In 2014, the New York Times published an article that talked about an interview they had with the senior vice president of people operations for Google done by Thomas Friedman. Thomas had the opportunity to ask Laszlo Bock what it took to get hired at Google. In schools, we are preparing our students to go to college and from there get a job after graduation. The reason for that is that in order to get a good job you need to have a great GPA, go to college and graduate. Brock however determine that GPAs are not what determines whether or not a person can get a job or not, especially at Google. What Google is looking for is are your personal traits not things you learned in school. From other articles and videos about education that I have looked into, the majority compare the education system to some sort of factory that produces machines. We teach our kids the same thing every year but we haven't realized that companies and people who hire are also looking for other skills. Brock mentioned that they love when people have leardership skills and are not afraid to share the power and responsibility. Another great trait to have is to not be afraid of failure. Helping students being open to trying things and sometimes possibly failing is something that as a teacher I make sure my students do in my classroom. At a conference I went to recently, one of the speakers talked about an observation he did were a teacher would automatically shout wrong whenever a student gave a wrong answer. If as teachers we are embarassing them instead of helping them learn from their mistakes and try again then when it comes time for them to apply for a job, this is not a skill that they will have mastered. Brock said "Your degree is not a proxy for your ability to do any job. The world only cares about — and pays off on — what you can do with what you know (and it doesn’t care how you learned it)."
Friedman, Thomas. (2014, February 22). How to Get a Job at Google. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/23/opinion/sunday/friedman-how-to-get-a-job-at-google.html?_r=2
2 Comments
Ben Tyler
12/3/2016 04:23:03 pm
Paulina,
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Rob Swift
12/4/2016 08:55:56 pm
I read Friedman's article too, and I have mixed feelings. While I agree with the things said, the tone struck me as anti-conventional education. It's true that a degree may not be a good predictor of a graduate's ability to do a job. And it's also true that course work, and class assignments don't necessarily parallel the world of work. Part of that may be that different jobs have very different requirements. Only practice fulfilling those requirements will make a good employee. That's why new employees typically take a light load while their warming up to their duties and responsibilities. That's also why it takes so long to become a doctor, or a pharmacist, or really good programer. Specialization is hard. It takes more than just school. That said, education is important. It lays the foundation that students build on in graduate school, in professional school, and in their careers. We don't have to cater to the Googles of the world, but we do have to teach students to be critical thinkers and problem solvers. If our graduates can do that, then they should be able to figure the rest out.
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