Our sales leader, Paul Moquist, is the best sales manager and trainer around. Over the years, I have seen him teach countless young people about sales. It is not uncommon for ex-employees to look him up years after working for him and relate their successes. He is like that the English Lit teacher you had in high school who had a lasting impact on you.
Anyway…he had an interesting topic yesterday in his daily training session. I will try to paraphrase it here because I think it is relevant to others, too.
In college, he said, you go there to learn lifetime type skills and knowledge that will make you a prepared, contributing citizen. Even so, most people graduate without a clear pathway to a job.
What you do learn in college are how to play video games, use Facebook, MySpace and InstantMessaging. I think it is fair to say that for a lot of college people today, these four things occupy a significant part of their activities. It is fun, it’s a way to maintain contacts with new and old friends…it’s entertainment, even. But it was learned at college, in large degree. Keep in mind, that you were paying for college.
So, now fast forward a few years. You are just getting started at work. Let’s say you are lucky to find a company with a good product line, and a training program for you. This company is now paying you to learn more about their version of ‘work.’ It’s not like college where you paid them, and you chose to practice your MySpace layout skills. This new company of yours is now paying you…and teaching you how to do better work, with the end goal, of course, to make you a contributing employee.
But you learned these other skills in your recent past–the myspaceinstantmessagingheydudemyturnathalo-type skills. And it is awfully hard to break these habits.
Just try to remember that these are not work skills. Your mastery of them won’t help you much later. Think about the other things you could be learning and try to stop the addiction while there is still time. Tivo ahead to when you are forty years old, do you want to be a master at MySpace and have more friends than even Tom…or do you want to have some other skills too?
Words to ponder. By the way, we are hiring sales people every month. Tell your friends.
Namaste.
4 users commented in " Why What You Learned in College Doesn’t Work Well @ Work. Or, Why MySpace is Not a Work Skill "
You mean I have to give up my “reading the WWDS blog” habit? Bummer…
No…reading this blog, is the way to fame and riches.
This is so true and I wish I had that advice when I graduated college way back in 1988. I did however learn early on, through my friend Peggy, that when you take a job, you sign-up to work your boss’ program not your own. You don’t get to set departmental or company direction, you’re not making strategy decisions. You are hired to do the work. I know this is really hard for our new Gen Y’ers in the office.
Someday, you’ll be the boss. And then you can determine the program. But, until then, you were hired and are paid to work your boss’ program.
[...] back to work you little whippersnappers.” Or something like that…Then I read that MySpace is not a job skill. [...]
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