How To Retire 6 Months Every Year
(Page 19 of 22)
May/June 1970
By Irv Thomas
We have been raised, most of us, to respect the omnipotence of the personnel interviewer, and he uses that lever to its best advantage. Now we must learn to turn the tables in our own minds, and here is how I go about it:
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1. I am at a distinct advantage in this encounter, for I know all about myself and I should know at least something about the work in question. The employer knows the work, but he knows absolutely nothing about me except what I want to tell him, either true or false. So I control the interview even though he thinks he does.
2. I watch and listen for clues to what he wants to hear, either in his attitudes, his questions or in his reactions to my replies and I proceed to tell him as much as possible exactly what he wants to hear.
3. He thinks he is evaluating the kind of person I am. But I know exactly what he is looking for because it is standard image for all employers: Intelligent, alert, neat, responsive, pleasant, etc. So I play that part of me to the hilt and leave out all else.
As you can see, I am making a tactical game of the interview. This prevents me from really investing my emotions in the encounter, so I don't give fear a chance to work. In addition, I try to lay a barrage of interviews so that no one or two will assume any great importance. I bring blind faith into play by knowing that there is some percentage for me - however small - in the law of averages, and sooner or later I have got to connect. I have developed this form of attack through well over half a hundred jobs in my work history. It has worked every time, in widely diverse fields, usually within a week or two. Yet I still have to persuade myself, each time, that it will work again.
The question of old age security is neither an act of God, as I am using that term, nor something we can control. It is in a class of its own; an inevitability, like death. Most older people deep in the system have locked themselves up tight because of their fear of approaching old age. They become more and more concerned about what they will do after 65 than about the 10, 20 or 30 years before 65. The fact that they are worrying so intensely over a probably 7 years, according to life expectancy tables, seems not to enter their heads.
My own answer is a very simple and personal one. I accept the fact that one way or another I shall have to provide my own income until I die. And so what! That simple decision saves me all the agony of retirement problems and being tied to a job I don't want to keep. As my resignation points out, I am getting a fair share of the good years right now, and I won't have to look toward any stultifying inactive years later. I have been asked how I will get a job at that age, but there are so many creative possibilities of earning an income, especially when one can subsist on a 'poverty' level, that the question really doesn't worry me.
The question of career advancement assumes a new meaning in the context of this program. Very possibly, its original meaning. Instead of working for increased income - which becomes meaningless - you will find yourself working toward self-fulfillment. Possibly self-fulfillment in the arena of your present activity, but more likely in an entirely new direction. You'll be able to make a separation between a job that satisfies your financial needs, and a career that provides deep personal involvement. It is possible the career will produce income but, for the first time in your life, it will not be necessary! Play with that thought for awhile.
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