Personal Development for Smart People Forums - View Single Post

CubicleBailout · 04-23-2009, 05:05 AM

I know someone personally that suffers from this. Was very successful in school, got into a good Grad School and funded it themselves. Then entered the workforce and discovered they weren't any good at what they went to school for the hard way - by getting let go from several jobs in that field.

I think this comes down to personality and social skills mostly. You need to have some level of street smarts or common sense that guides you when you don't know something.

The above commenter has a good start - be well rounded. This will put you into a variety of social situations and meet a diverse group of people that will increase your street smarts. If all you know is book smarts, then you can excel well in the bubble-like school atmosphere, but then enter the working world and end up in situations or with coworkers or bosses that you don't know how to deal with.

Don't wait to start work until after college. Do different types of work on college breaks or do internships. I had a fair share of manual labor jobs before finishing college - these are real eye openers. This will also help you build a work ethic outside of school assignments. In the real world there is a lot of ambiguity and your ability to deal with it will help.

04-23-2009, 05:05 AM	#3 (permalink)
CubicleBailout Junior Member Join Date: Mar 2009 Posts: 13	I know someone personally that suffers from this. Was very successful in school, got into a good Grad School and funded it themselves. Then entered the workforce and discovered they weren't any good at what they went to school for the hard way - by getting let go from several jobs in that field. I think this comes down to personality and social skills mostly. You need to have some level of street smarts or common sense that guides you when you don't know something. The above commenter has a good start - be well rounded. This will put you into a variety of social situations and meet a diverse group of people that will increase your street smarts. If all you know is book smarts, then you can excel well in the bubble-like school atmosphere, but then enter the working world and end up in situations or with coworkers or bosses that you don't know how to deal with. Don't wait to start work until after college. Do different types of work on college breaks or do internships. I had a fair share of manual labor jobs before finishing college - these are real eye openers. This will also help you build a work ethic outside of school assignments. In the real world there is a lot of ambiguity and your ability to deal with it will help.