Building Your Career Using Your College Degree

Rudy was one of the smartest engineers I ever had the pleasure of working with. There wasn’t much he couldn’t figure out. We had both found ourselves in an organization that had proved to be quite difficult to gain any recognition for exceptional individual performance. Rudy decided that maybe he didn’t have all of the skills that management wanted so he enrolled in a local university in pursuit of an MBA. Even though he was married with 3 children, he managed to balance it all long enough to graduate. At times it was really stressful on him but he always told me that the reward would make it all worth while. You can imagine his surprise when he showed up to work the first day after graduation. It wasn’t what he expected. Actually, no one knew what he had accomplished and how difficult it was considering all he had to juggle. In fact, no one even knew he graduated. It was very disheartening to see that no one even congratulated him on overcoming his challenges much less spread the buffet of opportunities before, as he expected. Rudy had hoped that management would recognize his accomplishment, welcome him into the fold, and promote him to their level. Unfortunately, none of it ever came. The advanced degree he spent two years working on gained him nothing within his company. 

 

It was one year after his graduation that we discussed a new plan to capture the recognition he never received. After all, he had better credentials now but we had to figure out how to use them to gain what he wanted. Obviously, just getting the degree wouldn’t suffice. It would take more work to get his recognition but this time, he had his credentials to not only capture the work to be done but to raise management’s interest when his new tasks were done. I know his process well since I followed it a few years later. Here’s what we learned.

 

1. Market before you graduate. Let people know what you are doing. Talk to managers about your program, what you are studying and how it applies to the company. More importantly, use the fact that you are working on your degree to get yourself a leadership role on higher level projects. You can begin to demonstrate your new skills and knowledge long before you graduate. Your degree and desire for experience are great reasons for management to give you some tough problems to solve. This, in turn, provides you the opportunity to prove yourself before you complete your degree. While Rudy missed this idea during his academic program, he quickly made himself an expert in cost modeling afterwards. Having an advanced degree provided the credentials he needed to be accepted as an expert but was not sufficient in and of itself. Rudy had to push his credentials on others to get the work he wanted. It would have been much easier for him if he could have gained such a reputation while he was working on his degree since the additional projects could have helped reinforce his classroom learning. 

 

Another great advantage is that many managers will take pride in helping develop individuals with new skills into great performers, more easily after you’ve already been recognized.  You will have to advertise yourself to get someone to take that initial risk on you. Doing this while you’re building the skill reduces their risk because it is openly accepted that you will make mistakes. So they won’t hurt their reputation by suggesting you take on specific projects.  Then, when you accomplish the tasks and do great work, you build your own reputation. Now, that’s a good two-for-one deal; that is, gaining wisdom while learning and building a great reputation.    

 

2. Keep your ego in check. Getting a degree (or another one) only means that YOU have changed. Everyone else, including the company, is still the same. So don’t be shocked if they don’t celebrate your transformation. If you haven’t proven yourself by demonstrating your new knowledge, nobody knows you have any. Unfortunately, you do. This can be dangerous because you can develop an attitude of entitlement. You have a degree, now people should give me what I want.   This is an easy trap. Once you begin to feel that great things should happen to you because you’ve gotten a degree and these things fail to materialize, you will begin to lose your job satisfaction. If the lack of attention continues, you’ll begin to feel unappreciated and that management isn’t getting the best value out of you. Many times Rudy questioned what his management was doing. Why do they want to strap a plow to a race horse? He could so much more than what he was doing. In reality, you’re most likely doing the same job you did before but now you feel overqualified for it. This is the point most people begin to search for a new job.  Rudy’s frustration came from his desire for someone else to recognize his efforts without having to do something to gain it. After all, he spent two years earning a graduate degree. Surely he had earned a little recognition.

 

Once Rudy realized that his attitude was causing a downward spiral, he began to change it by focusing on a team-based approach he read from a book called “Blitz The Ladder.” Essentially, he created a support group that helped him keep things in the proper perspective and his ego in check. If he ever stepped out of line, his team is there to pull him back in. Many times, when left alone and frustrated, we sabotage ourselves in a way that forces us to get a new job.      

 

3. Use your new degree to gain visibility. Your new degree shows that you have drive, initiative and can complete a long term commitment. But, that won’t gain you much visibility since most high level employees (e.g. managers, professionals) already have a degree, you’ll have to do a little more work to impress them. To sculpt your new image you’ll need to create a buzz about you both inside and outside the organization. 

 

One great way to do this is to use your degree to gain entry into groups and associations that higher level managers engage in.   Rudy worked his networking magic through a local university alumni group where he met a salesman, Allen, from one of his company’s suppliers. Turns out this salesman was well-respected in his company and he had the ear of the CEO. After several interactions, Allen began to really like Rudy and recommended to the CEO that Rudy manage their programs. Next thing we knew Rudy was a Program Manager in charge of the most visible programs in the company. That’s a lot from a few friendly jokes and conversations with someone he didn’t know.

 

Internally, Rudy tapped into the informal networks of the company by volunteering to work on special teams established to solve specific problems. He helped the marketing team develop a web-based product development model that could by customers to create the products they desired. Once implemented, Rudy gained considerable notoriety for his efforts. This praise fueled his upward mobility and eventually let to a promotion. This would not have been possible if he hadn’t used the news of his college degree to get a spot on the team.