I questioned him regarding his other interests in his life and strangely told me his favorite hobby was auto mechanics.  His Dad was a crackerjack auto mechanic and they enjoyed refurbishing vintage autos, that required getting their hands dirty and oily and they enjoyed every minute of it.  He never thought he could put this talent to use, like making a living from it.   In fact he never would even consider placing this "hobby" ahead of his first love Plant Biology.

I told him that I would make some inquiries and get back to him.  The next day I called an acquaintance I had at the FMC corporation.  (The Food Machinery Corporation)   They were an international manufacturer of agricultural and food machinery and were entering into heavy machinery.  

He called me the next day and said they had an opening in Saudi Arabia installing tomato processing equipment.   I suspect Saudi Arabia does not process any tomatoes today with their vast oil wealth.

I called him and  told him to talk it over with his wife and get back to me.  He told me not to hang up the phone and briefly  told his wife of the offer.  He came back to the phone and said "We will take it"

The deal was he had to stay there two years, leave most of his earnings in escrow.  He agreed and did his 2 year stint.

The company liked him so much they transferred him to a division that was involved with the manufacturing of automatic fruit and vegetable harvesters in Florida.   Orange pickers, bean pickers, sweet corn and a host of others.

He soon became a superstar because of his "Multifaceted" abilities that he could directly apply to this division, namely his plant biology background tied into his mechanical talents as designing plants to adapt to machine harvesting required mechanical modifications relative to the limitations they could effect with the plant design.  Longer stems, and various plant characteristics are  needed to be solved in both the biology laboratory as well as the mechanical shop and in field trials.   So all of a sudden you see where this fellows unique mix of talents were being employed to solve some of the labor shortages we have in this country through automated harvesting.

So if he wasn't in the green house working with mother nature he was getting his hands oily and greasy in the field.  He was like a pig in you know what.

John became the plant manager in 3 years.  We visited him on our trip south one year.  When we pulled into the facility we expected to be directed to a plush office in the vast green house propagation area.  Instead we were directed to a field where a group of employees were working on a automatic snap bean picker.  When we pulled up we didn't see John.  We asked one of the men where he was and he said "Look under that machine, that is where he is".

Yes the plant manager was under the machine cussing the machine that would not cooperate with the plants that he had designed and propagated in a few years in the laboratory because it  involved disturbing some of Gods work that can be frustrating at times.  Mother nature does not appreciate being fooled with although there have been many successes where increased yields seem to be acceptable to the man upstairs when it comes to feeding the worlds hungry.

There are many other examples that we have been involved in the past 50 years.  One was a young man that went to college and majored in archeology,  learning about dinosaurs etc.  He too couldn't find a job and this really teed off his father who sent him through college at great expense.  We entered into a  conversation one day on my porch when I questioned what interested him the most about his archeology studies.  He said "DNA"

This was during the OJ Simpson trial and the DNA evidence that was involved.  I asked him if he ever considered applying to the State Police and taking his DNA interest to humans instead of Dinosaurs.   He landed a nice position in about a week when he applied for a position in the state police forensic division.

One more example and this involved a close relative that grew up on a farm and became very mechanical.  Later in life he became interested in computer technology and marketing.

He now has a very successful business selling computer systems that requires remote access to the clients computer over the Internet.  He first designs a system that he eventually ships to his clients all over the world and as in the automated harvester example, you will find him under a desk switching wires, at times taking the cover off of the machines, adding parts as in fax modems and of course utilizing his mechanical expertise nurtured on the farm.

Employers are picky today.  They have things going their way.  They are not anxious to hire people who are one track minded with limited expertise in peripheral areas.

If you can't dig up any unique experiences you have from the past, and apply it in some way to a current need in your present employment or employment that you will seek, you had better go into an interview with more than one thing in your bag of tricks because one specialty may not be enough today in this job market.  You may have to actually take on a very serious study of areas that you can apply to your present expertise.

Study a hands on occupation and apply it to the technologies.

Become multifaceted even learning another language would contribute, don't sit on your ass waiting for the politicians to bail you out.

Some ideas and recommendations

First out of the box would be your current expertise in communications, computer skills,  I-Phone, tablets, Internet capabilities even exploring this new Cloud technology.  If you are an elder that has not taken the plunge into the newest technologies in communications you have nothing else to do but to get your feet wet and there are schools that will provide you these tools.

If you have computer skills and communication exposure this is a good start but hardly enough to make it in today's world.   Multifaceted is the answer and the following is one  specific recommendation.

We covered in the start of our feature plant biology with a mechanical connection, there was the case of the young man converting his DNA love from dinosaurs to criminal applications.  We had another one where an advertising effort was assisted by a mechanical background as the business model involved selling systems that had to be configured and serviced on line.

We feel that the advertising business is and will be one of the most fruitful areas one can enter.

In fact to zero in on one exciting area will be the ultimate tie in to the current communication devices, the TV, phones, tablets etc.  Steve Jobs had a vision before he died and it is in some of his last effort and that is the tie in to the interactive TV and other devices area.

We believe that becoming proficient in creating advertising material, videos in particular will be where it is at and making them available to vendors to promote their products.

You see material every time you enter the Internet, Utube in particular where products are promoted some in a amateurish fashion and some really sharp high resolution productions.  Quality productions are imperative and we certainly would encourage you to construct the  highest quality  productions.   Some of the new cameras even Iphones are talking 8 megs of resolution and this would be minimum.

There are these new instant codes configurations that should be studied to tie into "Creative advertising"  that only require snapping an image shot of them.  A lot of them are showing up on billboards, restaurant menus, "Tags" in museums to bring up info on your phone as you walk through the museum.  This material doesn't happen automatically, there has to be a creative multifaceted human being involved and there are hundreds of thousands of applications that vendors will beg for.

Next is your role and I am not talking having an advertising exec standing in back of your computer station directing you like a robot , I am talking where you become the creator of the advertising material and this could mean taking a separate course in Advertising media to add to your Multifaceted list of abilities.

If you have some ideas that you want to discuss, give me a call before 8 P.M. EST  954-922-9181   I will be glad to help you.

Bob Martino