A popular music station is playing a popular older tune with this lyric:
"Don't wanna close my eyes,
Don't wanna fall asleep,
Cause I miss you girl,
and I don't wanna miss a thing."
And I find myself thinking, as I often do -- why did anyone think that was OK? If I were a songwriter, and I came up with that lyric, I would have immediately rejected it without any serious consideration. If I want anyone to listen to my song, I'm going to have to do waaay better than that. Extrapolating this line of thought, if I were Rod Stewart, I never would have tried the music business at all.
And yet I'm wrong, of course. Somewhere, someone listened to that song and realized it could be a hit, and it was. Someone else guessed that Rod Stewart could be a star. I have nothing but respect for people who can make those kinds of judgments. The process baffles me.
I went to Monday job search support group for the third time yesterday. We meet every week for two hours and each talk about what we did for the last week, and what we are planning to do. There is some benefit to having each other as a network, and people have suggestions for each other, but I suppose it's also a chance for our coach to touch base with us regularly.
The members of the group are pretty accomplished. I expect that you have to have a little success in the world before you get the kind of outplacement services I have. The group changes every week, but there are always about six of us, including a couple of Microsoft people, an airline executive, an investment manager, and a guy I know from Farmers. He and I tend to talk to each other and swap stories about how things work at Farmers, especially since he would like to get back in.
I am actually pretty representative of the group. One Microsoft person is maybe thirty, but the rest average close to my age. Except for the airline guy, who was a high-level executive, their accomplishments are probably similar to mine. Several of them want to do something new, despite previous success in their field. They all seem very employable to me.
What I am curious to see is how often someone leaves the group to take a job. So far, no one in three weeks, and I think most of them have been unemployed for two to three months or more. I'm betting on younger Microsoft person to be first, as she seems to be doing all the right things. She can rattle off a dozen companies she has contacted and how she is trying to network her way into each of them.
Including driving time, that is what I do with about three hours of my Mondays. I'm not convinced it will help me get a job, but it isn't taking away from anything better, so why not? In any case, it's good to have outside contact.
No comments:
Post a Comment