Readings on Professionalism
A Memo to My Students
Re: College and the Real World
By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD
To: My Students From: Your Teacher
Re: College and the Real World
I just read about a senior engineering student who was presenting a design project in an upper-division business communications course. In the presentation, he talked about what he would do if he were a ârealâ engineer. His teacher asked him what it was about what he was doing that wasnât ârealâ engineering. Heâd designed the project. He was presenting it to a group of his peers. He answered, âItâs schoolânot real engineering.â
I have a feeling thatâs how a lot of you think about whatâs happening in school, and in a certain sense you are right. What happens in college and what youâll be doing in your career arenât the same, but really and truly they arenât as different as many of you seem to think. Furthermore, when you believe what youâre doing in school isnât the real deal, that changes how you approach your work. Rather than seeing it as preparation for
professional life, you see it as stuff the teacher makes you do. When theyâre only assignments (i.e., hoops to jump through) and not real work, that motivates you to figure out what the teacher wants, do it well enough to get the grade you need, and not worry about whether you learn anything from the experience.
The same goes for classroom policiesâtoo many students think theyâre things that matter to the teacher but probably wonât matter later in life, or if they do matter in the
world of work, well, youâll do them then. So for the time being, you can arrive to class late (and make up an excuse, if youâre asked), and you can come to class unprepared (good chance you wonât be caught). When it really matters, you tell yourself, youâll get to work on time, be prepared, speak up and contribute without fear, collaborate on projects, and make professional presentations. But youâre missing a chance to practice doing all those things now. Learning how to do them in college is easier and safer than figuring out how to do them in the ârealâ world.
I recently had a student complain about somebody in his group who wasnât contributing or doing his fair share of the work. He told me that I shouldnât make students work in groups because it wasnât like ârealâ group work. On the job, he told me, âpeople donât screw aroundâ when they work together. I felt a bit like laughing. In my job, Iâm regularly in groups with coworkers who donât contribute or care about the success of the group. Furthermore, when itâs a ârealâ work situation where professionals are being paid to get a job done, itâs not always the best idea to take group problems to the boss. College is the perfect time to figure out what actions a group can take when one of its
members isnât delivering the goods.
I would agree that not all faculty assignments seem terribly applicable to the real world. As a professional, you wonât be asked to write term papers with references in APA format, but you will have all sorts of writing assignmentsâpersuading a potential client that your company has the best product, providing customers with clear, nontechnical descriptions on how to run your software, or perhaps outlining what employees do well and what they need to improve as part of a performance review. You wonât have the same kinds of tests on the job that you have in the classroom, but your knowledge will be tested, and on-the-job exams are not scheduled. More likely, the boss will simply show up at your cubicle, point your way in a meeting, or e-mail or text you a question that requires an immediate answer.
You can think of college as a way station where you hang out before you get on with the rest of your life. Thatâs not against the law, and no teacher can prevent you from doing that. But youâre cheatingânot the teacher, not the course, not the department, not the collegeâyou are cheating yourself, and you deserve better. You may decide that a course isnât important or that an assignment doesnât matter. Thatâs your call. But please, donât base that decision on the assumption that whatâs happening in college isnât âreal workâ
that doesnât matter in the âreal world.â
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