Surprise Surprise

Ever heard of the saying – “Jack of all trades and Master of none”? While I was growing up, my dad would insist that I become good at any one particular art but sure do try to know everything else that I could lay my hands on. He would put me in all the classes that I would ask him of. I have taken classes in dancing and instrument playing but I would leave that bragging for a latter time. Most of my gardening skills come from my father. We would spend hours together doing gardening on our terrace. Yes, I meant the terrace of our house as there was no land available around the house in the crowded city of Madras.

Well, this blog is not about gardening either. I wanted to focus on part of the proverb – Jack of all trades. This past weekend, I was reading the papers and I read that the unemployment rate is now at 9%. People are losing jobs like being dropped like a hot potato. Like shown in the picture, one should be surprised to have their job retained on any particular week or for that matter on any given day. Folks go to work and find out whether they still have their job or not. I have seen my friends lose their job after putting in years of service at a company.

There are many sites on the internet that give advice on how to survive a layoff like making sure to have enough savings in the bank to survive at least for three months, build up on the network so you can get referred to a new job when it opens up and such. If you Google the information, you can hear it from the horse’s mouth rather than me. But I am sure that none of those sites will have this advice on the list - "Get yourself a Significant Other." (obviously, if you don’t have one), , followed by having a fun week. I learned about it a few years back.

To survive this economic crisis, one would have the advantage if he or she knows how to perform many jobs. In my case, I can do programming, if needed but I do project management mostly. But, I also can do project costing and analysis and write proposals as well. The more you grow your expertise, the better you get to survive this downtime. I also read an article that mentioned that bar tending schools are on the rise and that this year marked the most enrollments in their schools. People get depressed after losing their jobs or unable to find new ones and go to bars to drink their depression out or to socialize to get jobs contacts (only they know) and can this be considered to improve the economy as they are spending and putting it back into the pot? Experts, this is your chance to speak up. Since I like to make or rather experiment myself in making new exotic mix-drinks, I can enroll in the bar tending program and add a feather in my cap. The more colorful my cap is the better luck for me to outrun this job survival.