Too Small To Fail: A Very Slow Boat To China

We can read in today's Times about one Scott, a recent Colgate grad, who has been struggling to find a job and get his "career" started. He was offered a $40K Associate Claims Adjuster job at Hanover Insurance Company in Worcester, MA, close to his home. Admittedly, Worcester is not exactly Paris or Singapore (Disclosure: your correspondent was born and resided in Worcester for two weeks; later, he attended college there, sort of).  Still. Some of you may be more than mildly surprised to find that Scott turned down the offer, since it did not match his career ambitions.

Poor Hanover! They are about to get 5,000 or 10,000, or even 30,000 inquiries about that position, which probably already went to someone who recognized it as an honorable way to make a living, even if only for a couple of years.

It happens that I am a loyal customer of Hanover Insurance Company: a very happy customer as a matter of fact. Hanover settled two large claims for me and assisted on another small one during the last few years. I, for one, am really happy that my Claims Adjusters were smart, courteous, caring and totally professional, both in Worcester and in Syracuse, NY.

Scott, thank you for rejecting that offer. You sound like someone who is so concerned about your  own career that you would not have much empathy for customers like me. I would, most likely, be a big inconvenience during your meteoric straight-line rise to the C-suite.

Scott's grandfather opines that the young man should "go West," by which he means to Asia. My advice would be to take the proverbial Slow Boat To China, on which, with any luck, he can take that seminar in Humility that he so obviously missed back at dear old shiny-bright Colgate. Or, maybe they don't bother with teaching that junk anymore.

Scott, if  you  complete that seminar, arrive "West," which really is East, and find another enterprise worthy of your talents, you will very likely find people called employees, colleagues, customers, and suppliers. Many of those folks may perform duties similar to being an Associate Claims Adjuster.

Amazingly, they may even find honor, satisfaction, and prosperity in those jobs. They will help and respect others who treat them with respect and empathize with their problems. Many of them will be promoted and earn positions of responsibility exactly because they exhibited those valuable traits.

If you should skip that Slow Boat seminar, Scott,  and somehow find yourself in an enterprise you think might match your current ambitions, we offer a caution, if the name on the door is AIG or GM. Thousands of careerists have already been there.

And gone.

Ed Note: Full Times' story: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/07/business/economy/07generation.html?_r=1&th&emc=th