Choose your talent zone (work-path)

While sportsman and artists choose their talent zone (i.e. play tennis or engage in dance) by the age of 5-8, cognitive performers ( what Peter Drucker calls as knowledge workers) working in engineering, law, accounts, and service professions do not choose their talent zone even till the age of 20 because of the genuine difficulties they face.

Let me clarify what we mean by talent. Talent is not a 'potential' ability; it is a demonstrated ability in a person who can replicate that ability consistently in different situations. Therefore, when one is young, one does not have a talent, one only has a potential 'ability'. To convert this potential ability into a talent, one has to chose a wide enough 'Talent Zone', otherwise ability remains just a dormant ability.

Only after artists and sportsman chose 'Talent Zone' ( you can also think of it as work-path) to invest time and resources, they can embed 'talent' in their lives, like you can design 'fashion' for your life. Designing talent is not just imagining the 'to-be' possibilities for yourself, but also giving form to those possibilities. Having chosen their talent zone, artists and sportsman then find ways and means to incrementally increase the challenges, use coaches and other support mechanisms to negotiate these challenges, narrow or widen the 'core ability' in the talent zone( should i do ballet or kathakali), develop complementary abilities to excel in the core ability, and write their 'signature' in the world.

If there are so many benefits of using a talent zone, why can't you, as cognitive performers, choose your talent zones ( work-paths) even at the age of 20, i.e when you are graduating. There seems to be two reasons. One is ignorance of the associated risks, and second is the knowledge of the talent designing process of cognitive talents.

Risk Scenario 1 : You may choose a wrong talent zone

Many graduate students avoid choosing a talent zone (work-path) , because they feel they may go on a wrong path and will not be able to recover from the mistake. This is incorrect understanding of the risk.

When artists and sportsman choose a talent zone, they are ready to exit if they realise they are not made for it. They can exit because they develop intermediate capabilities while pursuing the talent zone. They can combine these intermediate capabilities with other capabilities to find a different talent zone or domain.

For instance, take the example of of Jose Mourinho. He started as a professional footballer, but he soon realised that he may not be the best football player. He switched his work-path to football coaching. In other words, he used his intermediate capabilities and combined it with 'training' capability to pick an allied path of 'coaching'. He is one of the most successful football coaches today who has taken three different sides to the highest levels: Porto, Chelsea, and Real Madrid.

In aesthetic and sports fields, you will find countless examples. Subhash Ghai trained as an actor, but when he failed to break through, he changed the work-path to director and became one of the most successful directors in Bollywood. Mohinder Amarnath started his cricketing career as a fast bowler and retired as one of the best batsman. In cricket, you will find many examples of cricketers who, unable to find place in top team, still manage to earn enough money through their intermediate capabilities such as coaching youngsters, or managing their cricket association.

As cognitive performers, you can follow these examples. If you are on the education path of technology, you may choose any of the these functions: Sales, Design, Research, or working in Management of a company. Or if you are on the education path of accounts, you can choose subject speciality such as Investment banking, Auditor, merger and acquisitions and so on.

How should one make this choice? Many students lack the knowledge of talent development process to choose. For instance, when an athlete chooses a game, say football versus tennis, at the age of 7, he does not choose based on his potential. He just plays both the games,and then slowly over a period of time, finds the game where he is excelling. When he has no other game to play in his town or city, he just chooses the one that is available.  For instance, in India more than often, one chooses cricket.

The same holds for cognitive talent. After engaging with technological subjects in graduation, you can find out your abilities in those subjects and choose research or design zone. Some talent zones, to be chosen, require more dense engagement. For instance, only after working in a company would you know if you will excel in managing people or projects.

Morevr, as compared to aesthetic and sports field, the risk of not finding alternatives in one's chosen domain in cognitive fields is very low. In cognitive fields, the possibility of combining different skills is enormous. Cognitive performers can work in corporate, government organisations, social NGO's or can even start their company. They can work in the back office functions such as quality, maintenance or support or can work in the front office functions such as sales or production. They can work as 'solo performers' or as 'managers'. The possibilities are truly enormous. In other words, the risk scenario (1) is non-existent in cognitive fields.

Risk scenario 2: After choosing a domain, you may not reach the top

This is a genuine fear. Even sportsman and artists face this fear. But no one, i have seen, drops the pursuit of the talent because they are scared that they may not reach the top. And surprisingly, even though , when they do not reach the top (remember not more than 5% reach the top), they still feel that 'journey was well worth'.

There are two reasons why 95% still pursue the talent journey, i think. One is, the benefits of pursuing a domain are that it provides them an anchor to live their life. They are more grounded and can face the chaotic situations in their life with calm. Two, 95% can still get enough money even when they do not get the highest. As we discussed in the blog of 12 June, the extent of money is determined by the functioning of skill market. If the skill market is well developed, choosing a desired domain is easier. This is why it has now become so easy to chose 'music domain' in India.

In cognitive fields, the difference between the top 5% and the rest is not so steep as in sports and arts field. In cognitive fields, the talents are not uni-dimensional as in arts or sports. For instance, it is easy to figure out the top 20 violinist in the world, but it is not easy to figure out the top 10 managers in the industry. In other words, options to 'monetise' your talent are so numerous that it does not matter if you do not reach the top.

Given that there is very little risk, what stops cognitive performers in choosing their domains during graduation? I can only think of one reason: their lack of knowledge of how the process of talent development works.

The art of getting interviewed

Generally, interviews are considered to be outside the 'control' of interviewee. But if you observe smart professionals, you will realise that they prepare on two different planks that help them substantially 'influence' the process of getting interviewed. With adequate preparation, you can definitely 'influence' the process of your interviewing, if not 'control' it.

1. Prepare on 'what you want to say about yourself'

a. First step is to write appropriate 'baits' in your resume for the interviewer to ask questions. For instance, if you have done some interesting work on a project in your college, you must write enough 'interesting' remarks about the project for the interviewer to 'compel' him to ask a question of that work. These are called as baits. If your resume is not designed properly with these baits, the interview is not in your control. Professional coaches do not just add ' flowery English language' in your resume, but they help you design these 'baits' in your resume so that you control the interview, not the other way around.  

b. Thoroughly rehearse on every 'bait' that you have included in your resume: Generally, interviews happen in English language. Therefore it is necessary to write the story around the bait, mug the story sequence, and then narrate it. Once you are sure you can remember the sequence and key words well, rehearse it infront of someone. Start with a close friend who understands your project, then rehearse with a friend who does not understand your project, and then with your parents. Everyone will give you 'feedback' that will help you to improve your 'narration'. Once you have got the narration in proper order, then try to shorten the narration time further. Some interviewers may not give you enough time!

c. Get ready to answer 'surprising' turns and twists in your resumes confidently: Be prepared for answering questions like: Why did you not do Electronics engineering when your father is an electronics engineer? Why did you miss one year after 12th ? Why did you do this course of Java in the second year? and so on. Also rehearse these answers, if you are not sure.

d. Prepare to answer typical questions. To get a glimpse of what questions are asked for different types of interviews, here is a sample .

e. Take adequate care of your body language: More than the content of answers, interviewer reads your body first and gets 'conditioned'. If your 'body posture' looks that you are not sure, despite your brilliant answer, the interviewer will get a wrong message.

On your own, you may find it difficult to know your body language. You may need to take help of someone senior enough to help you in this matter. It could be your parent, your professor, or some senior colleague of yours. Once again, a coach is more helpful in this matter.

2. Prepare for the 'audience' who is going to take your interview

Despite all your preparation, interviews get derailed when you encounter 'surprises'. One can only prepare oneself to reduce the surprises, not eliminate them. Here are the three important actions taken by smart professionals to reduce the surprises:

a. Understand the interviewer profile before going for a specific interview: If the interview is being taken by HR representative, be prepared for non-technical questions like 'Why did you do Engineering" and so on. HR is more interested in knowing the years of experience, the qualifications, and other family background. If there is any blip in the education period, be prepared to answer it confidently. For technical interviews, be prepared to answer the 'big' bait questions thoroughly.

b. Do a short research on the company background for which you are being interviewed: This knowledge is critical when you are applying for jobs where demand for jobs is more than supply, i.e for all freshers jobs or for your second job. At the minimum understand three elements of company: key differences of target company from other competing companies, the 'structure' of departments and offices in the target company, the strength and weakness of your job positions in that company ( is it in demand or is it run of mill position, for instance?).

You have to use different methods to get this information: Scan the websites, use the business analyst reports of the company issued by investment companies, talk with friends working in the company or sign up for different groups on the net and ask questions discretely.

Believe me, this does not take much time. Initially, when you are learning this, it may take more time; but as you become proficient in doing this, it will not consume more than a day.

c. Never ever answer any question that you are not sure about: Despite all the compulsion to answer all questions, answer only when you are confident. If you are not sure about anything, tell the interviewer that you are not sure and ask his permission to make an attempt to answer. Only if the interviewer gives you the permission, attempt to answer the 'unsure' question. In any case, it is better to say 'i do not know' than answer wrongly.