What You Won’t Learn About Success in School

Once you’re handed your college or university diploma, you may think you’re ready to face reality. But school often leaves many graduates unprepared for the real world, leading to them having to learn the rules all over again.

As the leading provider of outsourced call center solutions, 3C Contact Services has a few tips for recent graduates that may sound harsh, but will help them to achieve success over the course of their careers.

1. Failure is key to success:

   When you’re in school, failure is to be avoided at all costs and being assigned a bad grade can be devastating. However, in the working world, failure is often the key to success since it can serve as a learning tool. You shouldn’t be afraid to take what you learned from your failure and apply it to future ventures.

2. A missed assignment isn’t 100% of your final grade:

   At the other end of the spectrum, missing a deadline or leaving out an important detail can be detrimental to the organization you are working for, regardless of its size—it can even cost you your job! Remember to pay close attention to detail and get all your assignments in on time.

3. Maintaining school hours isn’t going to happen:

   The working world isn’t the same as school, where you went for six hours a day and had the summer off. Once you start working, you’ll be doing so eight hours a day and your vacation will be reduced to two to three weeks a year. You may even have to give up your weekends!

Having a summer job while you’re in school can prepare you for what you’ll have to deal with once you graduate and enter the workforce. It can also help to prepare you for some of the “office politics” you may have to deal with as well.

If your program offers an internship, take it. This is an excellent way to gain experience and prepare yourself for the workforce. As an added bonus, it will look good on your resume, since it shows that you have industry experience. You may even score a paid internship!

Most students know that the workforce is vastly different from school, thanks to any number of television shows and movies. But much like school, Hollywood’s portrayal of the workforce is vastly different from reality as well; you likely won’t have a wacky-but-lovable group of co-workers like the ensemble on The Office. 3C Contact Services advises that if you know what to expect, you’ll be prepared for the working world.