REBOOT YOUR EDUCATION PERCEPTION

Culled from Forbes

In the 70’s and 80’s, nearly every college degree guaranteed a good paying job, and just twenty years ago, 87% of graduates with a BA had a job within a year after graduation and only 4.4% of these graduates were unemployed (this is why your parents have likely preached in favor of college throughout your life). Unfortunately, times have changed, and over 11% of last year’s graduates are still looking for employment. It doesn’t help that more students are graduating from college than ever before. The Pew Research Center finds that one-third of 25 to 29-year-olds in the United States have earned at least a bachelor’s degree — a number that has increased significantly from the one-fifth of young adults earning Bachelor’s degrees in the 1970’s. You’re going to graduate with a record number of other people just like you, and those “good-paying” middle class jobs are disappearing fast, so it is critical that you find ways to set yourself apart and get more value out of your education. Ultimately, the question is not, “Is an undergraduate degree worth it?”, but rather, “How are you going to be more entrepreneurial about your education?”

If you’re about to enter college for the first time, it’s worth reminding yourself that what you’re really getting is “a piece of parchment paper with proper hand written calligraphy on it, that you’re paying full retail for” — to quote my friend Marc Ecko.  The positive side is that college provides a time in your life when you might have very few fiscal or other ‘adult’ responsibilities yet, and more importantly, you’ve been given a concentrated environment of resources to take advantage of.

I have two challenges to all incoming and current undergraduate students. If done right, I guarantee these will land you a decent job when you graduate, and more importantly, separate you from the thousands of other graduating students competing for the same jobs and opportunities with nothing more than the same piece of parchment paper you have.

Less class, more coffee.

During your college career, buy coffee for at least one person a week that you want to get to know and could learn from. This is the start of one of the most important things in life that college does not teach well — investing in your network. This may make you uncomfortable or intimidate you, but that is good; you are one step ahead of your fellow students learning a skill that will be valuable for your future.

I guarantee you will learn more from these hundreds of people and have more opportunities come from these conversations than sitting in a lecture hall listening to a curriculum developed 15 years ago.  Not to mention, building a large network of people who trust you and think you’re talented will be invaluable when you look for jobs.

Create your own internships and opportunities.

Put yourself in the shoes of the people who will potentially be hiring you after you graduate. Do you think they honestly care that you had a 4.0 and had a perfect attendance in class? Most of them certainly do not. The truth is, only your mom cares about that.  Employers care about cultural fit, your life experiences, and if you’re trainable (no one wants to babysit). While in college, you should focus on getting as much experience as you can.  This could be an Internship, working for a startup, or starting your own company — if these seem too lofty, start by putting yourself out in the local community — not just the constructed college campus environment — and start meeting people.

Most students will only get an internship if it is required and the ones that do get them will all compete after the same advertised positions. Ultimately, most of the internships are not that valuable. In many cases, you will be fetching coffee for people for three months just to add a few extra lines to your resume. But what if you could create your dream internship?

At Startup Weekend, we don’t have a formal internship program and we have never posted an internship position, but for some reason we always have at least one college kid in our office helping with projects. Where did these kids come from? These students created their own internship.  They knew they wanted to work with us and they knew it would be a great opportunity.  We said no, but they didn’t take no for an answer and convinced us why we needed to have them around.  This is the type of hustle that you will not learn in college, but will ultimately get you a better job than your fellow graduates.

If these reminders seem obvious, try doing a web search with the terms “Generation Y” and “Entitlement” — it seems that our future workforce could use this advice before graduating and finding a disappointing version of their often-grandiose expectations. The bottom line is, entrepreneur or not, you should be more entrepreneurial about your education.  If you, your parents, or anyone else is going to pay for an investment that significant, you would be foolish to only play by the rules. Think outside the box and get innovative about your education and experiences — you’ll find out fast that taking action and getting unique perspectives will render the best “life resume” possible. It’s up to you to claim your education — no one else is going to do it for you.