When I was studying Advertising in grad school many years back, there was also a married couple in the program. I’ll call them “The Couple” because I can’t recall their names. They were nice enough, but it sure seemed they had no social life outside of themselves and school. I had no problem having a social life outside of school, if you get my drift.
When we were close to graduating, the class began interviewing for jobs. The Couple was always a step or two ahead of the rest of us in getting the interviews, and certainly in getting job offers. One day, they were replaying for us a more challenging interview they had (who knows, maybe they interviewed as a package). But no problem, they aced it. The ad agency person interviewing had asked if they knew what the Dow Jones represented, and what the current Dow Jones average was that day. “1,200” one of The Couple replied with a smug smile. The Dow? WTF?
The Couple actually helped me a great deal. I had had no finance or accounting classes in undergrad or grad school, so I went home that day and learned about the Dow and other indices in case it came up in my interviews. It never did, but I used that knowledge in my business career.
There are many things we have no clue about coming out of school, and we can panic when we face them on the job. That’s why “on the job” means “on the job learning” too. You can learn anything if you’re not afraid to ask for help, and not afraid of the focus it takes to keep your brain engaged in continuous learning. When I became chief operating officer at HGTV, I sat with my CFO, Jim Clayton, quite often to understand what the various financial statements meant, and why this knowledge was important to our company and to our shareholders. I wasn’t ready to handle all of the financial responsibilities when I took the job, but I trusted my network of colleagues to aid me in getting me there. I asked for help.
In Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayer’s 2013 memoir “My Beloved World”, she said one of the most important things she ever did was to ask for help when she needed it, and to develop mentors along the way who could keep teaching her. We may not be sitting on the Bench, but we sit at our desks and are called upon to add value. To keep advancing, be willing to learn new things, and to ask for help as you’re learning them.
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