Some people base your perceived “Brain Power” by your time in college and then above that, what college you went to. I on the other hand have found the opposite to be true.
The people that I find the most brilliant are the ones who did not go to college, or if they did, it was a college without a big name. Rarely have I met an individual, who graduated from a prominent institution of higher learning, that wielded a more than average intellect or emotional intelligence.
What I have found is that employers and collegues use this “Higher Education” footnote as a vetting process by which they can suspend personal judgement and instinct about peoples abilities.
Phrases such as the following are becoming commonplace in corporate America.
“We thought he knew what he was doing, I mean he graduated Harvard.” Or “He came with all the right credentials, it’s not my fault that he ran the company into the ground, I was just doing what he told us to.”
My judgment has always been “Prove it to me”. Make me believe that you are smart, I don’t care whether you are a mechanic or a CEO, there are no free passes as to who I deem intelligent.
Premium Member
Portland, Oregon