Trust the lust you must...

Hello everyone. This is Ben.

Today I am going to wander into the world of desires.

Sense of lust

The etymology of this word is suspected to have its origins some 9 centuries back in old France from the word “desirrer” meaning to “wish for, long for” with another variation in “desir” meaning a “sense of lust”. For all you Latin lovers out there, it could have also been “desiderare” to mean “long for, wish for, demand or expect” extracted from the phrase “de sidere” which in English means “From the stars”. This infers a longing for something as in “awaiting what the stars will bring”. In today’s language, it simply means “A strong feeling of wanting to have something or wishing for something to happen”.

This blatant appeal is also translated into a name of the feminine persuasion. The name Desiree (Pronounced Dare-Zer-Ray) seems to automatically confer on the owner a sense attractiveness and sensuality.

Most of you know that I am a career transition coach, trainer and recruiter and may wonder if I recently became a certified Love Therapist as well. No I have not. But believe you me, understanding desire is a key trigger in moving your career forward.

It goes without saying that if you can match the desires of the recruiters, you will become an interesting focus. Since it goes without saying, I shall not say anything (Maybe at a later date).

What I shall say however, is that there are desires that are unspoken, habitual, addictive and sometimes even compulsive that are played out subconsciously by recruiters and candidates alike.

Let’s move away from recruitment for a while. Let’s take our mind’s eye on a short flight of fancy.

Imagine you’re hovering 1,000 metres above your town, estate, city or park. As you gaze down, you see building, roads, trees, walkways, playgrounds and anything else that the town planners have meticulously put in place to make things work well.

Take a closer look.

Did you notice that in some corners, there are paths that were not laid over with concrete and tiles? Just a well-trodden dirt path that over time erodes into the earth, pushing the green grass aside.

Town planners call this a desire path. 

A desire path is often created out of rebellion, laziness, habit or simply perceived efficiency. The town planners could be scratching their heads over this. A nicely shaded walkway was built to provide a safe and comfortable traverse but yet from out of nowhere, a path pops up. [Studies show that up to 15 desire paths can appear along a fixed route]

Desire paths are found regularly in the stressful frenetic world of recruitment. Recruiters develop habits that bypass archaic corporate policies, use tools less than effectively, depend on legacy rules (before walkway was built) or simply because they want to get things done faster. I really don’t blame them (or myself). If you can only understand the kind of workload these crazed people have to put up with. If they want to see their family, have drinks with friends, go for tango classes or just not be a recruiter for a while, they have to walk these paths.

Oddly, most don’t even know they are on this path. It has become the path to take to reach the destination called sanity.

Many candidates approach the job search very professionally. Rightly so but find the paved street packed with other equally professional job seeker but oddly enough very few recruiters. The recruiters are over at the desire paths that they are so accustomed to.

The street named Desire.

If you want to be found, you need to know where the finders are and how they actually find. Otherwise you’ll just be all dressed up with nowhere to go.

Ben is the founder and principal trainer with Indigo Drey. As a career transition coach & trainer, he has trained hundreds to transition into new careers. Click here to find out more.