A crash course for service provider new hires – Carosa

There’s nothing like your first day on the job in a new and vibrant industry. The deep knowledge of your veteran coworkers impresses if not awes you. You wonder if you’ll ever be able to match them.

The short answer is “yes.” Sure, it might take some time, but there’s a way you can quick start your “veteran” status. It requires a little bit of work, but not “cramming for the finals” kind of work.

What if you had the ability to step into the shoes of those veterans before they became veterans? What if you could travel back in time and see what they saw in the industry as it unfolded? How much would you be willing to pay for this time travelling boost to your career?

Truth is, you can do this and all it will cost you is, as I said before, a little time. Perhaps the best way to begin to secure this advantage is to read about the tumultuous 10 years in the world of the fiduciary (see “The Decade’s Top 5 All-Time Most Popular 401k Plan Sponsor and Fiduciary ‘Must-Read’ Articles,” FiduciaryNews.com, December 31, 2019).

Here’s the secret to current news articles that even journalists fail to recognize. Reporters work under deadlines. That can be stressful, but it also can be useful – to the readers of history.

That’s right, I said “history” not current events.

In order to write quickly and coherently, the reporter often has to relay just the bare bones of the story. Those bare bones may sound spartan, but they’re often chock full of raw emotion, frivolous innuendo, and exaggerated conjecture. The news may be wrong but it’s not fake. This is how people actually felt at the time the story was written.

And it is these feelings – right, wrong, or indifferent – that allow you to live the experience “as it happened.” There was an old Saturday morning TV Series called You Are There. Hosted by the venerable Walter Cronkite, the show took its young viewers on a trip back in time.

Children saw historic events as they unfolded. They got to experience the ups and downs of those living that history. From this, it was hoped the kids might find history – as told in living form – far more compelling than those dry lectures embedded in their history books.

In a way, perusing contemporary reporting offers the same experience. It’s often faster to read than to watch a video, so you’ll capture that experience much quicker.

So if you’re just starting off in a new position or a new industry, no matter what your age, it makes sense to scan the internet for those old articles everyone was reading oh so many years ago.