In the tale, “The Little Red Hen”, the hen finds a grain of wheat and asks for help from other animals including a pig, a cat, and a frog to plant the wheat in hopes of a harvest, but none of them step up to volunteer.
At each stage (harvest, threshing, milling the wheat into flour, and finally baking the flour into bread), the hen again asks for help from the other animals, which again results in no buy-in or assistance.
Finally, the hen, holding a beautiful fresh loaf of bread asks, who would like to help eat the bread. This time, all the animals in the barnyard are eagerly willing to help. This time she declines their help stating that no one helped her in the preparation so they were not entitled to enjoy the results that came from the hard work. Thus, the hen eats it with her chicks leaving none for anyone else.
The moral of this story is that those who say no to contribution to a product do not deserve to enjoy the product!
There are some interesting parallels we could draw from this story related to the process of successfully looking for work. As well, I will offer a little “reading between the lines” to bring out some lessons learned from this story and my experience working with hundreds of clients. I believe there are a few ‘grains of truth’ to be found here. 🙂
The Hen found a grain of wheat – people in career transition often start with a “seed thought” or some sort of an inkling that a career change is on the horizon.
The Hen asked for help – when asking for help job seekers at times find blank stares from people preoccupied in their own lives and careers just too busy and unconcerned to roll up their sleeves and help. Often job seekers get discouraged here and some do not proceed at all which is really too bad. I have found if people keep asking they find someone willing. I would think, if the hen went a little further afield there would have been a cow, horse, sheep, geese and even some goats that would have been quite happy to help.
The Hen kept on moving forward – by taking the grain through a process; from planting to harvest to baking, where an end result was finally realized. In my experience, most hens (job seekers) would not like to take the time to bring the wheat (job search) through a process. They just would rather eat the grain of wheat and not even try to go through the process of making bread which is simply just settling for less. But this was a special hen that knew hard work paid off!
The Hen could have given up on the process – Some hens (job seekers) want the loaf of bread but simply keep settling for grains of wheat instead of going through a process of assessment, research, strategic actions plans, building their brand, making connections and achieving their career goals. Some would rather just get a recruiter to do the work for them or send out 50-100 resumes and then have the bread handed to them on a silver platter. They often even want it sliced! The process is just too much work, “cluck, cluck.”
Definition: Process – a set of interrelated activities that interact to achieve a result. Wikipedia
A job seeker needs to get all the steps of the job search process working in order to achieve the best results. In fact, it can actually get kind of busy. But as the process is embraced the end result becomes in view and the motivation to proceed is a natural bi-product of the process.
The neighbourhood animals did not seem to understand the process – the animals wanted bread too but had not likely baked any themselves before (being a pig, cat and frog). But I am sure, given the chance, they would have all had advice on what to do from their own narrow perspectives. The pig would have said, “Just stay in the sty. I know it is a little unpleasant but it is safe, the mud is cool and someone will keep feeding you.” The cat would have said, “Just use people when you need them and purr away like you really appreciate them (cats!).” And the frog would have just made lots of noise about the process and hopped around from lily pad to lily pad croaking out his displeasure with the situation his friend found herself in.”
It is quite common when a person enters a job search to realize everyone has an opinion they want to share about how to be successful. Unfortunately, because they have never made bread (looked for work proactively) using the entire process, they cannot truly speak to the value of the process. Others will often advise shortening the process by recommending their colleague just simply go buy the finished product (use a recruiter or pay someone to find work for them.) They will also resort to unproductive anecdotes like, changing your resume for every job you apply to, sending out more resumes or move to Toronto where there are more jobs. Although these things have merit, for most they are not the reasons job success is not achieved.
The Hen was persistent – it really did not matter to her who helped her or not, she remained focused on her task and turned her seed into an end result product. Focus is key for job seekers! It is impossible to reach a pre-determined goal without the focus to both create the goal and make the steps to achieve it. It has been said that,” If you don’t aim at anything, you will never know if you hit it.” (author unknown)
The Hen enjoyed the end result – both the hen and her children were able to enjoy the fruits of her labours in their entirety, and they certainly deserved it. How sweet the flavour of a goal that was reached after careful planning and just good hard work. Satisfaction!
Oh yes – and one final thought. When you succeed with your job search, be sure to invite the pig, the cat and the frog to the party anyway. Celebrate your success with them present and inspire them to plant their own seed next time. They will learn from your experience, be inspired by your success and likely be more willing to chip in the next time…and there will be a next time.
Good luck!
Russell Garrett is the Owner of Protocol Business Solutions, a Certified Career Consultant and your DAP Career Coach. Be sure to join in for the Spring Career Workshop Series continuing on March 8th, 2016 with “Preparing Written Documents (resume, cover letter, reference lists). The workshops are posted on COOL for registration. Russell is also available for online coaching appointments. For an online appointment email Russell at dapcareersupport@sauder.ubc.ca.