620: Mark Herschberg | MIT Professor on Skills You Don't Learn in College

You’ve heard me express time and again that college will never give you all the skills you need to succeed, but it’s rare that you hear it from a professor himself. Mark Hershberg is a seasoned executive and cybersecurity expert who bridges the divide between business and technology.

He has first hand experience in starting, growing, and fixing startup companies spanning 10 different verticals and has helped two Fortune 500 companies with their internal startup initiatives, and helped create educational programs at MIT and HBS. Having also written the book The Career Toolkit, Mark is not the kind of professor that teaches what he’s never done himself.

I’m looking forward to diving in and hearing from this MIT professor on skills you don’t learn in college.

Things you will learn in this episode: 

[00:01 - 04:49] Opening Segment 

I introduce today’s guest, Mark Hershberg

Bio 

Be sure to check out http://www.travischappell.com/coaching 

Mark shares his background

Classic 80’s nerd

Dad was a Physician and Mom was a Teacher

Career influencers

[08:55 - 25:30] MIT Professor on Skills You Don't Learn in College

Mark’s perspective on the value of college

The value of being taught how to think 

College is overused and in need of reform

Shifting the model 

Where college started breaking and how to fix it 

The value of learning to pivot

The misconception around ‘lifetime jobs’ 

A degree doesn’t tell people the level of skill you have

Key skills that can’t be taught at college that jobs are looking for

Communication skills, networking, team building

Knowledge can always be taught 

These skills will make you more employable or more effective

Decisions that will help you learn the skills you won’t get from college

Going beyond the need to qualify 

What do you need to be successful in that role?

List the needed leadership and communication skills

Chunk down that list and teach yourself 

Create a peer learning group

Why some content gets pushed over other

 A word from our sponsor

[25:31 - 32:19] Making of the Career Toolkit

Mark talks about the inspiration behind the book 

Partnership with MIT

Making content available to everyone 

From notes to a book 

Who can get value from this

Readers 20 to 40

People who wished they knew this earlier 

HR and Executive teams

Content in the book

What to take away from the content 

Learning key skills 

Negotiation 

Networking 

Getting incrementally better to increase ROI on your career

[32:20 - 40:42] Closing Segment

Who you know or what you know?

Geometry analogy 

The deep need for both knowledge and communication

A connection that led to something important

Mark talks about meeting people in New York

One relationship leading to many other important ones

RaNDoM RoUnD

How to engage with Tom

Links below

Final words 

Tweetable Quotes: 

“I know people who got a four year degree from some top universities and went on and became a secretary or became the manager of some local retail store.” - Mark Hershberg

“Here is the secret to learning these things… You want to create peer learning groups.” - Mark Hershberg

“Once you start exploring these skills, what you're going to find is you'll recognize opportunities right in front of you you never saw before”. - Mark Hershberg

“Don't worry about trying to become world class, spend a little time… take a little of that time and get better at leadership, communicating, networking, negotiating; that's going to have a massive ROI.” - Mark Hershberg

Resources Mentioned:

The Career Toolkit

Connect with Mark on Twitter and LinkedIn. Go check out https://www.thecareertoolkitbook.com/ to learn networking skills that will be tools in your kit!

Get a FREE $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post at Indeed.com/network Offer valid through June 30th, 2021.

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