“I talked about the need for American leadership, I talked about the importance of the United States to a more peaceful world, a world that has been quite turbulent in recent years, and needs a strong American anchor.”
Condoleezza Rice
The type of anchor utilized by an ocean going merchant ship which is attached to the vessel by heavy chain links – an anchor chain – would certainly not be used by a 16 ft. boat which mostly transits near the local coast. In fact these two anchors on the merchant ship probably weigh more than the 16 ft. boat even with a few crew members aboard the 16 footer.
Let’s look at the job of an anchor by reviewing the nautical anchor definition provided by Encyclopedia Britannica online.
Anchor, device, usually of metal, attached to a ship or boat by a cable or chain and lowered to the seabed to hold the vessel in a particular place by means of a fluke or pointed projection that digs into the sea bottom.
Ancient anchors consisted of large stones, basketfuls of stones, sacks filled with sand, or logs of wood loaded with lead; these held the vessel merely by their weight and by friction along the bottom. As ships became larger, they required a more effective device to hold them, and wooden hooks that dug into the sea bottom came into use as anchors. Iron replaced wood in their construction, and teeth or flukes were added to help the hooks dig into the bottom. Another major improvement was the addition of a stock, or horizontal arm, that is set at right angles to the arms and flukes of the lower part of the anchor. The stock ensures that the arms rest vertically on the seabed, and thus one fluke will dig itself in, providing maximum holding power. This type, with its two flukes and its stock at right angles, remained the basic anchor for many centuries. It is known as a stock anchor in the United States and as a fisherman’s anchor in the United Kingdom.
The point is clearly each type and size anchor will do the job it is designed to do, however, to be effective it must be the right size and type of anchor based upon the vessel type and size it will be used for.
In a similar fashion when you are seeking a job take the time to consider the type of organization where you would like to work.
Why spend the time and effort applying to a position at a large public company if that is not the type of place where you want to work?
If you already know you are not interested in working for a large publicly traded company why spend the time and the effort to apply, interview, obtain the position and then potentially be miserable and leave the role at some point. How does this help you establish your career? How does this help you be a happier person?
The course to take is to define the type of company where you would like to work.
Then take the steps necessary to find these size companies and conduct your research. Some of the items you are looking for may be the industry they are in, where are their offices located and in your areas of expertise where are these people based.
Once you have created a list of ten or twenty companies that appeal to you utilize the tools available to conduct specific research on these companies. Two of these tools which need to be used by you all of the time are LinkedIn and Glassdoor. There are other tools available online, however, we don’t want to make this a science project let’s get the basic research done first.
If you want to take a deeper dive into the techniques that work for getting the job you want and building up a career in the way you want to contact Mitch here.
Mitch Tublin is the CEO and Founder of Wenkroy International LLC a boutique consulting company with a main focus on adding value to people. Through Speaking, Training and Coaching we change lives. Our passion is to take people to the next level in their life and in their career or business.
