When I was in university, I realized just how quickly you can be swept up into the negativity of those surrounding me. Hundreds of students that I sat with throughout the various lectures and group projects at my university all complained about the same thing.
“Why am I here? What am I learning from this?”
I couldn’t disagree with them. The course material rarely offered me anything that I didn’t already know. I learned more from classes outside of my program than I did from those within it. The information given to us was outdated or given without explanation of why it was important to us and we were often treated like children.
Worst of all, most of the information I already knew.
Teachers complained about the boredom and disinterest of students, but students had started to become hyper aware of the fact that all attending university would be good for was receiving a piece of paper.
I say this, not in regret of my college education, but to offer insight into what I didn’t learn from college and what I did.
What I didn’t learn in college
1.) A realistic look into my future career
For someone within the marketing program at an acclaimed business school, I was utterly shocked by just how many marketing students were unaware of what marketing was.
I counted myself lucky–I had been among them for years, falsely believing that the world of marketing was more akin to the world of advertising. However, due to my loud, open, and transparent nature, I talked about my fascination with “marketing” enough that someone was kind enough to pull me aside before I entered the program to let me know exactly what I would be getting myself into.
In many of my classes, there would be quiz questions related to marketing. One of the top most failed questions was, “What is marketing?”
Even the further along we progressed through the program, we were never given any concrete information about what exactly we could expect from a career in marketing.
2.) How to build and develop connections
Something I’ve heard the most during the argument for traditional higher education is that you need to go to college in order to form valuable, lifelong connections. Perhaps I disagree due to the fact that I grew up in a homeschooled environment and somehow didn’t become a social pariah, but I didn’t find myself leaving college more or less endowed with connections.
While I met a few people that I genuinely liked and would love to work with again in the future, the majority of my connections came from outside of the university. I created connections through my workplace, through strangers I talked to in line at Barnes & Noble, and through the people I met by learning out loud, putting my own content on the internet.
In class projects, I didn’t turn to other students at the university. When one of my projects required graphic design work done and none of us had experience in the field, I had more than one contact outside the university that I was able to contact for assistance.
While I believe it’s possible to make connections in university, it’s not at all in the way that it is marketed to be. It’s very much a personal decision that you have to strive to maintain–whether inside or outside of the classroom.
3.) Up to date industry knowledge
It goes without saying that by the time textbooks and class materials come out, they’re already outdated. While this has always been true to some extent, the reality of the situation has never been more true than it is today.
We’re in a fast-paced digital age where new information and ideas move and transform at a much quicker rate than we can consume and comprehend it. With marketplace disruption happening before our eyes at an ever increasing speed, it seems foolish for universities to promise the transfer of any information that could be considered current.
I found this to be true in most cases. By the time I was being taught about something, there was something new and shinier out there to replace it.
4.) Technical training on software
Considering that marketing is an industry with its foot in so many programs and software, you would assume that college would provide practical training on those systems.
At least in my program, these applications were not touched once. Sometimes we’d get a glancing overview of Excel or would be recommended to do Google Analytics certification on our own. In my social media class, where you would assume we would be trained on digital media best practices, we spent 16 weeks covering how to create a Facebook page.
I didn’t receive any training on the various programs I was going to he expected to use unless I decided to do it myself. Many more programs weren’t even revealed to me as possible expectations until I sought out an internship and had to learn new applications on the fly.
5.) How to get a job
If college is supposed to prepare you for a career, they don’t do a good job of it. The assistance provided was mediocre at best, with every student leaving university with near identical resumes and portfolios. Many of my classmates left unsure of where to go next, how to write a cover letter, or how to set themselves apart from the rest of the graduates in their class.
While the university offered interview training and resume reviews, there was no concrete lesson or advice given on how to market yourself in the increasingly competitive job market. Many students I’ve met were blindsided by this realization as they left university, still stuck in their part time retail or service jobs.
6.) How to offer value to my employer
College teaches a mentality of checking all the right boxes (literally, on multiple choice examinations) and breezing through your college career. In the real world, this amounts to individuals who know how to complete the bare minimum to “succeed” and nothing more.
Any warm body can be set at a desk and hold to check boxes all day.
College doesn’t teach students how to excel and go beyond. There’s no drive to complete more than what is expected and to effectively grow.
In fact, I’m not sure that many students know how to think beyond the boxes that they need to check off simply because traditional education has shaped us to think about ourselves and what we need to do to “pass.”
Mediocrity isn’t akin to success.
The mindset needs to shift–value doesn’t come from what boxes you check for yourself. Value comes down to what you can offer someone else.
That someone else mentality isn’t something that you’re going to find in a traditional college course.
So what did I learn in college?
So much of this article has been negative, but through the negatives I looked for ways to find a positive.
What I learned from college, based on what I didn’t learn, was this:
You’re the captain of your own education. If you want to learn, whether in college or not, you have to seek it out yourself.
I had to seek out mentorship from professors on my own, I had to make valuable connections on my own, and I had to train myself on what I needed to know on my own. If I wanted to grow, I had to seek out opportunities for growth on my own. If I had questions, I had to ask.
I think the worst thing you could do in college is just follow the program.
If you want to make a difference, learn how to find a job, and how to succeed in it, you need to begin immediately. Whether you’re in college or not, what can you do now to get you one step closer to where you want to be in the future?
College didn’t teach me anything that I expected to learn, but it solidified my drive to independently grow and learn. I have no regrets in that.
What are your thoughts about college? Were your experiences the same or different? Let me know in the comments below!
