn’t as bad as it looks. And the water in the pool will feel warmer once we’re in it.
The Resume
No one wants to work on his or her resume. It’s about the most boring work a human can do – writing down responsibilities, having others critique and comment in it, trying to sum up who you are in a page or two. Bragging about accomplishments from work. It’s a ridiculous activity!
Sometimes I think the issue is the way we look at these activities. To think that anyone could encapsulate their being and who they are in a couple of pages is silly. Even those with the smallest of egos have a hard time with what is the most minimalistic of representations.
Interviewing
Interviewing? Talking on the phone to people you don’t know about jobs you’re not sure you want? That’s even tougher!
Offers and Acceptance
And this whole concept of people you’ve probably never met accepting or rejecting you based on a few sheets of paper – what a psychological nightmare!
Most of us spend as much time as possible around people who accept us. We avoid rejection and failure like the plague. We do the jobs we do because we’re successful at them – not because we fail at them. Comfort, in a psychological sense, comes from adding up small wins. A friend laughs at my joke, I hit a nice drive on on a tight fairway, my code compiles and unit tests pass – these are little wins. We like to be in places where we get lots of little wins.
So the job hunt is something different. We’re putting ourselves out there specifically for the opportunity to be rejected and to fail in most cases. It is a rare person who finds more success in the job hunt than failure. You’re going to get a lot less offers than you will apply for.
FAIL vs WIN
So who would subject themselves (voluntarily) to an activity in which they can expect more fail than win?
Very few people enter a job hunt voluntarily.
Most of us need a paycheck. We need healthcare. We need a sense of satisfaction and identity beyond sister, brother, mother, wife, husband, uncle, or cousin.
I hate groupthink, but I do think that the best ideas tend to come out of groups. The human group has evolved the job search process to where it is today. Employers have had the most influence over the process. Keep that in mind while you’re going through this process. Employers have less to lose if a candidate doesn’t work out than we do.
Its not unexpected, then, that there would be some “fail” on the candidate’s part.
Traffic
There is good news.
All these people you see on the road at 8:30 AM and driving back to Raleigh at 5:30 PM – they did it. They jumped in the pool and have joined the party.
If all of them can do it, we can too!
In the End…
It’s understandable to dread the process. It’s understandable to curl our toes up on the edge of this pool. The fact is, the quicker we jump in, the quicker it will be over!
Oh, and if you need a push, contact me. 
