If I Were 22: Why Would We Ever Hire You? I had been calling a television news director in Richmond every day for months, stubbornly convinced that I could persuade him to hire me if he would just talk to me. One day, I got him on the line. And talk to me, he certainly did. “Why would we ever hire you?” he barked. “Your reel is weak, and you look like you’re 12 years old!” I was 22, however, and while I certainly wouldn’t mind being told I look 10 years younger than my age today, being told I looked like a kid was devastating at the time. This man – whatever his name was, I’ve long since forgotten – left me feeling humiliated and dejected. Actually, in hindsight, it was a miracle I had a reel at all – even a weak one. I majored in biology in college, and any “reporting” experience I had was gleaned through a local public radio internship and hanging around my college news radio station. I had scrapped my plan of going to medical school to pursue my dream of becoming a science reporter, but I lacked the training, and most importantly, the confidence, to make that dream a reality. Needless to say, I never went on to television reporting greatness. But I did spend a few years working for local news services and considered taking a few jobs in small markets. Truth is, at 22, I didn’t know what I was doing, and I hadn’t thought much about what makes a career. I thought you were either in front of the camera or holding it -- I had little idea of the other jobs that existed in media. I went on to find a host of roles behind the scenes that I liked and was good at. Some of them challenged me, and some did not. Several years after the news director wondered why anyone would even think of hiring me, I sat at my publicist’s desk in NBC’s Washington, D.C. newsroom, thinking it suited me just fine. And in the years that followed, there have been many desks just right for me. And yet, I’ve never forgotten that conversation with Mr. Rant. As painful as it was at the time, his response was also a great motivator. If I were as confident then as I am now about my abilities and my purpose, I would have stood up for myself, sold myself better. After all, he didn’t know me or what I could do – and maybe I didn’t, either. But the more his put-down rang in my head, the more determined I was not to allow his dismissal to define me. In fact, maybe I owe him a thank you. Sure, he dampened my spirits for a time. But he also helped me unearth a tenacity that has served me well since. Be open, be curious, persevere. Most organizations have a number of doors open that you can’t see at first, and the path you end up on is often not the one you intended to follow. I never could have imagined I would like business as much as I do, or that it would offer me the chance to be creative, have an impact, and feel a sense of mission – which are exactly the things I wanted for my career when I was 22. -Beth Comstock CMO at GE
Posted on: Wed, 28 May 2014 20:10:32 +0000
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