Monday 28 September 2015

Herding Cats

Thornbury on a spring morning. THE AIR SMELLS SO NICE.


Alec texted me this morning marveling that he may make two placements today, and I was so excited I had to write a post about it.  As many of you know, Alec is a technical recruiter (a nice one) and he makes commission based on how many successful placements he makes in a quarter.  He may make ten placements or two.

He spends his days talking to a million people, writing millions of emails, and taking trains all over the city.  He does not make placements every week, or sometimes every month.  I would venture to say that even though he loves his job, Alec sometimes wonders "Why am I even doing this." because it can feel like the payoffs are few and far between.  He's had a string of no-go's this month, so it was looking like he wouldn't make much commission.

And then of course he maybe, probably, has made two placements two days before the end of the quarter (because nothing he does is ever final until its actually final). 

Success does not come every day.  No one sends us a certificate with a gold star that says "Congratulations, you functioned like an adult, today you were successful!"  Sometimes we work really hard at things that don't make a lot of sense in the moment, and then in a sudden burst, we are rewarded and we see that the path made sense all along.  

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