As I walked out of the drama classroom one morning during my senior year of high school, I noticed that the weather had changed during the preceding 50 minutes. “Cool, it’s raining,” I said aloud. “You’re an optimist,” I heard someone say. I looked, and it was my friend Pam. “Everyone else who came out was upset about the rain, but you said it was cool,” she reasoned. “Maybe I just like the rain more than other people,” I countered. She accepted that as a possibility, but said that I was still an optimist because I didn’t immediately jump to be upset by the change in the weather and its repercussions. I thought (and still think) that she was giving me too much credit, but the question remains: is optimism so scarce that even glimpses of it stand out as rarities? My experiences over the past couple of weeks have told me that the answer is a resounding yes.
As of a few days before Thanksgiving, I am looking for a new job. Even though my boss views it as some kind of unpaid, immediate, temporary yet indefinite furlough that will end sometime soon and restore order to things, I see it as being laid off. My first reaction (once the initial stupification wore off) was to hit the ground running and go get something else as quickly as possible. I started calling and emailing the contacts I had made over the past several years and got to work (trying to find work). I couldn’t imagine another course of action, but apparently others can since I was commended for the way I jumped into the daunting task. In an email to a few friends, I wrote that this was also an opportunity for me to really think about what I wanted to do and possibly find something better and/or closer to home. I was met again with warm responses lauding me for my optimism and attitude. While it felt good to read those emails from some of my closest friends in the world, I couldn’t shake my follow-up question: “Well what else would I do?”
It was just one day later that I was sitting in traffic on the way to “my” office. As many of you know (or should know by now), I like looking at bumper stickers and license plate frames. Going zero miles-per-hour in front of me was a car with this frame: “If you feel sad – Don’t. Be awesome instead.” I saw that and said aloud in my car, “Fuck yeah!” Of course I know it’s not that easy, but I love that mindset. I don’t see any value in dwelling on frustrations when I can proactively try to change things, and trying to be awesome might just be the best way to go about that. Not just good, better, or even great. Awesome. “You got it, stranger’s car!” I thought to myself, and I readied myself for the task ahead of me.
I began sending out cover letters and applications to a wide range of job openings. During that process, something occurred to me. For the first time in my life, I wasn’t selling myself as the bright, young professional with a ton of potential who employers should snag now before he lands somewhere else. Instead, based on the level of the positions I was seeking, I had to be the confident, experienced professional who can bring the lessons he learned from his past successes to help grow their companies. I’d never played that role before, and though it felt a bit artificial, I got behind it and adopted an extra level of fake confidence to accompany that persona.
Here’s the thing: it’s a super shitty time to be looking for a job. I’ve received very little feedback to date, and though I’ve had two good interviews so far for a company that’s bringing me back tomorrow, I know that there are 25+ jobs that haven’t even acknowledged my application. So I press on because, again, “Well what else would I do?” I’ve told clients in the past that my philosophy is to be simultaneously as prepared and as flexible as possible. Now it’s time to prove that I actually operate in that manner. In the meantime, I’ll do what I would ask of anyone else in a trying situation: work hard, be honest with myself and others, and be confident that those things will pay off in the end. I acknowledge the craptastic situation I’m in, and it is definitely frustrating to be met with so much silence, but I’m trying to be awesome instead. That’s as good as any place to start, right?