Real Job Seeker Stories: Timing, Waiting & Synchronicity…

It’s All in the Timing…

A few years ago, when the market was good, two of my good friends had wanted to buy the empty house next door to them to fix up and resell. They had tried several times over several years to find contact information for the children of the elderly owner, who was in a nursing home, but to no avail.

Fast forward to that December, and my friends are about to leave for New York City that morning. They saw on TV that NYC was having snow, then that their flight is delayed – by three hours. Suddenly, they’re home with nothing to do. Now what?

So they go for a walk, since it’s perfectly lovely in Florida, no snow here! On their way back, they are surprised to see a middle age man outside next door. They stop and talk to the neighbor’s son, and, have you guessed?

Within two months, the house they had wanted to renovate for years is finally theirs, and, at an amazing below market price, since the son wanted to sell quickly and easily.

The fact that this all happened when they weren’t even supposed to be home, gives me goose bumps.

Whether it’s an opportunity like my friends’ house story, a romance, or a job search you desire, doubtless we’ve all heard the old saying, “It’s all in the timing.”

Job Search Synchronicity:  This is just one example of the types of stories I hear all the time from my clients. A client of mine saw a job posting about 4 months ago that interested her. She wrote the cover letter, prepared her resume, but never sent it in. She wasn’t sure why, but she waited.

About two weeks later she was introduced, separately,  to two current employees of that organization who gave her insights into why the job was opened, the climate of the program, etc. They were experiencing some trouble.

Three months later, she noticed the job was posted again. This time, she applied, and also decided that it was an advantage that she knew about the recent past challenges of the program. She could walk in with her eyes open, if offered the job.

Soon after, she ran into an acquaintance that had worked for that organization 10 years ago who happened to have just started there again. The acquaintance offered to call the supervisor of the program and put in a good word. (This is how the world works, in case you hadn’t noticed, by the way!)

My client got the job, and, it seemed most of the previous challenges had been overcome in the meantime. Going after the job the first time she saw the ad might or might not have been a good idea, one can never know.

Applying for that job several months later, however, seems to have been great timing, given the final outcomes.

Timing the Market – Can it Be Done?

For another example, think back to the mid 1980’s when the home movie industry tried to launch the first laser disk movies. The technology was new, bigger in size, and therefore expensive. Too expensive. It was the Reagan years of economic hardship; consumers were not very apt to invest in costly new technology. They flopped.

However, about 5-10 years later, the music industry took the lead this time with the release of the compact disc, the CD. They were smaller, technology had advanced, prices had dropped. Music lovers liked this new digital scroll through of songs digitally, rather than fast forward or rewind of cassette tapes, a feature not as important to movie watchers 10 years earlier. In the early 90’s, Clinton was in office and the economy was one of prosperity and more consumer spending.

Things had changed on both the market and with the consumer ends. The timing was now right for CD’s to succeed – wildly succeed.

Knowing when the timing is right is a delicate and dynamic art that

I can’t profess to explain, harness, or teach.

I personally simply work on trusting that things work out,

as they should, in their own time.

One can choose to keep abreast of outside influences and events that might trigger or impede the outcome. Sure, by all means, if you have the resources to try to educate yourself about the potential factors involved, use them.

I do try to remember, too, the guesswork and the ill-timed attempts we’ve all experienced ‘trying to force things to happen’ by our will (and too much action) can be frustrating, painful, even costly.

So for me, in the end, we simply have to do our due diligence first, of course . . . and then . . . let the rest go, knowing that perhaps sooner than we might think, the timing will be right for us.

The right job may be just around the corner; it may be down the way a bit, we’re not sure.

We do know, though, that a great new job for you IS coming….

My favorite Indigo Girls song aptly reminds us, “When the winds have blown things ‘round and back again, what was once your pain, will be your home. Everything in its own time.”