Do you think anyone can do any job if they work hard?

I visited a fire station today (I'm a beaver leader). There is no way in earth I could do that work. I would just be a hopeless scaredy cat.

Re: intelligence - also, it depends.

I have supported team members without a GCSE to their names who would probably have been called stupid in other areas to become senior IT support engineers, with the associated certifications.

Will they ever be CTOs? Probably not (mostly because they don't have the inherent soft skills required to get to that level), but they were able to prove themselves capable of getting to a level with the right support and input.

I work with violent and sexual offending, in the last fortnight I've attended a domestic homicide review, coroner's inquest and two rapid reviews into child deaths (murders), that's alongside the day job. Lots of people can't do what I do from an emotional and psychological impact perspective.

No. No amount of hard work will make you good at something you’re just not cut out for.

No. Some people just don’t have the right natural skillset and/or ability regardless of how hard they try/work/train. The old ‘square peg, round hole’ syndrome.

The ones I feel most sorry for frustrated with are people who insist they’re a good fit for a job when they blatantly aren’t but they just can’t see it and/or won’t accept it.

I work for a global Financial Services organisation and on top of my ‘day job’, I recruit globally for our team. In addition to specific experience/qualifications, we need strong interpersonal skills as we work with some very demanding clients and managing them isn’t easy. There’s a lot of ‘charm’ required to get things done (whilst not upsetting people). I recently rejected someone after first interview. He was clearly a no within the first few mins. HR emailed him the rejection and he forwarded it to me saying that HR had made a mistake with the email as the interview went really well. 🙄I replied and said that unfortunately the HR email was correct and we wouldn’t be progressing and I would be happy to explain my feedback to him in more detail. So we had a call. He wouldn’t let me get a word in (I repeatedly had to say “can you let me finish please!”) and he harangued me for 25 mins, repeatedly telling me that I’d made a mistake not putting him through to the next round. His behaviour proved very clearly that I hadn’t made a mistake at all. Can you imagine him behaving like that with a client/stakeholder whose message he didn’t like?! Honestly, I was appalled at his arrogance and complete lack of self-awareness/judgement. Nothing like the confidence of a mediocre white man eh? 😜

Within reason.

As a manager, I hold the opinion that most people can learn most things to a reasonable level of competency if the they have a good attitude and are willing to learn, but obviously there are are limitations, e.g., if the job is physically demanding and somebody has limited mobility.

For me, personally, I know that I couldn't undertake caring roles (not really a people person, tbh), although I'm sure I could learn, if I had to.

No, everyone has difference intelligence levels. I don’t think I could be a brain surgeon, I’m not clever enough and I don’t have a good enough attention span for something like that.

It might be that you didn’t understand what the process required, as CS applications and interviews are hard for newcomers. But also it might just not be the right job for you and that’s ok!

No. And I think it's important to recognise this and not waste too much time struggling to get somewhere you aren't realistically going to get.

Definitely not- for example if I had to become an architect I just couldn't do it as I'm terrible at drawing and not very imaginative/ creative when it comes to either buildings or interiors. Also if I was made to be a doctor I could probably manage to qualify academically but I'd have to be a pathologist on account of my terrible bedside manner.

I am terrifyingly bad with numbers, so I could never, even with training, work with anything involving maths. I even managed to screw up my tax return this year. But I am good with animals and the public.
I think if you play to your strengths you can do most things within your sphere (for example I could train dogs, teach riding, milk cows, work on open farms) but I couldn't be an accountant.

If it was the civil service tax specialist programme, it’s also possible you’re just not succeeding at a fairly difficult application process.

If you have a genuine interest in what you're learning, and a strong motivation to succeed, then you'd be more likely to manage it.

But still, in my experience, there are some people who can turn their hand to many things, and some who are much more specific in their skills/abilities.

I don’t think absolutely anyone can do absolutely any job, no.

I do think some specialist skills can be learned later in life. I also think you can do some jobs with transferrable skills, but not others.

I work in a fairly new field where there’s no academic route in and most people come to it as a second or third career, on the basis of transferable skills. But there are some aspects (some to do with basic abilities and some to do with mindset) that can’t really be taught, you either have them or you don’t.

Nope.

I have a job everyone thinks they can do and they can't.. but I equally believe there is zero chance of me becoming an accountant, lawyer or GP anytime soon.

You can always learn - age does not prohibit that.

But what to learn, especially if linked to a job hunt is a big question.

For me for example, there would be no point in anything that requires precision in numbers. I reverse them, get physically tired when dealing with them and so on. I only recognized that later in life. Funnily enough, I am good at mathematical concepts - just not placing the numbers!

No, of course not.
I couldn't be a high court judge, or kings counsel 'just by working hard'.
I couldn't build a company from scratch to a million profit in five years, no matter what I tried to do. I simply don't have the skills, ability, or personality type.
Nursing, you need to have a really caring nature. Be very resilient and of course you can't fail to have to work long hours. So I don't think I'd be able to do that either.
You can't become a supermodel or pop star just by 'working hard'. It's about luck and looks a lot of the time.

No. Absolutely not. No matter how much I worked hard there are jobs I couldn't ever do.

I had one maths teacher at secondary school who proved your statement wrong

Of course not.

Not everyone has the same intellectual or physical skills to do anything. Motivation alone does not make one a brain surgeon or a physicist or a lawyer

For sure it is easier to learn plumbing, but goodness knows I would be terrible at it as I have the strength of a squirrel monkey!

No, I couldn't be a PE teacher, and someone who is crap with numbers couldn't be a maths teacher.

No , hard work alone would not work .

No.

You’d have a better chance of turning a care assistant into a high court judge if you started at birth, but I wouldn’t put money on it.

And you couldn’t turn a judge into a dress designer either.