You Do Not Get Paid for Effort
By: June Coffey
Tags: Results, Career Advice, Goal Setting, Career Development, Careers

One of the biggest I had to learn myself and after interviewing over 3000 people

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

We live in a results economy. I think this is the biggest and most important lesson I had to learn coming into the real world. Graduating with a Computer Science degree and Economics degree, my world was filled with teamwork and good intentions. I first started to learn the lesson when I started bombing interview after interview. I did finally get a job as a developer, but it never felt right, I knew I was not good at it, so I moved on.

When I got into recruitment, which is a commission role, this is really when it started to hit home. We live in a results economy, meaning you only get paid for results. You do not get paid for trying, for your efforts, or for your good intentions. In recruitment, much like many sales roles, you only get paid when you get results, in my case find the perfect candidate for the job. There is no prize for second place. Sometimes your client may thank you for trying, but most of the time they are thinking that you have wasted their time. Also, you are only recognized for consistent results. If you did well once but did not do well for them recently, it does not matter, your client will move on.

I used to think that this was only unique in sales. I thought this was the only job that was sales. I noticed that across the board of all sales jobs. It does not matter if you are a real estate agent, software sales consultant, or car salesperson, you will only get paid if you have consistent results.

I know that not all sales jobs are commissions only, but the reality is a salesperson does not stay long with the company if they do not hit their sales targets, regardless of how they are paid.

Then what I started to notice after interviewing over 3000 people is that this is the case for all jobs. If one does not produce consistent results for the company, they are not there for long. I have not seen any roles to that this does not apply.

This fact is only exacerbated by all the remote work and outsourcing. Employers are not tied to finding people who can deliver results in their geographical location, they can literally do it anywhere.

To give you an example, we needed a logo design. For $100 CAD, we hosted a competition on freelancer.com. Over a period of 7 days, we got over 320 entries! That was about 220 entries more than what we anticipated. And only the winner got paid.

What can you do? Simple, deliver results.

Here are 4 simple steps to get results:

1. Do what you love

This may seem counter-intuitive but to want to deliver massive results, one has to be borderline obsessed with what they do.

The best part about this is it does not have to be one thing. Everyone is talking about the “side hustle” these days and now is the perfect time to start one if you have ever wanted to. Why? Because there is an endless number of free webinars to teach you something new, take advantage. Also, right now most jobs are not confined by geography anymore. So, what are you waiting for, find what you love to do.

2. Figure out what results are

Every job and every role is evaluated by some key performance indicators. I have learned that not everyone knows what they are in their jobs. The danger of not knowing is you will not know if you are successful or not, and therefore not know if you are delivering the results or not!

This is a key step, find out how results are measured in your role and what success looks like.

3. Find someone to model

Whatever you are trying to do, there has been someone who has succeeded before you. This is great news because you just have to find them and model what they do. It does not have to be exactly what you do, as long as is similar. With information so readily available, you will be able to find someone to model.

4. Execute

Knowing what to do and doing it is completely different. So many know what to do but they do not do it. Perhaps it is fear that holds them back. Whatever it is, don’t let it be you. You have one life to live! Act and act now.

I hope this helps, good luck!