Ten Things to Learn This School Year

I’m on the campus of UCSB this week at family camp, and it's inspired me to blog about what students should learn in order to prepare for the real world after graduation. This is an opportune time to broach this subject because the school year is about to begin, and careers can still be affected.

First, take this little test about the state of your understanding of the real world right after you graduated from school.

Compare your answers to what you learned after a few years in the workforce. It seems to me that schools often teach the opposite of what's necessary for the real world. Perhaps in school people have plenty of time and no money, so long papers, emails, and presentations are not a problem. However, people in the real world have plenty of money (or at least more money) and no time. This is a list of what I wished I learned in school before I graduated.

1. How to talk to your boss. In college, you’re supposed to bring problems to your teachers during office hours, and you share the experience of coming up with a solution. In the real world, you’re supposed to bring solutions to your boss in an email, in the hall, or in a five-minute conversation. Typically, your boss either already knows about the problem or doesn’t want to know about it. Your role is to provide answers, not questions. Believe it or not, but in the real world, those who can do, do. Those who can’t do, share with others who can’t do.

2. How to survive a meeting that’s poorly run. Unfortunately, it could be a while before you run meetings. Until then, you’ll be a hapless victim of them, so adopt these three practices to survive. First, assume that most of what you’ll hear is pure, petty, ass-covering bull shiitake, and it’s part of the game. This will prevent you from going crazy. Second, focus on what you want to accomplish in the meeting and ignore everything else. Once you get what you want, take yourself “out of your body,” sit back, and enjoy the show. Third, vow to yourself that someday you’ll start a company, and your meetings won’t work like this.

3. How to run a meeting. Hopefully, you’ll be running meetings soon. Then you need to understand that the primary purpose of a business meeting is to make a decision. It is not to share experiences or feel warm and fuzzy. With that in mind, here are five key points to learn about running a meeting: (1) Start on time even if everyone isn’t there because they will be next time; (2) Invite the fewest people possible to the meeting; (3) Set an agenda for exactly what’s going to happen at the meeting; (4) End on time so that everyone focuses on the pertinent issues; (5) Send an email to all participants that confirms decisions reviews action items. There are more power tips for running good meetings, but if you do these five, you’re ahead of 90% of the world.

4. How to figure out anything on your own. Armed with Google, PDFs of manuals, and self-reliance, force yourself to learn how to figure out just about anything on your own. There are no office hours, no teaching assistants, and study groups in the real world. Actually, the real world is one long, often lonely independent study, so get with it. Here’s a question to test your research prowess. How do you update the calendar in a Motorola Q phone with appointments stored in Now-Up-To-Date? (I’ll send a copy of The Art of the Start to the first person with a good answer.)

5. How to negotiate. Don’t believe what you see in reality television shows about negotiation and teamwork. They’re all bull shiitake. The only method that works in the real world involves five steps: (1) Prepare for the negotiation by knowing your facts; (2) Figure out what you really want; (3) Figure out what you don’t care about; (4) Figure out what the other party really wants (per Kai); and (5) Create a win-win outcome to ensure that everyone is happy. You’ll be a negotiating maven if you do this.

6. How to have a conversation. Generally, “Whassup?” doesn’t work in the real world. Generally, “What do you do?” unleashes a response that leads to a good conversation (hence the recommendation below). Generally, if you listen more than you talk, you will (ironically) be considered not only a good conversationalist but also smart. Yes, life is mysterious sometimes.

7. How to explain something in thirty seconds. Unfortunately, many schools don’t have elevators or else students would know how to explain things in a thirty-second elevator pitch. Think mantra (three words), not mission statements (sixty words). Think time, not money, is the most important commodity. Think ahead, not on your feet. At the end of your thirty-second spiel, there should be an obvious answer to the question, “ So what?” If you can’t explain enough in thirty seconds to incite interest, you’re going to have a long, boring career.

8. How to write a one-page report. I remember struggling to meet the minimum page requirements of reports in college. Double spacing and 14 point Selectric typewriter balls saved me. Then I went out into the real world, and encountered bosses who wanted a one-page report. What the heck??? The best reports in the real world are one page or less. (The same thing is true of resumes, but that’s another, more controversial topic for unemployed people who want to list all the .Net classes that they took.)

9. How to write a five-sentence email. Young people have an advantage over older people in this area because older people (like me) were taught to write letters that were printed on paper, signed, stuck in an envelope, and mailed. Writing a short email was a new experience for them. Young people, by contrast are used to IMing and chatting. If anything, they’re too skilled on brevity, but it’s easier to teach someone how to write a long message than a short one. Whether UR young or old, the point is that the optimal length of an email message is five sentences. All you should do is explain who you are, what you want, why you should get it, and when you need it by.

10. How to get along with co-workers. Success in school is mostly determined by individual accomplishments: grades, test scores, projects, whatever. Few activities are group efforts. Then you go out in the real world the higher you rise in an organization, the less important your individual accomplishments are. What becomes more and more important is the ability to work with/through/besides and sometimes around others. The most important lesson to learn: Share the credit with others because a rising tide floats all boats.

    What about freeloaders? (Those scum of the earth that don’t do anything for the group.) In school you can let them know how you truly feel. You can’t in the real world because bozos have a way of rising to the top of many organizations, and bozos seek revenge. The best solution is to bite your tongue, tolerate them, and try to never have them on the team again, but there’s little upside in criticizing them.

11. How to use PowerPoint. I’ve seen the PowerPoint slides of professors—it’s no wonder that most people can’t use PowerPoint to sell hybrid cars when gas is $10/gallon. Maybe professors are thinking: “This is a one-hour class, I can cover one slide per minute, so I need sixty slides. Oh, and I’ve written all this text already in my textbook, so I’ll just copy and paste my twelve-point manuscript into the presentation.” Perhaps the tenure system causes this kind of problem. In the real world, this is no tenure so you need to limit yourself to ten slides, twenty minutes, and a thirty-point font—assuming that you want to get what you want.

12. How to leave a voicemail. Very few people of any age leave good voicemails. The purpose of a voicemail is to make progress towards along a continuum whose end is getting what you want. A long voicemail isn’t going to zip you along to the end point of this decision. A good model is to think of a voicemail as an oral version of a compelling five-sentence email; the optimal length of a voicemail is fifteen seconds.

    Two power tips: First, slowly say your telephone number once at the beginning of your message and again at the end. You don’t want to make people playback your message to get your phone number, and if either of you are using Cingular, you may not hear all the digits. Second (and this applies to email too), always make progress. Never leave a voicemail or send an email that says, “Call me back, and I’ll tell you what time we can meet.” Just say, “Tuesday, 10:00 am, at your office.”

One last thing: the purpose of going to school is not to prepare for working but to prepare for living. Working is a part of living, and it requires these kinds of skills no matter what career you pursue. However, there is much more to life than work, so study what you love.

---

Comments

[Shauna]

It sounds like you've got a lot going on. There's nothing worse than the 2 hour powerpoint... blahhhh...

I’m currently working on post-grad debt, so perhaps my blog would be of interest to you.

My “adventures,” here: http://shauna26.wordpress.com/

[Jonathan]

In general I agree with what you say, however a slight terminology dispute, education is education and industry is industry. The 'real world' really is neither one thing or the other, it all depends on what you do as to what you call 'real'. At the end of the day you just have to adapt to survive the best in whichever situation you find yourself.

[MikeC]

How do you update the calendar in a Motorola Q phone with appointments stored in Now-Up-To-Date?

Print out the N-U-T-D appts out, tape them to the Q, and someday, the NUTD appts run out.

[Carey]

As a non-college based, on-the-job trained professional with a couple of decades of experience it was refreshing to see what is really done, or expected. The whole cel phone/texting/(remember pagers) -even E mail, has been a waste of time and I got rid of all of them except a real phone and this laptop.
The rest of the original message is exceptionally written and helpful. But students have never shown me anything I could use while on the job, yet. Resumes don't work either, anymore. You give a kid a MAC book and they have no way of knowing how to use it to make a living, for instance. The part about co-workers is, sadly, true. A lot of the statements are true, sadly, especially about surviving. Or else you have to isolate yourself completely far enough away on a separate island so they can't try to vote you off. I actually recommend this to anyone who is smart enough to do, and enjoy it.

[Charles Martin]

Under "Getting along with your Co-workers", there is one other key thing I've learned through experience and it is this:

Do not allow any individual (co-worker, boss, underling) to influence your opinion of someone else. Permit your own interactions to decide how to classify that person.

You'll be amazed at how many good relationships you can have with co-workers because you didn't listen to the bitter old guy who hates everyone who is younger than him in a position over him. Sometimes I find myself in a positive relationship with two people who hate each other's guts. Neither one will change my opinion of the other, though I really want to bang their heads together sometimes. :)

[Tim]

Sounds like you want to create a society of antisocial hardheaded ballbreakers. Terrible posting. Work should be fun.

[Roy Atkinson]

Guy wrote: "...the primary purpose of a business meeting is to make a decision."

Maybe not so much. The primary purpose of a meeting is to present information about a decision (already made or to be made) or a problem. Decisions are usually reached elsewhere.

[Myke]

Guy,

I was just introduced to you today by a colleague who sent me a link to a video where you were talking to a group of students about the mantra V. mission statement thing. That was great stuff. Then in one of my RSS feeds someone referenced this. I love your common sense approach and only wish more people thought like you. Then maybe one day we wouldn't have to worry about the second part of # Ten.

-myke

[Richard]

Paul -- Really, just select the text and then choose to print the selection in your browsers' print menu. Guy - Sorry I have nothing better to do but respond to Paul, but I did greatly enjoy the post. Insightful.

[Paul]

Great article, thanks. But try printing it (please do!) without getting a pile of paper full of trackbacks and comments. Seriously, I tried to work the source of the page to get just a simple page with the essence of the article. No way, it's a huge complicated mess. As you rightly write, it's an art to boil things down to their essence. Give me a link to a printable page and I'm happy. Simplicity rules.

[Kyle]

I learned to count to twelve in school. :)

[bd]

Here's the link to the Fast Company article:
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/111/open_no-satisfaction.html
He was steeped in the American business culture of not admitting, or even discussing, problems in settings like meetings.
......
"And Mr. Cho kind of looked at me. I could see he was puzzled. He said, 'Jim-san. We all know you are a good manager, otherwise we would not have hired you. But please talk to us about your problems so we can all work on them together.'"

Wiseman says it was like a lightning bolt. "Even with projects that had been a general success, we would ask, 'What didn't go well so we can make it better?'" At Toyota, Wiseman says, "I have come to understand what they mean when I hear the phrase, 'Problems first.'"

It's another cliché that is powerful if you take it seriously: You can't solve problems unless you admit them. At Toyota, there is a presumption of imperfection. Perfection is a fine goal, but improvement is much more realistic, much more human. Not a 15% improvement by the end of the quarter, a 1% improvement by the end of the month.

[jafi]

WRT to number 1 about bring solutions not problems.

That's typically how business works. But it's not necessarily good. Many problems are complex and resistant to a single individual being able to identify/implement a full solution.

Toyota interestingly does not operate that way.
They want you to bring problems you don't know how to solve to a group setting. Solutions often come from unexpected sources. Unanticipated linkages and connections are identified. I believe there was an article in Fast Company about Toyota's use of this approach.

Toyota has been extremely successful using this philosophy. But then again they don't appear operate on the assumption that the function of the worker is to make the bosses life easier.

[Eliot Dill]

Great Post! Being a year and a half out of college, I believe that schools really should teach these skills as a senior level class.

Eliot Dill
http://selfmade.eliotdill.com/what-to-learn-this-school-year-to-prepare-for-business/

[Fabiola]

Can someone explain to me what exactly does "no matter what accomplishment you make,somebody help you"mean?

[Therese]

Ahhh...Thanks for this. Fog is clearing, anxiety is subsiding. So...I'm not the only one.

[Michael]

Your post was dead on. As someone that has focused on helping others in this transition between school and the real world, Creating the Graduate Survival Guide (complimentary copies at http://www.gradsurvival.biz/get_book.php) and GradSurvival.com, I thought your post was helpful for every new businessperson.

[Elise]

Hi Guy,

I had to laugh when I read your poll. When I entered the workforce there was no such thing as email or PowerPoint, and we were all still using typewriters. It was 1983 and there were a few Apple IIs around the office for crunching numbers with Visicalc.

Anyway, great list. BTW, Tina Seelig, the Exec Director for the Stanford Technology Ventures Program, gave a great talk recently on a similar subject - "What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20. I've posted the audio and write-up here. I think you would find it apropos.

[emcee]

Great blog Guy. I have just "retired" from the corporate world to pursue my creative dreams and was having flash backs galore while reading this. Excellent stuff!!

To add to Jeremy Frains comments:
Those who can't teach or consult, critique.

Cheers.
I'll be coming back here.

[Stephen Downes]

I didn't like the article a whole lot, mostly because I didn't think these ten things were of particular value.

On the other hand, the article was worthwhile to me, because it did prompt me to think about what I thought was important to learn, and was not being taught in schools.

You may be interested in this list and discussion, which is available here: http://halfanhour.blogspot.com/2006/08/things-you-really-need-to-learn.html

-- Stephen

[Dena]

I loved this post Guy.
I spent 25 years in the real world of software marketing and I attended so many meetings that weren't run properly. I listened to so many run-on voicemails and read so many long documents. I also worked with/for some yucky people and it was very hard for me not to "tell it like it is". I left a job once after 12 years because I couldn't have a converstion with my new manager. I would be talking about sales and he would be talking about Deepak Choupra. I kept wondering - am I the only sane one and is every one else crazy? The answer was "yes", by the way. Eventually, after I quit they saw that they were going nowhere with this guy as the CEO! Too late for me though...
Happily, I am out of the corporate jungle and happily ensconced in my home with my laptop, doing a different kind of marketing today...
Zei Gezundt
Dena
http://beginners-make-money-on-internet.blogspot.com/

[Leslie Madsen-Brooks]

Re: Academia vs. "the real world"

Academics do live in "the real world." I get paid real money to teach real people real concepts. And yes, I have used my real education to work in business and nonprofits, as well as academia.

To commenters slinging around the term "real world": please don't dismiss my work as somehow less than "real."

[Michael Werner]

Love this post, Guy.

Do I smell another book coming, sir? If not, you oughta think about one. Expand the list to 77 things we oughta be taught, and there you go.
Happy to give you a few extras to add to the list if you like.

Going to talk about this post in an upcoming post at http://www.DreamJobsDialog.com.

Regards,

Michael

PS Was really surprised to see some of the "hate mail" you got on this topic. Not sure I see why/where it was coming from. You do great work; stay the course.

[Alex]

Now up-to-date to Motorola Q

PocketMac's site says Windows Mobile 5 (OS of Motorola Q) will be supported soon.

An already available solution (as of 27 July) is markspace.com Missing Sync for Windows Mobile, v2.5.1 :

http://www.markspace.com/missingsync_windowsmobile.php

There is a specific limitation for Motorola Q (check the supported devices list) if you want to connect via bluetooth, but USB should work just fine.

Alex

[jlambie]

The 11th and 12th are bonus points and are there for those who may think the first 10 points have a point or two not so much useful - then the last 2 points will make up to make the title; and they are there to differentiate those who have potentials to be auditors.

I think some points are valid and some are only applicable depending on your environment.

[duh]

Um, how about math skills and/or having the body of your writing match the title....Top 10 things.....yet there are 12....hhmmmmmmm.....

[Someone Who Knows How To Count]

Dear Mr.Kawasaki,

The one thing you need to learn about "the real world" this year is how to count. The last time I checked, 10 does not equal 12. I highly suggest you take my course, or buy my book, The Art of Counting Like a Pre-schooler. Your boss will even be impressed!

[Kempton]

Hi Guy,

The first little test thing didn't work for me (I was bored) but I was quite happy when I skipped ahead by chance to read your list. Very insightful as usual and I've blogged about it on my own blog.

Cheers,
Kempton
------
P.S. Does prizes always work to attract more comments/emails? Hmm, I am not a book author but may be I can try a cheap version of gift of some sort. I notice the only post that has more comments "currently" on the front "page" of your blog is 73 comments for the Aug 14 entry about "Getting a Job in Silicon Valley".
------
P.P.S. Shameless plug:
My most highly anticipated CBC show is coming up soon,
http://insidethedragonsden.com/

[Chris G]

Guy - thanks for the comments back. You seem like a pretty cool guy! :)

[Allison]

I wish my boss would read this blog. She just did a ppt presentation for her boss on my project. I had 10 slides with 30 point font. It was easy and presented the information a VP needs on a low level project (I am a contractor). She inflated it, with screen shots and more text, to 35 slides.

Love the blog and I read it everyday.

[Cedric]

Hey Guy,
thanks for the advices. I will soon graduate so I will keep it in mind...
The ones that I find the more complicated: 1,2,3,5,7,8,10. Particularly how to explain something in 30seconds

[Timothy Coote]

Any blog posts crticizing education systems always bring in howls of protest, especially when using the term 'the real world'. Academia won't accept the fact that after they have sold the piece of paper saying a person has studied at their institution no one gives a shiitake (sorry Guy couldn't resist). If you have an engineering degree and come out of uni and are looking for a job you are not a qualified engineer, you are unemployed. This is the beginning of your professional life and not the end - welcome to the real world.

[Chris G]

One other point:

Universities and colleges in general are terrifically inefficient institutions that may do something inane like hand out a $50K grant to a grad student to study the frequency of the 'click' that a Click Beetle makes and then all sit and discuss the findings for a solid year. Crazy stuff they sponsor.

They aren't meant to be what the 'real world' (i.e., the American profit-based world) is, are they? But if they were, would the world really be a better place?

Are college's meant to require graduates to take courses on how to write brief emails and how to leave short phone messages? If the college you, Mr. Kawasaki attended had drilled into you your top-12 list here and focused more on teaching 'real world' realities, how much MORE money would you have earned in your career?

That's really the point you're trying to make, isn't it?

**********

Chris,

I have been having trouble with my blogging software. Perhaps the last paragraph of this posting did not appear in your browser or RSS feed:

One last thing: the purpose of going to school is not to prepare for working but to prepare for living. Working is a part of living, and it requires these kinds of skills no matter what career you pursue. However, there is much more to life than work, so study what you love.

Guy

[Leslie Madsen-Brooks]

Three things:

1. Please don't discourage students from coming to my office hours. It's in that one-on-one time that many of them learn how to write well--specifically how to make an argument and defend it.

2. As a teaching tool, text-based PowerPoint presentations suck. Period. I reserve Keynote only for showing images to my students. Students should know how to take notes on their own--providing a digest only makes them write down those points instead of really listening to and participating in class conversations.

3. I have to agree with Paul on his point about technical schools' goals vs. the liberal arts mission. Four-year college students should be learning to think critically, not how to make an ideal PowerPoint presentation. (And yes, I do realize that creating a fabulous PowerPoint presentation can be a sign that one is, indeed, a critical thinker.)

[Chris G]

Guy,

"Ego check on aisle 6, ego check on aisle 6"

I really think you should start work on your music CD Mr. Kawasaki. After all, you've mastered the rest of life, haven't you? Eddie Murphy and Bruce Willis both have music CD's ... seems like a natural step for somebody as gifted as yourself.

Can everything in the world really be done better simply by squeezing it down? Resumes? Email? Phone mail? Reports? Meetings? You sound like you're the king of efficiency. Very impressive. I'm sure you've made piles of dough from it.

What life IS about is the conversation one engages in during a meeting about a co-worker's cancerous grandmother, witnessing the nasty repartee between people who don't like each other in meetings and over email, the pre-meeting jokes that are only funny because they're not at all funny, the 49-slide PPT presentation in 8pt font a VP pulls out, the chuckles you send back and forth on your Berry during a meeting where your boss blabbers on for a few hours, watching the guy who is guaranteed to fall asleep during a meeting, etc.

Contrary to what you preach, life isn't about making more and more money by trying to aim for nothing less than 99.999% personal efficiency and productivity, Guy. Life is about all the stuff AROUND the really efficient bits.

******************

Chris,

Blogging, by definition, requires a degree of ego mania. What can I say? Luckily, it is very easy to not read anyone's blog. :-)

If everyone were more efficient in their email, PPT, and meetings, then we would all have more time for life, Chris.

Guy

[Z Houle]

Good post, but 1) is a little misleading. If you bring too many solutions to a hyper-competitive boss, particularly in a pseudo gov't org where it's hard to fire people, you risk making her feel that much more inadequate and, thus, much more open to tearing you a new one whenever and however -- in public or not. And, thus, making life difficult for yourself (ie. making one more angry and miserable) and the significant other you go home to.

Having a brain scares the sh_t out of people, I find, generally, too. Personally, I've just learned that the key to success in business is just hiding the fact that you have a brain and just holding your nose. Passion may count for something, too, but being passionate about something doesn't really matter when nobody else gives a crap about it. I learned this the hard way, and, man, being in debt just sucks.

[astephens]

As a high school teacher, I appreciate your post. I wish more people outside of education would reflect upon the skills students actually need to know to be successful after graduation. Maybe if more people took an interest we could move passed standardized testing to skills that actually matter.

Feel free to read my top ten list...
http://musingsfromtheacademy.wordpress.com/2006/08/23/ten-things-high-school-graduates-need-to-know/

[Karn Griffen]

Guy,

Great post. I also though Intel-based computers were superior at that time too, until my boss gave me a Mac Mini for my birthday. Now I'm hooked!

Thanks,
Karn

[one9]

Once again, great post, Guy.
Although, I feel that the most important lesson is what you said at the end: "so study what you love". To take it a step further and say (not to sound too cliche) but pursue the type of work that you love to do and the $$ will follow.

Btw, just saw your vid "Art of Start". It brought back bad memories..I had a interview at google in 2002 that I (ignorantly) rejected becuz, at the time , I didn't want to commute from SF, and thought it was just going to be another dot.bomb startup :( I'm sure that can be another lesson you won't learn in school. :)

Anyway, great presentation, thanks for putting it out there!

[James Omdahl]

Thanks for the spot-on post Guy.

My worst classes in college were “Business Writing” classes. I remember trying to explain to my professors that writing emails that are a page long in the name of “correctness” wasn’t going to cut it in the real world. They just didn’t seem to get it.

There is something to be said for having some real world experience before you start teaching college kids what is and is not correct in the business world…sadly my biz writing professors had none.

A question for you about PowerPoint Guy – I am presenting at a conference next month and talking about business blogging. I am putting together a PowerPoint with a lot of images (not words or bullet points) that illustrate my points – there are going to be a lot of slides. Do you think I am shooting myself in the foot or can that type of PowerPoint presentation work?

Thanks for your input.

*************

James,

I think you should go with the PPT as you described. If nothing else, it will be so different from anything else that you'll shine.

Look at this as an example:

http://www.identity20.com/media/OSCON2005/

Guy

[Igor M. (BizMord Marketing Blog)]

Excellent post. I especially liked the coworkers who like to take credit for things they didn't do and the meeting stuff. I see this happen every day.

I'll be sure to Digg this post.

[Stevan]

On running meetings - it is often a good idea to be very specific about the kind of meeting, whether it be a) decision making, b) informational, c) input, d) brainstorming, and maybe there's another category, seems to me I once thought there were five types.

Making sure people know the type of meeting sets expectations and avoids wrong expectations.

[Katrina]

5 points, followed by 5 (stretched out) sentences:

1. Don't attack the person or their current situation (which you know nothing about), that's a political ploy to defend one's ideas, and I know that you dislike politics.
2. I have over 20 years experience in many jobs in many countries, don't assume that I'm just complaining about my current job.
3. I know it's not the 10 commandments, but I think you're not adressing the underlying problems that cause the situations you so eloquently describe.
4. People are versatile human beings and social creatures, you can't change that; they're not machines who work efficiently all day long on one task - despite the wishes of upper management.
5. Negotiation and communication with colleagues are not the tools that grease the wheels of corporations - knowing the right people, doing borderline illegal things, and sucking up are what get you to the top.

The real world is an unjust, unfair, difficult, corrupt, and harsh set of affairs. All the little tips you provide will do nothing more than improve your efficiency at secretarial-type work, and perhaps give you a little more time to write one more piece of code that will become obsolete in 5-10 years. And then your company will lay you off because of "economic conditions" caused by the manipulations and corruption of the government and the federal reserve. Then, when you or your family get sick, you can enjoy the fun of trying to get medical help and finding out who your true friends are. Hopefully, it won't be too long before you find another job in another town and sell your old house for a loss and take on a huge commute just to get to work - and your benefits will kick in once you've been there 12 months (excl. prior conditions).

Kat.

[cubedweller]

Thoughtful and funny write up overall.

As for the comments posted by Kat.....I would not want to work for her at all. It would be exactly her views and attitude that would demoralize and demotivate her direct reports. In essence a self fulfilling prophecy.

Not looking to start a 'flame' war, but I intend to follow this blog from now on.

Nice job Guy.

[Carlos Lone]

Guy,

Great post !!!!. It's so true all the things you have written. Many times colleges and universities focus just in education and pure theory. Real world is so mean, we need to get ready to survive on the battle field. And this is a very valuable toolkit that you have provided to us.

Regards from Guatemala!

[A]

I agree with most of what you said but don't think it's fair to put so much of the blame on professors. I've tried to teach many of these things to my students, and they resist them (perhaps because of what they've learned in other classes). There is always a maximum, not a minimum, length to the papers I assign, and the students complain and try to exceed the limit, because it's easier to turn out 20 pages of unorganized details than to think through what really matters.

And as far as whether you're supposed to bring your problems to your teacher during office hours, I've tried to convince my students to put some thought into it first, then come to me if they're stuck. This not only shows respect for my time, it's actually better for them in the long run. The idea is that they get practice figuring things out on their own, while they still have me as back-up to give hints when they're stuck.

But pushing students to think for themselves is risky. With such huge and growing emphasis on student evaluations, teaching has become a popularity contest - an assistant professor that focuses more on what's good for students than on what they enjoy may not get tenure.

Sorry to get off topic. This is a great list, and I especially like the part about making progress with each voice mail!

[Marilyn Scott-Waters]

Brilliant Guy! Throwing roses and chocolate kisses at your feet! I especially liked "Think mantra, not mission statement" It's hard to be simple.

More please!

Marilyn.

http://www.thetoymaker.com

[ajay]

Guy,
This is very interesting and I hope college students are reading this.
One more point -
Love what you do
OR - Do , what you love.
Many times we don't understand what we really love, and end up in doing what we don't love.And then frustation begins
becuse we are neither ready to love what we do and nor we can find what we love

[Gautam]

Great piece, Guy!

[Andy]

These are really useful. Thanks for sharing them.

By the way, I think many (although maybe not most!) professors know these things, but the rules of the university force them to do things differently. For example, "writing intensive" courses must require papers that are much longer than one page. More importantly, if profs don't give answers (but require students to come with them), if their powerpoint presentations aren't very detailed (but instead sketch the answer and require students to "fill in the blanks"), or if they require students to work in groups (where they can learn how to deal with people who freeload) - all of these things can get profs in trouble on their student evaluations. So they do what their incentives dictate.

[Richard Buchanan]

If you love your job you'll never have to work hard again. FACT

Great advice...

Rich

[Tom Hillard]

re: Katrina | August 22, 2006 at 02:11 PM

Kat, this isn't the 10 commandments of the real world. These are simple valuable devices that nine out of ten people never use.

I think communication, negotiation, and getting along with co-workers alone would do wonders for the problems you describe having to face.

Your frustration probably comes from being in a bad place and / or not knowing how to make your situation work for yourself and the people you work with.

If it is as bad as you make it sound, you should probably seek out another job. Being unhappy around unhappy is terribly bad for your health. No matter how hopeless the idea of finding another job seems its better then a self destructive environment.

Thanks,

Tom

(how was that for a 5 sentence message?)

[Pamela Slim]

Hi Guy:

I was going to go off on a long diatribe responding to all the very interesting comments. Especially Katrina's. Then I thought: 5 sentences. So here is the net result:

When you keep things short, to the point and efficient at work, you have more time for the REAL fun stuff: your actual job.

-Pam

P.S. You had me rolling on the floor with your answer to Mark.

[Sathya]

Guy,
I am learning .... everyday from ur Posts .Tx.
Good Work.

I neither have a mac not a motorola. But kind of intresting (after all that is the point here, figure out things on ur own :) Point 4 )

I know it is not just as simple as pointing u to a link - http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20060520194052128
But since I do not have either , I cannot try and confirm this would work on ur particular model (I did not put an effort to figure that ;-)). But I am sure U had searched and know the solution to it. Do u think what is mentioned in the and link would work.

[Randy Weber]

Tip 11.a. Leave out the sounds, animations, and transitions from your PowerPoint presentations. They are annoying, they waste your audience's time during the presentation, and they waste your time during the creation of the presentation.

-Randy

[laura allen]

Guy:
I agree, less is more in terms of elevator pitches. We took a page from Andy Warhol's book and decided to cut it down to 15 Seconds. Thanks for another great post.

[MikeP]

Guy, I know that the distinction between "real world" and academia is a common one, but at least some of us who straddle the line (I'm a professional working at a university) find it rather condescending, if not outright insulting "Here's a quarter kid, go get a real job." Not a single one of the sins you list is exclusive to academia. Maybe the world would be a better place if they were, but as I'm sure you can attest, they're not - and I'm positive not all bad habits were learned at university. You've done better.

[Murali]

Guy,

Great list of things every aspiring individual must learn. I would like to add, 'Experimentation' and 'Application'. One can learn 10 times more valuable lessons just by trying out. What is the best way to learn driving? By driving or by studying?

Murali

[eruntale]

Hi Guy, I'm currently studying Systems Engineering in a Peruvian university and you're right, college does not prepare us for life. My father once told me, though, that the best thing that college teaches us is to be able, like you mention, to figure out things on our own. We also learn from other people's mistakes, like some guys with a HUGE 60-slides presentation or these unsufferable and terribly organized conferences at university. Personally I've ran meetings and organized conferences and you learn so much more with them than in some of our actual clases. And win-win situations... most of us repeat this expression like a mantra, but don't know how to make it happen... All in all, your post is like a guide to prepare ourselves for the real world - and the real world is so not far away from me, I'm scared by the mere thought of it. Or perhaps not. Thank you and bye :D

[jt]

I realize that the Motorola Q prize has been won, even though the answer is wrong. The correct answer is:

Take your Moto Q out of your pocket and smash the POS into about 7 billion little pieces. Glue them all back together again, and then smash it again. Then, go out and buy a PFP (Plain Phone) and an iPod nano. Synch your Nano to Outlook and don't ever worry about another SMRTphone crashing, dropping calls, taking forever to boot again.

[monte]

I agree with most of what you say, I also agree to some extent with katrina's comments. I didn't have college, but learned from experience that your points are very valid in a large cooperation. The type of business you are in, the personal goals you set for yourself dictate how you handle these 12 points. I would have appreciated these in 1959 when I entered the workforce.

[Mike]

Guy,

There is some really good stuff here. There should be a new law about leaving your number twice on a voicemail SLOWLY.

There is a GREAT powerpoint essay in the middle of Seth Godin's 'Free Prize Inside.' The essay is called 'Really bad powerpoint and how to avoid it.' Google it.

[koick]

How about 'personal finance' or 'what it's like to live in another country'?

[Jeff]

I see that someone already won the book, but you might look into Clearsync. It allows you to sync your local info with a web page. You can access it via a program loaded on the handheld. It is designed for Palm and Windows Mobile PDA units. I used to support the previous version of the program for users when it was called WeSync. It also allows you to share calendars locally on the PC or on the web. The basic version is free and they have paid versions with more features. This would mean that you would need to use their app instead of the Q phone app for appointments. Link below

http://www.clearsync.com/home/

[Christopher Mahan]

Guy,

I think Kat dissed you better than the Yahoo lady.

And she's right too.

[Katrina]

Well, this is all good and dandy, but it doesn't deal with issues like how to manage other people. What do you do when you are stuck managing people who do as much as they have to do, and don't enjoy their work very much. I know the typical ill-thought out answer is "hire the right people" or "fire them". However, let's face it, most people don't want to work, and often we don't have the power to hire and fire. Most of us work for other idiots because we need money, not because we enjoy dragging ourselves out of bed and being criticised by the bozos. Which is why people say warm and fuzzy things and try to avoid blame, it's so they can keep their job and feed their family. I know, I know: "If they were good at their job, they wouldn't need to avoid blame or say warm and fuzzy things". I think most working people know that isn't true, politics is way more complicated than that. The ones who keep their jobs and rise to the top are the ones who suck up and brown-nose. They're not the ones who send short e-mails and leave concise voice mails.

I've found that unless you have motivated employees, all these tips are useless. And the key issue not addressed here is that it is tough out there to make a living, to save up, to look after your family, and find decent jobs. Writing shorter e-mails isn't going to change reality. When you're an employee, you're always someone else's slave, and that isn't motivating.

"Go start your own company then" would be the stock ill-thought out answer to my reply. Well, I have done, many times. It's hard, and it can take up to 20 attempts before you get the right business model. And it's expensive, which is one heck of a problem for 99% of us.

And let's not even get started on healthcare, benefits, working hours, vacation days, and staying alive when you're sick and alone and the insurance companies refuse to pay.

This article is nice and humorous, but doesn't even begin to address the realities of the working world. Perhaps you should rename your article "How to be a nice little automaton who thinks they are better than other people because they hold short meetings and leave clear voice mails".

Do I want employees like you describe? Hell yes. Much easier for me to deal with. Would I promote one of those employees? Probably not, I like what they're doing, and I don't want them doing anything else because they do what they do so well. Do I want to be one of those employees? No, it's depressing and rarely leads anywhere.

I haven't read your other blogs, but it looks like you're an entrepreneur, or you're writing for someone who is. So you probably know most of this stuff, and you probably know how to schmooze to get what you need.

Kat.

[Bill Cullifer]

Guy,

Spot on! I agree with everything you said. Well, almost.

A little background...we've met before. I started and now manage the World Organization of Webmasters (WOW) a not for profit professional association that provides Community, Education and Certification for Web professionals.

To that end, I've learned a great deal regarding the true disconnect between what we are teaching IT professionals and the real world. In short, your 99% correct with the things that you said with one exception.

My research reflects that it takes “60 seconds” to communicate your point not the “30 seconds” you’re recommending. Speaking of 60 seconds take a look at the WOW Technology Minute at www.wowtechminute.com

Lots of great stuff and all under one minute.

By the way, time my response. Its just under 60 seconds. :)

[Masha]

As a University student doing my first Co-op Work Term, I concur with point 7. Please, offer tips or suggest other material that offers tips on how to formulate coherent sentences from the whirlwind in our heads.

Thanks in advance.

Guy,

While I agree that all of those things are important to learn, I think that college is the wrong place to learn them.

One of the problems we have with "college education" is that they've become "technical schools". The ("original) idea of a university education is to (in order) 1) teach the cultural history (language, arts, history, the traditional "liberal arts" stuff) and then 2) learn how to learn, learn how to thi