Thursday, June 30, 2011

A deep, dark secret

The summer evenings of my Dakota childhood were lengthy, and we could play outside until nearly 10 if the mosquitos didn't drive us indoors.

One night, I hid inside the tall picket fence that surrounded our garbage cans during a game of hide-and-seek. "They'll never find me here," I giggled to myself, as the evening darkened. The game was exciting and I ignored the call of nature because I was having too much fun. Then something spooked me, and suddenly a warm gush turned my aqua stretch pants to a darker shade of blue.

"I have to go in now," I hastily called out to the neighbor kids, and scooted into the house and down into the basement where the washer was. I wanted to keep my embarrassment a secret, but had to enlist my mom's help.

The next night at dinner I was mortified when Mom announced with a sly look that I had a "deep, dark, dank secret."  Everybody laughed and guessed immediately that I had had an "accident." I blushed and vowed inwardly to keep a tighter lid on information in the future.

That's not the approach that is advised in the job-networking community.

Tell everyone, the experts say, that you are looking for work and what kind of job you're looking for.

A woman at the Southlake Focus Group today said she had kept her unemployment news to herself, until a friend said, "Oh, if only I had known. We had a job that was perfect for you, but we hired someone yesterday."

People are happy and willing to help by passing on tips and leads, but first, they need to know that you're in the market for them.

No comments:

Post a Comment