The Katrina Effect

By Raymond Sahley

First off let me say how much compassion I have for all the participants of the devastating Hurricane Katrina. I don't like the word victim because that implies a guilty party inflicting harm on another and whom can you blame in this case? Certainly not W or do the "evil republicans" have a hidden weather machine targeting minorities?

As a restaurant management recruiter in Atlanta, I have seen first hand how this disaster has left its mark on the citizens of the region. There are 2 types of candidates that I have tried to help in the last year and a half: the "Why Me" and the "Survivor".

The "Why Me" has a negative mental attitude about everything, their lost possessions, their former job, their flooded house, their missing family and friends...every single thing that has ever touched their life. They feel as if they are the targets of misplaced punishment, rage or unjustified action against them. They feel that life is out to get them and because they made it through a horrible event everyone owes them something. The worst thing is they focus all their energy on what has happened in the past.

They waste time on something that cannot be changed and do themselves even more of a disservice. Unfortunately, this behavior leads most times to an employer giving him or her a second chance to which they oblige by revisiting old wounds and the negative mentality. Their goals are not positive in the long-term range and they wish to exploit the situation in the short term, only to get what they feel is due to them now.

Let me set this straight once and for all. The world is not currently, in the past or in the future ever going to be a fair place. Fairness is something an author came up with to pass the time and entertain children. It does not exist. If you wait for a fair world you will be dust before that dawn ever arrives. The world owes you nothing! Let it go! To be blunt get this through your thick head and lose the ego and you will be on the right path in no time.

I can tell you that by using a positive mental attitude and long-term goal setting you can do anything humanly possible. If you focus your energy on making your situation better, instead of dwelling on the negative things that have plagued you, you will be in a better place because of it. This has been proven throughout time, but as human beings we always take the hard route and have to prove things to ourselves. We do not learn from history well and many of our mistakes have been documented over the years.

We are very stubborn and egotistical creatures of habit and often those habits are bad.

Because of this, I love helping the "Survivors". These are the few who have been to hell and back and ask what's next? They will not falter and they can handle anything that comes at them. They will succeed no matter what! Instead of absorbing all the negative energy and letting it misdirect their goals, they reflect and reshape it into a positive mental attitude and a new vision of themselves.

They take what life has sent their way and learn from it. They expect nothing in return, know what it takes to get where they must go and prove themselves again and again. They will accept nothing less than success and know it will be theirs if they try hard enough, have persistence, resilience and a strong foundation of faith.

As much as I try to send people down the right path and redirect their energy, I am not always successful. You have to truly want to let someone help you to complete your journey. No one can force your acceptance; it has to come from within.

So the next time a tragedy befalls you, will you choose to let it alter your whole life and spoil your core or will you get back up triumphantly and bloodied after getting knocked to your knees?

From a hiring managers perspective, who would you rather hire...a "Why Me" or a "Survivor"?


More Resources

Manage Your Boss - And Get Ahead!
It's clear there are a number of common issues faced by business people across totally unrelated industries and environments. This series was created to provide some perspective and guidance to executives as they negotiate their way up the corporate ladder.
Business Experience is YOUR Security Cover
Some may want to interpret "independent" to mean WITHOUT others. None of us are truly independent or able to make it in life alone.
Do You Need Help Writing A Winning Cover Letter?
Your cover letter is critical to your success. It sets the tone.
Cover Letter Magic: 4 Ways To ASK For The Job Interview - And Get It!
Just how important it is to ASK for the job interview clearly and directly in your cover letter?IT'S EVERYTHING!So the question remains: how effectively are you ASKING? The following four ways will help you nail down many more job interviews. Try them all and see which ones work best for you.
Overcoming the 7 Roadblocks Women with Families Face Making Career Changes
Family is the driving force of our lives. You need family to support you and in most homes you need money to support your family.
Successful Job Seeking - The Importance of Your Cover Letter
As an employer I receive many job applications each week. Some cover letters are so well written that I am compelled to review the attached resume even if our company is not currently hiring.
Self Describing Skills - Key Strengths
You need to be the best you can at describing your best qualities; particularly your key strengths. In my coaching practice I generally, at some point, ask my client: "What are you good at?" purely as a means to establish if they have already thought through this most important question.
Alert! An Over-50 Jobseeker Has Just Entered the Building
Interviewing Tips for the Older Job-seeking PopulationA red alert is probably melodramatic, but I'm sure jobseekers in this age bracket probably feel there is one. The bulk of the job-seeking population is currently facing job-search woes that the elderly population has been experiencing for years.
Getting Your Online Health Care Administration Degree
Are you thinking about getting your online health care degree but don't know where to start? Afraid of choosing the wrong college or school? Here's a simple guide to help you get started building the career that you've always wanted.Making the decision to get your online health care degree is not any easy one.
Fuzzy Headed Job Goals Lead to a Fuzzy Headed Life!
May I clarify in this article what I believe to be "fuzzy headed" life and job decisions. I believe both are entwined: life and job.
Business Dress for Women: Making Impact
Buying a suit can be an important investment when you are trying to improve your look for business or career advancement. Wearing a standard off-the rack suit for business or a job interview does not always mean success.
Spiritual Practices Offer Peace and Acceptance
Facing career transitions and daily life challenges can leave us feeling lonely, stressed and anxious. How do we manage to deal with the financial and emotional stress of having a home, a car, work (or no work), kids and a spouse in this too-busy world?Spiritual practices can help us navigate through the turmoil of work and life transitions with more acceptance and peace.
Why a Professional Resume?
As a job search tool your Resume is your main calling card. It explains who you are and what you have to offer.
Book Summary: How to Work with Just About Anyone
This article is based on the following book:How to Work with Just About Anyone"A Three-step Solution For Getting Difficult People To Change"By Lucy GillPublished by Fireside/ Simon and Schuster 1999ISBN 0-684-85527-5206 pages"I just can't seem to get along with this person!"Every office has that one difficult person to work with, who affects productivity due to a terrible attitude, chronic tardiness, or simply drives everyone else up the wall. Here is the answer to common problems in conflict management.
How to Get the Job You Want in Any Economy... Act Like a Headhunter
Having spent the last few years of my career in the staffing and recruiting industry, I'm asked all the time by friends and relatives if I can help them find a more desirable job. I've helped my fiancé get a job, helped my college buddies get jobs after graduation, and even helped a few high school buddies find jobs having not seen them for years.
Skills Make Labor More Valuable
As you know by now, if you have been a long time subscriber to our weekly E-zine, I'm a very big proponent of activity, labor and discipline. In fact I devoted one of the five major pieces to the life puzzle (in my book under the same name) to the subject of activity and labor.
4 Niche Job-Search Tips
Looking for a job on the Internet can be daunting. Where do you start? What Web sites are best for your industry?If you're suffering from "job search overwhelm," take heart.
Salary Negotiation: How To Earn More Money and Respect From Your Employer
Despite how important fair pay is to most of us, effective salary negotiation is an often misunderstood and avoided topic. Current research indicates the average duration of a position today is 3.
Seven Steps to Better Networking
If published statistics are accurate, employment agencies and search firms fill about 20% of all jobs in the US. Job boards fill anywhere between 2% and 8%.
How to Change Careers and Still Pay the Bills - 5 Key Steps
Studies show that more than 50% of people are unhappy in their jobs yet few will actually make a career change in 2005. Why? Most people let fear stop them yet successful career changers know that fear is simply a sign that you are headed in the right direction!Follow the 5 key steps that successful career changers actually take to overcome their fears and make a sustainable change.

More Careers & Employment Information:

Related Articles

The 7 Tough Job Interview Questions That Can Make or Break You - and How to Answer Them
Some interview questions are asked so frequently that they've become classics. Practically every interview you go on you'll be answering one or more of these seven interview questions.
Get Beyond Your Tasks
Ever hear the story of the two masons working side by side at a building site? They're doing the same work under pretty much the same conditions. Then, one day a stranger comes along, approaches one of the men and asks him, "What are you doing?" "I don't know and I don't care," replies the man, his voice brimming with irritation.
What is Experience Anyway?
I learned in first grade that one plus one equals two. But, that's not the right equation when counting work experience.
Free Resume Template: Beware!
Downloading a free resume template can be so alluring. No work to do! You just download it, fill in the blanks, and get the job of your dreams!If you buy that, I've got lots of other things I'd like to sell you.
Behaviour To Climb The Stepping Stones To Career Success
The heading of this article could just as well have been "How to position yourself for promotion" or "How to position yourself for career advancement" or "How to climb the success ladder" or something similar.What behaviour will improve your chances for success? Behaviour which can be described as good work ethics.
Tips for Requesting a Raise
You probably think you deserve a raise. But does your boss think so?Here's how to go about convincing your boss that you're really worth more than you're being paid.
Reinventing Yourself for Multiple Careers
In many countries around the globe, people are born into their station in life and hence their professions. It is unnecessary for them to plan a career as they are expected to perform one specific job their entire lives.
Career Killers to Avoid
Many professionals and managers are so involved in day-to-day crises and fighting fires that they forget about a key leadership characteristic: self-management. Effective leaders are first of all effective in managing themselves - their time, their focus, their emotions and their careers.
How To Receive Payment as a Freelance Translator?
A problem most freelance translators are facing with is how to receive payment. In particular: How to receive payment for small jobs.
How to Write a Better CV (UK), or Resume (USA and elsewhere)
The first point to make is that the terms "CV" and "Resume" (with or more often without the French acute accents over the e's) are virtually interchangeable in the UK; they mean the same thing, but if anything the norm is CV. In the USA and elsewhere, the CV (Curriculum Vitae to give it its full title - literally "Life Study") is a different animal - a dry listing of qualifications and experience more suited for a university faculty listing for example.
Bullseye Interviewing
An interview is much like a blind date. You have sweaty palms, heart palpitations, shaky nerves and a preconceived notion of what could happen.
2 Job-Search Success Stories
Here are two success stories from my readers who found great new jobs last week. As you read each story, ask yourself, "How could I apply this to my job hunt?"1) Job-search goal cards workHere's a story sent in by Fred, from Chanhassen, Minn.
Multiple Skills for the 21st Century
(excerpted from The Weekend Seminar - Skills for the 21st Century 1999 Version)I find it's important to not walk into the 21st Century without multiple skills. But what I also find is that if you are already in sales, network marketing or have an entrepreneurial business (or plan to in the future), you can gain the needed skills for the future while you create your income now.
Day Trading - The Ultimate Work-From-Home Job?
Ever dreamt of giving up the daily grind? Want to strike out on your own and work from home, but don't know what you could possibly do to make a living? Full time Nasdaq trader Harvey Walsh wondered just that, and now he asks "Is day trading the ultimate work from home job"?We've probably all had the same thought at some time or another, as we trudge off towards another day at work - the same work we've been doing day in day out for years - "surely there has to be a better way?" Slaving away to make somebody else rich just doesn't seem right somehow, but what alternative? Setting up a new business, or buying an established one, are both expensive and risky prospects. So how can the disenchanted employee ever hope to make the switch from wage-slave to total independence?Those are thoughts I had almost every day, before I quit the safety of full time employment and decided to strike out on my own.
Make Your Résumé Sizzle with Success Stories
In today's competitive job market you can't afford a résumé that fizzles. Power up your résumé with solid success stories.
Rich Career, Poor Career
What makes for a rich career? It is more than just the salary and benefits. A rich career is one that suits your talents and provides an opportunity to make a meaningful contribution, as well as one that provides the right compensation.
Resume Tune Up
Employers have fears, uncertainty and DOUBT (the FUD factor) over your ability to actually do what you claim you can do in your resume and cover letter.Combine this with the fact that EVERY candidate looks good on paper, no-one leaves their previous job because they were paid too much, the work was too interesting and all the people were fantastic, and you can see the challenge you're facing.
Get That Job: Mastering Job Interviews
I've heard it said?in fact, it might well have been me that said it - there are few things more excruciating in professional life than the job interview. Job interviews are awful! Throughout my career I have attended many and conducted many more, and the truth is whether you are the candidate or the interviewer, job interviews are challenging and confronting and difficult - but you can not only survive but learn to be a masterful interviewee by developing an understanding of what it is the interviewer needs to see and learning to conduct yourself with clarity and confidence.
Are You In A Groove Or A Rut?
Ruts: the routines in our work and lives that have become uninteresting and bothersome.Everyone has a favorite rut or two.
What is Workers Compensation Fraud
What is FraudFraud occurs when a person knowingly or intentionally conceals, misrepresents, and makes a false statement to either deny or obtain workers' compensation benefits or insurance coverage, or otherwise profit from the deceit. The key to conviction is proving in court that the misrepresentation or concealment occurred knowingly or intentionally.