When you just stop looking you find what you have been looking for

Or sometimes you find exactly what you have been looking for when you go fishing.

I have met a number of people fishing and often come up with great ideas or thoughts when I am out clearing my mind. If I happen to be fishing offshore you don't have to worry about the getting emails, calls or text. There is no service there at all. However even when fishing closer to home or on the dock I rarely will pick up my phone for anything other than pictures or to stream my Fishing Jams!

It is really interesting that I see posts all of the time of businesses saying that they can't find help and at the same time I see people post that they are looking but can't find a job.  When I talk to other business owners they will tell me how many people they have interviewed and offer jobs but they never even show up. Then when you talk to people looking for work they say that they never even get a call back. But I certainly have seen enough help wanted signs all over to know that it shouldn't be that hard to find a job.

I actually have been quietly looking to fill a position in one of my offices. I normally do not advertise and just reach out to a network of people that I know that may or may not know of someone. Maybe they have interviewed someone that was great but they just didn't have an opening? This happens quite often. Or it could even be someone that knows someone that is looking.

This position is special and it is really one of the most important positions at either of my offices. It is the person who will be in charge of greeting people that come in and answering the phones. Over the past almost two years this position was filled by two new hires, and one intern but for the majority of it we have worked a bit short handed.

Two of the people that were hired were wonderful and terrific people but after learning more about the insurance business and starting the licensing test realized they didn't think this was what they wanted to do. So we had all but given up. Every so often I would remind everyone if they knew of anyone or heard of anyone to please let me know. Everyone knew what type of person we were looking for.

Well it just so happens when you aren't even looking you bump in to a great candidate. My son and I were fishing and he caught a huge snakehead fish. I mean a MONSTER. This fish was unreal. Some people from a few houses down walked down and I met a guy named Caleb and a young lady named Taylor. We chatted a bit about this and that. They helped me get all of the stuff off the dock since I had my hands full with that fish. Erica came out of the house to meet them. As they were talking I overheard Taylor say something and then my ears perked up. She didn't love what she was doing and was looking!

Later that night Erica and I were talking and just about at the same time we said the same thing. You know she might be a great pick up for your office.

Fast forward to the next day...of course I was out trying to catch another fish bigger than the one my son caught. This time my daughter was with me and we had some bait. Well she was keeping me busy. I think she had caught about 12 fish already and poor old dad only had about 4.

I saw Caleb and Taylor walking down and we chatted for a bit. And I asked Taylor a couple of questions. What she didn't like about her current job. What her job duties are, How long had she been with her current employer? What she did before? And I was pretty impressed. She didn't know it but I was giving her a job interview on my dock? She didn't even know who I was or what I did at all. Can you believe that? LOL

After feeling pretty confident I told Taylor about my business and that I actually have a position open. And I would love for her to send me her resume so I could review it and get her to come in for an interview. Later that night she did and the other day came in for an interview.

I had her meet with everyone in my office that she will be working with to see if it was as good of a fits as I thought it would be. I explained to Taylor our reservations of investing time into training someone if this wasn't something she was serious about. After spending some time talking and seeing how she interacted and responded with everyone I knew my gut feeling was right. I could tell everyone seemed to agree that this was a good move.

So once again fishing solves another one for me!

David

Shop Local Delmarva