What did your first job teach you?

LinkedIn has for some time been running a series called "My First Job" highlighting what successful people learned from their first job. Much of what they learned will ring true for many folks. I was reading one of the posts yesterday, this one from Collin Shaw entitled "My First Job: Why You Don’t Always Need Qualifications" rang true with me on a couple of levels. The first is rather obvious: most people lack the qualifications for their first job simply because they have never done that work before. The second is that many employers often defer to experience (i.e. qualifications) when hiring which makes it very challenging for talented, but less experienced, candidates to get a chance to demonstrate the skills they do already have. But what really struck home with me was Collin's observation that simply having the requisite qualifications isn't enough - you still have to work hard: "Too many people in this world think because they have many qualifications the world owes them a living. I meet them all the time. They think they don't need to work hard, that as they are clever everything will come to them because they deserve it. Well, let me tell you, it won't. I have seen many clever people fail - they need to work hard as well. In my experience employers want people who do things, not talk about doing things."

What Collin ultimately says he learned from that first job was that "...hard work, dedication, enthusiasm and commitment can overcome the lack of qualifications." What I would add to his observation is that even with all the qualifications in the world without hard work, dedication, enthusiasm and commitment success is unlikely. At Pinnacol we often see candidates who, based on their qualifications alone, should all be able to do the job. The folks we ultimately hire are usually those who can also demonstrate those extra components of "hard work, dedication, enthusiasm and commitment."

Candidates I meet with often ask me two questions: how long have I been with the company, and what do I enjoy most about working at Pinnacol. To the second question my response has always been "the people who work here". After reading Collin's article I might have to now say "the people who work here... who work hard and show dedication, enthusiasm, and commitment". That's what makes Pinnacol a great place to work.