I wrote the post below a month ago but wanted to update it with an article I came across called “Why I never hire brilliant men” ( it was written in 1924, hence the gender specificity). Apparently, someone had the same thought about the kind of skills/tempermant generally required in business 85 years ago. The link also includes some counter arguments as to why this kind of thinking no longer applies in the IT sector.
I work in a large, corporate, cubicle maze office environment. My current position requires a university degree and, ideally, a specialized graduate certificate. Why is this education required? I really have no idea. Because from a hard skills perspective, my eight year old could do my job. And many of the other jobs in my organization. I’ve been working since I was 14 years old. I temped my way through high school. I believe I had seven jobs (often two at a time) while I went to university. In my career, I have visited easily hundreds of different organizations – in sales, as a consultant or as an account manager. Oh yeah, and I work in the human resources field so I KNOW what the skill expectation is for many jobs. And my son is good to go. Now my son is bright and sociable but this is not about how advanced and impressive my son is, rather the limited brain engagement actually required to successfully execute many jobs. No really: he’s literate, has basic numeracy and exceptional interpersonal skills – all he’s missing is how to use the photocopier and fight with IT.
When my daughter was an infant it became obvious that she had an insatiable need for information. I could almost imagine a Venus Flytrap mouth (OK, I know a Venus Flytrap doesn’t actually have a MOUTH….trying to translate an abstract mental picture into words…work with me) above her head constantly seeking mental sustenance. As a first time mom I felt the pressure and knew there was absolutely no way I could possibly keep up with her need voracious need to learn. I was extremely relieved when she learned to read and could seek knowledge on her own, at her own awe-inspiring pace. Truly relieved. Sometimes, my children are my mirror and I am very conscious of my children’s insatiable need to know and learn. Yet somehow, I lost touch with my need to feed my own Venus Flytrap brain/mouth (You’re still with me on the Venus Flytrap mouth thing, right?). I had no conscious awareness of the effects that the lack of mental stimulation afforded by my cubicle farm environment until I realized my children’s continual need for knowledge was the same as my own. One doesn’t need to be a gifted adult to be bored in one’s job. I have no doubt the majority of my co-workers, regardless of intelligence, have a mental ability exceeding their jobs and that many are bored. However, for me, I feel fundamentally deprived and incomplete without a regular stream of new information. There are worse things to me than being bored…but not many.
Many years ago, the mother of one of my friends, a very bright woman and advocate for gifted education in Toronto 30 years ago, told me that at work she was only able to do a task twice: once to learn it, once to improve it. By the third time she was bored and ineffective. It’s my understanding that there are jobs that accommodate this kind of person: in science, math and technology. None of these are my strengths. My greatest strength is my ability to process and synthesize large amounts of information. Find the patterns and inconsistencies. Then my preference would be to tell you about it…not write a report and definitely NOT create a PowerPoint summary. Not a lot of jobs match the description: read a lot, talk to people and then put it all together and tell me about it. In fact, after reading thousands of job descriptions, I’ve yet to come across it.
Back to my 8 year old could do my job. There is a lot of hoopla about knowledge workers but my experience is successful execution of most jobs means repeating the same tasks well. Even in many professional jobs. What’s more, working your way into a job requiring more brain engagement means first you have demonstrate success in menial jobs. I was a junior account executive in an advertising agency many years ago. I targeted this role specifically. I thought I would be well suited to the role of an account executive figuring my strengths aligned with strategic planning, client relations and being in a creative environment. Well, as is typical of me, I neglected to read the fine print. A JUNIOR account executive in advertising is a very detail oriented, clerical task involving proofing, gophering, internal project management (which I had absolutely no training or awareness of at the time) and zero client contact. I was fired because I had neglected to demonstrate my potential in strategic planning and managing clients due to my congenital inability to proof Columbia House ads. In retrospect, it must have been some kind of cosmic joke: ME proofing. And Columbia House ads no less.
So I stand firm – skillwise, my 8 year old is ready for my job. And if you work in a cubicle farm, odds are good he’s ready for yours too.
