Most jobs fall into one of these three categories: sales, analytical or operational... Some introspection in order to identify which category would likely yield the greatest personal satisfaction is an excellent investment.
~Jonathan Knee
In Must I Bank? on the Wall Street Journal opinion page, Jonathan Knee offers guidance to MBAs and others contemplating their future careers. Knee is a senior advisor at Evercore Partners, a former managing director at Morgan Stanley, a professor at Columbia's business and journalism schools, and a Stanford MBA himself, so he's well-qualified to advise aspiring professionals:
Like all service professions, investment banking is fundamentally a sales job. Individuals who feed on human interaction, and have natural empathy (sales is about putting yourself in your customer's shoes), do well in sales. Being good with numbers, often assumed to be the key to banking success, will be of little use in getting a big office with a view if you do not have sales aptitude.
As Knee notes, this applies to all professional service roles, not just banking, and I'd specifically add management consulting and the law. Sufficient technical expertise is necessary at entry levels in these fields, but it's merely a hygiene factor and not enough to guarantee long-term success. Bankers, consultants and attorneys who occupy a "big office with a view" got there because they know how to cultivate client relationships, negotiate successfully, and close deals for their firms' services--the essential capabilities in any sales role. Knee continues:
Private equity, like hedge funds and other investing jobs, is essentially analytical. These are solitary professions, and one is judged on the quality of the analysis produced. The quality of this analysis is in turn assessed on highly quantifiable metrics--like whether the stock you recommended went up or if the investment in a private company you sponsored turned out well. If the classic sales person is a deeply social being, the typical analytical person is a bit of a loner.
I would qualify this slightly, based on my experience coaching investors in a range of fields. I certainly agree that any investing role is fundamentally an analytical job, and no other skills will compensate for inadequate analysis, but within investing some roles are more people-oriented than others. While any investor must assess a company's leadership before committing capital, in some cases the investor is simply making a decision to buy or not, while in others the investor is considering whether they want to be actively engaged with the current leadership team. I've worked with clients in venture capital and private equity who have had to replace CEOs at portfolio companies, and while those decisions were driven by quantitative analysis, their successful execution depended on interpersonal skills that would be unnecessary if they were merely selling shares. Returning to Knee's essay:
Working at a start-up or any other company is an operational job. Operators must communicate and 'sell,' both internally and externally, to effectively function in their positions. Operators must also be 'analytical' enough to attain the domain expertise needed to achieve credibility in their operating role. But the defining characteristic of the operating role is a commitment to a continuing level of involvement with the organization's objectives. A sales person makes a sale and moves on. Analytical people make a call or do a trade, and reap whatever rewards that insight yields. Operators are in it for the long haul.
Most of my clients are technology company CEOs, and I fully agree with Knee's view on the role of an operator. They must be able to sell and analyze, but most operating leaders eventually hire people with superior sales and analytical skills to take over those areas. (In some businesses the CEO will always play a role in closing deals, but that's a function of the role, not necessarily their unique skillset as a closer.)
Knee's observation that "operators are in it for the long haul" has a number of implications. First, operating roles are all about effective relationships with managers, peers, employees, investors and customers, and the interpersonal skills necessary to maintain those relationships over an extended period of time are of paramount importance. More specifically, operating leaders will need to replace many of their direct reports over the long term, and the ability to do with both decisiveness and compassion is essential. Finally, operators must have an abiding interest in the business itself--I think telling people to "follow your passion" does more harm than good, but it's certainly true that the more emotionally engaged an operator is with their company's mission, the easier it will be to remain effective in the role over time. Knee concludes:
Most jobs fall into one of these three categories: sales, analytical or operational. The odds that the same person would prosper equally in more than one of these environments are low. The personal qualities that each position draws upon are simply too different. Some introspection in order to identify which category would likely yield the greatest personal satisfaction is an excellent investment. Dedicating oneself to any profession...should not be undertaken lightly. Doing so would ignore the unique gifts that each of us has to offer. It would also meaningfully reduce our chances of ultimate personal fulfillment.
Many of my MBA students at Stanford are in the midst of a career change or a job search (or both), and a host of factors can make it hard for an individual to make the decision that's right for them. Some professional paths are met with social approval, while others carry a stigma. Information and networks are often organized by industry vertical, which funnels people toward some paths and away from others in a way that isn't necessarily aligned with their actual abilities. By reducing different career paths to one of these three options, Knee's framework cuts through the noise and asks us whether we truly understand the essence of a given profession or role, and whether that function is a good fit for us.
For Further Reading
The Work and The Job (2012)
Peter Drucker on Excellence, Careers and Planning (2010)
Developing Your Professional Vision (2010)
Which Way? (2013)
"Work Hard or Work Smart?" Is the Wrong Question (2017)
Better Working Relationships (2018)
Revised July 2018.
Photo by J Stimp.