Ryan Stephens Marketing

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53% of Recent College Grads Are Jobless or Underemployed reports the Atlantic.

FIFTY-THREE PERCENT!?

I genuinely wish I could say I was surprised. But it’s about as surprising as the promiscuous girl’s relapse less than a month after she returns from church camp.

… “college for all” is the wrong mantra. We need to be talking about “skills for all” instead.

The article is primarily talking about more tangible skills like writing code or administering an IV, but being successful goes beyond those things as well. A programmer who can’t communicate with his team and a nurse with no empathy for her patients won’t get hired.

Which begs the question…

What are some other skills young professionals should’ve learned in school?

I asked seven wicked-smart under 30 professionals. What follows are their responses:

1.) What it Means to Work
Diana Antholis discusses the fact that we are taught the skills necessary for certain jobs in college, but we are not prepared for what happens when we actually enter into those jobs.

2.) Life Skills 101
Jake Cripe explains that we need to learn life skills like networking, public speaking, how to change a tire and how to do our taxes. He also explains why teachers are soldiers going to war without weapons.

3.) Entrepreneurship
Sam Davidson insists it’s time to make the connection between education and entrepreneurship. “Perhaps the reason we don’t have more people starting more companies that could jump start our economy is because our country spent the last 20 years educating them to do anything but,” he laments.

4.) Emotional Intelligence
Tom O’Keefe urges students (and educators) to stop playing the memorization/regurgitation game and to focus on increasing emotional intelligence by enhancing the soft skills such as effective communication via body language.

5.) Personal Finance
Rich Pulvino understands that debt and unemployment are two things that have a stranglehold on recent graduates. Teaching students how to find the right credit card deals, manage debt, save money, and invest properly will help combat the confusion they often encounter upon graduation.

6.) It’s Okay to Fail
Patrick Johnson would’ve tried a lot more things, both academically and with respect to his future, had he known it was okay to take risks and to fail.

7.) Leadership
Michelle Bizon starts by admitting that leading isn’t easy. She goes on to explain why neither authority nor expertise make you a good leader, and that we don’t learn leadership in school despite the fact that it’s imperative to establishing a bridge between theory and performance.

What are we missing? What do you wish you would’ve learned in school?

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We all know the type. Most of you have worked with and/or for at least a couple in your career.

Most of them excel at fooling the boss into thinking they’re working hard and some even have the audacity to explain to you that “they know how to play the game.”

Your first inclination is to call them out or tattle. Most of you will refrain from this approach knowing full well it won’t do you any good and in most instances make you seem like a whiny baby. (Note: You *are* a whiny baby!)

Here’s the dirty little secret about these “game players.” They’re not stupid. Not by a long shot. And they do some things well that can be perceived by bad management (or perhaps busy management) as valuable.

• They know how to network and increase visibility with leadership.
• They know how to appear active and busy. (see: e-mails at all hours, lots of meetings, exasperated sighs)
• They know how to manage you in pursuit of their own goals and log your successes as their own (or the teams’ with emphasis on their leadership).

Here’s the rub: Life is not fair. Get over it.

Find the silver lining.

Here’s the best advice I can possibly give you:
Stop giving a damn about what other people think and worry about yourself.

Rather than worry about co-workers intent on “playing the game” I encourage you to do the following instead:

• Maintain your integrity at all costs, even if it costs you and/or your organization business.
• Take responsibility for your mistakes AND those of your team.
• Give vigorous attention to each task-at-hand and work your ass off regardless who’s watching — even if your achievements go unnoticed.

If these don’t work, then go to an organization or a company where they will. Find a company full of smart people and great leadership that is making a positive impact on society. Work there!

The truth is that “game players” sometimes win the game they’re playing.

Don’t play their game.

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Rarely is the most important metric the one on the surface.

Your Facebook likes don’t mean much. Neither do your Twitter followers.

You already know how I feel about impressions. They’re an incomplete business metric, at best.

Views are NOT your most important YouTube Metric. One million views don’t mean anything if those people are clicking to start watching your video and closing the window after 20 seconds of boredom and/or frustration.

But if views are not the most important metric, what is? Let’s take that journey.

First find the “show video statistics” button on the bottom right next to your views:

That button brings up additional metrics including demographic and location information. Pay attention to these, but we’re still not there. Click the “view more statistics button.”

Now we’re getting pretty close. On the left-hand column under “view reports” you’ll find, “audience retention.” Click that.

That delivers this valuable little diddy:

You see, it doesn’t matter if you have 12,000 Twitter followers if none of them read your tweets, and it doesn’t matter if you have 100,000 YouTube views if all those views aren’t leading to sales, more subscribers, more affinity for your brand, et al. That’s why it’s crucial to know how many people are watching ALL of your video.

The chart above tells me that 82% of viewers were still watching after 45 seconds, 69% after 1:30, and about 60% made it through the duration of the video. It’s not great, but it’s better than most of the videos I’ve done thus far. Video isn’t my expertise, and I’m still learning. Watch Ze Frank’s return to see a master at work.

What could I have done differently to retain more viewers throughout the entire video?

Here’s some things to keep in mind:

• Err on the shorter side with videos. I’d aim for 2:00 minutes, 3:00 maximum (unless it’s a more informative how-to tutorial).
• Get to the main point of your video as quickly as possible.
• Consider using calls-to-action before the end of the video.

What else should we be considering? Here’s your chance to teach me in the comments!

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