I went to a conference, my first work trip (wooo hooo) last week. I learned about the tools that consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies use to analyze data and the ways in which data was used to identify opportunities and and innovate. It was also super cool to be able to go to the conference after being at the company for less than 2 months. Super cool.
Like most conferences and speakers, a good percentage, like 70%, of the information wasn’t new or earth shattering but there were a few nuggets that stuck with me. One speaker said, “energy and hunger trump experience.” I thought this was a pretty good insight and one that applies to me.
During undergrad most of my peers wanted to go into Finance. Be it investment banking or asset management or private wealth management or private equity or accounting. Please don’t ask me what each of these fields are because I have no clue!!! Naturally, I did too. Because what else would I go into? Unfortunately or actually fortunately, I didn’t land an I-banking internship. I worked at my work study job shredding papers and filing and at a small wealth management firm cold calling clients and taking public speaking classes at the local community college. It was a busy summer.
So when I applied for full-time jobs I had no real Finance experience. I landed an interview for a corporate finance job at a CPG company and was huffed and puffed before going for the interview because I was tired of being rejected and hearing no. I’m glad I didn’t let past rejections deter me because I landed the job!!! Woo hoo. During my interview, one of the interviewers said “wow you cold called for hours. I couldn’t do that.” I’m sure this wasn’t the only reason that I got hired but the interviewers saw that I had the hunger and drive to learn and work hard. Clearly it wasn’t my experience because until that point I had no idea what Corporate Finance was and what forecasting and planning entailed. All I knew was how to shred papers, cold call business owners, and hand out toilet paper and packages to dorm room residents.
The hiring team took a chance on me and I’m pretty sure changed the position to better fit my needs than the one I interviewed for. Had they not seen potential in me and had I not showcased that potential I would not have landed my first big girl job. My point is that had the hiring team wanted extensive Finance experience from my summer internships or looked and had a fixed mindset – thinking that what I knew at that point was they wanted instead of a growth mindset – thinking that I could learn on the job – I would not have been offered the job.
More recently, I wanted to transition to CPG marketing, which is hard to do. Most companies hire out of business schools and want candidates with CPG backgrounds. As someone who had a (so called) Marketing job (based on my job title that is) my most recent experience was not in CPG Marketing. Although, my internships and school projects were all with consumer packaged goods companies.
I interviewed at a few companies who either outright rejected me or gave me feedback that they were looking for someone with a CPG background who could use syndicated data, had worked on consumer research projects, and had project management skills. The job offer I finally received was not because of my experience but again because of my “energy and hunger…” I was/am hungry to get the type of CPG Marketing experience I want and have the energy to take on more responsibility and make an impact. I have also been fortunate to work cross-functionally in all my roles and form good relationships with cross-functional partners to get things done.
Again, the company and the hiring team took a chance on me and that’s important in today’s resume obsessed culture. I’m not saying we need to disregard experience. In some roles especially the technical ones having experience is important. I mean there is no way that I would be hired to be a programmer or coder without experience but in my roles in the US, skills can be learned on the job. It’s having drive, energy, hunger, resilience, and humility that will determine success.
I’m not a recruiter or a hiring manager so I don’t know much about candidate selection, but we should not only look at experience and evaluate someone based on their past experience as indicated on their resume but look at the future potential of the individual. Determination, drive, hunger, energy, enthusiasm, love for learning, hard work, resiliency, and good relationships will matter more than the cookie cutter resume or experience. It did for me.