SERIAL : 33

INDIAN IN COWBOY COUNTRY

THE HUNT

“I can understand being slightly off, but this is drastic.”

“No, it is not,” retorted his wife. “It just happens to be larger than what you thought of yourself. You don’t know this, but there are certain chores you enjoy doing. There are others you don’t, but you do them with the same diligence that you do anything,” Monica said.

“I learned it by observing my father. He has two simple rules. One, anything worth doing is worth doing well. Two, do it right the first time; you won’t have time to do it again,” he said.

Monica continued, “And that’s why you took the tests, and did them honestly. Now we have the results, and I am sure you want to take advantage of them. That’s you, Satish; you will focus and do things well, not half-heartedly, even if you don’t enjoy it. But how long will you do things you don’t enjoy? Think about it.” 

She held his hand firmly to show her support, and that she was not being judgmental.

“Satish, your marriage to Priya showed commitment and persistence. Your divorce from Priya forced you to rethink everything related to marriage and family life; commitment alone was not enough. You told me that you went into years of introspection, discovered yourself, and slowly changed.

“When you met me, you were a different person than when you met Priya. You got closer to your own true self. I think your self-awareness makes our marriage a happy and satisfying one.”

“Yes, I had to change, because something was drastically wrong with my old rules.” He said.

Monica laughed softly and said, “You know Satish, for all the brains God has given you, you can be quite a Buddhu.”

They had this discussion many times, and before they could go off on a tangent, he quickly said, “Yes, I am.”

She smiled at the minor victory he had conceded to her.

She continued, “Similarly, your parting with Clark is like another divorce, except they gave you an anesthesia when they said good-bye. They thought that the package made the severance humane, but I think you would have been better off if you had seen this as a personal tragedy. It would have forced you to think and look at this differently, as you did after your divorce.”

Satish was not surprised by Monica’s insights. He expected nothing less from her. He listened.

“I think that the tests are the biggest blessing of your package. It would have taken you years to figure this out by yourself.”

“I guess you are right,” he conceded. He gave her a slight, sideways hug in appreciation of her insights. She shrank and moved away; embarrassed at her husband’s public exhibition of affection, looking around to see if anyone had noticed.

Just then, Seeta came up to them and asked them to come see the sand hill she had built. Monica seized this opportunity to get away from her amorous husband. She was still very Indian in her Victorian mores of not displaying affection in public.

On their walk back home from the park, he told her that he was still going to pursue the fastest path to employment and cash flow. He would look for a job similar to the one he had at Clark. Then, once he was firmly established, he would work on maneuvering his career in the direction of his newly discovered strengths. Monica concurred that it was the prudent path, at least until there was a steady stream of income buffered by savings.

The Lunch Bunch’s reaction to Satish’s evaluation results and his decision to go down the same old beaten path was varied. It was evenly split between the yeas and nays.

“Shoot Satish,” Clyde said when he heard about his decision. “Someone just told you that you were a big game hunter, and you’re telling me that you are going back to shooting in a penny arcade to win some stuffed animals?”

“Life’s too short not to be true to yourself,” Dan suggested. “I understand money problems; I’ve seen my share of them. But everything cannot be just about money, can it?”

“You’re right, Satish,” was Sam’s reaction. “Take care of the home front and everything else falls into place. We all have to make some small sacrifice to keep the home fires burning.”

Darrell was surprisingly supportive of Satish. “I like the way you think: short term and long term simultaneously, and meeting both seemingly contradictory goals. That’s not easy to do, guys,” he said, addressing the rest of the group. “In everything we do, we cannot be one to the exclusion of the other; we have to do both concurrently. I like that attitude; I really do.”

After hearing Darrell’s opinion, Clyde and Dan hurriedly compromised, and all four offered Satish full support in his job search. Encouraged, he began his search in earnest.

He created a mental map of the whole process. There was a job out there for him. He had to reach the decision maker through his network and convince this senior executive, initially through his cover letter and later through interviews and references, that he was the best person for the job.

The process was simple, except that these jobs were hidden. He had to be at the right place at the right time when they were being filed. He had to play with probabilities and speed to be successful before his severance ran out.

Books were often his first source of information. He checked out a few job hunting bestsellers from the center’s library, and gave them short shrift. They were anecdotal, simplistic, and talked down to the job hunter. They mimicked each other and revealed no new principles or revelations that could give him that extra edge in his search. It was very clear that he had to be innovative and different on this hunt.

He began to execute the basic, commonly practiced principles of networking. He called it his ABCD strategy: associates, bridges, customers, and decision makers. He built a list of his associates, who could introduce him to bridges to customer organizations where decision makers resided.

He spent several weeks scouring his card files, and computer to create an exhaustive list of all his industry contacts. He then informed each one, via letters and fledgling e-mail services that he was on a job search and would be contacting them to get referrals.

A week after the letters went out, he systematically called every person and asked them for reference to people who might know about job opportunities. It was not adequate to just learn about a firm; it was of primary importance to get a name and telephone number.

He was insistent in getting at least three names of bridges from each of his associates. During week ten, he sent them a carefully crafted resume and a cover letter with a proactive last line that stated, “I will call your office for an appointment.”

When he called bridges and reached them, he asked for an appointment. If an associate had a strong relationship with a bridge, the request was granted instantly. If not, there was a telltale hawing, if not reluctance. He backed off immediately, thanked the person, and went on to the next bridge on the list.

By week thirteen, the halfway mark, Satish was mired in the minutiae of meeting assorted Bs and Cs at different stages of cooperation. some Bs were polite and offered to meet him to please an A, but within minutes, he could sense that he had walked into a dead end. This was also true of polite Cs who did not want to upset the Bs in their link.

He scrupulously avoided lunch appointments- he would be obliged to pay the check, since he had requested the meeting. He preferred to get back to the office and be with his Lunch Bunch to compare notes and to listen to their suggestions. They were all encouraging, noting that his progress was impressive. They wished that they had his dogged persistence and organization, and, most importantly, the stamina he displayed in seeing at least six people each day.

“I’d be happier than a hog knee-deep in slop if I could meet three people in a day,” commented Clyde as he sipped his beer. “Boy, you’re somethin'. Let me tell ya, I’ve seen many urban cowboys, but you’re the first Indian who can ride!”

Everyone at the table laughed, except Satish. He was clueless that Clyde had just paid him a compliment.

He went on, “Son, this isn’t my first rodeo, and let me tell you that jobs today are rarer than hen’s teeth. But the way you are sniffing around like a hound dog, sooner or later you’re gonna find one.”

Satish was not satisfied. He leaned over, looked into this chili con queso thoughtfully, and stirred in the Tabasco sauce, creating a fiery red mix with rings of melted cheese.

“What’s wrong, cowboy?” asked Clyde.

“I think I am doing it all wrong,” he replied.

“Why do you say that?” Dan asked.

“Because I am at the halfway point, and all I have are some Bs, a few Cs, and no Ds in sight. I need to be talking to a few hiring managers by now. I am doing all the right things, but it feels like I am driving my cattle from here to Laredo via the Grand Canyon,” he said, extending Clyde’s analogy. “I need to get to hiring managers, and this is not the smartest way of getting there from here.”

Sam, the diligent practitioners, suggested, “Satish, you have to be disciplined about it. It has worked for so many people before you, and people who recommend it have many examples and success stories behind them.”

“Yeah,” Dan joined in. “Networking is the secret to success in any sales job. This is selling. You are selling your services, and you have to network to get to the right people.”

Darrell sat back and said nothing, observing the young man struggle with his Lunch Bunch partners.

“I respectfully disagree, gentlemen,” Satish said, smarting from the latest spoonful of chili that had a mean slice of jalapeno in it. He grabbed his beer, took a long sip to soothe his palate, and continued. “I think I am making a mistake, but I can’t put my finger on it. There must be an easier way of doing this; there must be a short cut. This process is not rocket science. There must be a better way of executing it.”