I asked Penelope Trunk of the Brazen Careerist what she thought and she sent over a few blog posts:

• What to do in college to be successful in your career
• What to do in college to prepare for entrepreneurship

Talibanbarbie says she should have married better or gone to medical school. lol

Another twitter friend said “be loyal to my family/ myself above all else, a corp 2nd. To never agree to be hired for less w/ promise of a future true-up”

Other resources I found at EmployeeEvolution:

• 7 Professional Etiquette Tips You’ve Probably Never Heard Before
• 6 Public Speaking Tips for the Young Professional

The most serious problems I’ve had, and the ones that have done the most to damage the potential of fresh grads and the like, are very basic things, like understanding the difference between getting a job 95% done, and 100% done, and learning that avoiding painful tasks now almost invariably means paying the bill later with interest.

Oh yeah, impulse control too. Of course, this affects an awful lot more than work, but it plays a HUGE role in short and long-term outcomes.

I’m not going to inject myself into the millennial brouhaha with this–I was a fresh grad not that long ago, and I certainly had my dumbass moments, and they cost me.

I have a college friend who teaches a class at our alma mater part-time, and one of the things he is bloody strict about is turning in projects on time. He’ll give extensions, but unless they’re for legitimate problems, he takes points right off the top. He has actually gotten into debates with profs over this. His explanation is that in industry, sometimes a deadline is just that, and blowing it means an F, and perhaps a major unplanned life event. Better they learn it now.

Of course, the same thing serves as a parable of sorts for education in this country. Schools are able to pick an arbitrary point and say, “here’s your diploma/degree” and pronounce the student a graduate. While it’s not the school’s job to create perfect little future CEOs–students own responsibility for their lives and choices–schools do sometimes seem content to turn out a lot of 90% finished jobs.

Just because you’re good at math doesn’t mean that you should be an accountant, actuary, or physicist. Maybe you’re also good at communicating and love interacting with others and find that helping people is important to you. Then perhaps a career in sales may be a better fit. Or maybe you are good at math but value making a lot of money and love closing deals. Then perhaps you should sell securities.

1. Learn a skill that you can sell. Even if you are not a hard working student you can still learn a skill.

2. If you are shy get help; it will hold you back in every area of your life. You might ask your guidance counselor what to do. Although if you’re shy you are probably too shy to tell someone you have a problem.

3. If you have trouble getting your homework done, find some friendly but strict person or group to supervise you every night. A life without discipline is goes nowhere.

4a. Don’t believe anything experts say. Just see if their recommendations work. And even a recommendation works, that doesn’t mean it’s a profound general truth for all time.

4b. Don’t feel compelled to believe what someone says just because he or she is older or dignified or bossy or cool.

5a. Learn how to defend yourself physically.
5b. Learn a few tricks about how to de-escalate a verbal confrontation.

6. Learn how to say no without feeling bad when the other person thinks you’re a goof.

7. Learn how to take criticism or a loss without thinking it’s the end of the world.
If you think it is you can’t see the forest for the trees.

For me, twenty plus years into my career, I wish I would have taken the time to get a degree, and an advanced degree. I was sidetracked by the money and said I would get degrees later. Well, twenty plus years later still no degree. It’s a huge barrier to advancement now.

Trade four years now for forty years of good solid employment. Trust me, I know what I’m talking about.

What I would like to see from educators, is the desire to keep up with their students. Everything is about ipods, cell phones and xbox. But they have an opportunity to influence children now more than they do.

Educators can’t ignore technology. They must embrace it. But what needs to happen is curriculum should be geared to show students how technology can be used to solve problems. We are still trying to teach out kids about an analog world. More Educators need to make the move into a digital world too.

My advise and humble opinion only.

Today’s youngsters come out of school with skills but don’t know how to translate business into application (let alone know how to put together a well-worded sentence).

Also you can’t have certification in the industry without real world training or vice versa. There are too many paper CCNA, MCSE that just are too wet behind the ears.

I would have put down my fortran and pascal books for a network, microsoft, cisco book 20 years ago if they existed that loong ago.
Post high school education is a must even in IT. If you can go to school and work in IT at the same time do it!