Good News - You're Fired!

An article in today's Washington Post again made the point that being fired can be a salubrious event. The underlying concept is that firing provides the opportunity to reposition yourself -- at the least to get away from an environment which didn't work out, and at best to find yourself in a new career, one which is presumably better for you in some significant way -- if not financially (as we usually value that most), then emotionally.

I find such logic seductive. It whispers 'Gee, I coulda been a contender, if only someone had cared enough about me to fire me!' And though its an illogical statement, it draws its strength from the fact that most of us tend to stay where we are comfortable (or at least not painfully uncomfortable) because we regard the process of change as an acutely unsettling one. We see with some envy the people who can move from one job to another with apparently little effort; see the people who bound from one position to another, gaining in the move, and we think how nice it could be if we could do either of those, let alone both. But we don't do it -- Better the devil you know..., A bird in the hand is worth.... -- ringing through out minds.

Ah, but if someone would just fire us, then we'd have to make that jump.

Which makes me wonder: what if there were a way that you could better evaluate yourself against a job (before you have it, while you have it) against some subjective 'best fit', and then look at your same characteristics for other achievable positions? Everyone's seen the articles, manuals, and so forth that purport to evaluate you and tell you the 'job that you're best suited for' (I'm always surprised; I don't regard the accuracy of these things highly, but Traffic Light Coordinator for East Chepeepee, Arkansas? Really?), but my sense is that they're barely better than when an adult, seeing a child industriously building sand castles, says That child clearly has a future in heavy construction.

I'm sure we can do better than that -- I'm sure that we do do better than that -- but I wonder; How much better is possible? What would the threshold of accuracy have to be before most of us would make the leap? And could we make that leap easier, by combining a 'characteristics evaluation' between us and potential positions with a resume and interview service?

As someone who'd need something in the area of 95% probability of not just finding the job, but getting and liking the job, I think that'd be dandy.