Blog Post: Amazing Stories, Part 2: Talk to Strangers

(Do you know anyone who needs hope, advice and information after having been laid off? Please send them to my blog, Rebound Your Career! I'll be writing about all sorts of topics: finding a new job, recovering your dreams, staying happy, inspired and hopeful, protecting your legal rights, just to name a few topics. Now is not the time to be alone and full of anxiety! This is the site that will put you back on your feet and headed in the right direction.)

A few years ago (well, more than a few years ago), I worked for one of the all-time coolest guys on the planet -- Jacques Cousteau. Did I work on the Calypso, surrounded by all those cute French guys in their French-style swim gear? (A couple of other expressions come to mind about those get-ups, but I want you to think I'm a classy person, so I'll restrain myself.)

Sadly no. But the alternative wasn't half bad. I sat in a windowed office on the 32nd floor of a New York skyscraper, overlooking the East River and the 59th St. Bridge. I was the membership correspondent for The Cousteau Society, and my job was to respond personally to each and every member who took the time to write to JYC -- or, as he was known in the office: "Jeek," which sounds a lot like Jeep.  Or Zheek, if you want to sound French when you say it.

I wished I could have been out there among the dolphins and penguins. But I still enjoyed my job. Tucked among the days when I was explaining for the umpteenth time why the Cousteau Society's logo featured a naked lady, there were also lovely lunches of Perrier water, cherry tomatoes and elegant cheeses and meats from the best delis in Manhattan. And I would be sitting next to the man himself, marveling at his spectacular profile.  So it was a very very cool job.

I'm tell you all this not to brag, but to drive home the point that dream jobs can be found when you least expect it.

How did I find and get this job? That's the amazing part of the story: I met my future boss in the ladies room. No, not the country club women's locker room. And actual ladies room featuring stalls with doors that don't reliably stay closed.

We got to chatting by the sinks. And the rest is history.

Here's what happened:  I was working in the office suite next door to The Cousteau Society and that particular organization was really mean to me. I was fresh out of college, and I think I had the "kick me" sign pinned to the back of my Casual Corner working girl outfit every day. And every night I would go home crying. 

So one day I was in the ladies room that the entire floor shared, for once, just using the ladies room for its intended purpose -- not for weeping in a stall. And the chit-chat angels nudged me to smile and say hi to the nice lady standing at the sink next to me. So I did.

"Wow! You work at The Cousteau Society???  How cool!"

"Well, we do have a job coming open in a week or so, would you like like to come interview for it?"

"Would I??  Uh, yeah!"

And I was in.  Doing work I cared about, with coworkers I found endlessly fascinating. And I got to sit next to Jeek to boot!

Throughout the entire year of 2009, I will bring you more amazing stories of people landing the jobs of their dreams. Hopefully each one of these stories will reveal another piece of the dream-job-landing mystery.

In this story, the lesson is obvious:  Talk to strangers, no matter where you are. (Well, if you're a guy, you might not want to chat up the guy standing next to you in the men's room. I don't know for a fact but I wouldn't be surprised if there are cultural do's and don'ts about these things.)

I've got another "talk to strangers" Amazing Story posted on Rebound Your Career.  It's another story about me, I'm sorry to say. Before too long, I'll have more stories about others! Why? Because this isn't about me. It's about you!

Happy reading.