Career Lessons Debate with the Sharks on Good Morning America

Thanks to Emmy-Award-winning producer Greg Tufaro and 1iota's Audience expert, Gerald Fernando, I was invited to appear with my son, Steven, on the top-rated morning show, ABC-TV's Good Morning America. We were invited to debate best practices for landing your first job with Shark Tank's Barbara Corcoran and Robert Herjavec.

Ironically, when the TV segment was cut short, our part of the debate moved over to Facebook Live, where >37k viewers joined our interactive conversation. So once again, a setback suddenly became a golden opportunity to grab coveted personal conversations with two of the biggest career success stories on the planet.

Greg: So Pat and Steven, you're debating about first jobs. Do you have a disagreement? What do you say?

Pat: I say that it's important to build relationships. Again, I'm a top recommended career coach on LinkedIn, so I talk to career-seekers every day. Following my proprietary Rock On Success system, my mantra is to rock your strengths, understand your gifts and start building relationships.

So I encourage early career seekers to be flexible and keep an open mind to your potential: your first job might not be what you think is your perfect first job. But it's important to get started and gain momentum. Think of your career like a Porsche, where you cannot go from zero to 100 MPH in just one gear. No, you need to shift gears and build momentum. And inertia is not your friend.

Getting started is more important than sitting in waiting.

Greg: Steven, what you have to say?

Steven, a graduating senior with a degree in TV/Film production, argued: "My mom makes a great point, but I think one of the biggest things that I disagree with her on is speed. The problem with having a first job (accepting the first offer) is that it might be too far away from your career goal."

Steven shared a terrific analogy: "So the way I like to think about it is imagine is that you have the swimming pool in front of you, and that your career goal is on the other side of the swimming pool. It makes more sense to walk around the edge of the pool and dive in farther (closer to your dream role) instead of swimming all the way back from the beginning.

Sure, it's a very important to work hard and prove yourself. But it makes a lot more sense to start at a point where you can see your goal much closer."

@Barbara Corcoran, the sassy and smart real estate tycoon, said: "I have to say, I love your swimming pool analogy, but the perspective that you're not appreciating (because you haven't been there yet) is the employer's perspective. And they actually want to see you get in the far end of the pool and watch how well you swim. They want to see how will you compete with the guy swimming next to you and what you're really made of."

Barbara continued, "So although it sounds efficient and intellectually smart to plan yourself out very carefully, you can't sharp shoot like that. If you can get in a pool that's in the area that you want to swim in, you've got to compete within the pool to get ahead. There's no shortcut for that. I think you have a valid point with the pool analogy, but I think you're maybe interpreting it from your perspective versus the perspective of the person who's going to be doing the hiring."

Robert Herjavec chimed in and disagreed with both of us moms: "Steven, don't listen to your mom and don't listen to Barbara. They're both wrong. First of all, you don't want to be the Porsche of life. Do you know how many Porsches are made every year? You want to be the Lamborghini!"

He added, "Getting your first job is not about relationships or any of that crap. You know what people know when they hire you for your first job? They know that you know nothing.

Get in into your discomfort zone. You can't achieve greatness by doing things that are comfortable for you.

Robert added: "Don't spend 10 years learning something: jump in, learn, and fail. You'll only find out what you're great at if you fail quickly, right to it when you're young, but don't wait until your Barbara's age."

Barbara pushed back: "But Robert, how does he get his first job?

He replied: "The best technique for getting the first job is simple: the biggest mistake people make in their first job is they look at the money and they look at what they're going to learn on it. What I always say to people, take your first job for your next job. So if you have a career goal to be in sales or something, go and learn it.

After your first job, nobody will ever ask you again where you went to school.

And so he ask Steven what he wants for his first job, to which my son promptly replied: I actually want to do TV production," to which Robert replied, "You're in the right place."

Watch the #GMA segment by clicking here.

BTW If you know someone looking to hire a hardworking Eagle Scout with 8 years of experience in TV/Video production, please message me or reach out to Steven Roque, thank you!

#career #job #jobsearch #student #interview #SharkTank #GoodMorningAmerica #GMA @BarbaraCorcoran @RobertHerjavec @StevenRoque @GregTufaro @GeraldFernando