His plumber replied, "That's the reason I gave up dentistry."
Upon entering the job market, potential candidates are often encouraged to reinvent themselves. Such makeovers often involve becoming more proactive, flexible and/or diversified. Some resort to learning new disciplines such as computer skills or a foreign language—all done in a quest to become a new you.
Employers become giddy when confronted with job candidates who appear tailor-made for the position. To entice the unwilling, they often paint a rosier-than-heaven image of themselves. That seductive imagery lures many to apply.
The transition from being yourself into something other than what you used to be imposes a formidable challenge--especially for those in their mid-forties and beyond. The emotional stress alone can cause one to hit the pause button.
For those gainfully employed, a proactive job search is not a discipline performed on a daily basis. Thus, the learning curve alone presents a looming and foreboding nightmare.
There exists a plethora of books, articles, workshops and seminars designed to help you make the transitional metamorphous. Each service promises to make you more appealing to prospective employers. A few of those services are legit—others not so much.
The problem confronting employers is that the most qualified may not be looking to change partners. Prying ideal candidates away from whatever they are doing is a never-ending, time-consuming mission. When employers get frustrated or desperate, they call upon a recruitment agency--hoping they can fix a problem the employer cannot.
While highly qualified individuals exist, most are often reluctant to venture into unknown territory. One of the overriding factors for not entering the job market comes down to staying with the devil they know versus the devil they don’t know. Hence, only when the position becomes intolerable or disappears do they surface.
The balance of jobseekers undertake extraordinary efforts to camouflage their shortcomings and deficiencies. Likewise, employment services (aka: headhunters, body snatchers and flesh peddlers) commonly resort to retooling a candidate’s résumé in an effort to tailor match pseudo or quasi candidates in exchange for a fat commission.
Best advice for jobseekers comes from a line in Shakespeare's Hamlet: "To thine own self be true." Reinventing yourself to placate others--even employers and recruiters, rarely works in the long haul. Either do what you love, or love what you do.
Copyrighted © 2013 by Robert James