<p>This is an excerpt from a talk Paul Graham gave at MIT. He was talking about startups, actually, but I thought this bit about “work experience” was brilliant. This is exactly what we want our kids to learn as they transition from student to wage-earning adult:</p>
<p>*"…unfortunately when you graduate they don’t give you a list of all the lies they told you during your education. You have to get them beaten out of you by contact with the real world. And this is why so many jobs want work experience. I couldn’t understand that when I was in college. I knew how to program. In fact, I could tell I knew how to program better than most people doing it for a living. So what was this mysterious “work experience” and why did I need it?</p>
<p>Now I know what it is, and part of the confusion is grammatical. Describing it as “work experience” implies it’s like experience operating a certain kind of machine, or using a certain programming language. But really what work experience refers to is not some specific expertise, but the elimination of certain habits left over from childhood.</p>
<p>One of the defining qualities of kids is that they flake. When you’re a kid and you face some hard test, you can cry and say “I can’t” and they won’t make you do it. Of course, no one can make you do anything in the grownup world either. What they do instead is fire you. And when motivated by that you find you can do a lot more than you realized. So one of the things employers expect from someone with “work experience” is the elimination of the flake reflex—the ability to get things done, with no excuses."*</p>
<p>Well put, and thanks for posting this, mommusic. I can see the start of this appearing even in my S who’s not working a co-op or internship, but even just a part-time job at the soft-yogurt place. He knows he’s expected there at certain times, and knows he’ll be out of a job (and the resulting income stream) if he flakes, so he’s learning not to flake. It’s good practice for the real world, indeed.</p>
<p>One of my peers, when hiring, is insistent on at least one year of work experience even for a pure entry level job due to what is learned in that year about basic responsibility and expectations in a work environment. He also resists hiring from the top flight schools because of a fear that those kids have higher expectations than those from lower tier schools. He needs a worker bee for at least two or three years that isn’t focused immediately on career advancement. </p>
<p>I expect to need to fill a junior position soon and have been struggling with that concept myself. It really isn’t all that easy to fire someone and the time lost training someone who ultimately doesn’t work out is costly from the employer’s perspective. I think I might take the chance, but will probably recruit out of a place with a reputation for nose to the grindstone, all work and no play kids (like W&M). </p>
<p>I know the prejudices are unfair, but every mistake made by the intern or new hire before changes the bar for the next guy.</p>
<p>There is a lot of basics to be learned from the world of work. How to get up and get to work everyday with no excuses, how to take and follow direction, realizing that others are expecting you to do your job and are counting on you. How to do mundane tasks (and yes, all jobs have mundane tasks) without whining, etc… How to get along with others. We have insisted our older S get some work experience through co-op. He is learning a lot about work, even through he did work in high school. I have friends whose kids did hold paying jobs until late in their college careers, so this is coming late to them.</p>
<p>My younger S just got a promotion at his after school job. More money and responsibility. The other night he was doing lesson plans (he works at an after school program) after school, work, and homework was done. I think he will learn a lot this year, even if the job is taking up time that might be spent on AP Euro HW. He realizes that work is not always done when you punch out. He is learning how to supervise people and organize a workplace.</p>
<p>TheAnalyst - I understand where you are coming from. You don’t want to start from scratch. Good luck.</p>