I graduated from the best engineering and MBA schools in India. I’m an IIT-IIM.
When I started working at Lehman, I had a level of self-importance that was significantly above my skill set. This led to some bad attitude and work quality issues. I took a few months to realize that my educational credentials had gotten me the opportunity to work at Lehman, I was not going to be put on a pedestal because of them. I still had to prove that I could deliver on the work. And, by the way, I was surrounded by way more accomplished people!
When four of us 25-year old IIT-IIM grads with little work experience started Twish, we targeted MBA colleges in Delhi for selling our services. We thought these second-tier colleges would roll out the red carpet given our educational credentials. Instead, we found that most of them didn’t care to talk to us, and the few that did asked us what tangible outcome we could deliver for them.
I’ve learnt that past credentials can be useful for opening doors. However, once you’ve stepped through, the only thing that matters is what you deliver, not what you’ve done in the past.
“Nobody cares, work harder.” – @diddy