The biggest lie we tell kids about college

For more than two decades, I have sat across tables from thousands of families. Their backgrounds of cities, incomes and aspirations may vary but every conversation begins with the same question: “Which college has the best placements?”As a consultant and a parent, I understand where that question comes from, for parents. For them, it is the biggest financial decisions of their lives connected with their children with far reaching consequences. And I also appreciate why it is the first thing that crosses the students’ mind.Somewhere they have absorbed that college is a four-year ticket to a secure future. There is no denial that this place of uncertainty from where this question emerges, will decide the next 20 years of someone’s life.Also Read: UK regains edge among international studentsEvery time I come across this question, there is something that disturbs me. And it has nothing to do with adequate placements, or lack of it, or even pandering to the rhetorics of should education be reduced to placements etc.Placements absolutely do matter. Only we seem to be looking at it from the lens of colonial mindset where securing a degree was confirmation of job security.In today’s world, that question is wrong. We are delusional if we believe that answering that question will open up the right direction for a safe investment to be made.Also Read: Study abroad is getting harder & India is getting smarter about itTwenty years in the industry, I believe the right question we need to ask is: “Who will my child become in the next four years?”The answers to the two will be starting point for two completely different journeys.Dear Parents, I want you to pause before you check another ranking, compare salary package, and spend a few lakhs on tuition, profile building, counselling, overseas visits, entrance coaching or applications, living costs and the list is never ending. I want you to do the math on your tangible investment not on a projection visualised through college rank.If your child studies abroad, the investment can easily cross ₹1–3 crore depending on the destination, programme and living costs. Now ask yourself one uncomfortable question.“Am I investing in a degree or am I investing in my child's ability to create value in the world?”The two parts in the question are not the same.My two cents for the students: your degree, CGPA or university ranking will never define your career. However, what will stand you in good stead is the unglamorous. And this entails building intrinsic qualities of curiosity, consistency, problem solving, communication, relationships, adaptability, courage to fail, and resilience to start again.The college only gives you the playground for you to act on ideas and learn from them. The fact remains that it is you who will have to play.The biggest lie we have manged to build in the last twenty years is that universities are placement factories. In every Indian living room, education is discussed in the same breath as sizes of packages, campus placements and ROIs. Funny thing, is we are trying to force education into an Excel sheet. To amplify the absurdity of it let me draw an analogy.Imagine entering a restaurant where someone else decides what you will eat. You never see the menu, or get to choose the dishes. You simply consume whatever is placed before you. Would you enjoy that meal?Probably not. But that’s exactly how many students build careers!The curriculum decides what they learn. The college decides whom they meet. The placement office decides where they interview. The recruiter decides their first job.And what does the student do? The student simply waits.Waiting has become a career strategy. And that should worry all of us.The world has changed. Unfortunately, our mindsets continue to be an extension of the colonial mindset: an endorsed degree on paper is equal to a secured job.In the meantime, AI has rewritten the rules. Today, a twenty-year-old can traverse far more in shorter time. Using AI, he can build a financial model, create marketing campaigns, write software, analyse customer behaviour, build presentations edit videos, research industries, launch business, design products. In short, he can solve problems faster by learning faster with AI.Let this sink in, the winners of tomorrow will not be those who possess degrees but those who know how to learn faster than everyone else.Let me reiterate this with a recent anecdote that unfolded in my counselling chamber.Two bright students with impressive grades walked in. Both wanted to study business; were considering similar universities; and dreamt of successful corporate careers. I began with a simple question, “What exactly do you want to do?”. The first replied,” I want to work in finance.”“What kind of finance?” was my next question. He was silent. The second smiled confidently, “I want to do business.” What role, I asked. Marketing, operations, consulting, sales, entrepreneurship, product management? Another silence. I followed it up with simpler questions."Have either of you spoken to ten professionals doing the job you dream about?""No."Read annual reports? Interviewed founders? Shadowed a CFO? Attended industry conferences?To each their response was a ‘no’ that turned uncomfortable.It was sad to observe that in this day, their career planning had happened inside living rooms. And not inside industry.That is becoming our biggest educational challenge. We have confused information with preparation. Students can rattle off university rankings, acceptance rates, scholarships, campus life.And yet many have never examined a company’s annual report, spoken to recruiters, analysed job descriptions. They have never understood what employers actually expect.Ironically, students spend years preparing to enter college but are never prepared to leave it.What we have to understand from the employer’s perspective is that when he hires a BCom graduate he isn’t hired for the BCom. Instead, the employer hires a financial analyst, auditor, taxation specialist or a valuation professional. Degrees don't create careers. Professional identity does.Similarly, A BBA graduate is hired as recruit marketers, supply chain professionals, sales managers, operations specialists, business analysts etc.From both illustrations, the answer is simple, the degree opens the first door but it is skills that determine every door after that.So, when parents ask me about packages after graduation, I ask them a simple question, “what value will your child build from Day One?It may be ruthless but it is the truth. And we should begin this kind of conversation instead of projections from university rankings et al. We forget the scheme of things: salary is the outcome of value creation. We seem to be chasing our dreams from the other end.In my twenty years of working with students, entrepreneurs, corporate leaders and universities, I have learnt one life lesson. Education is not about buying certainty. Education is about building capabilities because capability creates confidence; confidence creates opportunity; and opportunity creates careers.In my next article, I will explain why so many students, especially from top universities abroad with degrees in business, economics, engineering, psychology and Liberal Arts etc, graduate with more skills be it interpersonal or technical, and why they are better equipped to enter career paths than someone being spoon fed in India. I will take you through how families can help build what I call a Career Architecture from the very first semester.Let’s remember, the biggest risk today is not choosing the wrong university abroad or in India. It is graduating without knowing who you are becoming.