First Things First
THE FIRST TIME I GOT laid off, I was working in an insurance company’s training and development department. I’d been working in another department at the company when I saw a job posting for the position. The training department was looking for someone with subject matter expertise and experience in teaching.
At that point, I’d been working in property and casualty underwriting for 14 years. On top of that, I was a certified instructor for the Dale Carnegie course in public speaking. This opportunity appeared to be a perfect match for me, and it was.
The training department appreciated my knowledge of insurance underwriting, as well as my ability to stand up and lead a class. This was a skill set the department was lacking until I came along. Everything was working in my favor. I thought I’d found my niche. And then it ended.
The company was experiencing financial difficulties due to a slew of costly claims resulting from hurricanes, tornadoes and floods. The first department to be dissolved was the training department. I was given a generous severance package. The company also paid for an outplacement service. The service gave laid-off workers an office space to go to, with coffee, fax services, research materials and classes to help us get back on our feet.
The outplacement service’s stated objective was to guide us not just to a new job, but to the perfect job. I’d always wanted a successful career, and I believed the service could be my ticket to the utopian experience I’d been hoping for.
One of the biggest advantages of losing my job this time around: I wasn’t alone. My whole department was shut down, so we were all in the same boat. We all needed a new job, and finding the ideal job was a goal worth pursuing.
On the other hand, this wasn’t the best time to be out of work. My son was four years old. We were starting to see signs that he had a learning disability. My wife wasn’t working, so she could focus on raising our son, but that also meant we had no paycheck coming in. Meanwhile, we had a mortgage, plus I had some medical problems, which meant I had to rely on COBRA coverage for my health insurance needs.
For those on COBRA, it’s a blessing and a curse. You have medical coverage, but the price is often steep. The subsidy your employer previously provided toward medical insurance is gone. You have to pick up the entire tab. The coverage was expensive, but I needed it.
Despite these financial burdens, I was determined to find that ideal job. This philosophy was also shared by other members of my department—that is, until the father of one of my coworkers straightened us out. He said, “It’s nice you want the ideal job, but first you need a job. After getting a job, you can then go after the ideal job.”
Talk about a Debbie downer. I was excited about turning this negative situation into a great, big positive, and then this reality check pops my bubble. But he was right. Utopia is nice, but first you need to put food on the table and a roof over your head before seeking your pie-in-the-sky dream.
To dream is great. It allows us to reach for the sky. The bigger our dream, the higher our final landing spot will potentially be. There’s a great self-help book called The Magic of Thinking Big by David Schwartz. The title says it all.
There’s certainly magic in thinking big—as long as you already have the foundation of income that gives you the financial leeway to pursue that ideal job. I ended up taking a job in Upstate New York that was two-and-a-half hours’ drive from our New Jersey home. Not ideal.
I rented a studio apartment to use on weekdays and came home at the weekend. The job wasn’t in training, as I wanted, but I sold my new employer on hiring me as an underwriting manager who was skilled in training. It was a small company, with just 30 employees, so having someone with multiple skills was a good fit.
What about that ideal job? That came about 12 years later—by happenstance. The company where I was working got bought out, and that led to new responsibilities for me. The new job was in regulatory compliance, which was a better fit for my skills. Sometimes patience pays off.
David Gartland was born and raised on Long Island, New York, and has lived in central New Jersey since 1987. He earned a bachelor’s degree in math from the State University of New York at Cortland and holds various professional insurance designations. Dave’s property and casualty insurance career with different companies lasted 42 years. He’s been married 36 years, and has a son with special needs. Dave has identified three areas of interest that he focuses on to enjoy retirement: exploring, learning and accomplishing. Pursuing any one of these leads to contentment. Check out Dave's earlier articles.The post First Things First appeared first on HumbleDollar.
