Guy Kawasaki — writer, speaker, thinker, blogger, venture capitalist, etc. — offers his list of 10 (actually 12) things college students should learn this year “in order to prepare for the real world after graduation.” He offers some valuable tips on how to talk to your boss (“Your role is to provide answers, not questions”), survive a poorly run meeting (“First, assume that most of what you’ll hear is pure, petty, ass-covering bull shiitake, and it’s part of the game”), run a meeting of your own (rule No. 1: “Start on time even if everyone isn’t there because they will be next time”), create a decent PowerPoint (follow Guy’s 10/20/30 rule), and more. All are lessons I wish I’d learned in college. (True, PowerPoint hadn’t been invented yet. But still, I could’ve used some help on creating effective slides for the overhead projector.)
The best advice of all comes at the end:
One last thing: the purpose of going to school is not to prepare for working but to prepare for living. Working is a part of living, and it requires these kinds of skills no matter what career you pursue. However, there is much more to life than work, so study what you love.
Andrew Careaga 