Our Blog

BY Joel Junker

Want bad news? Look elsewhere.

Cameron-Brooks let me out of the office for one of my infrequent recruiting trips.  I had the opportunity to travel a whole 75 miles from our office to San Antonio and meet with several candidates last week.  I heard from many of the JMOs that they are following the Cameron-Brooks Blog.  One specific JMO made the critical comment  that all  our postings are positive.  That took me by surprise since the Cameron-Brooks blog contributors make every effort to describe a realistic market for today’s military to business career transition and lay out the the requisite attitude and effort to be successful.  We have deliberately not “sugar coated” anything.  I really wondered why he would say this, but then it hit me.

Cameron-Brooks views problems and challenges as opportunities.  We see opportunities for growth for our company, clients, candidates and alumni amid unprecedent economic challenges.  Randy Pausch, author of the Last Lecture who passed away from pancreatic cancer recently, talked about brick walls in his last lecture and book.  He pointed out brick walls are there to keep the other people out.  We are realistic, there are brick walls in life.  At Cameron-Brooks, we think they are there to keep other people out, not us.

We hire a team of people at Cameron-Brooks who are inherently positive, enjoy their work and get a lot of satisfaction out of helping JMOs reach their career goals.  If you haven’t called our office before, call 1-800-222-9235 or 830-997-7595 and listen to our receptionist Helen Davenport answer the phone.  She epitomizes our positive outlook and attitude in her simple and warm greeting.  The President and CEO of our company, Rene Brooks, always says, “You’ll see it when you believe it.”  This saying is actually taken from a popular Wayne Dyer book.  Rene has been through numerous recessions to include the tough times of the 1970’s, early 1980’s and now.  She doesn’t flinch.  She sees attaining the goal, believes in herself, our team and our candidates then works hard every day to make her and our goals reality.

Leaders are optimists so we look for JMOs who want challenges and look forward to overcoming them.  Our clients want leaders who recognize it’s not always going to be easy and have experience with enduring tough times.  That’s why a common interview question is about a failure, and the other day one recruiter asked a candidate about the two toughest challenges in his life.  These questions demonstrate companies want JMOs who have faced the tough times, come out on the other side and learned lessons.

Lately, I have been thinking a lot about the lessons I learned from my youth baseball coach.  Three things he used to say to me.  1) “Keep the chin up.”  Implying, “Keep your head up and look forward.  Looking down doesn’t get you anywhere.”  2) “Good ball players always adjust. ” He didn’t say when things change or getter harder, quit, give up.  He said, adjust, keep your eye on the goal and the task at hand.  The situation may have changed, but that doesn’t mean your goal changes.  3) “Why so bitter?”  Of course when you are young playing a sport, things don’t go your way.  It’s easy to get upset and mad.  When the other players or I would get upset or act out, he would calls us on our behavior and ask, “Why so bitter?”  Isn’t life still pretty good?  Aren’t we still outside playing baseball today?  Don’t you have another opportunity to hit or play again?  The answer of course is “yes.” 

If you want negative news on business, a business career or anything else, turn on CNN, Headline News or read the New York Times.  They have all you want.  For the Cameron-Brooks Blog, we will continue to provide current, accurate and realistic advice on leadership, JMO career transition and career management.