Strategy #12: Focus On Skills Over Passions

Here’s a question for you. When you’re looking for a new job, or even if you’re going as far as designing a total career plan from start to finish, do you think it’s better to base your work on something you really like doing or should you concentrate on something you’re pretty good at? In other words, is it preferable to prioritise your passions or your skills?

Most people, when they’re given this binary choice, believe that following their passions is more likely to lead to fulfilling work, a higher salary and deliver better career prospects than subsuming their interests in favour of some pre-existing skills. In today’s strategy article I’ll be analysing the skills versus passions argument, the conclusions of which might surprise you.

Think about the old saying - do a job you love and you’ll never do a day’s work in your life. It’s a sentiment that’s incredibly attractive to a lot of people so there must be something in it, don’t you think? Well, before you get too carried away by the appeal of a somewhat romanticised idea of work, I’ll declare my position on this issue straight away. Despite strong opinion to the contrary, I firmly believe that most working people are making a major mistake if they decide to follow their passions rather than exploiting their skills.

Sorry about that if your instinct is the opposite, although I believe that the evidence is firmly on my side. I’d like to justify my conviction and explain why making your skills the foundation of almost any job hunt you conduct will give you far and away the best chances of success.

But, to start, let’s consider group-think on this matter. Talk to just about any expert in employment affairs and they’ll usually give you the same message which is to identify what you like doing best and make your passion the basis of your work. Nearly every careers-guidance book or jobs website is exactly the same. Browse any careers resources and you’ll be hard-pushed to find an opinion other than to follow your passions at work.

Read almost any opinion piece about changing jobs in blogs, newspapers or magazines and you’ll discover the same. It’s become an article of faith that the secret to happiness and fulfilment at work is to take a chance on following your passion. Never mind the downsides to this path, so long as you keep the passionate fires burning. Instinctively, almost anyone you personally speak with about skills and passions, friends, family, colleagues and the like, and whether they’re an authority or not, go with the same passions hypothesis. Outliers are rare and noticeable exceptions to the rule and I’m one of them.

But in case you’re not convinced, just answer the following questions. What are your interests? What occupies most of your free time? What do you watch or listen to or read about, get involved with, investigate online and so on? What do you like doing best? Or the obvious question, what are you most passionate about? You see, the passions-first idea is predicated upon the assumption that we all have the sort of passions that are ready and waiting to be converted into appropriate work opportunities. Perhaps your passions are eminently suited to a paid-work environment, but I’m afraid to tell you that the chances aren’t good.

A study of over 500 university students by psychologist Robert Vallerand tried to identify the passions of the young people in his test group, and to discover how applicable their passions were to the real world of work. The good news was that the big majority possessed clearly-identifiable interests that they were passionate about. The bad news was that these passions were almost all related to social activities and sports.

Only 4% of their declared passions were potentially relevant to a work endeavour of some sort. 96% were no better than hobby interests. Unless you’re phenomenally talented, the chances of getting good jobs in the world of dancing or reading or sports is minimal, however optimistic you might be. Even if you do own an incredible ability, a lot of luck has to fall your way. Following your passions might be a better bet if your core interests are related to accounts ledgers or production logistics or administrative organisation, but this is unsurprisingly rare.

The people who truly follow their original passions at work are exceedingly thin on the ground. Besides the exceptionally skilled or fortunate, the vast majority of workers who can justifiably claim that they do what they’re passionate about have acquired a passion for their work over a period of time. They’ve developed this passion as a consequence of being successful in their work. I don’t believe it’s something they brought to the job before they started to do it.

For the sake of brevity, I won’t go into any more of the flaws of following your passions here but if you’re interested in exploring this in more detail, take a look at my complete Job Search Masterclass where I thoroughly unpack the concept.

Let’s now move on to the skills side of the equation. Here's a second activity which is a simple one, but perhaps deceptively so. Just take a notebook and a pen, or open up a fresh document on your computer or ‘phone and start by listing the things you’re good at. This needn’t be complicated. Think about the work you do and jot down a few words that summarise the activities that you think you do well.

It’s important to remember that this doesn’t mean that you necessarily like doing these things. If you do, that’s all good and well, but it’s not a requirement. Nor do you have to gain any intrinsic satisfaction out of doing them competently. Again, if this is the case, that’s fine. Equally, the things you’re good at might be frustrating, unpleasant or lacking in any sort of fun quotient, but that’s perfectly alright. Don’t lose sight of the need for all the things you’re listing to be completely work-related. No mention of being good at cooking a delicious meal, unless you’re a chef of course. Forget writing down that you can drive a car really well, unless that’s a significant part of your job.

The next stage of this activity is to rank the things that you’re good at in terms of rarity value. This is because the things you’re skilled at, but relatively few other people excel in, will form the basis of a substantial part of your job-search plan. We’ll be getting to that in a future tutorial.

How rare should these things be? The key metric is rarity in terms of genuinely unique value to your employer’s success. The things you’re good at should also deliver high value to your company in some clearly definable way. If you’re good at something but it doesn’t affect your employer’s success in any significant way, scrub it from your list. The motherlode of rare skills, and these must be ones that you’re good at don’t forget, are those that make you a rain-maker of some sort. The more you get it to rain, the better. Being responsible for a deluge is far preferable to causing a trickle.

Seth Godin, the marketing guru who’s carved an enviable reputation for himself by identifying the zeitgeist in a variety of business areas, talks about linchpins. In his book of the same name, he talks about the massive value that key people bring to their employers. If you can demonstrate in-demand skills that are central to the success of a business, you’re a linchpin in Godin’s thinking. A linchpin won’t necessarily operate at the highest levels of an organisation but they will deliver substantial value because they have rare skills. The more unique and valuable these skills, the better. It’s pretty obvious stuff, really.

I don’t know you and I can’t even hazard a guess at the work you do so I won’t try to give examples of the rare skills you possess and can legitimately claim to be good at. You’ll know them for sure, especially when they’re down on paper or committed to a ‘phone or computer screen. Take as much time as you need to complete this activity. The product of this task will form a critically important part of your job search so compile your list of things that you’re good at diligently and comprehensively.

Once you’ve completed your list, set it aside for a while and come back to it to make any further and necessary revisions. With hindsight you might add items you’d initially wavered about. Delete anything that you can’t honestly claim to be good at. Then consider the order of importance in terms of rarity and value to an employer. That’s pretty much all that’s needed at this stage.

To summarise, list the things you’re good at in your work. Then rank the items in order of genuine rarity and demonstrable value to your employer as they apply to their criteria of success, not yours. Once you’ve done this, file your list away and keep it safe until later in this strategy series. You’ll return to it when we think about how to construct a high-quality pitch that will match your skills with the needs of a potential employer.

If you prefer to watch training materials rather than read or listen to them, follow this link to my YouTube channel where you can access the video version of this article;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAEHzLTMdc4&t=218s

And finally, if you have any questions about the issues I raise here, or if you'd like to contact me personally, please get in touch via LinkedIn;

https://www.linkedin.com/in/vocationmaster/