Charles Shoesmith is an economist and author with over 20 million readers of his works worldwide.
In this snippet of our interview we talk about the importance of accrediting yourself in the modern
economy.
So.
So Charles on the topic of careers and you're talking about personal empowerment and in the book that
you wrote here you know the.
Get a job build a real career defining the world economy it seems like you're talking about these these
ideas where you're you're taking charge.
So I guess my first question is like what where is that kernel for.
For taking charge of your life.
Where is that.
Where's the beginning of that.
I think the beginning of it is to do what I say what I call a credit yourself.
In other words the conventional view is you need to get a credential from somebody else that's going
to say you know how to do X Y Z and it which is presumably valuable and in the marketplace.
And so but but this whole conventional view hasn't as a real big problem.
And if you're an employer you know the problem just somebody showing you there's their CV you know their
resume or their their degree.
It doesn't really communicate what they actually know how to do.
And it doesn't really tell you the level of their social capital and social capital is our you know
economics term for for how you collaborate with other people how easily you communicate with other people
the contacts you can make.
And so this is of course a key part of our value as a worker is our human capital is what we know how
to do our social capital is how well we work with other people.
So you.
So what I suggest to people is is to take control in your career or your life first start thinking about
how can you accredit yourself.
In other words don't just tell somebody what you can do.
Show them what you can do.
And so there are you know in my view the easiest way to do this is to have like a web site where you
post the projects you've completed.
You get verification or accreditation from individuals who are known and respected in your field.
And so then a potential employer or collaborator can go to your Web site and go oh wow they've actually
done this I can see the project they completed.
I don't have to like trusted their degree in marketing it as value or not.
And that's one of the key piece in Google is name wise little Bach.
And he's come out with a book on their hiring because Google feels that that hiring is everything.
In other words that's that's the entire business proposition for any company is hiring.
So they're very careful about it and they've discovered that the typical credentials like your grade
point average or your degrees you hold.
They don't really have any correlation to your productivity as a worker in Google.
And so they're starting to hire people they have no college degree.
They've completely discarded that whole idea that academic performance has anything to do with your
performance as a worker because they didn't find any correlation.
They ran all these numbers and stats and found there was virtually no correlation between somebody's
academic success and their their performance in Google.
So that's fascinating.
So I mean I guess you know when I was reading through some of the reviews of the book that I did in
this segment here you know a lot of people were loving it.
I mean I personally actually you know just just for what it's worth I feel like you know Coachy and
people like Tony Robbins for a while were considered these kind of hokey you know parts of our society.
And now more and more I think this message of and harm it is turning people on to the power is seen
as really valuable but it's not something that can be called a class on that.
And so I guess to really build on this I'm wondering the only criticism I read in the reviews is like
being in power and taking charge is great for these people who has passion and feel comfortable with
taking charge of their life already.
So what would you tell to the person who's in it who maybe has something to.
Like you know their income stream is subsidizing their their kids or whatever or something like that.
Well I think there's definitely a place for jobs that are reliable.
In other words these would be government you know or state jobs or jobs in the corporate sector that
are typically controlled by the government which would be health care national defense.
These kinds of things these jobs are quite secure and for people that are juggling you know two or three
children and trying to have time to get to enrich their lives and clearly you want a 9 to 5 job and
better yet a nine to five job with flex time so you can work nine hours a day for a week and then take
an extra day off or you know.
And so for those people I would say try to find an employer who is sensitive to these needs of the family.
And so and so and there's nothing wrong with putting your you know your passion on hold and just finding
a job that's steady reliable and then my advice beyond that is don't get over your head in debt to where
you need two incomes to survive.
You know keep your expenses.
Always always always below your income so that if your hours are cut or one of the one of the working
members in the family loses their job that you're not suddenly under tremendous financial stress.
And so I guess I guess the thing is I mean do you just think that it's important for for the for for
a certain honesty to be there that you know you are going means for me to function and that maybe like
in his dream and his idea of a credit to yourself that you know like me maybe that's maybe in this case
you're just trying to do the best you can at that jobs versus building up a lot of capital in there.
Or would you say go for it try to make a difference anyway.
Well you know and this is just based on my experience and I'm only one person so I'm you know I may
be missing something.
But even people in Lake admin assistant levels or you know the the lower echelons of of our sort of
white collar office type jobs it's still important to accredit yourself in a sense that if you worked
well with a manager then don't just assume the manager is going to write something good about you.
When you have to move on you know.
And why would you have to move on.
Well corporations closed divisions you know it has nothing to do with you as an individual that the
workforce is is just is more fluid now and so you have to anticipate that you may need to get another
job and so get the manager to say something about you know good about you in writing while you have
the job.
And and document the projects that you've helped other people complete even at the level of admin assistant.
And so what I see people struggling with is they when they have to get another job they have no documentation
themselves except the resume and whatever credential they may have they may have earned.
And this is just not enough for an employer to realize your true value.
You know I have to make the case for yourself not by bragging or anything but just by documenting the
things that you've helped see through.
And so that's my basic recommendation for for everyone.
Timid or or passionate.
And is is is document what you have been successful doing and that's what people want to know.
All right.
Thanks Charles So I think that a wrap up the interview.
I really appreciate your time.
Great.
My pleasure.