If you are a Sunday funnies, cartoons or comic book fan you may know J. Wellington Wimpy, better known as plain old Wimpy. For those that don’t, Wimpy is Popeye the Sailor's best friend, an intelligent and well educated man who is also very lazy and parsimonious, and loves hamburgers. And his constant query is ‘I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today’, and when he is rebuffed his more poignant appeal ‘I’d gladly pay you for two hamburgers on Tuesday for just one today.’ So let’s look at Wimpy a bit closer and see why I asked “Are You Taking the Wimpy Way Out?”
Intelligent and well educated
Just like Wimpy many job seekers are intelligent and well educated, but brains alone are not going to land them the job they are looking for in today’s job market. As a matter of fact, and I don’t quite know why, many intelligent and well educated job seekers make poorly formulated job search and career decisions lacking any semblance of common sense. Having brain power and using it are often two opposite sides of the same coin when it comes to job hunting.
Lazy
Like Wimpy some job seekers are lazy or poorly motivated to do what needs to be done. Some are lazy by nature, some just do not care enough to make the effort to understand how job hunting has changed in the era of social media, and too many are convinced that “No matter what I do I won’t see results, so what’s the use.” Therefore they become lazy in both thought and action.
I also find lazy people ask the most questions but they are not looking for answers. Rather they ask questions in order to justify the excuses they make to justify their inaction.
Being lazy is unacceptable, for any reason, if you want to succeed at finding a new job.
Parsimonious
In job hunting parsimonious is the act of looking at numerous courses of action and/or points of view and choosing the one that offers the simplest (or least costly) solution. Most people are not lazy but they do look for the easy way out. And instead of choosing the best solution they chose the solution that requires the least amount of time, effort or money at the expense of the solution that offers the most rewarding overall result and/or getting their desired result more quickly.
The first thing I do in every workshop and seminar I conduct is tell the attendees that to conduct a successful job search is a 30-40+ hour a week job and there are no shortcuts. However if you are well informed or well coached there are ways to shorten the time span it takes for you to achieve the desired final results.
“I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today”
On this point I can speak with authority and experience as a resume writer and career coach, and not just from my own experience but from the experience of people I know who invested in hiring a professional resume writer and career coach to help them get the results they want.
The bottom line is you get what you pay for.
People who think doing it yourself is saving money often find the truth is “nothing ventured - nothing gained.”
And people who go bargain hunting when hiring a career services professional or choose someone based on the easier process end up being bridesmaids and losing many paychecks they could have earned if they invested a little more time money and effort up front rather than looking to make their investment on the back end.
For a free resume and social media critique forward your resume and contact information to perry@perrynewman.com
About the Author: Perry Newman
Perry Newman is a nationally-renowned job transition specialist who develops branded resumes and is a career coach for executives, professionals and MBA’s seeking six- figure positions in multiple industries within the USA.
As a Certified Placement Consultant, Certified Social Media Strategist and founder and former Managing Director of a NYC-based executive search firm, Perry has a rare combination of talent and experience that is essential for your success in today’s job market.
Acknowledged as a subject matter expert in his field Perry is a sought-after public speaker for radio, TV shows and career services seminars and his articles and blog posts are published in national newspapers, magazines and blogs throughout the nation and the world.
