Some of you may know that I'm currently on the roller-coaster ride known as changing jobs. It is a time full of excitement and prospects as well as it is a time of uncertainty and waiting around. So far I have approached the situation in good spirits and full of both curiosity and excitement as many possibilities present themselves and opportunities arise. You also feel daunted at times, not speaking to the right person and people making assessments about you, before you have even had a chance to give your side to the story. Very much like buying a bicycle in fact.
I'm not just talking about buying any old banger, I've got my eye on a beautiful Bianchi and went to try out a few of them today and ironically, found the whole experience very similar to my recent traipsing around meeting potential employers. Here's how:
1. Frame: On a bike it is very important to get the right frame size for you. This depends on both the length of your feet as well as your back and also a little bit on how you like to ride. Sounds straightforward enough, but sitting on something in the shop feels vastly different from what it is like racing down the road. Of course people in the shop are offering their ideas on what they think would be good for you too, but ultimately you must decide for yourself.
Same thing with jobs: Job descriptions in ads are either bigged up to sound like more, or just sound drab, or people have a pile of different needs they need fulfilling and are trying to fit a role around it. In all cases, it is a phenomenon of the 'geometry' of you, your skills and experience and how well it talks to the frame(work) of the job that is on offer. Some roles are just too big and you know you would stretch yourself too far and feel like you are more or less out of control when the pace picked up a bit, other roles just feel so cramped that you already try to start compensating even in the interview by hedging your bets and asking searching questions about long-term prospects. In both cases, it is a matter of a patient and often quite a lengthy, honest discussion to ascertain not just who you are and what you can offer, but also what the framework can give you whether it is a bicycle or a job.
2. Height adjustments: the right frame goes from perfect to awkward as soon as the seat is too high or too low. You either compensate with your hips, pedalling almost tip-toed - clambering all over the bike to find your comfort zone, but failing. When the saddle is too low you have your knees in your chin and everything feels cramped.
In jobs: again the same: you may be in your favourite field, really enjoying what you are working on, but if you don't have the room to move, you feel stuck. Too much micromanagement and your saddle is quickly too low, too much free-form and no feedback and your saddle is too high. In both cases, it may be a field you really love, but the way the job works you still can't wait to get off. Again, couple of test-rides around the block reveals this in a bicycle and it is quick to fix, but you seldom find this out in a job interview. You may get some feelings about it, based on the characters you meet, but you seldom get the full picture until it's often too late.
3. Gear Shifters - I had my mind set on some Campagnolo shifters, the 'dream' if you like. Trying out a number of different frame sizes in the shop also introduced me to the Shimano equivalents. Didn't think much of it first, but the Shimano gears simply had a nicer feel and more secure and precise way of shifting than the feel I got with the Campys. Also the way the gear shifters are designed, meant that my ideal frame we had arrived at with the bike expert, went out the window with the Campagnolos, making the frame too long from having been perfect. So in actual fact my 'dream' shifters, didn't turn out to be the dream I had made them into after all.
In jobs: We often get tempted by roles and jobs, not so much because of the facts we know about the job, but more because of the 'dream' image we have of it and are sometimes sold at the interview. There is the classic joke about the person who had to choose whether to go to heaven or hell and decided to have a tour around both before making his mind up. Having noticed that people in hell had such a fantastic time and generally seemed to enjoy themselves much more than the angels in heaven, he decided to go to hell. Upon turning up there the second day, everything of course had changed from what he saw the day before. Hugely disappointed, he asked the Devil why none of the things he saw the day before were there. To which the Devil replied coyly: Ah, yesterday we were recruiting, today it is for real! Same thing with jobs - try to get the 'real', honest picture of the job or situation from someone who works in the same place or field and don't just go with your own illusion.
4. Price: The way advertising and Western civilisation works, we are all led to believe we are underpaid and overworked all the time. On bikes of course, the more money you invest the longer the bike will be with you as it will perform better and have greater longevity than a cheap one.
With jobs it's a little bit more tricky: our inclination is to always go with what pays the best, yet some of the top-paying jobs are little boxes once you are in them you can't get out. There are of course other options that long-term provide stepping stones to even greater things, and despite the smaller initial paycheck the gain in experience and confidence allows you to move to another level career-wise instead. Therefore it is a hard one to weigh up - the tangible things like money versus the intangible things like experience, challenges, opportunities to learn new things and evolve your skills and abilities to another level that jobs also offer. Some very high-paid jobs also demand a lot of personal sacrifice like travel, maybe moving around, long hours and the like and it is a difficult question to ask yourself: how much is my life worth to me? Am I willing to not have one for the (right) sum of money? I suppose it is quantifying the consequences of our decisions, where will they take you and will they make you better off financially and experience-wise at the end of the day, or is it a choice between the two if you can only have either or.
So there we are, an extremely simplified version of all the variables in finding the perfect job (bicycle) and what better advice to give you than be true to yourself, what feels right is right - make use of the expert when you need facts, make sure to define all the parameters as precisely as possible and ultimately, it's your job (bicycle) - you are the one who will be stuck with it, so make sure you are in a position to be in command of all the information you need to make the right decision. Oh and good luck! I didn't mention the role luck plays in all this, but it's worth keeping in mind that those random conversations you strike up whilst looking for the greater goal may actually end up leading you to a better goal than you imagined. As John Lennon rightly put it: "Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans".
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