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What Harvard doesn't teach you

3 points by mentordial ↗ HN
I graduated with a Computer Science degree from a top university - Harvard in 2011. It was hard and a great experience. When I graduated, I felt like I was ready for anything. Then, I started a venture backed company with two people from Harvard Business School, and I was shocked to realize that everything I learned at Harvard wasn't helpful at all.

I didn't know how to negotiate or express myself. I couldn't communicate well. I had to pitch my idea to investors and didn't know how. I was not ready to start a company at all. Don't get me wrong. I knew how to program, but the soft skills was lacking. I feel like my Harvard education didn't help me much other than give me the connections that I needed to start the company. That's why I support a company like mentordial.com that lets you book a call with top industry experts.

Do any of you feel the same way about your college education? Did it prepare you for the real world?

7 comments

[ 3.8 ms ] story [ 17.0 ms ] thread
jleyank
Why would you expect a cs degree to improve your business or communication skills? I assume it covered aspects of software design and development and possibly aspects of the hardware as well. Might have had a math or logic background. All useful in designing and creating a product.

If you wanted to know soft skills and business savvy I would think a business degree of some sort was a better choice. Nothing you describe involves making the product. Determining the product to make and how to fund it, yeah, but you had two biz grads for that. Maybe they saw you as the tech lead? It looked like a good combination of talent assuming you wanted to be the tech lead.

If it was biz heavy, perhaps you’d be writing about how you’re unable to follow technical discussions or be taken seriously as a developer? Different skill sets and approaches.

brlimie
I disagree. I think College should equip you with the soft skills you need to succeed no matter what the degree. Computer science grads need to know how to negotiate their salaries and engage in technical communication.
gardenhedge
my cs degree had a entrepreneurship course and a how computers affect society course
lesserknowndan
I guess that, as this was posted by an account called mentordial, we can’t claim this is a deceptive post…
francocalvo
Do you support or do you work for that company?
sloaken
Is this just an advertisement?

Your account name is the same as the name of your business.

You have 3 posts in 8 months, all of which reference your company.

superdeeda
No, because I didn’t expect my academic CS and maths education to teach me about web development and startups. I could gain these skills easily enough during a few internships and my first year as a dev.