The 7 Deadly Philosophies in the Modern Job Market

[Adapted from my Free E-Book, "7 Detrimental Philosophies in the Modern Job Market"]

In the month of September 2013, a group of hooded terrorists stormed an up market shopping mall in the suburbs of Nairobi, Kenya hurling grenades and shooting indiscriminately at innocent Kenyan shoppers.

Amongst the rescued, wounded and the dead were small children as well as women. These terrorists went ahead to stage a three-day hostage crisis that had the attention of all major news outlets including Aljazeera, CNN, BBC, SkyNews and CCTV.

There is always a reason as to why we do things the way we do them. Christians have a philosophy. Muslims have a philosophy. Interestingly, successful people have a philosophy that guides them.

A philosophy is not just a way of thinking but is also a daily way of living. We get results on a daily basis in our lives depending on the philosophy that we subscribe to. Whether we know it or not, there is an inherent philosophy that we are operating with. 

The main reason as to why those terrorists did what they did is because they subscribed to a certain philosophy, never mind how air headed they are the persons who came up with it.

Job seekers too have several philosophies that they use. Unfortunately, these philosophies are extremely detrimental in the modern job market.

Years back, I was jobless for more than a year. I finally got an opportunity to attend this interview. I had already experienced my fears of lack or cash and food and rent. Frankly, I could not give a monkey (excuse my language) what the interviewer thought about the way I sat in the chair, the way I talked and so on. 

Never mind that this organization had a strict policy of employing graduates only and I was not one! So I answered his questions to the best of my ability. I cannot remember the last time I was this carefree. It was awesome. Needless to say, I got this job. I was a happy man.

It so happened later on that there was this vacancy that I myself did not even know existed for more than a month! A multinational Mobile Network Operator was interested in being served by my boss’ company. All that the boss needed to do was to get two seasoned employees that could become expatriates for the very first time in the history of the organization.

Let’s look at the odds against me:

1)      I did not have a Degree!

2)      I did not know that the vacancy existed, so I could not even apply.

3)     There were 55 other more eligible people before me:

a )     There was a Manager
b)     There was an Assistant Manager
c)      There was a Client Service Manager
d)     There were 10 Team Leaders
e)     There were 40 field personnel above me
f)       There were 2 others  on the same level as myself

4)     I was in bad books with the boss due to office politics

So what made the boss overlook all these odds against me and appoint me as an Expatriate? I did not even know the boss was considering me for the vacancy. To be honest, because of point no 4 above, was working in fear knowing that the slightest mistake will cost me my job.

The greatest mistake that job seekers today are doing (and I did this a lot) is to think that interviews are only done in boardrooms with an interviewing panel. I have come to realize however that life is one long continuous interview for the next level and the greatest determinants for our next level are not just interviewing panels!

Like I stated earlier, life can only be understood backwards but it must be lived forwards. Looking at my years as a job seeker and as an employer, I have deduced seven detrimental philosophies in the modern Job Market. It is my belief that these detrimental philosophies are affecting the modern job market in the following ways:

a)     Creating an Illusion of Joblessness:
b)     Wasting precious time in recruitment process
c)      Giving employers a headache in getting the right people

In the next post, we will deal with philosophy number 1. In case you would like to go ahead of everybody else and get these philosophies right away, you can download the Free E-Book from my LinkedIn Profile: www.linkedin.com/in/lawrencenamale