Food for thought

We are starting to hire a permanent CEO at my gig (this is a good thing), and I was stunned to learn today that there were already 47 applicants - in less than a week. Forty-seven people that want my job. At first I thought - based on past experience - that I would go through and quickly weed out the plumbers and nail salon owners who have decided they'd like to run a small international nonprofit corporation - as their next logical career move, obviously. But to my surprise, I can't rule these people out that easily. It's a pretty solid bunch of applicants.

Applications will be accepted up until the end of January. One of my co-workers started a pool to bet on how many applications we'll receive, total.

The funny thing is, the really on-the-ball, super-motivated people do their homework, and start calling around to see who they know, how they can network their way to an inside track with this job. Which often includes calling me, and eventually working their way around to asking why I'm not a candidate for the job, seeing as how I'm already doing it on a temporary basis and all. I can alway see their question coming from a mile away...I can feel their curiosity...is this a rigged search, all for show with a candidate who's a shoe-in? Is there something so wrong with the job that not even the person doing it would want to apply? Is the board crazy? Is the office upstairs from a crack house? Is this whole operation a front for a religious cult?

So I always reply, no, I'm not interested in the job because I'm a professional interim.

To which they always, invariably, ask, "Seriously? That's a real job?"

I'm telling you, everyone should aspire to a career that prompts that question. It never ceases to amuse.