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Ryan Healy is a recent college graduate. He is a founder of 
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New here? Employee Evolution is a blog written by Ryan Healy. Ryan is a Co-Founder of Brazen Careerist, the webs #1 social network for young professionals. Ryan speaks with organizations on best practices for recruiting and retaining Generation Y and how to effectively use social media to reach your target market. To contact Ryan, please visit our contact page.
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.
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.
whats wrong with being A grade student? Not all of them nerd. many of them also great in soft skill.
Not only is work never done, there is always more to do than CAN be done.
So you need to prioritize. However, in school you often prioritize what gets done first. At work, you prioritize what gets done at all.
Learning how to navigate these waters will be very important.
Great grades are jut that great. But can you apply what you learned? Do you know how to interact in the office? Do you think that college taught you everything you need t know? Nope, just enough to start.
Learn from those you go to work with. Take time to listen. Learn from those who have made the mistakes and who have mastered the art of office skills.
There’s a lot of wisdom here. My only grumble is the title: I disagree that it’s “unfortunate” that you don’t learn these things in college. I’ve ranted this rant before, but you stand to miss so much when you think of college as just a means to a degree and a career. That’s what trade schools and business graduate programs are for. A college education is supposed to make you a more informed and better-rounded person, not an informed and better-performing worker. I’d think that Millennials, if anybody, would embrace that.
I do have to comment on one other point:
… 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.
Not to sound smug, but what’s this? A Millennial acknowledging that sometimes experience trumps good intention or strong effort? That sometimes a person really does have to put in his or her dues because experience fosters understanding and improvement? Color me speechless!
(Okay, maybe do mean to sound a little smug, and I’m almost never speechless. But still.)
Great advice, especially the last two. Those should be the top two. In the business world, everyone cares about themselves and themselves only, including high level officers and managers. And I have found that straight A students are usually more paper pushers then innovators.
In the last 15 years since I got my undergrad, I have never been asked what my GPA was (thank goodness).
I think there is a lot of good points here. As someone with one foot in each of the GenX/Gen Y proverbial doors, I agree with your post almost completely. My only thought is that the last one should probably be first. There are so many smug students who think being magna cum laude should automatically make them top dog in the working world. Far from it!!
I have never been asked what my GPA was in college outside of interviews and I have also had to learn quickly about creating my own work flow, as there is no pre-printed agenda to tell me my time-line of assignments. Prioritizing in school is not the same as at work.
As for working behind a desk, I am so glad that I am out in the field as much as I am. I was really scared in college thinking about being chained to some desk for eight or more hours. This was a welcome thing to learn!
great post.
So straight A’s won’t make you a CEO, but will straight C’s? I think you are just upset that you didn’t get straight A’s.
Talk about a rash generalization. So get bad grades and you will be a CEO, get good grades and you will be a paper pusher.
You should rethink that point. It’s an excuse to not do well in school.
Great post, and to take it a step further…
What about confusing effort with results? As children we’re taught that winning isn’t everything, it’s having fun that matters. In high school we’re taught that making the effort is the most important thing. And in college we’re taught that as long as we cross our “t”s and dot our “i”s everything will work out fine.
But when you get out into the workplace, if you lose the big account or your project doesn’t provide the payback you said it would, how many bosses are going to care that you tried? Late nights at the office mean nothing if you’re not producing results.
In the real world, winning IS everything. Period. You don’t learn that in school.
I might take issue with each man for himself. Mmmm, it is true a lot of people behave this way. How competitive is an outfit ultimately, when it is run that way?
You are describing the culture that led to the credit crunch. I think maybe acknowledge that some people are disloyal to their colleagues but develop the skills to lead an organization that works together.
That is where contemporary networks come in. Each person is a leader at the center of their own community. We have good networks when we look after others.
Great point Sean, winning IS everything. When Jack Welch was running GE, do you think he cared whether or not workers wanted to come in on Saturdays? Of course he didn’t. Actually, he said that early in his career, he didn’t even think it possible that other employees would rather be doing something else than working to win.
Here are my issues with school:
1. I don’t give a shit about learning astronomy, or biology or chemistry. I want to learn about business and the ins and outs of finance, marketing, etc. If I have an interest in other subjects, or need to learn them for the job, I’ll learn them on my own.
2. School is about meeting expectations, not exceeding expectations. When your boss gives you an assignment, he generally is looking for confirmation about a suspicion he has. In school, if you meet expectations, you’ll succeed. If you fail to consistently over deliver at work, you won’t get raises or promotions.
3. Powerpoint needs to be abolished, or at least lessened to the extent of which professors use it. I don’t even need to go to half my classes (but have to because they take attendance) because their powerpoint’s provide too much detail. It really takes the suspense out of the class.
4. The most important skill we should learn but don’t, is how to make a REALLY GOOD presentation. Proessor’s don’t teach it because most don’t know how to do it themselves. The best presentations inspire, excite and motivate. They explain to the audience, “Why should I care about this?”, “How will this help me be successful?”, “Why should I avoid when doing this?” . Professor’s need to do a better job energizing students and making each class a discussion instead of a lecture.
“6. All work is not done sitting in front of a computer.” consider the difference between the meanings of the wording you used and the meaning of “Not all work is done sitting in front of a computer.” Your wording implies that 0% of work is done in front of the computer whereas mine implies that less than 100% of work is done in front of the computer. I understand that it is a minor detail but you really must avoid simple grammatical errors that can completely change your meaning. I am sure that you can see how this point would apply to the office.
I couldn’t agree more about rule #7… People will look out for themselves. It’s best to be friendly and easy to get along with but distant with coworkers. If you tell them too much, you’d be shocked how much they’ll share; intentionally or not. I’ve also learned through experience that complaining always comes back to bite you in the ass. Just do your work and stay low, take advice when it’s given, and vent your complaints after hours. Not everyone is an opportunist looking for an angle into a promotion or raise, but it’s not worth it to find out which of them are the hard way.