Trial by Fire
One of my marketing professors always encourages students to create work in their courses that they could use in their portfolio, work that they could present to a hiring manager as a reinforcement of their proficiency. To me, this encouragement always made sense. Why just write a marketing plan when I could implement one? Sure, the process of writing out a strategy document is an important skill, but the implementation is where business professionals are truly measured. The instructors want to prepare students for the real world, but what do the students want?
In my experience, most students want the grade. They have been indoctrinated into a belief since kindergarten that they should work hard to get good grades. Through my involvement with the student marketing association at WWU, I cannot help but notice the type of students that attend our meetings. The beginning of fall quarter sees a huge influx of motivated students across all age groups. As the year progresses, many students lose interest, as if they had tried to make an early new years resolution. Even with an impressive roster of guest speakers lined up, most students other than the soon-to-be-graduates simply lose interest. They cannot visualize a life after school, because most of them have been spending a decade and a half in education.
But the A-F scale only goes so far when translated to a career. In the real world you can’t botch a few projects and hope to make it up by the end of the quarter with extra credit. I think Derek Johnson, CEO of Tatango has a great (and humorous) lesson on the difference between real life and school life, check it out.
The dilemma here is how do we motivate the typical student to see their schoolwork from a real-world perspective? Programs like the Student Marketing Association are a step in the right direction, as is encouragement from instructors and mentors, but I feel that this work needs to be done at an earlier age, in high school and earlier, through programs like DECA and FBLA. We spend the first twenty plus years of our lives learning how to learn. Why not spend some of that time learning how to apply the learning too?
Jeff, I agree with you. Students who do not approach school with the passion needed to excel at a real job do their future employers and themselves a disservice. They have not fully prepared themselves for the real world and are upset when employer’s expectations are greater than what they can deliver. Employers seek people who can immediately begin to contribute. They assume a college degree brings a certain assurance that a person has abilities. Not always so as you have pointed out. Companies are willing to train for a limited period of time and then expect results. The more time students spend applying their learning in practice situations at school the more prepared they will be in the work place.