In the Thomas Friedman’s article “How to get a Job at Google,” Laszlo Bock, the man in charge of hiring for Google, basically states that getting good grades and having a high GPA doesn’t always mean our students will land the job. Instead, Bock reveals that there are more important qualities. He refers to these qualities as “soft skills.” These skills include leadership, humility, collaboration, adaptability and loving to learn and re-learn. Bock reveals that the leadership that Google looks for in its employees is more than the traditional leadership that we see in schools, such as in clubs or teams. An effective leader can lead when necessary and be willing to step down and allow others to lead. This, he adds, requires a sense of humility. Humility is the ability to embrace the ideas of others and also be able to accept responsibility for anything that happens, either good or bad. There is no room for expertise, Bock adds. It is more important to be “innately curious and willing to learn.” Curiosity and a love of learning is what it takes to think outside the box and arrive at fresh ideas. In combination, all of these qualities make up the perfect employee.
My goal as an English teacher is to prepare my students for the “real world” that awaits them after graduation. I know that a lot of my students won’t attend college right after high school, or ever, and that is okay. Bock states that a “degree is not proxy for [the] ability to do any job,” and I agree. There are many people in our society who are very successful and are able to do what they love because they have a skill, not necessarily a college degree. Likewise, there are many people who have a college degree and end up working in a field not related in any way to what they spent many years studying- and that is okay too. What I would like to teach my students is that learning for the sake of learning is a powerful tool that no one can take away. I don’t just want to teach my students so that they are able to get a job; I want to help my students find what they enjoy so that they are able to make a meaningful life.
Friedman, T (2014, February 22). How to get a job at Google. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/23/opinion/sunday/friedman-how-to-get-a-job-at-google.html?_r=1
My goal as an English teacher is to prepare my students for the “real world” that awaits them after graduation. I know that a lot of my students won’t attend college right after high school, or ever, and that is okay. Bock states that a “degree is not proxy for [the] ability to do any job,” and I agree. There are many people in our society who are very successful and are able to do what they love because they have a skill, not necessarily a college degree. Likewise, there are many people who have a college degree and end up working in a field not related in any way to what they spent many years studying- and that is okay too. What I would like to teach my students is that learning for the sake of learning is a powerful tool that no one can take away. I don’t just want to teach my students so that they are able to get a job; I want to help my students find what they enjoy so that they are able to make a meaningful life.
Friedman, T (2014, February 22). How to get a job at Google. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/23/opinion/sunday/friedman-how-to-get-a-job-at-google.html?_r=1