What Are Friends For?

You know how sometimes with friends and particularly spouses choose not to listen to sound logic unless someone else offers it (no comments on that please as I recognize I am as guilty of that as my spouse). A similar situation occurred with a close friend of mine recently.

My friend has been seeking a new opportunity for the last 7 months. In today's economy it is not that unusual. However, what was unusual for him is that he has a long employment history, solid advancement in the few companies he has worked for. He also has outstanding accomplishments in each position he has had. He is almost a legend at one company for all the right reasons. He has not followed the process we teach at Career Track Experts. It isn't that he didn't think it would work because he found his last position following it and that only took a month or less.

He chose not to follow it this time because he rationalized it would not take long based on the last experience. Even though I reminded him how obtained his last position, he chose to ignore it. He followed the typical path most follow and most don't possess the kind of accomplishments he has or his long employment history. As he was getting more and more frustrated with dealing with recruiters that we not helpful and answering postings that were unproductive, he would ask what he was doing wrong. Oh, don't misunderstand, he was getting interviews. With his employment history I described above, companies wanted to interview him quickly. The problem lay in the fact the situations always turned out to not be the type of positions, type of future opportunity, company cultures or locations he wanted. So, he turned them all down.

Finally after repeating myself way too often, he listened. He soon correctly networked with a friend who put him in touch with a hiring manager of a company. They were having problems with a location in the US. They wanted someone to turn it around. He handled the research as I suggested. He handled the interview as I suggested and during the first interview they made an offer that was well within what he would accept.

Everything is as he expected and as he wanted. He will formally accept the offer the first couple weeks in January, 2010.

So what's my point? The 7 months would have been shortened by probably 6 months. His frustration level would have been very low. His financial loss due to not working would have been negligible.

No, I didn't say, "I told you so." I am just happy he is on his way to the next chapter in his career with a very bright future. He already knows there are opportunities in the future with the kind of performance he has done in the past.

Perhaps I should have asked someone he didn't know to suggest to him our process. He might have followed it sooner. Who knows.