Jobs

How to find a job in this economic tsunami is of no particular interest to me inasmuch as I've never had a job in my life. Writing screenplays, branding statements and political platforms on behalf of corporate clients and disinformation campaigns for entities that must be all-too-obvious may be a piece of work, but it's certainly no job. It's like growing up without any friends; the concept of peer pressure becomes moot and so, for me, is the concept of finding a job.

Therefore, I was somewhat intrigued when I met someone downstairs in Le Bar whose job it is to coach upper-level executives on finding their next corporate engagement in a time when four hundred thousand jobs a month are going down the tubes in the U.S. alone. He was an American (I was going to say 'fellow American' but see 'peer pressure' above) who has a clear vision of the current scene. I found his views interesting and topical. When his wife joined us, we moved our conversation to Le Cinq where we enjoyed a meal that all those looking for a job would have to do without.

I was eager to know what a job-transition-strategist/coach-to-premium-executives would recommend as an approach to career prolongation in this environment. He answered without hesitation, "Long term disability" with the optimum subheading: "Job stress related". It is my impression that he has a firm grasp of the current realities and I endorse his views without reservation.

"Seeing high-end executives sending out resumes in this climate," he said, "is like watching lemmings in a race to their mythic mass suicides." This, I thought, called for another bottle of the Widow.