The days of convocation are upon us, my own an unbelievable 7 years ago, and I thought I’d give an address to the graduates about some real world information I’ve gained since May 27, 1998.
What you’ve learned during your years in school is a lot less useful in your working life than how you learned it. Your skills in synthesizing information into readable bites is critical in the ‘real world’, not the details of those bites, or bytes, as the case may be. I have never once needed to know that women in Quebec got the vote in 1940 since graduating. I have, on the other hand, had to summarize all the reasons why an office renovation was rejected in the past into a neat list of why it should be done right now. And while we’re on that synthesizing part, while 25 pages is too little in university, more than 1 page is waaaaaaay to much at work. Be brief. Obviously this is a skill I continue to try to master.
Let me summarize what your position is and always will be: “Make boss look good.” There will be a lot of other words in your job description, but this is all that matters.
You will likely end up working in a cubicle. At least at the moment, the style for cubicles is somewhat larger than your average study carrel. This may seem fine at first, but….well, trust me, there’s a lot of politics involved. Your ability to study while listening to loud music will come in handy here, as you trained your mind to focus in the midst of sonic chaos.
Despite the ‘chilly climate’ accusations of many universities, they rank far ahead of the work environment on free speech issues. Work environments can be a bit cult-like in their striving towards 'a culture of excellence'. At first, you will be impressed by the number of motivational speakers you are subjected to, taking in all their advice. Then you will be disillusioned about how nothing ever changes. Then you’ll join the party anyway, because, hell why not, it’s sorta fun. This aspect of your working life isn’t really intrinsically bad or good. You’ll just find that, after awhile, it’s easier to be in a good mood about it and it makes your work experience better.
There really isn’t a lot of logic in work relationships. Or at least that’s the positive spin I like to put to it in order to not completely lose it. But the truth is, this is not such a bad thing. The day will come when you will be the boss and you’ll be better for it, having an exhaustive list of things you know for a fact that your employees will not appreciate. You can only do your best, but by having a great boss that you always get along with, you miss this lesson. However, knowing the value of this lesson does not increase your ability to handle it. You must have good friends that work elsewhere. Hang on to them for dear life to preserve your sanity. No matter how much politics you think you had to endure in school, it’s always much worse at work. At least at school you usually have a basis of rationality that everyone can agree on and those who don’t, for the most part, end up somewhere else.
Having said all that, there will come a time when you leave your first job, and you’ll wonder if it’s the right decision. You’ll wonder if, with all their faults, you’ll end up in a group of people you’ll like as much. There’s always a danger in leaping into the unknown. But the truth is, the only common denominator is you, and it’s you that decides what to make of the experience. Make it your best. You deserve it.
What you’ve learned during your years in school is a lot less useful in your working life than how you learned it. Your skills in synthesizing information into readable bites is critical in the ‘real world’, not the details of those bites, or bytes, as the case may be. I have never once needed to know that women in Quebec got the vote in 1940 since graduating. I have, on the other hand, had to summarize all the reasons why an office renovation was rejected in the past into a neat list of why it should be done right now. And while we’re on that synthesizing part, while 25 pages is too little in university, more than 1 page is waaaaaaay to much at work. Be brief. Obviously this is a skill I continue to try to master.
Let me summarize what your position is and always will be: “Make boss look good.” There will be a lot of other words in your job description, but this is all that matters.
You will likely end up working in a cubicle. At least at the moment, the style for cubicles is somewhat larger than your average study carrel. This may seem fine at first, but….well, trust me, there’s a lot of politics involved. Your ability to study while listening to loud music will come in handy here, as you trained your mind to focus in the midst of sonic chaos.
Despite the ‘chilly climate’ accusations of many universities, they rank far ahead of the work environment on free speech issues. Work environments can be a bit cult-like in their striving towards 'a culture of excellence'. At first, you will be impressed by the number of motivational speakers you are subjected to, taking in all their advice. Then you will be disillusioned about how nothing ever changes. Then you’ll join the party anyway, because, hell why not, it’s sorta fun. This aspect of your working life isn’t really intrinsically bad or good. You’ll just find that, after awhile, it’s easier to be in a good mood about it and it makes your work experience better.
There really isn’t a lot of logic in work relationships. Or at least that’s the positive spin I like to put to it in order to not completely lose it. But the truth is, this is not such a bad thing. The day will come when you will be the boss and you’ll be better for it, having an exhaustive list of things you know for a fact that your employees will not appreciate. You can only do your best, but by having a great boss that you always get along with, you miss this lesson. However, knowing the value of this lesson does not increase your ability to handle it. You must have good friends that work elsewhere. Hang on to them for dear life to preserve your sanity. No matter how much politics you think you had to endure in school, it’s always much worse at work. At least at school you usually have a basis of rationality that everyone can agree on and those who don’t, for the most part, end up somewhere else.
Having said all that, there will come a time when you leave your first job, and you’ll wonder if it’s the right decision. You’ll wonder if, with all their faults, you’ll end up in a group of people you’ll like as much. There’s always a danger in leaping into the unknown. But the truth is, the only common denominator is you, and it’s you that decides what to make of the experience. Make it your best. You deserve it.
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