My first desk job was selling advertising spots for a local radio station. After I had finished college, I thought it was time for a “serious adult job.” It was 2010, at the height of the recession, but my manager assured me that my success was squarely in my own hands. “Just knock on doors, ask to speak to a decision-maker, and see if they want to advertise,” he told me. I should have known this was not going to work out well.
I had no training or even a list of existing clients. Also, I wasn’t cross-trained in the technical aspects of radio advertising — so if somebody had said yes, I wouldn’t have known what to do next. However, I had always succeeded through hard work before, so I thought: “Why not this?”
In reality, I got a ball of tension in my stomach, knowing I would have to drive around the Twin Cities and be rejected again and again. I don’t really have regrets because I like where I am now, but there were some hard lessons along the way. For example, when something isn’t working, sometimes the best thing to do is quit. The day I decided to quit was surprisingly euphoric, even though it felt like admitting that I had failed.
Looking back, there were many reasons why I didn’t succeed at selling radio ads (the recession, my lack of experience, and the fact that radio advertising was in decline at that time). In truth, my biggest failure was not recognizing this difficult work environment. There were signs I should have seen, but I didn’t trust myself enough to say: “This isn’t right for me.”
If I were hiring a young, inexperienced person today, I would be very honest about what their process would be and what kind of results they could expect. And I would give them training and resources to help them. I think it’s important to have a certain amount of self-knowledge. Know the difference between humility and self-doubt, and be objective about your strengths and weaknesses. Then you can properly assess the opportunities that are out there for you.