College & Real World Knowledge

College is a great time to learn, but it’s not the only time to learn in your life. You only stop learning when you’re dead.

What I learned in college and how it’s enriched me in my professional experience

In spite of all I learned in college, things are different in the worker-bee trenches of government.

Writing rarely follows The Elements of Style. In stead, it follows your supervisor’s style and your own style. Speaking is usually not performed from a podium using note cards or a prepared manuscript, but from a conference table or on a phone using an impromptu style where you rely on knowledge you already know and quick analysis. (Of course, more formal events like negotiations require more thorough analysis and preparation, but these events don’t happen as much.) Most history in an organization isn’t something you learn from a text book and professor, but from word-of-mouth, gossip, and your supervisor and coworkers’ opinions. If you’re lucky, there is an informal history recorded in a Word or PDF document. In some cases where culture is being built or rebuilt, history will be taught in a formal classroom, sometimes by old employees of the organization.

How what you learn in college differs from what you learn in your professional experience and how the combination of the two develops your intellect as a professional

Certainly there are differences, but the approaches have actually combined and made me a better professional. One approach just wouldn’t cut it, but are necessary. Writing for a supervisor while also understanding formal writing improved my writing style by exposing me to different situations and audiences. You also can’t become a world-class public speaker (which I’m always striving to be) by only practicing in the classroom. Real-world exposure gets you in front of different opinions and forces you to defend and attack different positions. However, without college, I wouldn’t have discovered how much I enjoy speaking. Without real-world experience, I wouldn’t have improved as fast as I have. Because I had both experiences, I now know I enjoy public speaking and I do it as much as I can. An old professor told me, “If you don’t know where you were, you don’t know where you’re going.” I have trouble disagreeing with him. Without that tidbit, it’d be easier for me to get lost in the details of everyday life as you attempt to progress. Appreciation for history and trying to make your own history can let you see the big picture when you otherwise wouldn’t.