MOVING BEYOND THE TEMPORAL
Throughout my career in the staffing business, I have witnessed events that have no logical explanation. After applying the rules for solving problems and coming up dry, I believe there must be something else working behind the scene that goes beyond the temporal into a realm that includes the supernatural, like a God, a Force, or the Universe.
When seeking help, it is customary to address the care providers, coaches, counselors, ministers, priests, and rabbis by name. But how do you address a deity? What is his or her name? Followers of different faiths call their Gods by different names. The Christians have multiple names for their God depending upon the particular denomination; Jesus, Father, Savior, Holy One are customary. The Jews call their god Adonai, which translated means “my Lord.” The Muslims refer to their god as Allah. The Hindus have multiple gods called by different names like Krishna, Vishnu, and Shiva. Some believe there is one universal God called the Force. But for our purposes, let’s call that Supreme Being God.
Petitioning God when in need is instinctive when all else seems to have failed. You need not be a follower of any particular faith to ask God for help through a tough time, like being fired or laid off. It makes no difference what your religious faith might be. God is God. The name makes no difference.
THERE ARE NO ATHEISTS IN FOXHOLES
So what does all of this have to do with job hunting? You may have heard the proverb “There are no atheists in foxholes.” The origin of this proverb is attributed to a World War II correspondent, Ernie Pyle, who reported what was happening on the front line of battle, a very unfriendly place.
For those not familiar with war jargon, here is what it means. When soldiers are on the battlefield and see bombs dropping and bullets flying, and witness their buddies to the left and right being blown to smithereens, these soldiers instinctively call on God to save their lives. Their prayers to God are ones of supplication: “God, please spare my life!”
Job hunting is much like fighting in the trenches, as you may have experienced. Following that traumatic experience, being let go from your job in the middle of a career that you thought was forever, life has not been easy, especially the job-hunting part. You never realized how difficult it is, how competitive it is, how frightening it is when you have bills to pay and nothing seems to be working in your favor. Interviews go wrong, your network seems to have taken an extended vacation, and hiring managers are saying you are overqualified or they can’t afford to pay you market price for your experience and expertise. If you have been fighting on the battlefield of the workplace for six months or more with no success, you will get the analogy. Job hunting is not easy. It is not for the timid. It is not for the faint of heart. The competition is fierce. You never know when and where the next defeat will occur.
The proverb “There are no atheists in foxholes” could easily read, “There are no atheists among job hunters fighting in the workplace for a few bucks to buy food, shelter, and clothing.”
GOD AT WORK
My experience as an executive recruiter is replete with examples that point to a Force working with midcareer workers who have made every conceivable effort on their own and with help from career counselors to find solutions to their unemployment challenges. I have named that force working in the background the Job God. Here are just a few examples of what I have witnessed:
Sally was a San Francisco resident seeking a step up from her job as a vice president of marketing for a major education publisher. I was conducting a number of searches for which she was eminently well qualified. Sally did not wish to move from San Francisco but was open to relocation for the “right” job. She interviewed for the presidency of a company in Portland, Maine, but it did not work out for a number of reasons. Her next stop was in New York City, where she interviewed for a senior vice presidency with one the country’s largest publishers. She liked them and they liked her, but they could not get together on compensation. Her next interview was in Chicago, but the company demands proved impossible for her to meet. Sally, dejected by her job-hunting experiences, returned to San Francisco and tried to determine what happened. Then, unexpectedly, she received a call from the human resources director with a well-known company who invited her to interview for a VP position as head of the newly formed education division. Sally interviewed for the job and got it. Big salary. No relocation. Terrific benefits package. There was no logical reason why this happened. There were candidates who were better qualified for this job, but Sally got it. Why?
And then there was Dick, who lived in San Antonio. He was hired for a marketing position, even though he was the least qualified of five finalists for a position titled “Director of Marketing.” There was no logical reason why Dick got that job.
And then we have Jane. Five respectable companies rejected her candidacy claiming she was overqualified. Jane was at the point of depression. Nothing was working for her no matter how hard she tried. Then suddenly she received a job offer from an esteemed employer right in her hometown, one who just a few weeks ago told us, “Sorry, there is nothing available here for Jane.”
What was it that led these three job candidates to the Promised Land of employment?
Serendipity? Timing? Fate? These true stories about how Sally, Dick, and Jane found employment working against all the odds went beyond my comprehension. Lacking any evidence for a logical explanation, we hypothesized that it could be something beyond the temporal, something working behind the scene.
SEARCHING FOR TEMPORAL ANSWERS
Others searching for answers might come to different conclusions. If Malcolm Gladwell, author of the bestselling book Outliers, had put Sally, Dick, and Jane to the test, he may have found an answer. Gladwell’s theory is that if you look hard enough, you will always find an answer to the question “Why did this person succeed?” He even goes so far as to say it could have been the influence of grandparents, or even great- grandparents, the culture in which the person lived, date of birth, and a host of other variables. However, none of our three candidates met Gladwell’s prime requirement for success: ten thousand hours of experience in a particular field of endeavor, whether it be music, as with the Beatles; or computer technology, as with Bill Gates; or science, as with Albert Einstein.
What accounted for the success of our three candidates? When I found no plausible answers, I hypothesized that it was the Job God at work, that Force who controls heaven and Earth, the Supreme Being who in some mysterious way is looking out for all of us. Some might say, “Oh my Lord, this is nuts, plain nuts, to posit that God has any interest in how we find work to provide food, shelter, and clothing for our existence here on Earth.” Well, everyone has a theory about why things happen as they do, and our theory seems to be as plausible as Gladwell’s.
CONNECTING
How do you reach out to your God? What do you say? How do you petition God for a favor such as success in finding a job? You might recall prayers learned in childhood religious training: you memorized them and recited them back to your parents or teacher. They meant little because they did not come from you. Even today, prayers we hear during religious services may sound contrived and hold little meaning. A meaningful prayer must come from you, from your inner core.
So how do you begin the prayer journey? By hastily fabricating one on your smartphone or iPad? By writing it on a sheet of paper in flowery prose? Anything will work, but we suggest composing your prayer in the vernacular of your faith. It does not have to be eloquent or put in writing. Make it conversational. Ask God’s help in the same way you would ask one of your friends for a favor. For example, immediately after the attacks on the World Trade Towers on 9/11, two Air Force fighter jets hurriedly took off from their base in Arizona and headed toward New York City and New Jersey to intercept any other attacks. The importance of getting there quickly was more important than fully arming the planes, so they took off semiprepared. It was a dangerous mission. In a CNN interview with the pilots after the mission was completed, one of them told the interviewer they realized the extreme danger heading into combat without being fully armed, and as they were flying toward the action, they prayed the pilot’s prayer, “God, don’t let me screw this up.” A prayer does not have to be eloquent. If you need examples, we offer these resources:
• Tevye’s Sabbath Prayer from the play Fiddler on the Roof
• The Lord’s Prayer, available online or from the Bible
• Sample Prayers. Thoughts about God. www.thoughts-about-god.com/reflecting/sample-prayers.htm
A SAMPLE PRAYER
If you don’t have the time or inclination to access these resources, and if you have not reached out to God since childhood and have no idea about how to begin, try something like this when you need a hand going through one of the steps in the job-hunting process, like the exercise that strikes fear into the hearts of most job seekers, the interview:
A PRAYER TO THE JOB GOD
God of all, I’m coming to ask your help. This may not be eloquent, but this is just between You and me, so who cares how it sounds. I’m opening the door to my life and asking you to come in and lend a hand. I need Your help securing employment. I’ve tried my best, but nothing seems to be working out. I have an interview scheduled with a hiring manager and would appreciate Your support. I’ll meet this challenge with a positive attitude and use my intelligence, energy, and passion to get the job done. The bottom line is this, God. When I go in for the interview, I ask that You take my hand and be with me during the entire process. I am sure that with Your help, this will have a favorable outcome. Thanks in advance, God. Amen.
CHAPTER TAKEAWAYS . . . FROM MOTHER TERESA
• Life is an opportunity, benefit from it.
• Life is beauty, admire it.
• Life is a dream, realize it.
PRINT AND DIGITAL RESOURCES
Kushner, Harold S. When Bad Things Happen to Good People. Anchor Books, 2004.
Lamott, Anne. Help, Thanks, Wow! Riverhead Publishing, 2012.
Payne, Stephen. The Joy of Work: How to Stay Calm, Confident & Connected in a Chaotic World. Balboa Press, 2012.
Osteen, Joel. I Declare: 31 Promises to Speak Over Your Life. Faith Works, 2013.
The Prayer Coach. “How to Pray.” www.prayercoachingprinciples.wordpress.com/how-to-pray.htm.
Warren, Rick. What Am I Here For? Zondervan, 2012.