Thank You Dave Ramsey for NOT Hiring Me

We never know what God has in store for us. And that makes it incredibly difficult to understand situations entirely.

I’ve been thinking about sharing this story for some time now, but never found the “right” time to do so.

Now is the time and it’s because of Bryan Allian’s recent post where he describes his experience and tells his story.

He, like I, was incredibly close to going to work for an awesome company.

The Story

I’ve been a web designer my whole life. It’s what I was called to do. And I’ve been a Dave Ramsey fan for the past 3+ years.

So it only made sense to apply for the job when it came up to be a web designer over at the Ramsey company. My wife suggested it after we had been struggling for some time with little work coming into my business.

I built a website where I posted my resume and all about why I wanted to work for Dave. I think he’s awesome and I wanted to be able to be a part of something that would help people acheive financial freedom. It was called HireMeDave.com (no longer active).

And I got one interview. Then another. Then another and so forth. If you haven’t heard of their interviewing process, you’ll be interested to know that it involves around 14 interviews over a 3-ish month period of time. They don’t take hiring lightly.

Which is exactly why I was stoked to be involved in the process. I live in Texas and they are in Tennessee so the majority of the interviews were phone and couple Skype.

I finally got the opportunity to go up there and have face to face interviews with them. I met some really awesome people, but not actually Dave himself. I was pretty bummed about that.

To wrap it up, I ended up getting a call about a week after saying that they liked me but I wasn’t the exact person for the exact job they were looking to fill.

Honestly, I was crushed.

It’s hard to go through something you want so bad and feel so strongly about and not get the collect the reward at the end. We had thought that all our prayers were being answered and there is was absolutely zero doubt in our minds that this was right. It was one of the few times in our lives we felt so strongly about something and got continuous validation of it.

But, apparently, it wasn’t right.

The Weeks Following

I took a coulple days to just be. I tried to figure things out, I prayed, I thought and I relaxed. It was incredibly difficult to understand why this didn’t work out…but something inside me told me something better was to come.

The Dave Ramsey company deserves much respect. They don’t adhere to the norm and they know they’re only one hire away from losing who they are. They believe it’s imperitive to get the “right people on the right seat on the right bus.”

I believe that too.

What You Can Take From This

Sometimes we go through things and we have no idea why. Sometimes they seem so right, yet they are so wrong.

But the interesting thing is that they are always God’s plan. He doesn’t make mistakes.

I wasn’t supposed to work there. I still don’t really know why but I do know that I’m not quite as passionate about design as I once was. Maybe that’s why. Maybe they saw something in me I didn’t. I really don’t know.

However, we are all supposed to make a difference in the lives of others. We’re all called to be part of the kingdom and work for His will. There’s nothing that trumps that and even when we don’t fully understand situations, He does.

In closing, I want to say “Thank You” to the Dave Ramsey company. Thank you for listening to God’s will. Thank you for the opportunity to know that I’m important enough to be noticed by such a great company. And thank you for not hiring me.

There must be some reason…some reason I still don’t know about that God wants me where I am and to continue where I’m going.

What’s something that happend in your life where you can relate to this?

19 thoughts on “Thank You Dave Ramsey for NOT Hiring Me”

  1. I think this is great, thank you for sharing! I would imagine it’s easier to see why certain things happen when the “why” has already been revealed to you. It takes massive strength to make peace without the answer for why.

  2. Thanks for this post, Jared!

    I agree, God has a plan and everything happens for a reason, whether we can see it or not.

    My wife and I have several points in our lives that have caused us much wondering over why things worked out the way they did, why some things we tried haven’t been as successful as we had hoped. It all because God has a bigger plan than we can see. Something less about us and more about his kingdom.

  3. I quit my job last December to do career coaching full time. I thought the timing was right but it didn’t work out as I had planned. At the time I didn’t understand it and I eventually surrendered it to God. Since that time a lot of good things have happend with my work, including finding a day job as a Job Coach and I’ve also been able to build my platform online. And the funny thing is that I like what I’m doing with my blog and social media on the way to becoming a best-selling author a lot more than what I was doing before. Thanks for sharing, Jared!

    1. Thanks for sharing Drew. It’s great to hear other people’s point of view on something they went through. Learning to trust is so difficult, I just wonder why it’s so hard. Best wishes to you!

  4. Read Bryan’s post and watched the video last week. Gotta say it’s something reading your experience too.

    We don’t always understand everything. But God does. And when we keep our trust on Him, all things work out for our good.

    I have discovered that when something like this happens (my husband and I have gone through seasons like this), it surfaces and reveals where my hope lies.
    I believe greater things are in store, for you and your family.

  5. Great post, God does have a plan for us and often it’s unclear for us. God has closed many doors and it has saved me from a lot of stress and pain. He has also opened a lot of doors.

  6. Going through the same thing right now. I was told i came very close but they chose someone else. I’m also walking by faith that God had a reason for them not to hire me…. thanks for this.

    1. Wow pretty interesting to hear that someone else found this and has the same experience. I still really love that company and have respect for their decision. Its made me go down an entirely different path and has definitely helped. But it took time. Keep your faith and feel free to hit me up if you need chat or anything. I know it can be a difficult time.

  7. Jared, I had seen this post before but didn’t comment on it for some reason. I noticed it on your sidebar and read it again. Really good stuff. I can relate to your story — one time I was certain I was going to get my dream position at a church and it fell through for very vague reasons. I was extremely disappointed at the time, but later discovered that it would have been disastrous if I had taken it because of the leader in my dept. Come to find out, the senior minister at the time was actually protecting me from the situation, but couldn’t be forthright about it at the time.

    You are doing some really fantastic work and I love your insights. I always learn something from your stuff. I just wonder if the web design position would have confined you to a role where you couldn’t be doing all the cool things you have been developing, and are yet to come.

    1. It was a difficult time but I know now why it didn’t happen. God always has the better plan, now if we could just get it through out heads to follow it everytime, we’d be much better off.

      It’s interesting you mention that about your experience…seems most everyone has a story like this. I appreciate you sharing and glad you have been able to see from the other side as well. I think that’s where a lot of the healing comes from. And I know I would not be doing the same stuff now if I was working for Dave. It would be cool, but just not what God had in mind.

      Thanks for commenting, always happy to see you here!

      1. Great thoughts man. Something I have been thinking about a lot lately is what Jeff Goins (maybe Seth Godin?) said – “pick yourself.” So much of my life I’ve spent waiting on someone to pick me. That’s definitely true with publishing and jobs! So hey – let’s pick ourselves instead! LOL

        Reminds me of junior high gym class … nobody would pick me!

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