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Email ThisCollege is a great place to learn how to work hard, party hard, and make friends. College also teaches us how to live on our own and why debt sucks. But, college doesn’t teach us as much about the business world because business in the real world is more about experience, confidence and the network you build. Here are 8 business rules you didn’t learn in college.
1. You don’t know how to manage yet.
College cannot teach you how to manage. As nice as it would be, managers learn to be great from experience, and that’s it. Everyone is different, every situation is different and the only way to be a great manager is to have experiences in your back pocket that you can fall back on when you’re faced with a difficult situation. Over the past few months I’ve learned this first hand by learning to manage on the fly. It’s difficult, much harder than I ever expected, and I have a ton of respect for anyone who is great at it. You can take management courses and read management books, but you’ll never learn to be a great manager without doing it.
2. Everything’s a negotiation.
Negotiations happen nearly every day in business. It’s amazing how many situations I’ve managed through that when I look back on them, I realize were actually a negotiation. Whether it’s Business-to-Customer sales, Business-to-Business sales, salary, equity, ordirect report interactions, most of your conversations in the real world will involve some sort of give and take. College can teach you some basic principles, but you’re better off getting practice by trying to buy a used car if you want to learn how to negotiate in the business world.
3. Networking has changed.
Unfortunately, colleges are behind the times. You would think with all the money they charge us, they would be ahead of the curve, but they’re not. College professors cannot teach you how to create a “new” type of network. New networks are created online, with lots of loose connections, managed with social networking sites like Linked In and Brazen Careerist. You create your network by establishing expertise in your field and gaining visibility with the right people who share the same interests. College might teach you how to network in person, but the new networking is done online, and it’s way more complicated and efficient.
4. You must create your own work.
College provides you with assignments, tests, quizzes and projects. Each of these things is handed down from a higher power (your professor) and you are told what’s expected of you to earn a good grade. The business world is a whole different game. You will be handed assignments from a higher power (your boss) but there are also a million things you can do to go above and beyond. And if you want to advance in your company, join another company, or start your own, you need to learn how to create your own work, and that work you create must help the bottom line if you want to be considered successful.
5. Work is never done.
I’ve learned a lot of things since starting Brazen Careerist, but one of the most important lessons I’ve learned is that the work is never done. No matter how sure you are that you’ve done everything you can think of, there will always be something else to do when you wake up in the morning. If you’re sitting around at 10 pm and you’re bored with nothing to do, grab your computer and do a little work. Sure, you could put it off ‘til the morning, but I guarantee that when you walk in the doors to the office, you’ll have a full plate, no matter how much work you do the night before.
6. All work is not done sitting in front of a computer.
I often feel like I should be doing more work when my day consists of phone calls, meetings and random discussions around the office. And it’s true, there is usually a lot of busy work I didn’t get done at the end of a day like this, but when you start moving up that proverbial ladder, work becomes less and less sitting in front of a computer, and more and more talking, managing, and brainstorming. In fact, when you get to the point where work is hardly sitting in front of the computer at all, work starts to become a lot more fun.
7. Everyone looks out for themselves.
Some professors may be tough, but in general they all want you to succeed. Sometimes a curve will create a little competition, but for the most part your peers don’t care one way or the other if you fail or succeed. The business world is much different. Everyone is looking out for themselves. If you fail, your peers have a better chance of being promoted. If you started a company, people justify their choice to not take the same type of risk by secretly wishing for you not to succeed. The best bosses are supportive, but when it comes down to it, people look out for themselves. In business, you can’t trust everyone; it’s all on you to succeed.
8. Straight A’s will not make you a CEO, only a great entry level employee.
Students with 4.0 GPA’s are recognized and honored at graduation and generally admired in school. But I do not want to work for anyone who got straight A’s in school. But I would happily hire anyone who got straight A’s. Why? Straight A’s means you are great at doing the work you are assigned. You study hard, work hard and were rewarded because of that. But leading a company or starting a company requires much more. It requires social skills, vision, and creating work when there is nothing tangible there. It’s no surprise that some of the world’s top business leaders were college drop-outs–you’ve got to be a little nuts to believe you can lead a massive organization or create something from nothing. So be wary if your CEO was a straight A student, he’s probably in the wrong position.
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I like this article. You seem to have a good grasp of some of the differences between how people are educated and what really goes on in the workplace. Keep up the good work!
You touch on some great points here, but would disagree with #1.
College gives you so many opportunities to practice management. I was a Resident Assistant (RA) for 3 years. I managed a hall (one year, a house) of students. Sure, part of my job was to make sure they weren’t breaking rules or fire codes. But I was also there to mentor them, to “step in” if they were going down the wrong path, and to maintain a successful, comfortable living environment for everyone. I would challenge anyone who didn’t consider that experience a valuable practice of management.
RE: Straight A’s.
Disclaimer: I wasn’t even close to straight A’s.
I wouldn’t mind working for a straight A graduate who graduated in the past ten years. With the emphasis (at least in biz school) on team learning, collaborative projects and on-the-job/hands on experiences, straight A’s tell me a person has done well in all of those things. And those three things are the important things that people take away from school.
I’d love to see the liberal arts style of post-secondary education get eliminated for most career paths. It seems so silly that we put engineers, scientists and business people through useless classes when we could actually be preparing them and knocking off some of those things. My wife got a BA in Biology and did a combined 18 months of science education (not just biology) out of a total of 48 months of classes. What were those 30 months used for? History, English, Culture, Capstones… It is ridiculous. No wonder international students are rising so quickly.
Academics & the business world has deviated away from each other for many decades. Although there are some useful parts, like capstone, clubs & associations, seminar-long team projects…but many of these are optional & minimal.
My undergrad at university of Toronto don’t even allow anyone to take business classes (such as Marketing, accounting, management, operations) if you are not in the commerce program; Which I think is crazy)
Since students are not getting some the basics they need for work, no wonder why there are so many new grad take 6 month+ to get their first job?
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After viewing the talk from Malcolm Gladwell last night
http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2008/07/the-mismatch-pr.html
I realized that Academics is just not a very good measure for business/employment success.
I think that when academics and business used to be more integrated, you wouldn’t have needed to learn these rules on the job. College had more of a vocational angle. I think now most liberal arts schools are recruiting and producing the well-rounded student. This means the student that excels inside and outside of the classrooms, the students that is equally good at sciences and the humanities. The outside classroom that you gain from running student organizations does not prepare you for an entry level job; it prepares you to manage people your own age.
Great pointers! I especially like #4. When I first started working, I would meet my deadlines well beforehand and feel like I had nothing to do. I treated everything like a paper or quiz. Then I started delving into the ripples of my work; who’s affected, how does the system change, am I really affecting the bottomline and so on. It really opened my eyes to looking into things in depth instead of just doing a quick superficial brush up.
I’m also a big fan of #6, because the days when I get out for meetings and talking to people on the front lines are the days I learn the most. I feel connected to the flow of things and then realize that data crunching and research is all I need my computer for. In fact, I’m in the process of allocating my time differently and prioritizing “out-of-office” time much more.
Wise words, but I’m looking at them after-the-fact. I wonder how someone is college would feel about this.
[…] College is a great place to learn how to work hard, party hard, and make friends. College also teaches us how to live on our own and why debt sucks. But college doesn’t teach us as much about the business world because business in the real world is more about experience, confidence and the network you build. Here are 8 business rules you didn’t learn in college. [Brazen Careerist] […]
Ryan, this article was dead on.
I think far too many people don’t realize that while college can teach you some of the rules, it doesn’t teach you that after you learn the rules, you need to break them.
Keep up the great work man, I really enjoy reading your stuff.
@ Nick: Did you get that name from the Great Gatsby, or is that your real name. Sorry, I had to ask, I just finished the book. =)
Great article. You left out that the first few years you will work like a rented mule, youll be underappreciated and paid jack. But never give up. Oh, and show up on time.
“If you’re sitting around at 10 pm and you’re bored with nothing to do, grab your computer and do a little work. ”
If you’re sitting around bored at 10 at night, go to bed!!
Haha. Frankly speaking, what you have written there was pretty much entirely true.
#4 was reflected in my blog post (under point 2.2 - Nonperformance in an area today? Change your job, or create work that compliments your strengths!)
http://winningeveryone.com/leadership/need-we-have-any-reason/
And about the A’s, I remembered having barely passed for my diploma with a GPA of 2.07 out of a max 4, but I took advantage of the things that I was confident in and upon checking with the job market, the latest salary that I could have received if I were to join at Dec 2008 was $5k+. (nearly 4x higher than what a diploma holder could get).
Meaning #2 in this article is an important aspect. And the good thing is that management skills are a necessity to get that sort of income that I had mentioned here.
Ryan, you are sure right on with this entry!
I LOVE the point about straight A’s. They get you nowhere once you enter the real world. After you get that entry level position they will never come up again.
Great article. I think negotiation is one of the key things listed there. It’s a massive skill that works in any type of business at any level. The skills you learn in negotiating through understanding people and situations can be applied any where. One of the first real world training courses I ever did was an intensive negotiating course and it’s been incredibly useful ever since.
I love your comment on straight A students. That totally made my day.
I can really appreciate your two points concerning creating your own work and people who get straight A’s. If you want to do fine professionally, then do exactly what people tell you to do. If you want to excel, put some innovation into the process and see if you can’t bring some ingenuity to the place!
Approach is everything. When you start a new job right out of college, it’s easy to get so caught up in wanting to make an impact, that you forget that your coworkers could have a lot of time and energy invested in a project, process, or idea.
To get buy in from coworkers, it’s critical to figure out who the key stakeholders are and for you to use the right approach. You’re much more likely to persuade others if you frame ideas as questions instead of commands.
Ryan, here’s one more….
9. You’re won’t be paid what you’re worth.
Companies are in the business of keeping costs down, especially at entry levels. It’s often true that newly minted college grads have access to information that current employees don’t, or have skills that haven’t yet been institutionalized at the company.
Therefore, college grads or new employees could have an advantage. The proof plays out on the job, but you won’t get paid what you’re worth right away. That first review is a huge step after a year goes by. Major increases in compensation are possible.
After my first year, I got a 16% raise because of what I was able to do that no one else had at the company. The best of my peers got 7%. Most others got 3 or 4%. It’s all about finding a project in which you can provide insight that others can’t. This is where #4 is right on…If you create your own project that aligns with the goals of the organization that only you can do, you will prove your worth.
Very good points. as the owner of a company who makes personnel-related decisions every day, if an employee understands these 8 facts they are virtually guaranteed to succeed. But there is nothing really new about your 8 points; they were just as true 20 years ago when I graduated with my MBA as they are today.
Great advice! I sit between Gen X and Gen Y and I’m kinda sick of the “we’re takin’ over!” posts from Gen Yers.
Yes, enthusiasm is good. Change is good. But when I was a kid, I knew I was still a kid. That kind of thinking isn’t as wide-spread these days.
What I’m trying to say is that this list shows great maturity. A maturity that our fellow Gen Yers would be smart to follow. (A lot do already, I’m just saying.)
I think there are generally two kinds of folks in most offices, no matter their age: those who are open to learning and those who think they know everything. Personally, I would only hire the former kind.
Great post! Dugg and soon to be stumbled
Ha! Everyone likes the point about “straight A’s” because they didn’t get straight A’s and it makes them feel better about that.
But in all seriousness, while I appreciate this article, I’m sure it doesn’t apply to everyone. I’m sure there are some CEO’s and entrepreneur’s out there whose straight A approach to the world has helped them succeed. I don’t think straight A’s limits you from being right for the CEO’s office, I just think it doesn’t help you as much as people might think.
I left school and immediately dived into a “manager” title and a program all my own. I feel like college, my internships, my extra-curriculars and my part-time jobs in marketing/pr really prepared me for work. The one thing I needed to learn that is not on your list is - always come with a solution. My biggest struggle was bringing problem after problem to my bosses attention without having a solution thought out. I learned that lesson quickly and was successful.
Anyway, for most graduates I know, you hit the nail on the head.
When I was a partner in a small Accounting Practice, we almost always hired the good, solid B average staff. It always seemed to us (back in the pre-internet days) that the Straight A graduates were not as well rounded as those who had encountered some measure of failure. Maybe they did not have a life, and study was *all* of life to them.
In our environment, in our small town, the 4.0 gal or guy was less able to relate to the client, more prone to “reinvent the wheel”, and most fatally, (career-wise), more likely to annoy the client with their “superior” ways and attitudes.
We were content to let the then Big 8 grab the geniuses and were for the most part, well satisfied with those of lesser test taking ability.
Yeah, everyone looks out for themselves…but I find that that depends on the organization. At Fortune 100 companies, there’s more emphasis on teamwork. Also, after having worked in several cutthroat environments, I’ve realized that no one is happy when no one looks out for others. It doesn’t HAVE to be that way. It’s a choice. And yes, you CAN find more team oriented environments if you look.
Hi - great article! I think it was Robert Kiwasaki who said that the problem with College professors is that they have always been in college and hardly ever in “the real world”. I think its important to connect with a business guru, someone who is already succeeding in your field - so he can teach you how to do things.
“8. Straight A’s will not make you a CEO, only a great entry level employee.”
And having less than straight As means that you will not get an entry-level position in the industry of your choice.
Straight A’s mean that you are smart and learned the basic information and skills to get the job done.
“It’s no surprise that some of the world’s top business leaders were college drop-outs”
Albeit drop outs from good schools, and emphasis on “some.”
I didn’t learn this crap in College either…I learned it in Kindergarten when I was five years old.
Guess you’re so slow on the uptake kid, that you had to waste time in college and then get a real job to figure out what most thinking people learn before grade one even starts.
I think that we have to take so many extra classes in college because it puts us outside of our box. Learning is learning, plain and simple. If you didn’t take that French class, you would be naive when you make dumb statements about the French. Many people don’t continue to learn after college and that is when we get bigoted, naive, dumb people who think the south is all hicks and religion is the only way to live.
College drop-outs can be some of the smartest people, they are smart enough to realize they don’t need a degree.
I also think that people with straight A’s aren’t able to gain experience. They like to read and learn through research and writing, but they don’t always have the life experiences that can make them ‘well-rounded’ or capable of ‘normal’ human interaction.
I didn’t get straight A’s, or straight anything, I landed a job that i could pay my bills with and learn a lot. Someone with A’s or C’s could’ve done the same thing. It’s personality, not your grade.
We take so many classes in college to give us a well-rounded education and I think it’s rather sad that Lance seems to think the liberal arts style of education need to be eliminated. It’s rather big-headed to think that one area of education is more important than another. Everyone needs to learn history or we are bound to repeat mistakes we made in the past; like for instance the Iraqi war shares many traits of Vietnam.
Let’s face it no one reads anymore which I, as well as others, believe is the reason why society is in the state it’s in. People should be more open to all types of education and see the benefit of learning literature, history, music, and art. I’m sick to the point of fatigue of the humanities/liberal arts getting a bad rap from business/science people who think the arts are “useless.” To them I say open your mind, open a book, and take a good look around.