I have known James for a number of years. I placed him a few years ago and unfortunately, he has had a couple of bad breaks since then. He left the company I placed him with to go to work for an organization that made him a phenomenal offer. They were out of Detroit and they wanted him to build an office in Dallas…right before the pandemic. Ow! Six months into it they had to close the office because of the economy and, of course, his phenomenal salary went away.
He then got hired by an organization that put him in a selling/management position. All well and good, except one of his subordinates who had been with the company for 12 years, was terribly underperforming, but since she had been there for so long, she not only disregarded what James would do to try to help her get better, she downright defied him. When he took the situation to his upper management, they basically told him it was his problem and, since she had been with the company so long, they weren’t going to do anything about it, but they emphasized that he couldn’t fire her.
James was in a terrible position. This subordinate was totally defying him and everybody could see it and yet his management wasn’t going to do anything to help him. In his 20 years of experience, he had never been in this kind of position. He really cared about his job and the people he worked for and with and it was a terrible emotional strain. He explained to his management that he really couldn’t carry on this way and that something had to be done. They made it clear that they were really not going to do much about it, so James decided he needed to call me and leave his job.
It took him a while to do it because he was so emotionally drained by the whole experience. He took his job and profession seriously, as well as personally, and the situation was causing him a lot of anguish. Once he did call us, we decided to take (as I teach in www.thejobsearchsolution.com) massive action and start getting him as many interviews as possible. We were able to get James four interviews. He got an offer from an excellent organization and a $20,000 increase in salary.
I wish this kind of thing happened all the time, but it doesn’t. James was really good at what he did and we knew exactly where to go with his experience.
After he accepted the job, James explained to me that he felt like the whole experience was a “God thing.” He explained that while he was agonizing over the job he had and going through the emotional strain and turmoil, he prayed that God would bring him peace and show him a way out of his predicament. He stated that once he started working with us, a calmness and confidence came over him that everything was going to work out even if he had to resign and find a new job. He said he felt that God had actually placed us in his life and when He did, James became more peaceful and confident that everything would work out.
We are humbled by James’ gratitude. Every one of us in our company feels that God has given us gifts and we try to use them every day to help people and companies come together. Obviously, it doesn’t always work out this way. We wish we were blessed to be able to help all who come to us in this manner. It’s especially humbling when someone thinks that God actually put us in their life and they are grateful for it.
It made me think that maybe, if we were more cognizant of the fact that, per chance, God puts everyone …candidates and employers… in our lives and that our work is as much spiritual as it is strictly business or secular, we might be able to help just a few more.
Most people don’t really understand our profession. The vast majority of candidates who come to us or who we recruit, we don’t place. I had to explain this to a candidate yesterday who wrote me and said that he had contacted me six months ago and that I had not gotten him even one interview. I tried to explain to him that we just hadn’t been able to find an organization where his experience would fit. Our clients pretty much dictate what kind of background and what kind of experience they would like to hire and we are simply information brokers. This guy’s background was very hodgepodge, and he had way too many jobs for what our clients would pay a fee to hire. That’s very hard to explain to somebody when they really need a job, but we don’t write the rules, we just play by them. I tried to explain this to this candidate. He was kind and said he understood, but he was still frustrated and needed to find a job. It made me think that God put him in my life also. I may not be able to find him a job (I wish I could and maybe I will) but it struck me that I wondered if I had been as empathetic and grateful for him as I had been with James.
I start my 48th year in this business this month. The whole thing is still a mystery… we are blessed and I am humbled by the whole thing.
