It is easiest to find a job if you already have a job

CorporateNature No 147

When you go to a restaurant, would you prefer to order your dish and wait for it to be cooked, or would you say to the waiter “Bring me something quick! If nothing is available, give me whatever leftovers you have from other tables!”

This is the difference between hiring somebody who currently has a job (and you may have to wait for three months for them to join you) and hiring someone who is currently unemployed. Employers play safe and constantly look for endorsement by other employers that a candidate is skilled and work-focused enough to be able to stick around in a job.

What should an unemployed job seeker do then? A possible shortcut is setting up your own company while looking for a job. A successful startup may come out of this, but even if  it doesn't (most likely), at least there would be a filler on your CV to plug the gap.

Leftovers (image source: Wikipedia)

Selfless and self-serving jobs resemble wheat stalks and rivers

CorporateNature No 137

There are two types of jobs: selfless and self-serving. They have a lot in common with wheat and water in the metaphorical realm.

1. SELFLESS JOBS RESEMBLE SEEDS THAT SCATTER

Professions such as teaching and nursing benefit society: these vocations exist for the greater good of all people. People working in these positions spend their time and energy selflessly, often driven by the conviction that their noble efforts must help those around them. In financial slang, these people "leave money on the table" (for others to pick up), i.e. they create value that is not appropriated by themselves.

Such occupations resemble a wheat stalk that shatters and sheds its seeds on the ground. While this is not beneficial for the farmer who planted the wheat, it helps propagate future generations. 

2. SELF-SERVING JOBS ARE SEEDS THAT DO NOT SHATTER

Bankers work hard, just like nurses and teachers. However, they appropriate most of the results of their efforts for their own benefit. Ironically, they are people who work with money, yet they "don't leave money on the table" as they are better at extracting value for themselves. 

This profession resembles cereal plants that do not shatter and whose grains stay on the stalk after ripening. Although this is good for the farmer who planted the cereals as it allows harvesting the grain,  the natural process of propagating the seeds is put in jeopardy.

3. SELFLESS JOBS RESEMBLE RIVERS THAT DON'T REACH THE SEA

Another example from nature can illustrate this parallel: most rivers reach the sea and deliver their water to the ocean, give or take some evaporation and human consumption. Such rivers are like the “bankers” who keep resources to themselves.

On the other hand, a handful of rivers never reach the ocean, e.g. the Okavango in southern Africa. The Okavango irrigates a vast inland delta and subsumes itself into it. The Okavango disperses all its water into a vast and fertile wetland that creates habitats for myriads of animals and plants, just like teachers and the nurses give themselves away for the benefit of humankind.

Wheat stalk (image source: Wikipedia) 

Is your career a bird cage or a shark cage?

By George ILIEV
CorporateNature Metaphor Series, No 110

A career builds two cages around you: a bird cage and a shark cage. You may think that a bird cage sounds better than a shark cage but think about it:

The bird cage limits you: from soaring in the sky.

The shark cage protects you: from being eaten by the sharks outside.

The two cages usually come in a package. But do you have any influence on how much of your cage will be a bird cage or a shark cage?

Shark cage (Source: Wikipedia)

Stalling planes and unemployed people have a solution: look downwards!

By George ILIEV
CorporateNature Metaphor Series, No 85

The software on modern commercial planes is designed to avoid "stall" at all costs: once a plane stalls, it becomes difficult to control and starts dropping like a brick or spinning towards the ground. The two recent Boeing 737 Max crashes are an unfortunate corollary of having systems so heavily focused on preventing stall. 

In human careers, you can also see this (almost deadly) effect of stall. Once someone becomes long-term unemployed, they can hardly ever recover and start work again. This also applies to people who lose their job at an advanced or pre-retirement age: they struggle to get another job.

The textbook solution to overcoming stall is to lower the nose of the plane down towards the ground to regain speed. The solution for coming out of unemployment is similar: stop looking up towards glamorous job opportunities and accept any "down-to-earth" job offer that comes your way.

Plane in deep stall (Source: Wikipedia)