Friends are Electric

Let us dissect the statement `I feel so lucky that I got hired’. Present economic climate aside.

Rational thought dictates that the one reason why one should feel lucky to have gained employment is if they felt that they were unqualified for a given job. Luck doesn’t enter into a discussion about qualification, you either are or are not the best person for the job. The most qualified get hired, the rest do not.

This process of hiring the best, of course, changes the average skill set of the remaining pool and, like many natural and industrial fractionation processes, may tend to concentrate incompetence. This of course assumes that all skills are equally sought after, which is not the case. This also assumes that the pool is static, which is also false. Thus, incompetence does not concentrate.

If you hired, then appealing to luck only indicates a lack of confidence in your own skills. A lack of self-confidence is a common problem faced by many people, this mindset is merely a symptom of it.

The truly confused mind, after the euphoria of that lucky find has passed, might move to a more cynical mindset. “If I was hired, and I am not the most qualified person for the job, then maybe everyone else knew better than to work here.”

While this mindset also displays an extreme lack of confidence in one’s own skills, it also displays a complete disregard for the individual’s own intelligence.

It can be concluded that the only reason one would feel lucky to gain employment, present conditions aside, is because they felt themselves incompetent, unintelligent or both.