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39 Posts26,324 followers
Follow Steve Blank
Steve Blank
Lecturer at UCSF
My First Job: Fired and Rehired on Day 1
October 29, 2013
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Entrepreneurs tend to view adversity as opportunity.

You’re Hired, You’re Fired
My first job in Silicon Valley: I was hired as a lab technician at ESL to support the training department. I packed up my life in Michigan and spent five days driving to California to start work. (Driving across the U.S. is an adventure; everyone ought to do. It makes you appreciate that the Silicon Valley technology-centric culture-bubble has little to do with the majority of Americans.)

With my offer letter in-hand, I reported to ESL’s Human Resources (HR) department. I was met by a very apologetic manager who said, “We’ve been trying to get ahold of you for the last week. The manager of the training department who hired you wasn’t authorized to do so — and he has been fired. I am sorry there really isn’t a job for you.”

I was stunned. I had quit my job, given up my apartment, packed everything I owned in the back of my car, knew no one else in Silicon Valley and had about $200 in cash. This could be a bad day. I caught my breath and thought about it for a minute and said, “How about I go talk to the new training manager? Could I work here if he wanted to hire me?” Taking sympathy on me, the HR person made a few calls, and said, “Sure, but he doesn’t have the budget for a lab tech. He’s looking for a training instructor.”

You’re Hired Again
Three hours and a few more meetings later I discovered the training department was in shambles. The former manager had been fired because:

ESL had a major military contract to deploy an intelligence gathering system to Korea
They needed to train the Army Security Agency on maintenance of the system
The 10-week training course (6 hours a day) hadn’t been written
The class was supposed to start in 6 weeks.
As I talked to the head of training and his boss, I pointed out that the clock was ticking down for them, I knew the type of training military maintenance people need, and I had done some informal teaching in the Air Force. I made them a pretty good offer – hire me as a training instructor at the salary they were going to pay me as a lab technician. Out of desperation and with a warm body right in front of them, they realized I was probably better than nothing. So I got hired for the second time at ESL, this time as a training instructor.

The good news is that I had just gotten my first promotion in Silicon Valley, and I hadn’t even started work.

The bad news is that I had 6 weeks to write a 10-week course on three 30-foot vans full of direction-finding electronics plus a small airplane stuffed full of receivers. “And, oh by the way, can you write the manuals for the operators while you’re at it?” Since there was very little documentation, my time was split between the design engineers who built the system and the test and deployment team getting the system ready to go overseas. As I poured over the system schematics, I figured out how to put together a course to teach system theory, operations and maintenance.

Are You Single?
After I was done teaching each the day, I continued to write the operations manuals and work with the test engineers. (I was living the dream – working 80-hour weeks and all the technology I could drink with a fire hose.) Two weeks before the class was over, the head of the deployment team asked, “Steve, are you single?” Yes. “Do you like to travel?” Sure. “Why don’t you come to Korea with us when we ship the system overseas.” Uh, I think I work for the training department. “Oh, don’t worry about that, we’ll get you temporarily assigned to us and then you can come back as a Test Engineer/Training Instructor and work on a much more interesting system.” More interesting than this? Sign me up.

"You’re Not So Smart, You Just Show Up a Lot"
While this was going on, my roommate (who I knew from Ann Arbor where he got his master's degree in computer science) couldn’t figure out how I kept getting these increasingly more interesting jobs. His theory, he told me, was this: “You’re not so smart, you just show up a lot in a lot of places.” I wore it as a badge of honor.

But over the years I realized his comment was actually an astute observation about the mental mindset of an entrepreneur, and therein lies the purpose of this post.

Congratulations, You’re Now in Charge of Your Life
Growing up at home, our parents tell us what’s important and how to prioritize. In college we have a set of classes and grades needed to graduate. (Or in my case the military set the structure of what constituted success and failure.) In most cases until you’re in your early 20s, someone else has planned a defined path of what you’re going to do next.

When you move out on your own, you don’t get a memo that says, “Congratulations, you’re now in charge of your life.” Suddenly you are in charge of making up what you do next. You have to face dealing with uncertainly.



Most normal people (normal as defined as being someone other than an entrepreneur) seek to minimize uncertainty and risk, and take a job with a defined career path like lawyer, teacher or firefighter. A career path is a continuation of the direction you’ve gotten at home and school – do these things and you’ll get these rewards.

Even with a career path you’ll discover that you need to champion your own trajectory down that path. No one will tell you that you are in a dead-end job. No one will say when it’s time to move on. No one will tell you that you are better qualified for something elsewhere. No one will say work less and go home and spend time with your partner and/or family. And many end up near the end of their careers trapped, saying, “I wish I could have… I think I should have…”

Non-Linear Career Path
But entrepreneurs instinctually realize that the best advocate for their careers is themselves and that there is no such thing as a linear career path. They recognize they are going to have to follow their own internal compass and embrace the uncertainty as part of the journey.

In fact using uncertainty as your path is an advantage entrepreneurs share. Their journey will have them try more disconnected paths than someone on a traditional career track. And one day all the seemingly random data and experience they’ve acquired will end up as an insight in building something greater than the sum of the parts.

Steve Job’s 2005 Stanford commencement speech still says it best:
Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish.

Lessons Learned

Trust your instincts
Showing up a lot increases your odds
Trust that the dots in your career will connect
Have a passion for Doing something rather than Being a title on a business card.
Read more Steve Blank posts at www.steveblank.com.

Photo: jimmywayne/Flickr

Featured on:My First Job
Posted by:Steve BlankSteve Blank
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NewestOldestPopularAdd a comment355 comments
Josh Taylor

Jonathan Cutting
Jonathan Cutting
Mathematician, Scientist Seeking Opportunities
Why do so many of these articles featured on LinkedIn paint traditional jobs and careers as these horrible abysses of misery, mediocrity, and failure, while at the same time lauding entrepreneurism as the only intelligent, successful, fulfilling career choice? Not everyone is cut out to be a small business owner, and those that aren't should not be portrayed as lazy, less-than-human, or otherwise undesirable as workers and leaders. I'm growing very tired of this blatant, irrational bias on the part of LinkedIn contributors.
Like(29)Reply(2)15 hours ago
Reynhard Coetzee, Biju Babu, Oludayo Abass, +26
2 Replies
Gennady Shenker
Gennady Shenker
Creating, adding, or optimizing value on teams that play to win.
To answer your question, Jonathan, perhaps because these articles have been written by entrepreneurs that absolutely love what they do and cannot imagine doing anything else. And perhaps, though your defense of "other" jobs/opportunities and good people doing other things is valid, there is a plenty of mediocrity that kills (entrepreneurial) brilliance to preserve own "security." This mediocrity leads to disappearance of formerly great companies like Motorola, DEC, Wang, etc. etc. Oh, btw, remember when Apple was on a death bed with a few weeks of breaths left?   As a mathematician you must know a story of the Russian genius Perelman who came to the USA and after a few lost years in academia, tired of politics and other bullsh*t of mediocrities went back and solved Poincare conjecture winning Fields Medal:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grigori_Perelman  So perhaps if instead of "entrepreneurs," these articles referred to geniuses, including good people from any walk of work ... would you agree/accept?
Like(9)6 hours ago
Biju Babu, Oludayo Abass, Sandeep Chakravarthy®, +6
Robert Gallimore
Robert Gallimore
System Security Admin III
I think these are just adventures in life for which we can all learn a lesson or two. Occasionally, life requires us to engage in a level of risk and entrepreneurism to get ahead
Like(4)10 hours ago
Antonio Quinonez, Jeanette Sim, John Allen Green, +1
David Brown
David Brown
President at Carolina Cap Company
Evasive, opportunity can be. "Stay hungry, stay foolish" and opportunities will abound. Pure Simple Brilliance with a splash of Elightenment
Like(37)Reply5 days ago
Sam K., Justin David O., John Allen Green, +34
Mustafa Rassiwala
Mustafa Rassiwala
Director Product Marketing at ThreatMetrix
This is a very refreshing article. Showing up a lot is an insightful lesson. I like the last thought as well - Passion for doing rather than being a title. Awesome.
Like(18)Reply5 days ago
Senashia Ekanayake, John Allen Green, Yusuf M., +15
Sherie Harkcom
Sherie Harkcom
Business Development
This is brilliant
Like(8)Reply5 days ago
nc lezgi, Mikhail Bell, Jeanie Fang, +5
Akber Iqbal, MBA, PMP
Akber Iqbal, MBA, PMP
Enterprise Project Manager and Sr. Asst. Manager, Digital Communications at Aga Khan University
"using uncertainty as your path is an advantage entrepreneurs share. Their journey will have them try more disconnected paths than someone on a traditional career track. And one day all the seemingly random data and experience they’ve acquired will end up as an insight in building something greater than the sum of the parts."... fingers crossed !
Like(8)Reply5 days ago
Antonio Quinonez, Amanda V, HR Chick, +5
Alvern Bullard [LION] (ONA) {LIONESS}12,500+
Alvern Bullard [LION] (ONA) {LIONESS}12,500+
Simplifying AD & Exchange Management
Wow Steve! This is the most informative statement I have heard all year. "And one day all the seemingly random data and experience they’ve acquired will end up as an insight in building something greater than the sum of the parts." It speaks to me.
Like(7)Reply4 days ago
Amanda V, Sujan Baral, Erica Krilov, +4
Timothy Sparks
Timothy Sparks
EMC Technical Support Engineer
What I got out of this article is that things happen for a reason. Steve, your trip to California, finding out you're not in place and then discover that you are needed much more than you realize, was meant to test you. You had what it took and they saw that in you. I think our Spirit is sometimes our best asset. Being the so called smartest, most experienced can be your undoing because the Spirit of being hungry to learn and grow is what is needed most. Your article is a very good one and needed.
Like(6)Reply(1)4 days ago
Vience Boon, Felice Gray-Kemp, Thomas True, +3
1 Reply
Randy Taylor
Randy Taylor
BPO & Outsourcing Consulting, Strategy and Solutions!
It also reminds me of the saying "good things might come to those who wait but only those things left by those who hustle".
Like12 hours ago
Shimi Kiviti
Shimi Kiviti
Think big, act small, fail fast, learn rapidly
Like always, great post. I also signed up for the course
Like(5)Reply5 days ago
Kelera Davis, Gennady Shenker, Ameurfina Curioso Silo, RN CSSBB FAIHQ CS-IC(CBAHI), +2
Clint White
Clint White
CEO Jet Right Aviation Services/Jet Sales Representative- SkyWater Group
My dad taught me the same lessons in life "Half of success is just SHOWING UP" you would be surprised how many people have forgotten that lesson.
Like(4)Reply(2)4 days ago
Antonio Quinonez, Zakaria Kurdi, B&A -Technical, legal & official translation, +1
2 Replies
Matthew Lewis
Matthew Lewis
Network Operations at Beyond the Box Telecom
Clint, if I may add to your comment. Not only show up, but pay attention. I've been fortunate enough to be involved in great opportunities because I engage people and ask a lot of questions.   My family thinks I should be on Jeopardy because I know tidbits of information on a wide range of topics. I read up on many items that interest me and when I can, I talk to people involved. You never know when that little piece of information can start a conversation with someone who can open the door to a great opportunity.
Like3 hours ago
Zakaria Kurdi
Zakaria Kurdi
Project Director at System Analytic
Hey Clint, thanks for sharing this! I completely agree and think that your dad's advice is priceless! Showing up really makes a big difference and if you care and show up all the time, it really makes a great impression.
Like10 hours ago
Arunkumar Srinivasan
Arunkumar Srinivasan
Senior Consultant @ KPMG Canada - Enhanced Proposal Support
That's amazing :)
Like(3)Reply5 days ago
Jeanie Fang, HR Chick, and Silvia Grbcic
Catherine Steinbeigle
Catherine Steinbeigle
Human Resources Professional
Awesome story....you just never know where your dots will take you. Kudos!
Like(3)Reply5 days ago
Aysegul Ataman Scharning, Bill Hefley, Ph.D., COP, and HR Chick
Bob Davidson
Bob Davidson
Three Career Professional
Certainly being intelligent helps, but getting any kind of job really boils down to being in the right place at the right time. The author's roommate was jealous of the author's ability to be in the right place at the right time. My recommendation is the roommate see "Forrest Gump."
Like(3)Reply15 hours ago
Ameurfina Curioso Silo, RN CSSBB FAIHQ CS-IC(CBAHI), B&A -Technical, legal & official translation, and Larry Caracciolo
Diệu Nguyễn
Diệu Nguyễn
HR & Admin Director at New Horizon Internet JSC
An amazing story. Thank you for your sharing.
Like(2)Reply5 days ago
HR Chick and Silvia Grbcic
Michael Engel
Michael Engel
Investment Society Vice President at BYU-Idaho
What struck me most of all was his diligence. I think many would have walked away in shambles at this situation, but Mr. Blank made it an opportunity.
Like(2)Reply4 days ago
Thomas True and Suraiya Khan
C.J. McELEAVY
C.J. McELEAVY
ICT / iPad in Education & Enterprise.
Sagacious and helpful post Steve...thanks.
Like(1)Reply5 days ago
Melissa Powel
Dylan Thomas
Dylan Thomas
Digital Marketing Assistant at SJ Berwin
Very cool stuff!
Like(1)Reply5 days ago
HR Chick
Prajakta Diwanji Karkare
Prajakta Diwanji Karkare
IT-professional
Great article ... very inspiring too.
Like(1)Reply5 days ago
HR Chick
Harry Tinson
Harry Tinson
Business Graduate at JCB
Inspired!
Like(1)Reply5 days ago
HR Chick
Matt Challberg
Matt Challberg
Account Executive at Forcura | Process Improvement Consultant
Excellent post Steve! Taking action and doing something is the catalyst many people have a hard time discovering.
Like(1)Reply5 days ago
HR Chick
Maxi Fernando
Maxi Fernando
Sales and Technical Manager For Europe at Casio Electronics Co Ltd
Never no what is around the corner.
Like(1)Reply5 days ago
HR Chick
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