There’s no shortage of commentary on the quality of America’s emerging workforce. Recent college grads are popular targets, often labeled lazy and entitled. Employers say they can’t communicate. Research says they hardly crack a book. And they themselves admit to being distracted by so many digital devices.

Whatever your opinion, certain facts do stand out about America’s younger citizens. More of them go to college than did their Baby Boomer parents. A statistic that’s not surprising, since more of them are told they have to go. (According to one source, 62 percent of parents feel that a college education is “absolutely necessary” for their kids.)

College preparation isn’t always aligned with workplace realities. The most obvious distinction is that college students are working to better themselves; employees are working to better an organization. To some extent, college students can choose their projects; employees can’t. And college authorities (professors, deans) get paid to support their “trainees”; in the workplace, it’s the other way around.

So maybe the biggest shortcoming of today’s young professionals is that they learn college lessons too well. And those lessons sometimes become liabilities. This fall, as you’re gearing up to conquer another semester, keep the following college lessons in perspective. Because in some respects, your slacker classmates may have the right idea after all.

Focus on Process, Not Product

In teaching students to think critically, argue persuasively, and write fluidly, good professors encourage their students to focus on process, not product. This means outlining, planning, gearing up for multiple drafts, and submitting to peer reviews. Ultimately, yes, this process is designed to ensure better products – whether they are research papers, lab findings, or everyday emails. But the goal is to make a habit of trial and revision.
Employers rarely applaud trial and revision. With today’s tight margins, managers are under the gun to deliver bigger, better numbers every day, every week, every quarter. Time is a luxury. Despite what employers claim they need (communication skills, critical thinking, etc), many professionals are too busy to see beyond immediate answers. If you can’t produce things off the cuff, they might find someone else who can.

Think Independently

In college, the students who are only good at rote assignments and recycling formulaic essays usually start to flounder. Professors push them towards independent thinking – not just at the idea phase, but in the execution of original scholarship. In the business world, outside-the-box thinking gets a lot of lip service, but no one actually wants to entertain proposals that will take longer, cost more money, or put question marks ahead of known quantities.
In fact, a 2010 study found that most professionals are actually uncomfortable with creative ideas. According to the study, the bias is so subtle, people aren’t always aware they are perceiving and rejecting novel concepts. At the same time, the aversion is strong enough that study participants linked truly creative ideas with terms like “vomit,” “agony,” and “poison.”

Work Quietly By Yourself

Critics are right to be dismayed that college costs have soared so high. But the expenses that rankle them most are the ones that contribute to leisure activities, otherwise known as higher education’s “country clubization” – intramural sports and student centers, for example. The predominant attitude seems to be that students don’t need more socialization resources. After all, they’re already studying less than they should be, right?
Not so fast, say some workplace authorities. If you spend 4 years of college chained to a library carrel, you might regret it. According to MIT researchers, socialization is actually a productivity booster. Their study revealed that casual conversation and inter-office strolls were shared habits among the most productive study subjects. Even non-work topics – like sports or family life – prove useful in de-stressing employees and building channels of communication in the most efficient, organic way. Apparently, learning to click with colleagues is as important as learning the subject at hand.

So in the end, there’s some validity to both sides of these lessons – in college and beyond. You’ll never jeopardize your employability by developing solid skills in college reading, writing, and studying. But you might be setting yourself up for frustration – or worse – if you expect bosses and business partners to evaluate your contributions in the same way your favorite profs did.

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