Want

Note: This post is inspired by Seth Godin's book LINCHPIN. I highly encourage everyone in the world to read this book. It enumerates how the workforce is changing - something everyone should understand.

If you look, you'll notice I have several pages on this website.

One of them is my resume, which lists to you, the reader, my accomplishments.
Actually, it lists my easily-measurable accomplishments in a format where you (or a computer) can quickly search for keywords you want in a worker.

The catch is - by reading my resume and searching for keywords, you are falling into a trap.

Don't see the keywords you're hoping for? You assume I don't know anything about them.
Don't see enough "experience" in the four "real" jobs I've had? You assume I know nothing about working a real job, about showing up on time, about being part of an organization.

When it comes down to it, I don't want to work for a company that uses a computer to scan resumes from hundreds of applicants. This should have occurred to me when I applied to Barrett-Jackson.
They use an automated online resume submission system to make it easier for their servers to identify keywords, experience, and thus identify possible candidates. I bet dollars to donuts that they use mathematical algorithms to determine who would best fit the position, and that a report is generated that shows candidates in order of keywords noted.

The Cog (courtesy of dreamstime.com)

This system is used by an astonishing number of organizations who mainly seek to input low-paid, easily replaceable drones into their system of cogs and automation.

I don't know about you, but I have no desire to be a drone. I don't like following rules just because management gave me a handbook with rules in it. I don't want work to be a place I go, hang my head, do what I'm told, and cash in a paycheck every two weeks.

I want to make a difference. I want to use my art, my drive, my ability for human connection to make a difference, to interact, to improve and to strike change into the heart of something that needs change. I want to be indispensable because of who I am as a person.

The Creative (courtesy of geniussquared.com)

To the organization that does hire me, that is exactly what I will be. I will learn and I will challenge the way things are done. I push and push back, and I live for a challenge nobody else has been able to figure out.

I cannot exist in an environment where there is no room for change, for push, for art and creativity. If you tell me to sit at a desk and teach 20 people each day how to use their website, I can do that - but I will hate you for it. I will push for an automated system of videos that will do it for me so that I can spend time working on something that matters, something that will change the game, and something that makes your organization more meaningful, more generous, more forward-thinking.

You know why?

Because this system is dying.

Slowly, the entire system that revolves on low-paid, no-skill, instantly-replaceable workers is hemorrhaging it's life-blood into the streets. Artists and entrepreneurs and big-thinkers are on the way up. The "race to the bottom" has nearly reached its goal and thus its end.

Now the only way is up, in higher quality, higher levels of interaction and a system that relies on creative problem solving and true humanity.

I resolve to be part of this new system. I will use my creativity, my passion and my motivation to be part of a company who values me as a human, who hires people as opposed to keywords, who conduct interviews and tests and presentations instead of reading a resume, maybe doing a Google search on possible candidates.

I will not be a cog in your unthinking machine.

I will be the change and the motivated employee who can make a difference and move your organization forward in a way that no one else can.