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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