A tale of 2 cats: Soon after I adopted my rescue cats, Elvis (brown tabby) and Ryland (orange tabby) from the shelter, the shelter manager received a call from an animal agent. Yes, there are such people. She was looking for a particularly cute cat to appear in a PetSmart commercial. The manager immediately thought of Ryland, who had the most angelic kitten face imaginable. She referred the agent to me, who came to “interview” Ryland.
For this particular gig, Ryland would need to be ok around multiple people and multiple dogs. Problem was, Ryland was quite timid, and wasn’t about to have a personality transformation in the next week, when the commercial was being filmed. Enter Elvis – confident; brave; friendly; gregarious. Pretty much the personality of his namesake. No hound-dog he!
So Elvis was chosen to substitute for Ryland in the commercial and maintained an exemplary attitude throughout the 7 hours it took to get this commercial filmed, involving various pet owners, actors, dogs and even the stereotypical temperamental producer/director yelling at everyone.
Lesson learned: Don’t try to fit a round peg into a square hole. Identify who you are, what you are good at and where you belong. Too often clients have come to me fretting that they can’t compete with those who have gone to ivy league schools or who worked at AmLaw 100 firms. But would you really be happy working in an environment where those things are valued above all else? What unique qualities do you have to offer? Find employers who value what you have and who you are, and you will find job happiness and success.
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