Life in the fast lane...

You have days that just seem to be “stuck in the rut”, no matter what you do!And you remember that helpful friend that told you that “the only difference between a rut (like a wheel mark) and a grave is 6 feet.” Very helpful.

You want to do things but all the people you are depending on seem to be independently wealthy and taking the day off! If not the whole week!

Being back in the job hunting mode in the middle of the world’s great recession doesn’t seem like the smartest move, but then needs must…

It is amazing how much we depend on people passing a piece of paper or an email to some other person to get things done and their agenda is seldom your agenda.

And while you are being “processed” life goes on - bills need to be paid, the family needs to be fed, school fees need to be paid, and so goes the “circle of life & debt” (maybe death?).

Do you ever notice how we are all encouraged by the wonderful benevolent bankers to mortgage our future earnings and cashflows to buy all those things we don’t really need, and soon join the junk pile?

In fact many years ago I made what I considered was a very sage observation which I called “the Te Rapa paradox” in honor of a street in Hamilton NZ which had lots of cars, boats and ugly RV’s. It went like this:

There are a lot of things you would not buy if you had the money!

And this still we go out and purchase all these things which are meant to give us a better quality of life - really NOT TRUE - and then when we wake up the “credit hangover” it is too late.

Then life goes on, you make millions but unknown to you most of the people don’t play by the same rules. Their rule is “in it for them only” whereas you, for some reason, were raised as a “good Christian lad” and taught to give everyone the benefit of the doubt, blah, blah… Meanwhile they are about to hoist the flag on you and you sail blithely on to the rocks they have conveniently engineered onto your course… Then you loose it all, but with a slight chance of repairing the damage…. But despite your best efforts you can’t….

Then just to really make life interesting the whole world decides to “go to hell in a hand basket” and the sub-prime and all the other CDO crap in the system hits interbank liquidity dries up, lending dries up, secondary finance companies fall over at an alarming rate, and then just to top it off, your family mansion drops in value by 30% and the bank wants more/all your money!!! Fair weather friends - bankers and valuers all work for the same cheer club - when the going is good, they egg you on and when it is bad they just egg you! So you stand there dripping from the eggs they have thrown knowing that your hard earned cash just got sliced and diced and that your assets are still worth what they were (replacement if nothing else) - but you can do nothing as they own you and yours!!!

And so you go back to what you know and thanks to the bankers who bet the house (yours and others) the world is now in free fall and what you know either doesn’t work or you are standing in line with all the other white collars who “were released to follow other career options”. And so you stand in line (that’s why we go to school) and take your number and your turn and if you are lucky then the headhunter will actually talk to you before he sends you the:

We would like to thank you for your recent application for the above-mentioned role.

Managing consultants for this process have reviewed your application and unfortunately you have not been successful on this occasion. We received a high level of response to our advertising including a number of candidates with experience closely aligned to that sought by our client.

While there was not a match in this specific case, we do advertise regularly and should you identify a position of interest, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Or some other variation - only 200 - 400 people applied for the same job you are told…

But that is life and as I have become fond of saying “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”. Thank goodness that Darwin understood the job market too!