This weekend I went to my youngest daughter’s graduation from college. As you can imagine, I am thrilled to have my two daughters through college. The keynote speaker at the ceremony spoke about what these graduates will face in the current job market. She said that because the economy is so bad that they more than likely will not be able to get a job and that they shouldn’t just sit around and wait for their first job. They should go to Europe, travel across the country, do social work, take up origami or a number of other things which have nothing to do with what they just spent four years of their life preparing for. I was disappointed with this half empty view of their future and as a result, I decided I would do a blog about this Half Empty / Half Full subject.
First let’s take the college graduates: While the economy is bad, it is getting better and people are starting to hire again. After many layoffs of senior employees with high salaries, many companies are looking to bring in young, new, inexpensive talent. There has also been a rash of small companies started as a result of the layoffs. These companies also need talent. There is also great opportunity for the young entrepreneur college graduates to start new businesses. While this may not be the best job market, I believe there are jobs for the people who want to work. As an example Salesnet has added employees this year and we hope to add more in the coming months. If you have just graduated from college and think the glass is half empty, you likely won’t find a job.
I remember when I was about to get out of school, the economy was bad and the job market was weak. In my last year of school I started sending out resumes to large companies that I thought I would like to work for even though I may not have had the type of degree that most of these companies required.. After sending out more than 50 resumes, I received one phone call. The call was from Westinghouse Electric and the job was for an entry level field engineering position. Even though I wasn’t qualified, I got the job. Was I just lucky, maybe so, but a big part of being lucky is putting forth the effort. I saw the glass as half full and for me it was.
Second let's talk about sales people: Sales people have the choice of thinking that the current market is half full or half empty. Let me borrow a story from a well know sales trainer. He was invited to speak at a real estate company's sales meeting. He was scheduled to speak to the group after lunch. He decided to eat lunch with the group to get a feel for how the sales people were doing. He sat between two of the company’s sales people. He first turned to the sales person on his right and asked her how things were going. She told him that the major employer in the area was laying off people and that her business was awful. Even the people who hadn’t been laid off were concerned about their jobs and weren’t interested in real estate. He then turned to the sales person on his left and asked her how her business was. She said that the major company in the area had experienced some layoffs and many of these people were moving so she had been able to pick up a lot of listings and several of these people were looking for jobs in other areas and she was trying to help them find a new house or referring them to other agents in other areas. She also said that a new small plant was coming to the area soon and that she had been able to sell a lot of houses to these people being transferred in to work at this plant. She also said that foreclosures were up in the area and that for the first time she was now working foreclosures and had even started buying some of them for rental property. Her business had never been better.
Is your glass half full or half empty? It's your choice.
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