Sharing knowledge....

The other day I got a call from a friend..... I had last talked to him a couple months ago when he was going through a hard time. He had been in the military for like 12 years and had gotten out and returned home and started working for his brother's contracting business and was living with his parents. The job was okay but not his ideal job but he was helping his brother out with something that he loved. Life with his parents was not so good. They have not had a good marriage for many years.

Additionally, he was getting pressure from family to apply to be a police officer. He came from a long line of cops and government employees and many family members and others around him thought that his highest aspiration should be to get a government job that he could settle into until retirement 30 years later.

So between uncertainty and frustration about his future career path and unease at counseling and helping his mother make decisions about her marriage, he was feeling rather trapped. I happened to catch him on IM one day and then on the phone and we talked.

Well, if there is one thing that my experience with business school taught me, you have to be willing to thrust yourself into change and that there is always an opportunity for a new experience even when you don't see it. Also, it doesnt help you to be the most motivated person you know. In order be the best you can be, it helps to create an envirionment where you are around other motivated people who help propel you forward. A change can help you do that.

Oh yes, and b-school was also like a job search boot camp. So I asked my friend what he wanted to do career wise and he admitted that he felt like he wasn't qualified to do any outside of the military. I reminded him that he had developed a lot of transferable skills and he just had to figure out a way to position his experience in the military to show how he would be valuable to a company. I also told him that he couldnt be the only one who had gone through this type of thing and encouraged him to look for headhunters who specialized in finding jobs for ex-military.

Sometimes, you just get caught up in the emotions of a situation and need someone to remind you of what you already know. After our conversation, he contacted a head hunter and ended up getting about 12 interviews! We talked about interviewing tips and then I didn't hear from him again for a couple months. And, then, like I said at the beginning of this post, he called me.

He was walking through Manhattan after just accepting a new job and just wanted to call and thank me. He was so happy and I was so happy for him. And I was touched that I was the first person he thought to call! He is excited about the new environment, new potential, new salary and the ability to move out and start his new life.

Not only am I happy and proud of him, I feel really good that he was able to benefit from my experience and I was able to help. It just underpins for me the importance of sharing your knowledge with others, so we can help each other collectively move forward and improve ourselves as a community. At the risk of sounding cliched (ugh, I can't believe I am going to say this.....), each one, teach one!