Why is University work experience perceived with Skepticism?

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I was with a group of friends recently. We just gotten out of an exam, and we’re so happy to finish another exam as we approach the end of our 5-years college life. One of my friends — let’s refer to him as Adam — is talking about applying for jobs after graduating, and he’s eager to join the workforce.

Adam is very smart, dedicated and has learned some handy skills from his numerous work experience…To be more exact, ‘university’ work experience. Moreover, he told us that he has been trying to apply for jobs, and every job he found required some experience with this language or that technology, which he learned from his work. However, none of the companies he applied for took his ‘university’ experience in consideration. Matter of fact, he was told that he needs ‘industry’ experience to work with them. Now while Adam talked about this in a sarcastic manner, my initial reaction was: Is that even a thing?

To put it in other words, I had a delima in mind, where I thought to myself: How exactly is University work experience different from industry work experience in his case? or dare I say, our case as fresh graduates? Because on one hand, you’ll learn/apply the same skill/craft eventually regardless of the setting. But on the other hand, the setting sometimes — if you think about it — matters depending on the position and the situation.

I’ll attempt to break it down, from my personal beliefs, how is ‘university’ work experience different from ‘industry’ work experience ? And if you’re a fresher like me, I’ll share what I would do trying to nail a first job after graduating.

What is an Experience?

To start things off, let us introduce what is an Experience. As usual, I like to start by looking at the Merriam-Webster dictionary’s definition of an experience, which defines it as a “skill or knowledge that you get by doing something” . Adding to that, the dictionary continued by implying that an experience is “the length of time that you have spent doing something (such as a particular job)”. Combining both definitions, we may deduce that an experience is a skill or knowledge which you have learned by doing it over a period of time.

With that being said, you could clearly see that the definitions had no focus on the setting of the experience. Moreover, this means that an experience is — technically — untied to a certain framework or location. So that small project you worked on by yourself where you learned skills X and Y is an experience. The steps you followed in that internet guide to achieve goal X is your first exposure to X, which hence leads to an early-developed experience. Anything you attempted, tried and repeated for a period of time is an experience that varies in size depending on how much you gave it from your time and energy.

All of the above should settle a good understanding of what consists an ‘experience’ as we’re about to dive deeper into the question at stake.

Industry Work Vs University Work: Common Ground

As a fresher, the experience you gained — in your field — from either your university or your industry would be:

1. An experience in which you worked on a project with a deadline and an end goal in mind.
2. An exposure to some concepts you may have never came across. Henceforth, you’ll (usually) be provided with mentorship to guide you with your first steps towards acing that concept.
3. An experience in which you were faced with challenges, and tried overcoming them, while learning and progressing steadily.
4. A personal milestone, which shaped your interests and changed your perceptions about certain ideas in your domain. Thus, you would motivate yourself to either:

(1) Improve your level at achieving the tasks you learned and worked on.

(2) Venture on finding something that interests you more, and proceed towards learning and acing that interest willingly.

In Adam’s case, he has checked all of the boxes above. He worked on various projects in College, learned the craft to build them, mastered the art of building them and repeated the cycle.

Therefore, you’ll wonder:

Is the ‘industry’ really different? What does it have that University does not?

The answer? It has something that’s subtle for us freshers, but has an increased weight for firms seeking our talents.

Industry Work Vs University Work: The Gap

I’ll give you the reason before-hand: It’s the Pace!

Let us elaborate on where the gap occurs. University work lacks the pace companies expect or require.

In your college on one hand, you are working at somewhat of a monotone pace on your ‘university’ projects. You are not learning them in an educational setting, but rather a professional one, while being at an academic institution. Assuming you’re not a procrastinator, you’re working at a steady pace periodically from the start of the term, till God-knows-when the deadline comes (i.e: end of semester, 1 semester later, 2 semesters later, etc.) until you get the job done, learn along the way, and call it an experience.

However, that is not always the case for the industry, and to further put it in context, I’ll put you in a firm’s shoes.

So… you’re a firm. Either a small or medium enterprise (SME) who’s trying to succeed largely in the market, or a large corporation with years of experience looking forward to make your next big cut.

Let me start with SMEs. If you’re a small company you might not have enough time and money to educate new employees, because — usually — you’re looking for people to come to the firm, with 5 to double-digit years of experience in what you seek, so they can get going, and make your business goals achieved. Time-to-market is the challenge you care about cause well… Time is money for you.

On the other hand, medium-sized companies, might have more time, but still face immense pressure to come out with a next-big-thing, so that they don’t fall into bankruptcy or get purchased by some larger corporation. Medium companies might have a larger team, and might be able to spend a week maybe to show you the ropes. However, it does not necessarily mean they will allocate the resources to mentor you.

It is worth mentioning that in very special cases, such as a new technology, SMEs might employ freshers who might have some experience (university included). Or, hey might venture to allocate resources teaching them.

Moving on, we’re left with large corporations. Such companies can allocate a year perhaps trying to teach you when in dire need to hire a fresher like you and me. Problem? They’ll get loads of applications from other freshers, which makes you either face fierce competition in getting hired or become a victim of strict selection.

Not to mention, that in all of the above there are always exceptions and special cases that might change the situation for you. But for the most part, this is how it usually goes nowadays.

What about internships?

Glad you asked… Internships are one of the ‘special cases’ I mentioned above.

It’s where companies irrespective of their size, would hire you to learn about you as an individual, your skills, potential and knowledge.

Internships on one hand, are a great ‘industry’ learning experience, where you are being provided with mentorship and guidance while working with them. You might even get a promotion to full time position in some cases.

On the other hand, internships might not always fulfill those promises, especially that companies who can afford to hire an intern, are allocating a somewhat slowed pace-of-work to accommodate their learning. The reason for that slowed-pace, is that you as a fresher, usually wouldn’t be able to do — as fast — what they do (with some exceptions).

It is undeniable that irrespective of whether you got promoted to a full time job, or you just spent that time being an encouraged curious intern, you ‘learned’ something. It was an ‘industry’ experience, a brief and rather…expository experience, as this was your early-developed ‘industry’ experience. You didn’t experience the full pace. You weren’t exactly an employee. You got a taste of the real thing, and this helped shaping your thinking and career-driven skills.

This bears the argument: Doesn’t internships solve this post’s whole problem?

Well… Not always!

Whether we like or not, internships are perceived very subjectively from one recruiter to another. Some recruiters might still find value in your internship, while others — due to risk assessment at the firm — need actual ‘industry’ experience, so that their hired employees would start delivering with high energy from day one.

So… Where does that leave us?

In the end, it is important to realize that it is technically neither your fault nor the recruiters’ fault. Because both of y’all are looking to fill a gap you need, in your respective situations.

Let me conclude with a question:

What would I do If I were you?

I would basically keep on getting experience whenever and wherever I can. The goal is getting as much quality experience as possible. Learn as much as you can, make side projects, and never stop applying. Look for what the market needs, and try to learn the skill that fits that need, regardless where you learn it: At home, in college, in your garage, in a firm… does not matter!

Don’t give up throughout this process, and always try to focus on developing yourself as a person. The job will come, the career growth is coming, and it is a matter of having some discipline, faith and a hint of optimism!