You Probably Shouldn't Have Hired Me (but thank you!)

Somewhere in Ontario there is a retired gentleman (in the truest sense of the word) named Ralph.  I’ve lost track of Ralph over the years, but if he happens to read this, or you happen to know who Ralph is based on my story and know where he is, I have a simple message for him:  Thank You!

Many years ago, Ralph took a chance on a guy who had no relevant work experience for the job he was hiring for.  The only thing Ralph knew about me was that I was a decent hockey player (Ralph was a minor hockey coach) with good character.  Outside of a couple of interviews and an aptitude test, Ralph decided to take a chance on me as a programmer based solely on his personal experience with me.  As someone who has done a lot of hiring over the years, I am not sure I would have been as brave as Ralph.  I graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce degree with absolutely no programming experience.  I didn’t even know what my job was until the day I showed up at Canada Life and they dropped a bunch of CICS/COBOL/DB2 books on my desk.  I couldn’t believe it….how did I get this job and why did they hire me?

Truth be told, I was not a rock star programmer.  But I was able to do my job as well as a bunch of my peers, and was promoted several times along the way.  Outside of learning a bunch of (programming) languages which are now about as widely used as Latin, what did I learn from this experience?

Most importantly, relationships matter.  Every interaction you have with someone is part of your reputation construction.  Over a longer period these interactions demonstrate consistency of style and character.  Interactions which fall outside of direct work-related tasks might not build your skills reputation, but they will build your character reputation.  Ralph had no idea if I would be a good programmer (that was a risk) but he knew I would work hard and give it my best effort, based on the interactions I had with him in the past.  From my end, I knew Ralph took a chance on me and I didn’t want to let him down, and I am sure Ralph knew that.

I came to the (obvious?) conclusion that programming would not be my career, but this job allowed me to transition into a consulting role which meshed my new technical knowledge with my business aspirations.  That consulting role gave me the specific expertise which helped me land me some great roles at Microsoft.  It was at Microsoft where my good friend Bill pulled me aside one day and suggested that I should consider a sales role that had just opened up.  That conversation launched my new career phase, which has led me to my current role at LinkedIn.  Every job has built upon my previous role, but every job also was built upon a personal relationship that started with Ralph.  Ralph, if you’re out there and are reading this, I want you to know that much of where I am today was because you took a chance on me.  Thank you.