Gambling With Your Career

Posted February 13th, 2011 by Charlotte Draper No Comments »

I have many friends who enjoy Las Vegas. Cards, dice, football and March Madness are the usual gambits.

As an engineer, I prefer certainty and control of my outcomes. By their nature, the outcomes in gambling are about playing the odds, not about certainty. My gambling friends would probably say that if you are smart about it, you could play the odds in your favor, and hence increase the certainty of success. Vegas casinos love to perpetuate this myth, as they know it is mostly an illusion. Odds are always in their favor.

Hence, my engineer’s mind could never grasp the allure or excitement of taking chances and playing odds, especially with my money, when you can do other things that you can control, like school, investments or business. To me, these were safe bets. These were things that I could control, and therefore create greater certainty in my professional life.

Ironically, I’ve grown to realize that certainty from these so called “safe bets” is also an illusion, and that taking chances and playing the odds (even going against the odds) from time to time may yield far better results than any number of safe bets.

Random jobseekers frequently email me with a “cold call” resume wanting to come work for my company. As is customary, these emails are accompanied by a cover letter and attached resume. The typical email espouses the jobseeker’s capabilities, skills or experience in the usual fashion. The better emails may try to incorporate how the jobseekers see themselves fitting into my organization. Most jobseekers are always “really looking forward” to getting into my company or industry, and believe they “can add value.”

Most other employers would probably delete such emails immediately if there was no job opening. Being a small company, we generally appreciate those jobseekers who make a concerted effort to target our company, and try to get a foot in the door, so, I usually give every email its day in court (or rather 30 seconds). However, most emails do eventually get deleted before I finish reading. After a while, these emails all start looking alike. In good economic times, maybe this strategy could work when jobs were plentiful. But in the current market, when you look and sound like the guy who came before you, this is almost surely a losing bet.

Then, about six months ago, I get an email from a 40-something who was seeking a career change. He spent nearly his entire career in sales working for staffing agencies, and now, he wanted to start a consulting career in one of my businesses. This particular business is in a highly technical field dominated mostly by engineers and scientists. Although a career change is not unusual, this was the first time I ever saw a sales professional with no related experience whatsoever wanting a technical position in a highly technical field. Fish out of water is the phrase that comes to mind.

His email intrigued me, although it sounded like a recent college graduate wrote it, since he didn’t speak our lingo. What impressed me though was how he took a chance on such a long shot, although he didn’t realize how long it was. It was highly unlikely that any company in this industry would hire a mid-career sales professional for a consulting position without any technical degree or related experience. He did take some online courses and got certified, which actually did nothing for him. I couldnt have cared less about an online certification, but I was impressed by his courage and efforts while slightly amused by his naivete.

After a few minutes of enjoying his email, I quickly deleted the message and went back to my job. As similar to probably every other consulting firm, I wasn’t about to roll the dice with him. He was not a safe bet.

Three days later, I got an idea. I dug up his email from the trash, and emailed him back. Little did I know till later, mine was the first company to reply to him after hundreds of job applications and cold-call emails. He confirmed what I already knew. Nobody would hire him for a technical position without any relevant education, experience or background whatsoever. So, I struck a bargain. I told him he could work for our company in a commission-based sales and business-development role. In exchange, he would spend the next six months learning about our industry from the inside of a consulting firm instead of applying for jobs and reading about our industry from the outside. It was kind of a project or experiment, since our firm never had a dedicated salesperson. Also, we would build his resume, and give him some of the technical experience he would need to get another job if this did not work out. So, he got technical experience and we got a very motivated individual who offered something we could use. I opened the door, and he was smart enough to check his ego and walk in.

Because he assumed it did not matter, he never once thought to leverage his greatest talent to help my company: his sales experience. It is counterintuitive, but ultimately the one thing that made him stand out from others was what he viewed as not particularly relevant for this job.

What can you do well? Not what makes you happy or passionate, but what are you good at? Offer to build something, sell something, organize something, design something or write something. Create a website, write a blog, conduct research, develop a case study or run a social media campaign. In short, offer something of value that nobody else is willing to do, and do it for little or no money. Approach it as a short-term project or consulting gig, not employment and not an internship.

Preferably, pick a small company in your target industry (fewer than 50 employees), where you can reach a senior executive or owner. If you don’t have a target industry, pick a small company or nonprofit organization nearby, and offer to do something in your field of interest. Small companies are still run by their founders and tend to be more entrepreneurial. Nonprofits are generally open to just about any free labor.

Be aware that not every employer will accept this, as most won’t be receptive to creative gambits, especially larger enterprises. However, nobody says you need to play it safe. There will be some willing to take a chance, if they are getting something of value. Even for little or no money, instead of spending all of your time over the next six months “applying for work,” why not spend some time actually “doing work” that creates value for somebody else? You are not getting paid much either way, but one of these approaches creates a work sample, builds your credibility and makes you stand out.

Although there is no certainty whatsoever, you may be surprised where a little gambling will lead.

JY Teachers