Firemen vs. Carpenters

I remember being asked what I wanted to do with the rest of my life after college graduation. Adulthood appeared to me full of problems such as mortgages, damaged car mufflers and marriage counseling. I wasn’t exactly sure what I wanted to be, but knew for sure I wanted a better set of problems than that. The sort of problems such as not being able to decide whether to take the jet or yacht for a spin over the weekend!

Granted those didn’t exactly become my “problems”, but the mindset stayed with me and has become a key to becoming a successfulinsurance recruiter. You see, every day I talk to either leaders of major companies who need to solve problems by hiring the right person, or professionals who may be interested in moving their careers forward. The number one answer I get from both when they aren’t interested in our services is: They are doing “fine”. It always concerns me, as they too really should aspire to have a better set of problems! I came to the conclusion that all problems can be divided into two professions, metaphorically:

Firemen vs. Carpenters

I love firemen. Who doesn’t? But in their jobs they are on the scene when things are in devastation mode, and the best outcome is that the damage is minimal or cosmetic. Their goal is to minimize the damage.

This is often the situation I find many of the people I speak with daily. They are in fire containment mode. Translation = their company is laying off, their workload is unbearable, or goals are unattainable. Their work-life balance has the beginnings of a small fire or is already in full blaze (and not in a good way). The best they can hope is that are able to put out the fire before another starts to spread. [Insert a picture of the Great Chicago Fire that spread and burned 2/3 of the city to the ground.]

You would assume that anyone experiencing that would be running for cover. You would…wouldn’t you? But sometimes it truly isn’t until there is nothing left but ash and soot that we get a call… When there is no job to go to or a department is totally crippled due to lack of staff.

Professional recruiters can be a way to elevate the quality of problems individually and corporately. We can assist in putting others in the persona of the ‘carpenter’ who is in building and creation mode. With the luxury to create, build, strategize on the best way to offer better products and services. No doubt like the problems we faced after graduating into adulthood, the process is often complicated, not without some irritation and the gut-wrenching feeling of being out of our comfort zone. But the end result is the potential to have an amazing set of new problems.

-Robin