This is not a new phenomena, however, in the last couple of 100 years we finally gave it a name... we conceptualised it.  Many moons ago a young bushman in Africa, named something that sounds like horseshoes on a cobble road said to his dad: "Dad, I´d like to go hunt with you.  I really like it and I think I´ll be good at it.  I´ve been practicing shooting the arrow through a moving Onyx stomach hung on a tree... I´m really good at hitting the target, please dad, please, please, please."  After a long session of negotiation his dad finally says: "OK, come with on the next hunting trip.  Tomorrow morning we meet at the baobab tree on the west end, just before the sun shows his eyebrows over that hill," whilst pointing in the opposite direction of where the sun is now.

Very early the next morning the young bushman can´t contain his excitement any longer.  His heart is pacing, his palms are sweaty, his eyes are open wide... he is in excitement overdrive.

Finally he meets up with the rest of the hunting party behind the baobab tree at the end of the west side of their camp...  They go hunting.  Running side by side, almost without lifting their feet, they overlook the big open valley to their left.  There are animals spread far and wide...

...The little bushman looks at what his dad and the other seasoned hunters are doing... and as they get closer to the huge buffalo bull they´ve been following through the undergrowth for the past 8 hours... suddenly it snorts... and stamps its hoof.  The young bushman gets a fright and responds accordingly.  Without thinking he simply reacts and shoots his arrow.  It´s a clean miss!  The buffalo bull trots off, kind of disgusted at the fact that he was inconvenienced by inexperience.  All the time and energy they have spent wasted.

Now, let´s tie this make-believe tale to business and more specifically the HR side of things.  Yup, the company vs. employee stuff.

When you sit on your bed or at the kitchen counter, either going through the Job Section in the latest newspapers because "you´ve had it with your stupid dumb ass manager" or whether you do it because you feel you need a change, or whether you go through the many jobs because you need to spend more time studying or with your young kids; what are the main criteria that you need fulfilled in your work life?  We all have many different things we value when looking for another job, but when we look at the top three that pops up in amongst most people´s job satisfaction shopping list; we find the following three considerations:

1)       Your personality
2)       Your values
3)       Your expectations 

Now, when we look at the main factors contributing to succeeding at a particular job it is quite strange to find that your goals vs. that which is needed to succeed at a specific job correspond with only two of the points listed above:

1)       Your personality
2)       Your values
3)       Your knowledge
4)       Your ability

Like the young bushman in the analogy in the beginning, he too, was very excited about going hunting with his dad and the other seasoned hunters.  He based his excitement and drive to become a hunter on his personality, his values and his expectations.  He failed to consider his ability to respond and act appropriately under pressure.  He failed to consider his knowledge... and in the corporate world it goes far and beyond having knowledge.  The saying goes:"knowledge is power"... I´d like to take that notion a tad further and say: "knowledge is power if you know what to do with it, when to apply it, how to apply it and how to share it."

Often I find people who have started a new job, feeling completely and utterly overwhelmed after only a few weeks or months.  There´s a slight competition between the disappointment about the fact that it´s not what they expected vs. the pressure of feeling completely incompetent and inexperienced to do the job and perform the necessary tasks.  Although this is a fairly natural part of starting up in any new organisation, I´m referring to the fact and level where these feelings become almost overwhelming and where it affects your job performance and personal life on levels where you seriously don´t need it... you know, that level where you tell yourself: "uh uh, this is enough now... I can´t deal with this any longer..."

The aim of this article is first of all to help you understand what you may be experiencing when in such a situation, secondly to help managers of people understand what some of their employees may be experiencing other than just plain stupidity and incompetence, and thirdly to allow you to make sure you assess your need, want, passion, excitement, or whatever other emotion or thought is driving you to seek alternative employment properly when looking for other positions you think may be perfect and tailor-made just for you.  The fourth purpose of this article is so you don´t feel complete high-voltage shock when you step into the office on your first day... or a month after you started your exciting new journey, and all of a sudden the heavens, and whatever else feels like it´s crushing your skull and tightening around your heart.

Remember the golden rules

You look for how a job will fit your:

1)       Personality
2)       Values
3)       Expectations 

The "job" looks for how your (.....) will fit it:

1)       Personality
2)       Values
3)       Knowledge
4)       Ability

So, know what is expected of you and whether you are ready to face the realities of what the task requires.  Weigh up the pros and cons, because there will be many... also prepare for the inevitable unexpected things that have a tendency to pop up at the most inconvenient of times...

Happy career building!

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