Can You Imagine Albert Einstein Applying for a Job Today? Would He Get Hired?

Posted November 11th, 2009 by admin

We all know Albert Einstein was a genius in mathematics and physics. But did you know he had a hard time finding a job when he got out of university? Why?

Albert really wanted to teach when he graduated from the Polytechnic Institute in Zurich. However, he couldn’t get past square one to get a teaching position. Nobody would hire him because they didn’t see him as a great teacher. And he’d never taught before.

The same problem exists in today’s job market. People are getting hired today because they have experience doing the same thing for someone else. For that reason, Einstein never did become a teacher (at least until very later in life).

So, you be the judge. Is the best predictor of success the fact that you’ve done the job before? Obviously not, but that’s the way most hiring is done today.

So what is the test predictor of success? Some would say it is all about passion. Let’s examine that using Einstein as an example…

Einstein passion was mathematics and physics, but he really loved his violin. He loved the mathematical nature of a violin. He was determined to master it.

And he did get pretty good at it… good enough to have a private audience with Queen Elizabeth. He was indeed a good violinist, but he was a much better physicist.

Why is someone as smart as Einstein not able to master the violin to the level he could pick up physics?

Here’s my read on this. The great violinists have an acute sense of feel. Take Itzhak Perlman for example. You can feel his emotions coming out through his fingers and through the violin. He lives those feelings, and translates them through to the violin.

No matter how much Einstein tried, he couldn’t get his emotions to translate through into the violin. Why? Because he is so logically minded that this part of his mind dominated his core thought process. He wasn’t hardwired to process feelings the way a violinist would.

So passion isn’t enough to predict success in a particular career.

In my reading about Einstein, I have a guess on how Einstein thought and why he was such a genius (and ironically why he would been a great teacher). Consider the way he started snooping around into what eventually became his theory of general relativity.

Einstein loved to daydream. He couldn’t help but do it. In fact, one of his favorite things to do was to go sailing on a day when he knew there would be no wind. He loved to be bored in the middle of Lake Zurich so his mind could wander.

Over a period of time, his mind wandered a lot about what it would be like to ride alongside a beam of light. That imagination and breaking things down into the most simple of logical thoughts is how he finally discovered relativity.

That is the way Einstein was drawn to think. I can’t be sure because I never knew him, but I’ve done a lot of reading about him. His way of breaking down the most complex logical puzzles through his imagination is what made him a genius physicist, and ironically a great teacher. And he would have been a fantastic teacher right out of school for the very same reason. (Albert Einstein became a famed teacher later on in life.)

So, what’s the moral of the story to us mere mortals? Know your natural way of thinking and get into a career that uses that as much as possible. And don’t try to become someone who you aren’t.

If you’re wondering how much you’re using your natural way of thinking at work and at home today, try our Free Reality Check by clicking HERE. And if you’re interested in The Clarifier that will uncover your natural core way of thinking in less than two hours, check out our free test drive HERE.

Until next time, remember…

Have some fun with just being YOU!!!

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Author:

Dave Dutton – Founder of stuckinarut.com – ‘Answering the question for all ages, ‘What do I want to be when I grow up.’

(Via Career Rocketeer – Career Search and Personal Branding Blog.)

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