Why I Got Hired: No Experience, No Prior Knowledge

I had a brief stint once working in the retail industry, specifically, selling invisible speakers. I was running out of budget, recruiters apparently, were not reading my resume carefully (I was a graphic/print designer, NOT a web designer) and I was a few days away from being an illegal immigrant when I was offered to be a sales executive, to sell invisible speakers.

I got a bit confused when I saw my former boss' email, requiring me to come to the interview. I warily agreed to come, thinking he must have read my resume wrong, AGAIN, just like the others. Besides, what do I know about selling, most especially, selling speakers?! I only knew how to turn on and off a radio, that's it.

So I went to the interview, waiting for it to be quickly finished once he learns of my previous work. Imagine my surprise when my former boss said that he has read my blog and that he saw my design portfolio. He was impressed with both and he had big plans regarding the company that would involve my writing and designing skills.

I got hired right there and then and became a one-man show: I was handling the marketing side of the company (copywriting and designing the marketing collaterals) while entertaining customers all throughout the day. Entertaining customers meant, I had to present to them what the invisible speakers were capable of doing, by giving them a 10 minute talk about its features and advantages and another 10 minutes of showing them what the invisible speakers would sound like.

I was feeling quite overwhelmed with the work load. I had to be a designer/salesman at the same time which was quite hard, especially when I had no background skills in sales presentation, negotiation and the likes. I even had no idea how invisible speakers work! I was feeling the pressure and so by the end of my 2^nd week, I said to my former boss “Why did you hire me? I have no prior knowledge about speakers nor do I have any sales experience. Why me?’

I don’t remember the exact words but I would love to record what he said. 

“Because I don’t hire robots. Those who just punch in and out the clock, those who gets ready to leave an hour before their shift ends, those who spend their day waiting for their shift to end, those who I feel, wouldn’t be interested, let alone show any concern for the company or their colleagues, I don’t like to hire those. And I’ve seen a lot of those, believe me, I used to be a salesman too. But I never saw that in you.

I hired you mainly because of your attitude, not because of your experience. Experience can be gained, but an attitude would be hard to change. That’s why I hired you.”

In some cases, experience does matter, especially when it concerns specialization jobs. But ultimately, it all boils down to having the right attitude in life and being quite professionally-flexible too, especially in this hard times.

At least that's my impression so far. Care to share your insights? Just comment below. :)