Wait, Wait - Please Tell Me!

Jared Sandberg of The Wall Street Journal, had an excellent article here called " Nothing Can Kill Drive and Inspiration Like a Long Wait". I experienced a LONG wait (for about 3 years) during the downturn. Yes - I was CEO of "Vocationally Challenged", Inc. for 3 years right after completing my MBA program, which brought me to the US - pursuing my dream.

The common charactertisitics of a wait when you are looking for a job are:

• Waiting to hear (anything) from a recruiter
• If you are lucky and have gone beyond that, waiting to set up an appointment
• Waiting to hear back from the employer on any interview you might have had
• Waiting to learn when the the round of interviews end (Google, I believe, stretches it out across multiple interviews over months)
• If above not leading to a 'Yes', then goto beginning and start the 'sale cycle' all over again
  

Here are some observations from my experience of that wait:

• Patience is a hard-to-get virtue in America since it is an economy driven by convenience and efficiency
• Hope and expectations are often thought of as the same. If you are an optimist, like me, you definitely want to hope for the best but expect the worst. There will be no surprises - life is about managing expectations.
  
• The feeling of helplessness leads to many of these frustrations. If helplessness is a problem, one can solve it
• Visualize the end results, the goal is a powerful tool to getting there. Did you learn to ride the bike by looking down trying to avoid the rocks/ potholes or by looking at where you wanted to reach? [Waiver: If you are in India, please look down first - you waive me of all liabilities if you follow my instructions and hurt yourself]
• There are no shortcuts - embrace the struggle. The more you do and have to, the more you will learn, value it and rise to the challenge
  

Imagine:  Yoda: "Difficult to see. Always in motion is future"