I was driving to work this morning, and saw a young turtle walking steadily across a busy road.  I avoided him of course, and quickly turned the car around, stopped traffic and saved him (maybe it’s a her – how do you tell?).  I’m a hero, yay!

What does saving a turtle have to do with work or finding a job?  Well, you can reflect on the tortoise and the hare story for sure. Fast doesn’t always win the race.  Steadiness is very important when it comes to:

• Reliability – one of the most common things employers tell us.  “If we can just get people to show up every day….” Being reliable, and showing up, on time, for work every day has great merit.
• Consistency – You know for sure that turtles are slow on the ground. The walk slowly, take their time, but they get where they’re going (mostly due to strangers like me who save them from getting turned into a turtle pancake).
• Quality – Employers count on steadiness in the quality of work you produce. If you’re making repeated (and the same kind of) mistakes, you’re doing more harm than good.

Please don’t mistake this message.  It isn’t to say that you can be slow in your work even if you do high quality work. If that’s all you got out of this, you’ve missed the point.  Just take a couple of lessons from the turtle – be reliable, be the employee (or job candidate) employers are looking for.  And if you can, save one from becoming turtle soup – with all the rain we’re having, they’re all over the place!

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