“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”
Howard Thurman
THE ECONOMY HAS NOT BEEN GREAT IN THE LAST FEW YEARS. WE ALL know it. We have just had a recession, and we are just emerging out of it and into what people are calling the “jobless recovery.” That means that a lot of us are looking for work, and that a lot of people who have found work are underemployed, or feel stuck doing jobs that they do not enjoy while their skills are not being used to their fullest potential.
There are a lot of reasons for looking for work—whether you are a recent grad, looking to change career paths, or have been laid off. But everyone has basically the same goals. We all want success—both materially and figuratively. We want to be fulfilled by the work we do and we want to be rewarded for it.
Amid all the bad news you might be hearing, the good news is that for anyone who applies the right principles this goal is possible! Know what you want, follow your dream and know how to deal with the challenges ahead, and you can be paid very well to do what fulfills you as an individual. I know the tricks for making this happen, and I am excited about sharing them with you.
By profession, I am a recruiter, which means, in short, that it is my job to work for companies to find the best candidates to fill their positions. In a way, I am an employment matchmaker. I work closely with companies and with candidates, so I know what each end of this equation wants from the other. This means I know exactly what companies are looking for from you when they evaluate whether you would be the right fit for a position.
So how did I get here?
Personally, I was bored to tears in high school. I graduated with a GED when I was sixteen so that I could study for a degree. What for most people would have been their last two years of high school I spent at junior college. I moved on to the University of California Irvine for the second two years of my bachelor’s degree and planned to move on to law school.
I graduated in June, and moved to Los Angeles. Everything was going according to plan—until in September I got a call from my college saying that I had not actually graduated. I had missed a class from high school. I did not have U.S. History 101, and it did not matter that I had taken Advanced Placement European History instead in high school and passed it. Sound like any institutions you have ever dealt with?
It seemed like the worst thing that had happened in my entire life. But now I know that it ended up being the best thing.
The college’s solution was to send me a thousand-page U.S. History 101 textbook to read and memorize for a two-hour exam with the Dean of Social Sciences less than a month later. The extra studying was nothing. What it really meant for me was that I could not go to law school that year.
I took the test and passed with flying colors—but now I had a year in front of me that I had no idea what to do with. My dream of law school had to be placed on hold—and that is one of the most frustrating feelings in the world.
I ended up posting my resume on monster.com and got a call from a recruiting agency, who wanted to recruit me for a sales job. They brought me in and introduced me to the thought of being a recruiter (at the time I did not even know what being a recruiter was!)—and almost in spite of myself I ended up getting a job as a recruiter with them.
I worked this entry-level recruiter job for about four months, learned the tricks and seized my opportunity. The company I was working for recruited for other agencies, so when an order came in from one of our job owners—$50,000–$75,000 per year to a recent grad with some experience—to me, this was a dream job. So I took a risk and reached out personally to the employer. I essentially called the president of the company on his direct line and convinced him that he was going to hire me and that I was going to be the best thing that ever happened to his firm. It took a lot of guts, but it paid off—and I ended up being the youngest, most successful person they had ever hired.
In short, I took what could have been a setback, acted courageously to go for what I wanted and presented myself in the most useful possible light to my potential employer. These are all essential tools in finding your ideal career. As you can tell from the story, they have been very good to me. Over the years as a recruiter I have seen them be very good to others as well, and I think it is time to share what I have learned with all of you.
The biggest lesson I have learned is that passion and skills are an unstoppable combination. My goal with this book is to help teach you the skills and release the passion you already have that will lead you to true success—a good job doing what you love.