Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
A teacher gets to learn all about the challenges of being a teacher in her classes and student teaching. A business person is thrown to the wolves and is told by her instructors and professors the only things that are important is the technical skills. That is a serious problem.
FUnny. I posted just the opposite a while back. A teacher has a semester of student teaching and then they are thrown into a classroom and expected to perform the same as an experienced teacher. In other fields you get incremental increases in responsibility. Most of your training comes after college. They do not put a new lawyer in a courtroom on a 500 million case, and they do not assign a new engineer to take the point in designing a massive bridge. You start off bringing coffee and making copies just to give you something useful to do while you learn a little. then you get to do something more and more until you re ready to go on your own. Teaching - get a degree - Bang, you are on your own. I do not know any other profession that does that.
As to the OP, No. College cannot teach you what it is really like in the business world. First off most college professors have not the faintest idea what it is really like int he business world, certainly not currently. Secondly your fellow students are very different form co-workers. Third there is a lot more at stake. Mess up in college and you might get a B. Mess up after college and someones family business they spend 30 years building may go down the tubes and 150 people may become unemployed, or a bridge may collapse and kill 78 people, or . . . The stakes are higher in the real world. Nothing can prepare you for that. .
I didn't go to college aspiring to a career in a corporate setting, and accordingly, didn't do any internships in a corporate setting. Fittingly, I do not and have not worked in a corporate setting.
I left college just full of enthusiasm, energy, drive and technical skills in my career.
But once I hit the corporate world I was caught flat footed. I didn't have a clue how tough it is to make it through the political minefield I have experienced. 45 Semester Hours in Business Administration classes and not one course really taught me how to survive in corporate America. What a shame!
If you read my other posting on the Employment Board about the difficulty I am facing getting the assistance of a tough "take no prisoners" Executive Senior VP, you see that my college training did not prepare me for the corporate rat race. How can college Business Administration Programs teach students the soft skills we really need to survive Corporate America?
There is one way and one way ONLY, to learn what any job is really like after college.....you get to know people who will be flat out honest with you, who are working in that career field. Unfortunately, the only other way of really finding out, is hitting it running and take it right in the face.
All you're going to learn in college are the basics. You are going to gain book knowledge....not working knowledge. I've got a "business" degree and a nursing degree as well. Both were a piece of cake to ace in college. Both are loaded with "hidden" politics, backstabbers and a whole lot of dishonest cover ups. Unfortunately, very few careers are anywhere near as wonderful as they seem on paper and there are a whole lot of things the instructors do NOT tell you. If they told you about all of the ugliness in your chosen profession....they wouldn't have any classes to teach, would they?
My brothers son who is in college getting a finance degree, sits down with his dad on a regular basis and talks about the many business communications issues his father faces in the office as Director at a large company. His Dad tries to mentor him by explaining the very difficult office politics he faces and the many interpersonal challenges he faces trying to manage and motivate his large team. Of course these regular discussions are not the same as actually experiencing them yourself in corporate America but it can be helpful getting you thinking about these challenges.
He is also signed up to take a Business Communications class next term which will also be helpful.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
44,585 posts, read 81,260,275 times
Reputation: 57825
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr Spock
My brothers son who is in college getting a finance degree, sits down with his dad on a regular basis and talks about the many business communications issues his father faces in the office as Director at a large company. His Dad tries to mentor him by explaining the very difficult office politics he faces and the many interpersonal challenges he faces trying to manage and motivate his large team. Of course these regular discussions are not the same as actually experiencing them yourself in corporate America but it can be helpful getting you thinking about these challenges.
He is also signed up to take a Business Communications class next term which will also be helpful.
This is something all parents should do. A tenured college professor probably spent 0 time working in the corporate world. There may be a few exceptions (read their bios) but there is no substitute for the mentoring of someone experiencing that environment.
College really can't teach you anything about the real world, nor can grad school. I feel I can speak with some authority because I am a college professor. Many people in college today are there to avoid enterting the "real world." They want to procrastinate adulthood as long as they possibly can.
College is a controlled environment which is generally "safe" and not remotely as demanding as real life will be. Nothing can prepare anyone for the brutality of actual life until you live it yourself.
Eh. Due to my college program, I had the opportunity to spend several terms living abroad...something I could not have afforded to do outside of the college program.
My opinion is that experience did more than anything else in life to "teach me about the real world." So I suppose I don't entirely agree with the "college really can't teach you anything about the real world" trope, myself, because college made that experience possible for me. You get what you put in to it, in college, as in anything else in life. Some people never put much into it, and don't get much out of it. A waste, on their part.
Most of the time, college runs on a path that is completely parallel to much of the business world. They don't have anything similar at all.
If you fail a class in college, you can retake the class and most of the time either replace the first grade or at least average the two. A do-over is allowed. If you "fail" at a project at work, the resources are wasted - there is no do-over. The worker may be dismissed on the first significant failure. If you routinely fail classes, you may be kicked out of the university, but still have a shot at getting readmitted on a conditional basis and redeeming yourself. Consistent failure at work is likely to result in termination - the company is almost certain not to rehire you and there is no "redemption." When taken to an extreme, someone who has repeatedly failed at college work could go to another university, register as someone who has never taken a class, and start over fresh essentially anonymous. It's difficult if not impossible to start over fresh if a person has had a very negative employment experience. Anything in the private sector, good or bad, can follow a person forever.
Most business professionals can give you at least a cursory overview of how college works because they've "been there, done that," but the reverse often isn't true. Many university faculty and staff have been career students, then educators, and have never worked outside the halls of educational institutions. Some of the most brilliant people I've known are college professors and are incredibly knowledgeable and successful in their fields, but they don't have enough common sense to balance their own budgets, wouldn't know how to approach a customer/client, and couldn't handle the set schedule of an employee. I'm of the opinion that most K-12 teachers, staff, and public school administrators are cut from the same cloth, but are less severe cases. Education is a tremendous bubble in this country that is effectively giving many adults something to do who otherwise couldn't or wouldn't be able to find a place in the private sector economy.
Short answer, no, college taught me nothing about the work world, and I don't see how it could have. The models exist in two separate, independent spheres.
There's no substitute for experience, but finding a good mentor can be a tremendous asset. If you're lucky enough to have a parent who's a Director, that's great. Otherwise, many schools have a mentoring program where they attempt to match industry veterans with students. You'd be surprised at how many successful people enjoy sharing their experiences and giving advice to people just starting out.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
