School Is Baaaack…

I hear ya kids — school is different now but look at the experience you are going through as the actual lessons to be learned are not how high you can score on your next test, but rather how well you can deal with change, with a mask on of course.

When the pandemic started it seems like everyone got a clean slate and had to figure out how to learn and work in the different ways of our world.

Learning happens with experiences and true learning doesn’t stop after your next certificate or degree.

At work…

You will have bad bosses, co-workers, re-organizations, dishonest dealings (there will also be good people and dealings) but it’s what you learn from those experiences that will teach you.

This will teach you more than a certification or diploma.

Learning offers a lifetime award and learning is a choice on how you see yourself in relation to the world. Learning is something you do.

When I talk with a hiring manager who is focused on the degree or institution. I cringe for many reasons. First, these are easy hires for a headhunter. Find a human who went to XYZ University and got a 3.9999999 GPA and boom — hired. Never mind, they checked Facebook all day at their last job and they haven’t done much with their life since college.

When I talk with a hiring manager who wants candidates that have been through certain experiences (i.e., tough negotiations, built and led teams, learned how to code by themselves, etc), I sense the hiring manager “gets it”. They want to know what this person learned and they want to know if this person can teach them.

They genuinely want to hire someone smarter than them because they are not done learning.

Hiring is a choice. You get to choose who you hire. Hire people who are still learning.

Originally published at https://ramptalent.com on August 27, 2020.