Your degree is not enough

A conversation took place between two fathers one day:

Father 1: My son just received his B.A.

Father 2: I suppose he’ll be looking for a Ph.D.

Father 1: No, now he’s looking for a J.O.B.

Here is another story about college life:

One rule at a particular university goes that, if the professor is not yet in the classroom 15 minutes past the hour of the class, the students can consider a “walk” – they can leave the room without any penalty for missing the class.

Now it didn’t help that the schoolrooms come with the type of wall clock the minute hand of which “jumped” one notch ahead of the actual time in a very noticeable fashion.

Also, these clocks are not of the most sophisticated construction. Some enterprising student discovered that, if he were to hit the clock with a chalkboard eraser, he would cause the clock to “jump” another one minute ahead.

It became almost daily practice for one group of students to take target practice at the clock. As fate would have it, the professor for that particular class of theirs wasn’t the most punctual. The students even considered him severely “absent-minded”. So with just a few well-aimed erasers, lo and behold, 15 minutes would have gone by already, and the class would dismiss itself.

When exam day came, the professor strolled into the room, passed out the examination sheets, and told the class, “You have one hour to finish.” He then proceeded to collect the erasers from around the room, and, gleefully, took aim at the clock. When he had successfully “jumped” the clock forward to one hour, he declared that “Time is up!”, collected the exam papers and dismissed the class.

Life does teach some lessons the hard way.

Now here is a harsh life lesson every college kid needs to know. If you were listening to me speak in person, I would have gotten into your face and said, “Read my lips!” But since you are reading my column instead, the closest thing to it that I can do is to put every word in all caps: “A DEGREE IS NOT ENOUGH!”

Every student should know that they have to do much more than study in order to make themselves employable once they’ve graduated. They need to add extracurricular activities, extra skills and that prized piece of CV enhancement called “work experience” or “internship”.

Everything in this world is a function of marketing. From the moment they enter college, students must know that they have to start making themselves marketable.

Sitting on a bench under the cold December weather in Stanford Mall, I had a very intimate conversation with my youngest daughter, Rachel. With a worried look on her face she said, “Dad, I want to work as an intern. I want to know for sure what field I will enter, and I want to gain work experience.” I smiled because I knew she was on the right track.

I waited for my favorite question, and eventually it came. She asked, “Dad, what should I do?”

I told her, “Don’t waste time. Take summer jobs, read books, research the world for OJT opportunities (related to your course), and gain as much work experience as possible.”

Journalist Carl Andrew said, “Joining student societies is not necessarily just a matter of personal interest or enjoyment. Serving as president of the Free Hugs Society or the Comic Books Society is not going to look very impressive on your CV. Employers are far more likely to look for students who have instead been president of their university’s politics, history or debating society.”

And may I add another important ingredient? Joining any student org just to have something to put on the resume is downright hypocritical and useless. The whole point of the exercise is to gauge a person’s passion, leadership and involvement in the organization, which will give future employers clues to his character when he’s applying for a job.

The pressure on students to make themselves the perfect job candidates is great, forcing them to look for new and creative ways to make themselves stand out from the crowd. University is becoming less a time for lazing around and more about building up experiences and creating connections.

There will be lesser job opportunities in the future. But there will always be an acute shortage of good people needed to do their jobs well.

Stop thinking degrees. Start thinking skills. But most importantly, build character all the time.

(Develop your leadership skills with Francis Kong this January 19-20 at the EDSA Shangri-La Hotel. Call Pam or Krisselle of Inspire Leadership Consultancy Inc. at 632-6872614 or 09178511115 for further details.)