Congratulations! You’ve made it into college, and whether it was your first choice or your safety really doesn’t matter. Colleges are loathe to admit this, but the “prestige” of the school has almost nothing to do with what you learn or even whether you get a job. The Chronicle of Higher Education recently published a study that found that college reputation is the least important factor in hiring recent graduates.
What you get out of a place is, not surprisingly, really up to you. (And the advice being offered by Mark Goldblatt on the opposite page contains solid advice.) But there are certain things that colleges don’t tell you; that are not part of the curriculum and rarely get adequately communicated by the career placement office. In short, they are the informal “rules” that used to be conveyed, but are now sadly missing. They are real-world skills, and they will help you both be more “marketable” and probably happier.
These rules are gleaned from 30 years of hiring recent college graduates, mentoring them, and sadly, sometimes firing them. When we first wrote about this in 1987 in Getting to the Right Job, many of the people we interviewed were just taking on their first managerial positions. Today they are CEOs of some of the best, most interesting companies in America. And their updated advice is leavened by the advice they have given their own children. So here are the top 7:
1. Your college major makes no difference. What you choose to study in college makes very little difference in what you pursue as your career. Obviously some professions – medicine, law, accounting, engineering – need to be licensed. But professional graduate school and certification are different from undergraduate education.
The best hire I ever made was a young woman who had spent a year bumming around Asia after graduation. (She euphemistically called it tutoring.) She had majored in Russian literature, an area I sadly had absolutely no knowledge of. But what her choice of major said to me was: this person is not afraid of taking on difficult challenges.
What you major in should reflect what you’re interested in – preferably passionate about – at this stage of your life. It should be both an area that you want to gain some substantive depth in, and a vehicle to develop essential critical-thinking skills. You will learn the business of the business (or non-profit organization or field) one you get on the job. Use your college major to improve your mind.
2. Grades count – but not as much as experience. Yes, grades matter, to some extent, in getting into some graduate/professional schools. (Grades, particularly in organic chemistry, count way more for medical and dental school than they do for law school – where LSAT scores are disproportionally important.) But very few companies and organizations put a great deal of weight on GPA when making hiring decisions.
Not only does the Chronicle of Higher Education study make that clear, some of the very best, most selective organizations in the country make that point explicitly. One of our favorite is Teach for America. It is often cited that it is tougher to be selected for TFA than to get a job at Goldman Sachs. At TFA, there is a GPA cut-off of 2.5 (on a 4.0 scales.) But even that can be waived.
That is not to say that you should try to do well in college. It means that your time would be better spent doing well and getting real-world work experiences. If that means getting a B+ rather than an A- but taking on a job or an internship, do it.
William Butler, the advertising creative director and Chairman of Chiat Day Perkins Butler says, “I would rather hear that you swept floors for a dollar an hour than cured malaria as a summer intern or volunteer. Any real-world work experience is a plus. It demonstrates that you know what it means to work hard for money. Too many people don’t.”