Things They don’t Teach in School

When I graduated, I thought I already have what it takes to take on the real world. However, when I was offered my first real job; it was entirely different. Not only did I end up depressed but unfortunately, I was earning way below than what I thought I should be getting. On a different note, there’s no doubt that I learned a lot in school but there are certain things that I wish my teachers taught because they could have helped a lot. The truth is, I’ve learned more and matured more when I was out of school than when I was in it. Also, I thought I could have enjoyed school if I took the course that really interests me and that could have been either Anthropology or Psychology. Here are some things that I think should have been taught in school: Lesson no. 1 Networking It’s amazing how many people don’t know how to network. People are social creatures and it’s natural for them to seek other people as much as possible, especially when push comes to shove. Networking is used by almost every successful man and the truth is you don’t have to be born with it because you can definitely learn how to do it. Actually, some successful people didn’t even have to get high grades, they just know how and who to network that’s why they are where they are right now. Lesson no. 2 Speed Reading I like reading for the simple fact that it gives me a lot of knowledge that I can chew on. However, one thing that I really regret is I never really learned how to speed read. Just imagine how many additional books, newspapers, and even internet articles I could have devoured had I learned how to do this skill. Lesson no. 3 Setting Goals Organizing is extremely important these days and I am not even surprised when excellent multi-tasking people excel. These days, there are just too many stimuli that it’s hard to organize things and set goals everyday. But I really do think that if you’ve learned how to separate the urgent from the not-so-urgent, things would be a lot easier. Lesson no. 4 Office Politics I suppose every fresh graduate is befuddled when they realize that the workplace is so damn different from school and a case in point is the presence of office politics. I’ve never encountered any classes that offered lessons in office politics and if there were any, I bet most fresh graduates wouldn’t have such a difficult time adjusting with the transition from school to work. Lesson no. 5 The Art of Negotiation I learned how to negotiate my salary through the internet and without a doubt, it worked to my advantage. The thing is negotiating is life’s staple and whether we like it or not, we need to be able to learn how to work with other people to get something done and that involves tons of negotiating. Most successful people end up on top of the chain because they can make a one-sided deal look like a fair one because of their skills. Lesson no. 6 Saving I never met one teacher of mine tell me that it’s important to save and the good thing is that my mother is the first one to tell me how significant it is. Most schools teach you how to become part of the corporate world by training you on a specific industry, but few will tell you how not to be part of a 9-5 job while still earning enough money. I’m not saying that the school system is flawed, but to think that everything is there already that you need in life is simply absurd. There are certain fundamental lessons that I think every school should teach and