5 things I learnt from graduates.

A few weeks back I came across a very interesting article about talent management trends to watch in 2016.  One of them was said to be the return of graduate recruiment that, according to the author, is more prevalent now that it′s been since the recession hit our economies in 2008. The rationale behind it is plain simple. Graduates are seen as a long-term, strategic investment. While they might not have all the necessary skills now, they have the curiosity and potential to acquire them and thus not only bring the fresh thinking, but also can be drivers of change and innovation that the company needs to reinvent itself maintaining its competitive edge (ideally forever).

As I was reading the article, I thought I couldn′t agree more. In  2015 we have invested (not just spent) hundreds of hours talking with, giving trainings to, but also learning from students and graduates representing different Portuguese universities. Yes, it is not a mistake. Learning from.

What we often do at my company is to invite students with interesting profiles for a  brunch and just talk about "things". Not to pitch, not to "sell" the career we might have for them when they graduate, but to have meaningful conversations about topics that are important to both. Them and us, albeit for different reasons. As we are readjusting the way we work with the campus community, we thought there was a great untapped potential out there. Not just potential as in "potential talent to be hired", but simply great source of insights into how to find a common denominator between what that graduate talent needs, and what employers (like ourselves) have to offer.

Below are 5 key things I understood thanks to these conversations.

In  2015 we have invested (not just spent) hundreds of hours talking with, giving trainings to, but also learning from students and graduates.

1. Humbleness is (a corporate) virtue.

Many students are of the opinion that campus recruiters lack on humbleness, positioning themselves at least one level above their prospective candidates. They arrive to the campus with a number of  (limited) openings and want the candidates to compete for their attention, rather than admitting that while the number of openings might be limited, at least as far as top schools are considered, the demand is higher than the supply and thus both the candidates and employers need to have a strong value proposition in order to not only "click", but construct a solid professional future together. It seems like even though we are aware of the famous Level 5 leadership model coined by Jim Collins and the importance of humility in it, we lack on the capacity to put it in practice. To talk is an easy part. To walk the talk apparently is a lot more difficult. 

2. Degree is merely means to an end. 

More and more students in Europe (finally!) are pursuing very diverse academic paths. For instance, they start with a Bachelor degree in arts and humanities or engineering to then transition to a Master′s in management. They are not affraid to take the risk and change their path along the way, believing it will do them good in the long-term. With unemployment rates among graduates reaching the staggering 40%+ in some countries, the degree is no longer seen as a guarantee of a career in a given field. Instead, more and more people want to increase their value on the job market by acquiring knowledge and building versatile skills across different functional areas. It is worth looking for those people in the job market, trying to recognise that effort and the value it may bring to your business. 

3. Corporate mumbo-jumbo may (not) resonate.

Campus recruiters need to be more sensitive as regards language they use when communicating with their audiences. Especially that the above mentioned diversity is gaining in importance. More and more companies hire non-business graduates for business-related jobs, following the aforementioned principle of hiring the potential, not skill (that can be trained). Having said that, we must adapt the way we talk consequently.

I was really perplexed when an art student, being asked about her views on having a corporate career rather than pursuing what would be most obvious path (art gallery, museum, etc.), inquired as to what it really meant to have a corporate career. In the course of her academic life, there was no single moment where the concepts of employability and career would be talked through in a structured manner. So while she had a good idea of the kind of career that she wanted, the expressions and jargon that we  all use without thinking for her had to substance whatsoever. So we should never assume that the language that worked yesterday, will continue to work tomorrow. 

4. The (un)importance of GPA.

You might have heard of some major brands that have recently ceased to consider a GPA as their prescreening criteria. While GPA can be a very effective ranking criteria when comparing graduates from the same faculty, it fails to have a widely recognised predictive capacity in professional context. In other words, the sheer fact of graduating with a high GPA does not mean you will perform a given job better than your colleague with a lower one (even assuming you have the same level of all relevant competence).

For one hand there are scientific studies indicating that there are correlations between GPA and cognitive skills, which in turn may impact one′s on the job performance. On the other, however, Google has long claimed that there is little correlation there. 

I have met a number of top-notch candidates whose GPA was average. They didn′t stand out from the crowd GPA wise, but there was a reason behind it. Many, took a concise decision to invest limited amount of time into studying disciplines that they believe were not essential for the development goals they established. So instead of rejecting candidates purely on low GPA, we′d better be asking why their GPA is lower comparing to other candidates. The answer might surprise us.

5. Team is being redefined in the network context.

 If you want to see the future of work (the way your organisation will work a few years from now), you need to go and see how today′s students are working on their assignments.

We met this fantastic team of people who won one of our case-study challenges this year and just loved the story on how they assembled their winning team. Surprisingly, their application to the contest was submitted on a last-minute basis. Two colleagues teamed up, thought about the nature of the challenge to be faced in the competition, to then explore their academic/social networks trying to reach out to other people, also through recommendations, who were not necessarily close to them (were not people they were in touch directly), but who complemented their knowledge and skills with a new perspective, hence contributing to the overall team diversity. They not only managed to create a team that was the most heterogeneous of all we have ever seen in this kind of competitions, but then were able to create a winning formula out of it so as to deliver results. All in matter or two or three days. 

To sum up, we must be more humble, do not classify people merely based on their degree type, rethink the language we speak when talking about career, see beyond GPA and finally rethink the importance we give to typical teams (or generally look at today′s students in an attempt to foresee the future of our organisations). 

Competence has no age.

One of my biggest personal lessons learnt in 2015 was that in order to evolve we need to keep ourselves exposed to the thought leaders from different generations. Including the one youngest one, only knocking at the corporate door now. At the end of the day, competence has no age.

Ps. By the way, we are now recruiting for our Management Trainee Programme 2016 in Portugal. Informations and applications - click here!