January 14, 2005
-
I know that I am often slow on the uptake, but I think that I have recently amazed even myself in my ability to not get it. My older brother, who is 56 y.o., is at the point in his career where he wants to scale back a little. He also very much wants to move back to the S.E. Ohio area where our family’s roots are and where much of our family still lives. His problem is that he is a really smart, accomplished guy. This is where I have missed the boat for 40 odd years. He is a really smart guy. The Phd from Harvard should have been a clue, but you know how siblings are… The Vice Presidency of a huge Pharmecuetical company should have been a clue… But to me, he was just my brother. When we would get together once or twice a year for a couple days, we would spend our time being goofy, watching stupid movies, playing Risk (I think I let the fact that I would beat him sometimes sway my perceptions), or building something out in my garage. The problem he is having is being able to find work in this area of the country for which he is qualified or, rather, not over-qualified. We did some brainstorming over the holidays and, other than possibly teaching at one of several Universities, we only came up with one company in the area (not that there isn’t more). He sent his resume and a cover letter to me so that I could deliver in person (cold-call resumes often don’t make it past trash can). I just got around to reading his resume…Wow.
The people reading this blog (both of you) may not be able to relate to what I am trying to say here at all. I just amaze myself sometimes at how long it takes for some things to register with me. This thing with my brother would be sorta like:
“what’s your brother do for a living?”
“he’s the President of the US.”
“Really!? That’s a really important job”
“Yeah….I guess it is…Wow, that makes me like…First Brother. Kewl!”
Oh, well. This is a place to muse about the little non-sense things that make us tick.
Comments (4)
i understand what you’re saying.
not that i’ve had the opportunity to experience it firsthand but, yah, i understand it.
it’s hard to separate friends/family you’ve known forever (and about whom you know some really juicy stuff), from the poobah’s they are in the business/social world.
or something like that.
i hope he finds what he wants so he can come back “home”.
My own similar experience over the break was having lunch with a close personal friend at my folks’, where my two brothers were visiting. My two brothers were charming, intelligent, witty and altogether wowed my friend. She was, in fact, a little overenthusiastic. You know? Like I wanted to say: but the middle one’s a dweeb who doesn’t have a clue, and the youngest is just my little bro? (and if either of them ever read this, I’m smoked meat — or, more likely, their god-knows-what-epithet old sister…..).
Then there’s this perspective: everyone, I think, whether President or Second Floorwasher, has the uneasy sense that some day they will be found out. That all their purported expertise, whether in foreign policy or the seven differing tones of floor wax, will be undermined by someone more in the know than they (well, okay — people who actually have any smidgeon of humility do — all the Mobutu’s and Sadaam’s of the world need not apply). And to some degree that’s true. Everyone is just a human being just like you. Everyone is someone’s god-knows-what-epithet older/younger/step/whatever sib/friend/childhood enemy. And all us grown-ups are also experienced, slightly world-weary inhabitants of a complex ever-changing world that’s thrown us around, taught us more than one hard lesson, and given us a golden CV of one sort or another.
It’s all in the perspective. But I think it’s a dang good thing your Stellar-Resume Bro has a younger sib who know’s he’s really all about goofy movies and Risk. In fact, that bit of humility-building info should be front-and-center on the CV. But if it’s not, presumably you made sure the contact at his potential employer’s had it to rights
.
I was overqualified for the job I spent 20 years in, before retirement in 1990, and I’m overqualified for the security job I hold now that I’m no longer retired. There are reasons for this. And I have a brother. So I can relate.
It’s always amazing to step outside our perceptions and see the people closest to us through different eyes.