An experience with an irresponsible but desperate job seeker by kayode olufemi-ayoola

An experience with an irresponsible but desperate job seeker by kayode olufemi-ayoola

He was referred to me by a respectable clergy in the society. His story, when he told it was pathetic. He has lost his job as a result of harsh recessions hitting the financial sector. His house rent was due in a few weeks, his kids were at home for not paying school fees. He was desperate – he needed a job yesterday. Would I be able to help?

The first thing I did was to ask him for his resume, which to my dismay showed the profile of someone who has settled for less over the years… and had gotten even less than he settled for. He has spent the last 10 years working harder on the job than on “himself” with very few promotions to show for his efforts. Wasted years coupled with the fact that he wasn’t getting any younger did not make for a cheerful prognosis.

He informed me he wanted a better job than the one he lost – anxious to improve his circumstances, but he had been unwilling to become the kind of person who could make the cut for his dream job offer. Sadly I had no choice but to inform him that he would only be able to attract the kind of job offer he’d just lost. I explained philosophically that a dream job offer is not something you pursue (through applying for every Tuesday/Thursday tabloid), but rather, it is what you attract by the person you become – the person who meets his dream job advert criteria; the person who has become the kind of person who can perform the job on offer profitably for the incumbent organization.

He reluctantly agreed to a short term transition plan perfectly captured by the phrase – “who I will be is a continuation of who I have been”. So we developed a well-articulated job description of the person “he had been” and targeted jobs similar to the one he was fired from, and sure enough, within a few weeks, he landed an offer from an organization  similar to the previous company he had worked for. I then explained to him that the time was now right to commence work on “the person he wanted to become” relative to the job of his dreams.

But! Sadly he disappeared for almost 2 years. I ran into him one early morning very close to my office; he was driving by in a “tokunbo” car he had just bought; his only comment to me, when he saw me, was that I should please help his wife like I helped him.

Toby’s dilemma, as explained in the words of Sidney Harris is that, “he hated change and yet loved it at the same time”, catch-22 eh? What he really wants is for things to remain the same and yet get better! He is not interested in becoming more than he already is – he just wants to earn more money. He needs to realize that he cannot package himself beyond the person that he is, he needs to realize that those who do not create the future they want, as Draper Kaufman says, must endure the future they get.

Your resume – your value proposition or what I call your scarcity value, will always have one limitation – you! You can never package yourself beyond who you are!

I’d love to hear your thoughts from this: kayode.ayoola@gmail.com