Last week I had an initial phone interview with a solar panel / solar energy company. While the person I spoke with was pleasant enough, and I actually enjoyed talking with him and learning more about his company, one of the questions he asked really threw me for a loop: "Why are you passionate about sales?"
Well, I'm not. And most people are not. So I can understand the desire to find that certain someone who really is passionate about selling. But here's the thing: if you really do get your jollies from selling product, you're sick. There's something wrong with you. Don't get me wrong -- there are worse hobbies to enjoy. Can you imagine asking a candidate for an administrative assistant position, "Why are you passionate about being a secretary?" "Why are you passionate about being a Financial Analyst I?" How do you answer that? That it's your dream to become an Financial Analyst II? That you lack the skill and/or ambition to become the kind of person who has a secretary, and that being someone else's secretary is deeply fulfilling to you?
If you are among the lucky few who really are passionate about selling chili, I commend you and even envy your charmed and blessed life. In an ideal world, we would all do work that we found deeply fulfilling and we would all be compensated at a rate that allowed us to live a comfortable life. But this is not an ideal world, and we do have to work at jobs that are not ideal, and we get bored, and we have to deal with unpleasant co-workers, and the lettuce-pickers of the world make far less per hour than the chili salesmen of the world.
I suspect that the question, "Why are you passionate about sales?" is best answered from virtually any other perspective than existential. "Why am I passionate about sales? It's the reason why I was born, why I was put on this earth; before I discovered sales, my life was empty and meaningless, but now that I sell product, everything is illuminated; when I sell chili, I am the chili; when solar panels, I am the solar panels; when premium tweezers, I am the tweezers. Why am I passionate about sales? Why ISN'T everyone else?"
The point here is that asking someone to describe their passion for the mundane is like begging people to lie to you. Let's be honest: anyone who is applying for the job of chili salesman is not doing it out of their passion for chili; they need a job, and they're probably good at selling chili. Either that, of they have the skills it takes to sell chili well. Or they are able to find satisfaction in some aspect(s) of the selling of chili that they find fulfilling.
Which leads us to John Updike and Positive Psychology, but not necessarily in that order.
The other day I listened to a Terry Gross interview of John Updike. He was hilarious! I had never read any JU (and still have not), but I want to now. One of the points he made in response to something that I totally forget is that there was a time in history that work was the sort of activity that people did in private, like taking care of one's natural bodily functions. It was a necessary unpleasantness, and that real life took place outside of work. JU went on to explain that real life took place when people's social lives took them to Julia-Child-esque dinner parties, where you took your wife and looked at other mens' wives. This understanding of work make sense to me, and I need to find an employer that understands this, too: life may require us to engage in certain activities in order to live, strive, thrive, and survive, but that isn't what life is all about. The sale of chili is not what life is all about, and a profound interest in the buying and selling of product demonstrates misplaced priorities.
Positive Psychology: PP is concerned with, among other things, what some call "flow": when you get so into something you're working on that time seems to fly by and you forget to eat lunch. This is flow. PP says that the best that the most passionate chili salesman can hope for is to feel as though he or she is feeling the flow three to four time a day. More than that is simply not possible, and if you're experiencing the flow at a greater rate, you're either on drugs, the Dalai Lama, or schizophrenic. So how do we feel the flow and increase the frequency of our feeling of the flow? Two things to do: first, start noticing when we feel the flow. Are you doing the same kind of thing again and again when you're in the flow? Take notes, reflect on your life, and do those activities more often! Second step: take the online assessment that helps you figure out which qualities/characteristics (core strengths) you have. (Check it out here: http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/Default.aspx) Once you have your core strengths nailed down, work to exercise/exemplify/bring those core strengths to your daily work. From that perspective, it doesn't really matter if you are a florist or a luthier or a CEO or a dumpling maker. If one of your core strengths is "humility," you are going to be happiest when you can find ways to be humble. If one of your core strengths is "dedication," find ways to be dedicated in all that you do -- you'll be happier. And from the perspective of PP, it doesn't matter if I am an administrative assistant, or analyst I or II or chili salesman -- if I can find ways to bring humor and gratitude to my work, it's going to be fulfilling. And who doesn't want fulfilled employees?
Frankly, I'd rather have happy employees who were able to find elements of their work enjoyable rather than someone who is just going to lie to me about their lifelong passion for chili sales.
All this is to say, "Hire me."
No comments:
Post a Comment