Lessons from building walls, watching movies and riding bikes – Twin Cities

Once in a while I gather random thoughts into one column. Here are two ideas I’ve been pondering recently.

Running into walls

A colleague and I were talking about the walls job seekers run into when trying to reach employers. Soon the conversation turned from frustrating turndowns into something more psychological: The propensity some of us have for putting up our own walls.

For example, the person who balks at personal outreach or opts out of LinkedIn despite knowing that’s where recruiters look.

Running into walls or building them? One seems inevitable while the other seems controllable. Since I like to be in control when I can, I’m trying to ensure I’m not building the walls I’m running into.

A lesson from the movies and from bikes

One of my favorite movie scenes comes from the original Jurassic Park (1993). In a film filled with jump scares, the juxtaposition of laughs was genius.

If you’ve seen the movie, you’ll know the scene: Three of the characters are trying to escape in a Jeep when the camera zooms in on the sideview mirror. There, perfectly framed, is a T-Rex in full pursuit. Unfortunately, the trio isn’t as far ahead as they’d thought, confirmed by the mirror’s classic warning, “Objects in mirror are closer than they appear.” Uh-oh.

One more story before I tie this back to job search: Last week I was driving in a city neighborhood at the posted 20 mph. Mid-day, mid-week on a nice day for outdoor activities. Coming to a stop at a four-way intersection where cross traffic doesn’t stop, I noted only some cyclists partway up the hill to my left, a half-block away. Nothing to my right. I put my foot on the gas and proceeded, only to be serenaded by unseemly language through my open window.

Two middle-aged women on bikes, one with a broad vocabulary, had come up the hill at a pace unlikely for even an athletic soul. Since they weren’t clad in racing shorts and had baskets on the front of their bikes, I had apparently made the judgment upon seeing them 50 yards away that I wouldn’t need to look left again.

You already know the punchline: They were riding electric bikes. Baskets or no, they were zipping along fast enough to be nearby when I headed through the otherwise empty intersection.

New lesson for this driver: Bikes ridden by pretty much anyone may be traveling faster than you think — up to 28 mph according to what I’ve since learned.

You know what else comes faster than you expect? Layoffs and slowed job growth. Although I’ll admit, I’ve been expecting the most recent (poor) national job numbers for quite awhile, based on other indicators. I’m not an economic analyst, but as an observant career strategist with some experience, the past two years or so have felt recession-y to me.

Some economists have been saying the same, while others counter this could just be a new reality, where traditionally predictive factors don’t produce the anticipated crises.

But here it is. “Objects in mirror,” etc. We haven’t advanced to seeing the T-Rex’s foot-tall teeth fill the frame, but neither are we looking at its silhouette in the far distance. Poor job reports, increased layoffs and slight upticks in the unemployment rate are producing what Jeff Goldblum’s Jurassic Park character called “impact tremors” — the occasional ominous ripples in the water that become more frequent as the T-Rex draws closer.

Now what? Maybe the economy is just right-sizing, with companies returning to more normal employee head-counts after recent hiring sprees. Maybe … well, with the strange way the numbers have played out, maybe anything could be interpreted from them.

I’ve stopped trying to define whether we’re heading into a recession or what the future will bring for jobs; it really isn’t my expertise. Instead, I’m very much living in the moment with my clients, focused on pursuing whatever actions can be taken right now, such as paying down debt or creating backup plans for job loss.

Meanwhile, returning to the surprisingly fast e-bikes — I’m not sure what the related metaphor would be, except that almost nothing seems “normal” anymore, including how long it takes a cyclist to come up a hill. The translation for careers, if there is one, would be a warning that more things have changed than we might realize.

Otherwise? The message is just the message: Be careful when you’re driving, and look a second time. The bikes, at least, are truly coming faster than you expect.