It's About TIME

Stan is a good guy.
In his spare time, he likes to sing karaoke and produce an internet radio show. Today he is a wine broker. He loves his job and business is going well. He used to be a recruiter with an agency that specialized in IT. Placing engineers used to be much easier. There were actually jobs to place them in. Stan says he is taking a break from recruiting, "Waiting for the industry to come back..."

While he waits, he still receives calls often from engineers looking for work, "I don't have a job, but could you use some wine?" Funny. Maybe not. Many individuals have had to diversify. I wish I was talking about an investment portfolio. What the heck is that, by the way? At one time, I might have known but a couple recessions later and I'm lucky if I can buy peanut butter. It isn't all that bad but it isn't all peaches and herb, either.

Gary agrees with me. Thirty plus years in the business, three recessions later and 2008 - 09 appears to be his "Grapes of Wrath," bringing something more devastating than the dustbowls -- wild fires. The picture here was taken from his office window in downtown Pasadena.

How do you prepare for crisis? Though it may seem impossible, it isn't. You have to branch out and you have to do it with intent. Purposelessness spells imminent danger. Stick-to-it-iveness and strategic forethought are necessary but desire is the trump card in this deck. A continuing desire to thrive and succeed is a requisite for survival. And if that desire is no longer there? You must know when to let go.

My mother used to tell me the story of the man who had a thorn bush. He loved his thorn bush and took care of it, but the thorn bush did not love him. He would grab a hold of it and wrap his arms around it and the bush would dig its thorns deep into his flesh, scraping and jabbing. A passer-by heard him cry, witnessed the scene and urged, "Just let go." But the man only held tighter, proclaiming, "No, this my thorn bush." You have to know when to let go. Stan, the wine broker, knew when it was his time to release the pain. Gary continues to thrive and succeed for his thorn bush still blooms and painful as it was, he pruned at the right time.

Timing is everything.

by rayannethorn

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Permalink Reply by Maureen Sharib on September 3, 2009 at 7:19am

I wonder how many people suffer from this fear of letting go? I'd guesstimate it's a lot - the fear of change trumping the desire to let go for many of us. Your thoughts?

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Permalink Reply by pam claughton on September 3, 2009 at 8:56am

I've been through a few of these recessions now too, and I've noticed similar interesting patterns in each. When the times are good, and placements are plenty, this job can almost (not quite, but almost) seem easy at times. But when the downtimes hit, many recruiters, particularly those who came into the business during the boom times, see that the job changes some. During the boom times these recruiters thought they were 'recruiting' when the majority of what they were doing was just scheduling interviews and trying to keep up with the mad rush of placement activity. The job is very different, yet exactly the same in a downturn. You have to make more calls, especially cold calls to generate job orders. For many recruiters that isn't fun, or even effective and it's when you start to see people exiting the business. Not just newbies either, but more experienced recruiters who are just tired of the necessary grind to keep things moving.

The good news is that those recruiters who dig in and do what it takes, putting in those 4+ hours of phone time each day, are the ones who will be well positioned for the upswing that will come.