When I first made the leap into my current real estate career, I did a skills inventory and concluded that I would be suited to the job.
I looked at my project management experience and my ongoing fascination with language, including legalese. I looked at my communications and public speaking experience. Finally I looked at my ability to get technology working for myself and others.
What I didn’t realize at the time was that my earlier experiences in life also come into play in this career: retail sales is an obvious one that seemed so long ago as to be irrelevant (yet it comes up almost every day), and journalism.
Journalism? Yes, I now realize that those skills are very relevant. I am not the only person with on-air broadcasting experience and interviewing skills to get into real estate. Lance Chilton and Jim Tatti, two high-profile broadcasters in the Greater Toronto Area are real estate agents now. Asking the right questions and getting to the bottom of things are critical in any real estate transaction. Knowing how to frame a story and present the facts are also key skills.
The lesson of course is that your life experiences accumulate to make you who you are. I’m just happy to have a strong sense that nothing I did was “wasted effort”.