Job search. Are you a hunter or a farmer?

Recent figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics are not that encouraging and economic predictions for the coming season are not optimistic. Meanwhile, the job market is expecting fresh comers from universities across America this May 2020. At the same time, many companies will still be healing wounds from the COVID19. And the millions of people who have been laid down from their jobs already, a discrepancy between job seekers and the available jobs on the market is already expected.

Despite it all, I still believe that those with prepared minds, like me, will find their dream job someday somehow. Question is, how?

Amidst the current calamity, we are bombarded with all kinds of negative headlines. As many are geared up for job search or job hunting, I dare to question the status quo. I can see many of my colleagues already in the hunter’s mode, equipped and on the lookout.

Inspired by a story from the Good Book about Esau and Jacob (the Bible: Genesis 25), I realize that even though hunters can be admired for their vigor, energy, and ability to focus and track animals, on the downside, they can only go after one prey at a time: “the dream job”. They may spend the whole day running after an animal but at the end of the day go back home with an empty game bag. The thing is, hunters are not rewarded as per the amount of time or effort put in their daily chore.

I, therefore, opted for Jacob’s way of looking at things: the farmer’s attitude. As a farmer, I am all geared up to find my dream job, but I don’t just run after one animal. Neither do I neglect any animal I may meet along the way. I don’t hunt for survival, whereby I run after an animal to kill and eat. Instead, I set up animal traps.

My strategy is to capture them alive, take them home, and raise them.

What could this mean? It means not just focusing on getting “the” job you always dream of but being sensitive to the wind of opportunity that is blowing. It means being positive, sensitive and ready to build and grow your network. It means having a broader view of your abilities and connecting with people on all aspects of your life. It means to redefine yourself and use the creative part of you to research and anticipate where opportunities will soon arise and connect with people from all walks of life because the job we need is always around the corner. It may not yet be the dream job, but the one that leads to the job that would lead to the contact that will lead to our dream job. Whereas everyone’s eyes, I included, have been focusing their search on jobs in big cities like New York, Washington DC, Los Angeles… why not think of small cities somewhere in the middle of nowhere across America? Cities and towns that need the skills and creativity that many of these big cities have benefited from for long? Could it be that it is in this way we are going to bring a fresh wave of development and economic boom in some of these forgotten towns and cities in America? As the saying goes,

“Every cloud has a silver lining.”

Is it not true that it is always beautiful outside after the rains?

Whatever your style, I believe that America has not yet said its last word. The resilience and optimism that has always characterized this nation is contagious and can’t be vilified.

I am pretty sure that there is going to be a follow-up publication to this one, to give you an update about my opportunities farming.

Prince M.