I would say that IQ is the strongest predictor of which field you can get into and hold a job in, whether you can be an accountant, lawyer or nurse, for example.

In this remark, Goleman draws a boundary around what IQ usefully predicts: access to and basic competence within cognitively demanding professions. The emphasis is on “entry and retention” in a field—meeting the intellectual threshold required to qualify, learn the technical material, and perform routine job demands. Implicitly, the quote also suggests that beyond this threshold, other factors (often the focus of Goleman’s work on emotional intelligence) may better explain differences in excellence, leadership, teamwork, and long-term success. The examples—accountant, lawyer, nurse—underscore that many occupations require substantial analytic or learning capacity, even when the work is not purely academic.