What did you think you were going to do for a living when you were young? And what happened to make you do something different? - Part 2

Quick - What do Ronald Reagan and I have in common?

We both have had second careers.

Being a Hollywood actor, and serving as president of the United States – those were Ronald Reagan’s 2 careers.

Being an advertising copywriter, and then a commissions analyst – these were my 2 careers.

I am not sure what inspired Ronald Reagan’s career change.

I know what inspired mine.

It was moving to America.

I moved to America in an existential crisis.

There was no planning involved.

Further, I came to America with a toddler in tow, and money to last me 3 months.

By hook or by crook, I had to find a job before the money ran out.

I spotted just one or two openings for copywriting jobs.

I applied.

I got a response to one of my applications.

Off to San Francisco, I went for the interview.

But I did not get the job.

Maybe looking in AdWeek would have been better.

But I did not know how to drive.

And I had an 11 month old to contend with.

So I decided to bite the bullet and get an Admin Assistant job.

First, I went to Goodwill Institute of Career Development.

There I learned the rudiments of the Microsoft Office suite of applications – Word, Excel, Access and Powerpoint.

Just before my 3 months of money ran out, I got my first admin assistant temp job. Phew!

2 more admin assistant temp jobs followed, before I was to get my first permanent admin assistant job.

I became an Admin Assistant to a Sales Manager at Palm Inc, the company that made the Palm Pilot.

Palm was where my Commission Analyst career was born.

Here's how it happened...

After a few months of working at Palm, my boss wondered aloud at one of our one on ones, whether I might be better suited to a more challenging job.

I asked him, “Like what?”

He said Palm had tons of openings.

I should look at them.

Maybe there was something that would catch my eye.

I asked him, “Can you think of what might be suitable for me?”

“Yes,” he said, “Laura, over there is looking for a Commissions Analyst to join her Commission Accounting team. Go talk to her.”

Commissions Accounting - what’s that? I wondered.

Like in the story of my first career, where my boyfriend knew what copywriters did, but I didn’t, my boss knew what Commission Analysts did, but I didn’t.

Anyway, I went to Laura.

I didn’t even know if I was saying it right.

“I have come to see you about the Commission Analyst job. Andy told me you had an opening,” I said.

“What’s your background,” she asked me?

“I used to be an Advertising Copywriter in India, and I’ve been working for Andy as his Admin Assistant these past few months.”

She was incredulous.

“You don’t have the skills,” she said.

I was incredulous too, when I found out what the job involved.

It was all numbers.

I would have to calculate sales commissions, which was a numbers job, the whole day.

I had no experience with numbers.

I didn’t believe I had a talent for numbers.

And to tell you the truth, I wasn’t interested in numbers.

How could I, a words person, obsessed, besotted, in love with words, do an “all numbers” job like Commissions Accounting?

The suggestion from my boss I go to Laura, appeared kind, but misplaced.

But my boss didn’t let go of the idea.

I think he was keen to get me off his back.

Either that, or possibly, he just wanted me to be fruitfully occupied at work.

I had a lot of idle time on my hands, and he could see it was wearying me.

“Minoo, go back to Laura. Tell her you have free time. Tell her you will help her out, until she hires someone.”

So I went back to Laura.

She felt bad to turn me away.

After all, what harm was there in letting me help her till she hired somebody?

“Ok,” she said, “maybe you can help me with a few things. Let’s get started tomorrow.”

And that’s how it began.

My foray into Commissions Accounting.

Laura started giving me work to do.

And teaching me at the same time.

The work involved a lot of Excel.

Actually, advanced Excel.

I only knew the rudiments of Excel.

I just followed her instructions.

Frankly, I was scared to death.

But the fact I was just “helping till she found someone” took the pressure off.

I must have done alright.

Because after a short while, she said, “Minoo, I need to convert you from Andy’s assistant to a Commissions Analyst under me.”

The paperwork was processed.

Soon my business card read Minoo Jha, Commissions Analyst, Palm Inc.

Laura informed me she would be going out on maternity leave soon after.

When I heard her say that, I started panicking.

“Laura, how am I going to manage? I don’t understand any of the formulas.”

“Laura, if any of the formulas break, I won’t know how to fix them.”

“Laura, if a new hire comes on board, what will I do – I don’t know how to set up their statement?”

She put all these fears to rest.

“Don’t worry, Minoo, trust me you can do this.”

“Just copy the formulas from the existing sheets on to new sheets for new hires.”

“And if you break a formula, just look at one of the other spreadsheets and copy the formula over from there.”

“Trust me - you can do this.”

Those were the magic words.

Laura went out on maternity leave.

I found myself in the position of having to handle the commissions function at Palm entirely on my own.

The challenge both terrified and inspired me.

I knew the answer was to become really good at Excel.

So I did a Google search for ‘best books to learn Excel” and read reviews.

I decided there were 5 good books, each of which had different things to offer.

I got my boss to let me expense them.

The books arrived.

Every night after Tanita went to sleep, I would crack them open.

Soon, with the help of my 5 books, I mastered Excel.

And this once “words only” person stopped being terrified of doing a numbers job.

Laura never returned from maternity leave.

I handled the commissions function at Palm on my own for the next 5 years.

All the way until I moved to greener pastures.

I am still doing Commissions Accounting today.

Except I now do it as a Freelance Consultant.

So now you know the story behind my second career as well.

Not as exciting as Ronald Reagan’s second career.

But you can see there were many cliff-hanging moments for me, along the way.

P.S. Aren’t managers amazing? Laura took me on just because I had fire in my belly. She saw I just needed a little confidence and a little grooming and I would be on my way. She set me up for success. I am so grateful to her till today.

P.S. In response to my request on Facebook for the story of how you got into your career, Ananda came back with his story. Watch out for that in the next post.