Michael B. Jordan started out by 'pretending really well' to be an actor—now he's an Oscars winner: I didn't take the 'traditional route'

"Sinners" star Michael B. Jordan, who secured his first Oscar victory during Sunday night's Academy Awards ceremony, has said that he didn't really know how to act when he first got started — and that he mostly learned on the job.

He's not alone: Learning on the job can be a healthy approach for plenty of professionals across a variety of industries, so long as they're nimble and inquisitive, says careers expert Patrice Williams-Lindo. "If professionals only accepted roles they were already fully qualified for, most careers would stall," says Williams-Lindo, the founder and CEO of coaching business Career Nomad. "The healthy version of 'fake it till you make it' is really 'learn it while you're doing it.'"

For his part, Jordan broke into the entertainment industry at age 12 after a receptionist at his mother's doctors' office recommended he attend an audition that he promptly booked, he said during a panel discussion with Complex, published on YouTube in April 2018. His first roles included appearances on HBO's "The Sopranos" and "The Wire," and CBS' "Cosby." He then appeared on ABC's soap opera "All My Children," a job he worked for four years, said Jordan, now 39.

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"That was where I kind of learned the craft a little bit ... up until that point I was just imitating life [and the] things I'd seen around me," Jordan said. "I never took any acting classes, never did anything like the traditional route. It was always kind of like learning as you went ... and the feeling of, 'When they going to find out I'm not really an actor? When they going to find out that I'm just this kid from Newark [New Jersey] pretending really well?'"

Jordan did eventually attend Newark Arts High School, a magnet public school that specializes in the visual and performing arts, where his mom worked. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his dual role in director Ryan Coogler's thriller "Sinners," playing identical twins Elias Moore, nicknamed "Stack," and Elijah Moore, nicknamed "Smoke."

You don't necessarily have to know everything about a job before you take it on, says Williams-Lindo. Soft skills, a propensity to learn key hard skills, genuine effort and a growth mindset can all potentially separate someone who'll learn and adapt quickly from someone who's completely unprepared for the job from Day 1.

"In today's visibility economy, people aren't rewarded for pretending. They're rewarded for learning in public and delivering quickly," she says. "Confidence may open the door, but competence has to catch up fast."

Eighty-four percent of HR managers say their company is open to hiring candidates who can learn essential job skills through training, according to a 2019 survey from global staffing firm Robert Half. A lack of curiosity is far more detrimental, says Williams-Lindo.

"If you're pretending to know something but avoiding feedback, avoiding questions or not actually building the skill behind the scenes, the gap eventually becomes visible," she says.

If you're weighing whether you should take an opportunity you aren't fully equipped for, ask yourself a better question, says Williams-Lindo: Do I have enough foundation to learn the rest quickly? A "yes" answer means you could be on a path for career acceleration, she says.

"Confidence might get someone noticed initially, but competency is what sustains influence," Williams-Lindo says.

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