Gary Bremermann
Appearances
Chief Change Officer
#234 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part Two
And human touch, that human touch and trust, those two things are so vital. And changing jobs is a huge deal. It's a big decision. You can't just push people around to take a job or because they match the job description. It's a very complex, I don't know a good word for it. It's a process. It's a process of change. attracting, assessing and getting people to say yes to decide to change jobs.
Chief Change Officer
#234 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part Two
And it's harder here. It's hard everywhere, but it seems to be harder here. But most definitely the human touch and the trust factor is the driving force. And technology has yet to be able to do that, to have a human touch and develop trust that's real. We all use tools. We use all the tools, but it hasn't replaced the human touch and the trust factor.
Chief Change Officer
#234 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part Two
Yeah.
Chief Change Officer
#234 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part Two
So one of the biggest challenges and frustrations that I have as a recruiter is discrimination. And it's discrimination of all kinds. So age, sex, race, anything that can be discriminated for or against plays into the recruitment process. And the legal regulations around discrimination are looser than they are in my home country of the United States.
Chief Change Officer
#234 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part Two
So I mentioned I had my own company in the US and I was very aware of what I could and couldn't do in a job description or in an interview or even considering who I would hire and how I would structure the role. There's more flexibility here and there's more openness about discrimination, and particularly so with ageism. And ageism is a very tough, very complicated, very difficult topic.
Chief Change Officer
#234 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part Two
But as I'm aging, I'm now in a zone where people are discriminated against based on their age. People are being forced into retirement at too early of an age. At the same time, the working population is shrinking. So the labor practices aren't adapting as quickly as the population is aging. And so I get a lot of people who will come to me in their 50s who are facing forced retirement at 60.
Chief Change Officer
#234 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part Two
And saying, Gary, I have a lot left in me. I want to be productive. I want to keep working at a high level and get rewarded for it. But a lot of companies have policies that when you turn 60, you can stay at the company as a contractor at 30 to 40% of what you were previously paid. Even though you have 30 years of experience and you're wise and you have a lot to offer.
Chief Change Officer
#234 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part Two
So ageism is a topic that's going to be more and more prominent in the next from now on. Yep. And it's not going to go away. And there's some interesting thought leaders on that topic. But I have a front row seat on discrimination every day. And I have to say, not to blow my horn or pat myself on the back, but I do push back on my clients.
Chief Change Officer
#234 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part Two
And I have walked away from clients that are discriminatory at the very roots of how they operate their HR function. And there are things that, for example, asking about current salary or salary history, it's illegal in 25 states in the United States and in the EU. And it's a very common practice here that when someone applies for the job, the question is, how much are you making now?
Chief Change Officer
#234 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part Two
And it's not illegal, but it's discriminatory. So academic studies have shown that it's discriminatory in the U.S., particularly against women and people of color who may have started out at a low salary, and that follows them throughout their careers. So it's become an issue and we're not yet there in Japan in terms of changes happening. But ageism in particular is a real tough one.
Chief Change Officer
#234 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part Two
Yes. I started just doing recruiting 23 years ago and people would come to see me and I would have these amazing mid-career professionals come to see me to talk about potential job opportunities. I was selling them job opportunities. And very accomplished professionals, they would come, we'd sit down either in my office or over a cup of coffee or lunch.
Chief Change Officer
#234 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part Two
And I would say, what do you want to do with the rest of your career? And they would just look at me and say, what do you have for me? They didn't have a vision or an idea or a mission for what they wanted to do.
Chief Change Officer
#234 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part Two
They were still 20 years into their careers, just opportunity seekers looking for the highest salary or the best company to work for, but not having a kind of internalized thoughts and vision for what they want to do other than ambition.
Chief Change Officer
#234 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part Two
And so it wasn't until 10 years into my recruiting experience that I wrote what became Seven Steps to Career Clarity, which is a seven steps process for figuring those things out. And I realized that many of the people never did the work on their careers because they're so busy working in their careers.
Chief Change Officer
#234 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part Two
And so I wanted to share that knowledge, what I've learned from talking to so many people about their careers, but also the things that I've been through and the kind of thinking around finding your way and finding your path and finding work that you love. And they're amazing people. They're not flawed people. They've just followed the model of great school, great company, continual advancement.
Chief Change Officer
#234 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part Two
And some people will, I studied accounting, so I have to be a CPA. Or I studied law, so I have to be a lawyer. And so having someone that can work with them and say, I get that, but what would you really like to do? And help them think a little bit differently and help them understand. make change. So the people I work with, they're thinking about changing jobs.
Chief Change Officer
#234 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part Two
They're thinking about changing careers, like a complete redo of their career. And some of the people I coach, they're ambitious and they just want to move up in their company. And that's okay too. There's nothing wrong with that. But just helping people think a little bit deeper about their lives than I just have to follow this path.
Chief Change Officer
#234 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part Two
Yes.
Chief Change Officer
#234 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part Two
Yeah, so we talked up until now, we've talked a lot about our story, things that happened to us in the past that provide us with some clarity about what we can do in the future. And so the seven-step process starts with your story, looking at the past to find clues for your future. But it also talks to some really basic stuff.
Chief Change Officer
#234 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part Two
And what I've done with the seven-steps process and the e-book is distilled all of the fundamentals of... Thinking about your career. So you start with looking at your past and then you do the mission, vision, values, which I call values, mission, vision, because values is where you start. You think about what your dream job is.
Chief Change Officer
#234 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part Two
And when I talk to people about dream jobs, I say that you pick two or think of two. And one is the dream job. If you have no limitations, could be anything. You could be president. You could be an astronaut. What would that thing be? And then think about a practical dream job. And then you look at what's out there, the pathway to your dream job and how to get there.
Chief Change Officer
#234 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part Two
And one thing that, that what I do, it's a little bit different than some of these other thoughts about is you look at your strengths and weaknesses, and there's certain schools of thought that say, don't worry about your weaknesses, just focus on your strengths. And you may have heard that along the way. It's like align with your strengths. Don't sweat your weaknesses.
Chief Change Officer
#234 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part Two
But for a lot of people, their weaknesses hold them back. So I help people understand, are there any weaknesses that you have that are holding you back? And are they things that you could work on? Pretty basic stuff. The thing that's fun is other than the dream jobs is identifying companies and jobs you'd like to do.
Chief Change Officer
#234 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part Two
And that's another thing where people who are caught on a path or going down the path without really giving it a lot of thought is People discover new possibilities and new things and new places and new things they could do that they didn't have the chance to do because they didn't go through this process.
Chief Change Officer
#234 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part Two
And then another thing, I've been here in Tokyo for 25 years and I've built up a network, partly because I'm a recruiter. You have a network to be an effective recruiter, but also because I enjoy connecting with people. And I think it's really important for people to get out of their bubble and establish a professional and personal network in the place that they live. So we talk about networking.
Chief Change Officer
#234 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part Two
And then the last step is action. Nothing happens without taking action. And so I encourage people to figure out what the most important actions you could take. So it's a very simple process, but I've distilled it down to 25 pages. So those are the seven steps.
Chief Change Officer
#234 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part Two
And then if I may add, the other thing that I noticed in my recruitment practice is that people are not, they go to university and like you studied accounting, everything there is to know about accounting, but the career management and career development components are not taught in university. And people don't get the toolkit they need to accelerate their career growth.
Chief Change Officer
#234 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part Two
And so I put together an online course called the Career Kaizen Course, which is 24 topics about career development that if you learn about them and master them over time, you'll see greater acceleration in your career growth. Hopefully by then you have a clear idea of where you want to go. You don't want to just go rocket off in the wrong direction.
Chief Change Officer
#234 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part Two
But I help people with the tools that it takes to grow their careers.
Chief Change Officer
#234 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part Two
Okay, thank you for asking. Yeah, so it's considered globally to be the hardest market in the world to recruit talent. One thing to keep in mind is my focus is on bilingual professionals in Japan. The majority of my clients are international firms looking to hire people locally to help them grow in this market. But just overall, the working population is shrinking.
Chief Change Officer
#234 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part Two
there's a generally risk people are risk averse and i'm always hesitant to talk in broad generalizations really depends on the individual but there's the risk averseness level is higher here than in other markets so changing jobs is there's some fear around changing jobs there's some fear around working for international firms that are more likely to do restructuring or org changes or layoffs
Chief Change Officer
#234 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part Two
But it's the challenge for the employers. The employers have a hard time finding the right people to do the role that they're looking for. And so the recruitment market here, the fees for professional recruitment services are the highest in the world.
Chief Change Officer
#234 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part Two
So I'll have clients come from Singapore or Hong Kong or North America or Europe, and they're accustomed to paying fees that are much lower than what the standard fees are in this market. And they have no choice because the way it is, it's just a really tough market to get people to change jobs and That's just the way it's been.
Chief Change Officer
#234 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part Two
And it's been that way for 23 years that I've been in recruitment in Tokyo. And it just it hasn't changed. And you would think with the development of technologies, it'd be easier to identify people or assess people. And nothing has fundamentally changed about recruiting talent in this market.
Chief Change Officer
#231 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part One
I had a business where I was exporting consumer goods, American style, American culture goods. It started out in exporting it to Japan because we had connections and an interest in Japan, expanded into Korea and then expanded into Europe. And it was things like apparel, sporting goods, health and beauty products. And so I was an intermediary between manufacturers and customers.
Chief Change Officer
#231 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part One
in Asia and Europe. And it was exciting, but it was it was so hard in some ways. And the reality was, I wasn't that interested in consumer goods. I wasn't that interested in fashion. I love sports, but it was just I was doing it for the money. Also for the freedom. I've been an entrepreneur all my life. Also the freedom aspect of it. But when you're a slave to your business, you're not free.
Chief Change Officer
#231 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part One
And so I was very fortunate. My company was acquired. Yeah. right before it crushed me was it burnout stage and at that time i engaged a coach so i had a coach and i tell my coach at that time that he saved my life and i mean it he was he really helped me to get clarity
Chief Change Officer
#231 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part One
on what I was doing, why I was doing it, showed me that there were alternatives, and then helped guide me through the sale of my business. So it was a real, talk about change, it was a real turning point for me. So I sold my business and decided to move back to Japan.
Chief Change Officer
#231 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part One
Yeah, that's a great question. I had that experience and I said, I'm never going to chase money for money's own sake. I want to do something that's aligned with my innate skills. I want to do something that I can add skills or learn and do and be challenged and try. But part of why I feel like I found my calling is that I'm helping others.
Chief Change Officer
#231 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part One
And that's a story that I didn't throw in the early life stories. But I had an experience where the best job I ever had when I was a young man was after I'd returned from my world travels, I worked in a retail store.
Chief Change Officer
#231 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part One
Thanks for having me, Vance. It's a pleasure to be here.
Chief Change Officer
#231 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part One
And I worked in a retail store in Santa Barbara that was called Pacific Traveler Supply. And it was one of the very first stores that was a retail store that was specifically for people who travel. And as I mentioned, I traveled all over and I knew a lot about traveling. And we sold...
Chief Change Officer
#231 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part One
travel goods travel books and maps and people would come into the store and i would help them choose the right map the right travel book and the right travel gear for the kind of travel that they like to do and i realized that how much joy i got from helping other people on their own journeys And it sounds like I'm making this story up to align with what I'm doing now.
Chief Change Officer
#231 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part One
But looking back, I love that job so much. And I would have done it for free. I was very young at the time. I needed the money to finish my college education. And I would wake up in the morning super excited about going to that job. It was pure joy.
Chief Change Officer
#231 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part One
And so I had that memory of what it's like to have a job, get paid for it, but be doing something that's helping other people and that's aligned with something I'm passionate about.
Chief Change Officer
#231 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part One
And so when I had that experience with my business almost crushing me, it's my next phase in life, I'm going to be doing something where I get paid decently, make good money, have the opportunity as an entrepreneur, but also do something that's really helping others and aligned with my strengths. And so that kind of ties back to with the ability to talk to different people.
Chief Change Officer
#231 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part One
And so money was more of a side effect. Of course, I'm very, as a business person, I'm very financially minded and keep an eye on cashflow and revenues and profits. But it's really being able to do something where I feel like it's aligned with my true self. And I feel blessed to be able to be doing that.
Chief Change Officer
#231 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part One
All that, yes. Oh my gosh, yeah.
Chief Change Officer
#231 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part One
Yeah, that's a tough question because these drivers for when you're a young person setting out on your early stages of your career, and if you're young and hungry and motivated and You want to go out and make an impact and do something big. And I had that bug and it may have been because I read about Richard Branson that I was just bound and determined. Now maybe it's Elon Musk.
Chief Change Officer
#231 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part One
Young people who are ambitious may want to be like Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos or whoever. But then you go and not everybody's cut out to do that. And not everyone can achieve that kind of success. And then it's as you mature, you start to... And maybe it's realize what it takes to make a living. And a living is the basic fundamental things for life.
Chief Change Officer
#231 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part One
And then having some extra money to enjoy your life. And then having money to put away for your retirement or whatever. But I find with people when I'm working as a career coach...
Chief Change Officer
#231 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part One
That maybe their parents or their generation has put expectations on them and they go to the best schools and they work for the best companies or they go get their MBA at a top 20 B school and they spend their time and energy chasing success. fortune or fame or status because they think that's the right thing to do. And that's the measure of your value.
Chief Change Officer
#231 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part One
And I recall when I had my business in the 90s and the business was my identity. That was it. And if the business did well, I was doing well. And if the business wasn't doing well, then I wasn't doing well as a person. And I think being able to step away with that comes with maturity.
Chief Change Officer
#231 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part One
But also, I really give a lot of value to my coach who because I had someone to it's lonely being an entrepreneur, but I had someone to talk to about it. And so I had this coach and he, as I mentioned, he saved my life. And I was like, I don't think I could ever do what he does as a coach. I had so much respect and admiration from him.
Chief Change Officer
#231 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part One
And then it took me another 15 years to get to the point where I put my coaching shingle out, where I felt confident enough to be a coach, to help people see things from a different angle. To help people understand that it's okay to not be super successful. Or it's okay to not be a millionaire.
Chief Change Officer
#231 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part One
Or help people find work and a lifestyle that's in alignment with their interests and their needs and their passions. So it's been a long journey. It's been rough at times. And it's still not always smooth sailing, even at this stage in my life. But I really feel like I found a place.
Chief Change Officer
#231 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part One
All right. Thank you. I guess we'll start with where I'm at now. So I'm currently residing in Tokyo. I've been here for 25 years and I'm a recruiter and a career coach. And I've been recruiting for 23 years and I've been career coaching for a decade. And I didn't find my calling in life until my mid-30s. So I've been, this is my calling.
Chief Change Officer
#231 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part One
I'm very fortunate to have found my dream job and my dream life. But it took me a long time to get there. So I wanted to share with you part of my story today. And so I recruit advertising and marketing professionals. I career coach for bilingual professionals in Japan. from all different industries, all ages, different people with different stories.
Chief Change Officer
#231 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part One
And I find a lot of similarities and a lot of commonalities. And one thing I did is I've written an e-book called Seven Steps to Career Clarity. And it's a seven step process that helps people think about who they are, what they're good at and what they want to do with their life. So I've written that ebook and I'm here to help people find work they love.
Chief Change Officer
#231 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part One
And I help companies build teams of talented individuals. And in my coaching practice, it's helping people accelerate their career growth and find more joy in the work they do.
Chief Change Officer
#231 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part One
So it goes way back. And I was born and raised in San Diego. And I was very fortunate to grow up in a house that had a copy of every single National Geographic magazine ever published. And it started in 1888. So in my house, we had a wall that had every National Geographic from... And I would, on a rainy day, as a young boy, I would pull issues off the shelf and...
Chief Change Officer
#231 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part One
read through them and get super excited about what's out there, what's out there in the world. And that's really what started to lead me to Tokyo, was wanting to explore the world. So that was the start of my wanting to go places and see things and do things. I first came to Tokyo in 1985, but I've lived here now a total of about 30 years. So I've been back and forth between California and Tokyo.
Chief Change Officer
#231 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part One
In my mind, for sure, yeah. And it was definitely very analog. I grew up with black and white TV, no internet, and now all those national geographics are on the internet, or for a time there it was on a CD-ROM. But back then it was analog, and it was fantastic.
Chief Change Officer
#231 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part One
So, yeah, I was talking about how it took me a long time to find my calling in life in my mid-30s. And as I started working on my career coaching practice and working with other people to help them find their own callings, I realized that you can find clues from your early life that inform or give you ideas about what you can do to find your calling.
Chief Change Officer
#231 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part One
And so when I started doing the work on myself, I looked back and I realized there were some life experiences in my early days that really informed what I'm doing now and why I enjoy what I'm doing now so much. So the first one was that National Geographic story. But another one was when I was 18 years old, I was in university for my first year in university.
Chief Change Officer
#231 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part One
And I struggled a lot to get to the point where I found my calling. And I was in my first year in college and I was struggling and I quit. I dropped out. And I had that wonderlust or that wanting to visit new places because National Geographic also covered places within the U.S. or within North America.
Chief Change Officer
#231 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part One
So I dropped out of university at I was 18 years old at the time, and I hitchhiked from Santa Barbara, California, to Newfoundland. And it wasn't in a straight line. So I hitchhiked all over the United States and Newfoundland's an island. And I was I caught a ride with someone who put their car on a ferry. So I technically hitchhiked to an island.
Chief Change Officer
#231 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part One
And then I took the train across Canada, the Canadian rail train, and then hitchhiked back from Vancouver back to Santa Barbara. And one thing I learned along the way, everyone along the way said, Gary, don't be stupid. Go back to school. Get an education and then you can do whatever you want, because I had really determined to quit school.
Chief Change Officer
#231 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part One
But the other thing, looking back in terms of how it informed my career choices is or the thing that I got from it was I learned how to talk to people from all walks of life. young, old, men, women, all over the country, people would pick me up, very kind people, had some few rough experiences. But at a very early age, I learned how to communicate with people who were very different from me.
Chief Change Officer
#231 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part One
So that was one of my life forming experiences.
Chief Change Officer
#231 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part One
Yes, I eventually did. And that was a good decision. And you know what's funny, Vince, is that a lot of people in my world don't know about my hitchhiking experience. It's not something that I share with everyone. So if anyone's listening to this that's known me for quite a while, they might not know that I had that grand hitchhiking adventure. But it was a really life-forming experience.
Chief Change Officer
#231 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part One
Yeah, in terms of making the trip happen, I had very little money. I did have some cash on me, but I carried a tent and a backpack and I would sleep wherever I could. But also a lot of kind people took me in. And they invited me to stay at their house.
Chief Change Officer
#231 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part One
Some of them had me do part time jobs, cleaning the yard or something to make some extra cash before I moved to the next town or went down the road. And one of the great experiences I had is I was picked up by a gentleman north of Washington, D.C., and his family lived in the Amish country. in Southern Pennsylvania, Southwest Pennsylvania.
Chief Change Officer
#231 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part One
And he had left the Amish community, but he still lived within the Amish community. And I ended up staying with that family for three weeks. And it was, talk about another world. You've seen the movie Witness, perhaps, or seen a documentary on the Amish country. I went to an island in the Chesapeake Bay where they speak a very unusual dialect of English.
Chief Change Officer
#231 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part One
So you're right, North America or the US is so diverse. There's so many diverse cultures and so many diverse places. And as you mentioned, I was learning about myself, but I was learning so much from other people. They were sharing their stories with me and I could see how people were living.
Chief Change Officer
#231 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part One
A very nice couple picked me up in Tennessee and they invited me to stay with them and they worked in a pig slaughterhouse. They would share with me about the work that they did. I had a couple who were clearly very financially challenged, and they picked me up and they offered me cash so that I could buy food for myself. So people that didn't have a lot of money who were very generous.
Chief Change Officer
#231 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part One
So at 18, I was exposed to a lot of different type of people and a different type of experience, experiences. But now as a recruiter and career coach, I'm also talking to different people all the time, every day. And I think having had that experience at an early stage of my life helped me to become the person that I am now.
Chief Change Officer
#231 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part One
Yeah, yeah. And I feel grateful that I didn't have any terrible experiences. I ended up in some rough spots, but I was able to get myself out of them. I actually dropped out of university twice. Oh, wow. And this is another thing not a lot of people know about me, but I went back to school and I lasted a couple years and I dropped out again.
Chief Change Officer
#231 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part One
Thinking I would never go back. Frustrated with the system and going through my own personal challenges. And I dropped out in that time. I was 20 and I traveled around the world. So I traveled around the world and that's when I first visited Japan. And again, that was similar to my hitchhiking stories.
Chief Change Officer
#231 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part One
And not only was it different types of people within North America, it was different types of people all over the place. So I just wanted to throw that in there because I dropped out twice, but I did graduate. And then I came and lived in Japan for a while.
Chief Change Officer
#231 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part One
And I was a young man living in Japan and at the time the Japanese economy was really booming and growing fast and it was the bubble years and it was a very dynamic time to be here. And then I went back to the United States and got a graduate degree. So after dropping out twice from university, I ended up going to grad school and getting a graduate degree.
Chief Change Officer
#231 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part One
And then the biggest thing that happened to me in that decade before I found my calling was I graduated from university from the grad school and started my own business. And that was 10 years of heaven and hell. Great things happened. It was a great challenge, but it was also the business was crushing me. I had gotten into business because of a very strong desire to be financially successful.
Chief Change Officer
#231 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part One
and make a lot of money. Richard Branson was one of my childhood heroes. I read books about him and I thought he was so cool. And I thought, I want to be Richard Branson. I want to be, at the time it was multimillionaire. Now he's a billionaire and do diverse fun businesses. So I started a company in the United States and I operated that company for nine and a half, 10 years. Mm-hmm.
Chief Change Officer
#231 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part One
And in my last year, I realized that the business was crushing me. I had expanded the business. We had an office in London. I was based in California, moved the office from San Diego to Los Angeles and an office in Tokyo. And I worked around the clock. I never took vacations and I experienced burnout. And that was a huge turning point in my life.