What school doesn't teach young people about their first job

The incentives and structures of academia don't map to the private sector in a few key ways.

Now that I have college-aged kids, I’ve been thinking more than usual about life paths.

Mainly I’ve been considering the daunting transition most of us make from the realm of school to the realm of work.

A good education is a wonderful thing. But the mechanisms inherent in the education system are poor preparation for the environment most young people move into after graduation.

I’m thinking specifically of a certain type of student who is driven and bright and conscientious. They are accustomed to succeeding through hard academic work - but that kind of work doesn’t map well onto what the private sector requires.

These high achievers distinguished themselves in school by succeeding within a set of well-defined parameters. Their exams and papers were graded with numbers and letters. On the majority of these, there was a right answer or a wrong answer. They listened to their professors explain a particular domain, whether physics or art history, and then showed their grasp of the topic.

T…