A couple of months ago, I was out and about one night and my car broke down. Hardly the beginnings, of an inspirational story, right? Okay, okay…. let me continue…. it’s what happened next that I thought was inspirational…..

It all started when I called the RACQ to come and sort it out. While I am not deliberately trying to ‘’plug’’ the RACQ, as a female who doesn’t know a lot about cars, I have found that is has been essential for me to have roadside assistance. This time when I called, they sent Andrew in his roadside assistance van.

Andrew showed up, asked what the problem was (similar to a health professional taking a case history), and had come up with a probable diagnosis within all of about 5 seconds. He then went about checking the car (similar to a physical examination a health professional would do) and confirmed his diagnosis. The battery that had been installed was faulty. Happily for me, it was within the warranty time frame and I received a new battery free of charge.

So yes, while that was a great outcome for me, what I found inspirational about my dealings with Andrew was the fact that he had both experience AND enthusiasm. Over the years I have had a number of conversations with business owners hiring staff. A topic that often comes up (for example here and here) is that of experience vs enthusiasm. The assumption tends to be that job seekers will have one or the other. They will either be relatively new in their role or industry and have enthusiasm, OR have been around for a while/have developed significant expertise and have experience.

Andrew sorted out my car battery issue with a minimum of fuss, and because he could have done it with his eyes closed, he had the time to tell some very amusing “war stories” from over 20 years in the job. I thoroughly enjoyed every second, as I could see his enthusiasm for helping people in what can be a very stressful time of need…. when their cars break down!!

While having experience AND enthusiasm is obviously a killer combination for job seekers to have, seeing it first hand in someone was an inspirational experience for me. There is something inspiring about people who go to work to do something that they are very good at and enjoy doing. Something that I think we should all aspire to achieve, if we’re not there already!!

Amanda :-)
Founder – My Health Career