Where do you go to college? Still The Number One Filter for Employers

“You are always so honest.”

So said Alan.  “I appreciate that and can admit when I am wrong.”

Alan is a successful guy.  He lives in Madison, Connecticut.  He has made a great salary through medical-surgical pharmaceutical sales.  He did not attend a name brand college.

This led him to tell his son – who aspires to become an investment banker – that “where you go to college doesn’t matter.”

The wishful thinking nonsense of some leads to terrible counsel for others.  “It doesn’t matter where you go to college” must be one of the most ignorant statements spouted off by either well meaning adults who take singular examples, such as their own success, to set forth a general theory or bitter adults who dislike that they or their children are being judged by their college.

Let me clear: the talented usually find a way to reach success. I’m using talented very broadly to encompass both marketable skills and personal character.  We all can find someone who went to a low tier college and became a big success.  That does not prove that where he/she went to college didn’t matter.  The person might have found success faster or bigger had he/she attended Harvard.  Impossible to determine but reasonably easy to predict.

In Alan’s case, he’s been blessed with all the qualities that make someone a good salesman.  Athletic-looking, a great sense of humor that lessens what could be an intimidating presence, competitive, aggressive and so on.  He wasn’t a good student. But he has excellent people skills and tremendous drive.  He found the field that led him to success.  I should also note that he started his career in the 1990s.

Due to our career counseling work, we have been working with hundreds of young adults attempting to gain career building jobs.   The research is clear and our anecdotal evidence is clear: where one goes to college does matter for employment.  Thinking otherwise does not comport with reality.

Now… this is not to accentuate any need to go to top college.

But someone – like Alan’s son – who wanted to become an investment banker needed to do so if that was his dream.

This is the case in many prestigious fields.

It is not the case in others.   So I do not blindly tell people to attend the highest ranked school possible.  But I certainly will correct people who make claims that the name of the college has no relevance to success.