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Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2005 > December > 16 > Entry
Five things I wish I knew in high school
Last month, I had the pleasure of being the career speaker at Dayton’s Chaminade-Julienne High School. It was a very nice event and the students were a great audience.
After yesterday’s post in which I gave career advice to a high school senior I remembered that I wanted to post the last portion of my C-J speech, a section called Five Things I Wish I Knew in High School. So here it is:
No. 1: Math matters
It might surprise you that this is No. 1 on my list since it’s coming from a writer. But it’s true. In high school, I didn’t just dislike math I all but refused to learn it. I was convinced there was no chance I would go into a field where I would need to know any math. How could I, I thought, I’m not any good at math?
Well guess what? I use math everyday. Algebra was the worst for me — dealing with formulas and equations gave me headaches. But today being a reporter means doing lots of data analysis. I literally work with spreadsheets every day. The high school me would be stunned to see me sitting there today at my computer with 400 fields of data on the screen trying to write just the right formula to calculate the numbers so I can find the answers to my reporting questions.
And here’s another thing about math — people who can do it rule the world. The best of them run banks, trade stocks and advise big companies. That’s because math equals money.
About six years ago, I started reading every book, magazine or newspaper article about managing money because I had changed jobs and gotten a big raise and yet somehow never seemed to have any money saved at the end of the month. After six years, I’m a much better money manager now but that took a lot of work.
All the things that impact your financial life the most — negotiating a raise, selling a house, buying a car — can require fairly sophisticated calculating. Learn it now so you’ll be ready.
No. 2: Foreign language is a great skill to learn
If there is one thing you can learn in high school and in college that could help guarantee you will always be able to find a decent job, it’s knowing a second language. If I were in high school today I’d look into studying Chinese, Indian, Arabic and Spanish in that order. Those are the languages that will probably prove most useful over your lifetimes, and most in demand in the coming decades.
I took five years of Spanish in middle and high school and did not become fluent. That is probably the biggest missed opportunity of my life. Last fall I started taking Spanish courses again just because I so badly want that skill now. And I could already have it for free if I had just really tried to learn it in high school. But back then, I just didn’t see how Spanish was relevant in my life. I didn’t know any Spanish speakers and had no expectation that I’d ever travel internationally. Yet, last year journalism took me to Argentina and Turkey.
And technology is making the world a smaller and and more inter-connected place. It’s a good bet that when you are my age, there is going to be some sort of international element to your work.
No. 3: Effort is important
I had a bit of an attitude problem in high school and college. My thinking went sort of like this. If I didn’t care about a class or find it interesting, I didn’t bother to put much work into it. I figured I would learn only what I cared about and skate by everywhere else.
This is a destructive attitude and if you have it, you must change. If you can even start to change now it will save you a lot of headaches in the work world.
Here’s why that view doesn’t work. In every job, there is the stuff you like and want to do and the stuff you hate but have to do anyway. And you must do both the stuff you like and the stuff you hate well.
By not doing the stuff you don’t like, you begin to set a pattern or a habit for yourself and that is very hard to change. For instance, when I didn’t like doing something in school, I got in the habit of putting it off to the last minute and often times, I ended up turning it in late. But in my job, I can’t be late. I have to make my deadlines or else.
And to this day, I have to fight the urge to procrastinate on things that I’d rather not do so I can work on things I want to do. It all has to get done and it all has to be done well. The sooner you can learn to put maximum effort into everything you need to do, whether you love to do it or hate to do it, the better for your career no matter what you end up doing.
No. 4: You can change.
This is an important one. I think there are a lot of high school and college kids who find they have trouble with a subject or a class or a concept and they simply think, “I guess I’m not any good at this.” And at that moment, it may be true. But you can master the things that give you trouble.
For instance, I’ve never liked talking on the phone. But journalists talk on the phone all day. In my first reporting job for a tiny newspaper in a small town, I would get so nervous if I had to call the mayor or the police chief or anyone of stature. I remember sitting at my desk and starting to dial the numbers but then hanging up quick. And mentally I’d have to give my self a little pep talk. “You can do it.” Then I’d try again. That just seems so funny to me now. Today, I don’t think twice about calling the school board president or the mayor or even the governor.
The point is, don’t write yourself off for any career now because you think you’re just not suited for it. Maybe you think you’re too shy or don’t write well enough to be a journalist. Well, you can learn and you can change and someday you’ll surprise yourself by how good you can get at something you never thought you’d be able to do.
No. 5: Try to stay at your first job for three years
When I was in my first newspaper job, I read an article giving advice for people who were just out of school. This was the one really good piece of advice from that column that stuck with me.
The author argued that you’ll need three years to learn any business and for the good work habits that will make you a good employee to really become automatic. I think this is very true. If you’re jumping from job to job early on, you may never get the basic background understanding of how the business you’re in really works and you’ll need to understand that later on.
So there it is. What did I leave out? What do you wish you knew in high school?
Permalink | Comments (8) | Categories: Colleges and Universities, Foreign Language and Study Abroad, My Favorite Posts, Teaching and Learning
Comments
By Mary
December 18, 2005 7:59 PM | Link to this
Hillary, your interesting comments might be even more interesting if you share with us some more details about your experiences. For example, how was your college experience different from what you thought it would be?By Hillary
December 17, 2005 1:07 AM | Link to this
I say this only being a few years out from high school… Graduating and all of those senior activities are important and great memories but chances are if you take the ten people you are closest to in the last weeks of school, you’ll probably only keep in serious contact with 3 of them past the first summer after graduation. Oh and college, whether it’s community college or you go away to school, is not like you expect it to be.By Jeff
December 16, 2005 6:30 PM | Link to this
Scott, that’s great advice. It should be required reading for every high school student. I just gave a printout to my son to read. Thanks. JeffBy Scott Elliott
December 16, 2005 4:40 PM | Link to this
Well, if I’d have really stuck with it and took Spanish in college, I think I might have been able to stay skilled enough to converse. In Argentina last year, a colleague who was with me was able to manuever passably with what he remembered from college Spanish. But in general, I think you’re right. I would have had to care about learning it and keeping it, which probably would have required some travel to Spanish-speaking countries through the years to keep it up.By Dave
December 16, 2005 3:54 PM | Link to this
Excellent list, but I think you are selling yourself short on Spanish. Unless you use what you learn, you will forget it quickly. With no opportunities to speak Spanish, you would almost certainly have lost all your Spanish within a year or two, anyway.By susan
December 16, 2005 3:34 PM | Link to this
scott, my doctoral program at OSU is well-represented by Pacific rim international students. we were talking one day in class about the years spent learning spanish … how it’s so last millenium. the Chinese students told us not to worry about learning Chinese because they are all required to learn English. We weren’t comforted by that insight. Somebody has to be encouraging each of us to learn the languages of our friends, competitors, rivals and anyone else out there who might pose a challenge, economically or otherwise. Don’t be too hard on yourself about the typos. Bruce’s column the other day convinced me they are meaningless.By Scott Elliott
December 16, 2005 2:00 PM | Link to this
Oops. Changed “new” and a couple of other typos. Should have took the time to re-read this post once more! On languages, I just think schools haven’t caught up to the realities of the world yet. China and India are going to be our most important trading partners in the future and U.S. involvement in/conflicts with the Arab world don’t seem to be going away. That’s why I put those languages first. Spanish speaking continues to grown in the U.S. and it’s also a useful language generally when traveling. BTW, I did recently read somewhere about how Chinese instruction in growing in cities like New York and Chicago. I think those other languages will continue to catch on. That’s another good reasons to know those languages. Demand for people who can teach them may increase!By Mary
December 16, 2005 1:29 PM | Link to this
Nice to know journalists/ reporters also make mistakes (“knew”/”new”). Actually, I really like your list. In your discussion of foreign languages, it is interesting to note there was only one European based language while the others were Asian. However, most school districts probably still offer only European based foreign languages. Why do you suppose that happens? Also,in your discussion on procrastination and balking at busy work to turn in, that sometimes happens when students are chronically underchallenged with the material.