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Cram experience, not information
Current college fad: racking up double, triple and
even quadruple majors in order to impress future employers. This
strategy is wrought with irony because, in effect, someone who has
a triple major screams, "Don't hire me. I'll be a management
disaster!"
My advice to all you triple majors is to dump the
excessive course load and get a life. If you want to impress employers,
use college as a time to demonstrate creativity, curiosity, quick
learning and good social skills. Here's why:
A triple major exhibits no creativity. The most creative
act is to choose a path for your life. College is an early opportunity
to decide what you want to do with yourself, one course at a time.
Cramming your schedule full of required courses for two or three
majors is a rejection of creativity.
In effect, you allow someone else to dictate your
path for four years. Business visionaries set paths to goals that
other people could never have thought of. Practice being a visionary
in college by choosing a path no one else could choose.
A triple major is not for the intellectually curious.
If you love learning, then you will take whatever classes you want
and you won't worry if they add up to another major. People who
need their courses to add up to another major are people who are
conditioned to learn only for an external reward. Employers need
people who will be curious even after the grading system is over.
In college, learn for learning's sake, not for the department head's
approval.
A triple major is for the timid. A broad education
teaches you to learn diverse topics quickly. Practice learning something
new by taking courses in each of the departments in your college
rather than cowering in the safety of topics you're majoring in.
Business requires a wide breadth of knowledge -- writing, finance,
technology, psychology, sociology. You can't learn every idea in
school, but you can learn to pick up new ideas quickly.
Once you're committed to choosing just one major,
stay away from business. In college you need to learn how to think
broadly and critically. How you think is much more important then
if you know how to map a brand strategy.
You have your whole life to study business; college
is your time for Shakespeare, Schopenhauer and science experiments.
In this new era of downtrodden, low-key CEOs, one CEO stands out
for her star power: Carly Fiorina of Hewlett-Packard. And guess
what her major was? English.
Finally, take some blow-off courses. You need time
to develop social skills because when it comes to business they
cannot be stressed enough. Go to parties and make conversation with
someone you didn't think you liked. Figure out how to like something
about that person because that's an important part of management
-- figuring out how to like even the most unlikable people.
And stop by your professor's office hours. Don't have
something to say? Make something up. Because that's what life will
be like with your boss. Face time will be everything and you'll
have to be savvy and strategic about how to get yourself in front
of him and make him enjoy talking to you.
Learn how to make people like you. The smartest are
not promoted. The most likable are promoted. Dump the extra majors
and use college as a time to learn about yourself. The more you
understand yourself the better you will be able to relate to other
people. That's what will really help you to succeed in business.
-- Posted: March 3, 2003
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