My father grew
up during the height of the Great Depression and taught himself many things. There
wasn’t much he could not do. He was truly skilled in many areas, from car
repair to fabricating aircraft. He was a devout believer in never paying for
anything you could do yourself.
EJ—everyone
called him that, preached the gospel that said, if you can read and perform
math, you should be able to do anything yourself. He not only preached that
gospel, he lived it. If anything broke, he fixed it himself. That is why
dentistry came to mind. Yeah, my father performed his own dental work. To my
knowledge, he never saw a dentist, and as a result never wasted a dime having
his teeth fixed.
Without going
into horror stories of what happened to his teeth, suffice to say that people
like EJ are still among us. The recent exposure to our Great Depression has
forced many job seekers to acquire do-it-yourself mentality. After all, why
shell out good money for something like a résumé when you can do the darn thing
yourself.
While
eavesdropping on a conversation during lunch, I heard a young man named Zack
regale over the great difficulties he and everyone else he knew was having in
the job market. He had sent out another 100 copies of his résumé, and braced himself
for continued bad results. I turned to a nearby acquaintance and made inquiry
about the young man.
“Oh-him? Yeah I
know Zack,” John G replied. “That kid is brilliant. Probably one of the
smartest people I know.” It should be noted that John knows many smart people. Thus,
his comment piqued my curiosity. If the young man is so smart, why was he
having so much difficulty finding a job?
A quick decision
was made: I needed to help a deserving stranger for Holy Week. In doing so, it
helps to promote a sense of self-efficacy. I approach Zack, introduce myself,
and inform him that this is his lucky day. I was going to make him an
employment star.
Outwardly, Zack
was gracious. We set up a time to review his job-hunting materials and he
agreed to come in. The whole enchilada would cost him the price of making a
referral. Life does not get much better than that. Moreover, Zack is within
easy walking distance to my office.
I obtained
Zack’s self-styled résumé from the Internet. It took me less than three seconds
to spot the problems. They were issues I had fixed many times: Making Zack an
employment star would be a piece of cake.
Once Zack arrived,
the missing critical information was added and two-thirds of his prior material
thrown out. What Zack had failed to mention was what it was he really wanted to
do. As a result, he had thrown in everything, hoping the reader would be able
to figure it.
Starting today,
Zack is heading for the US State Department as a cultural attaché, where his
knowledge in four foreign languages can be put to good use. No longer will he
have to proceed through life performing his own job-search dentistry.