State University Vs. Golf Bag

For readers curious about the title of this post my immediate reaction is: good. The intent was to be slightly less than clear in the hopes of attracting a few more sets of eyes to a curious and arguably downright confusing title of a post.

In short the title State University vs. Golf Bag is an oversimplification of both the real and merely perceived differences amongst both current students/recent grads and employers when it comes to preconceived notions about typical state school graduates and the more highfalutin golf bag toting, country club lifestyle, high society, upper level executive style of manager that new hires want need to impress.

So, what's a young chap who recently got his diploma from a public school to do to fit in? When invited on his first golf outing with customers should he be concerned that he's more likely to have an Iowa State University golf bag than a Harvard golf bag?

The short answer is that worrying only does any good insofar as it can serve as motivation to be prepared in an effort to mitigate whatever worst case scenario is feared. Does it do any good to worry about failing a calculus final? Well, if it motivates you to study hard and put in more than enough time preparing then the worrying actually did do a significant amount of good. There can definitely be a positive aspect to having a legitimate level of concern.

When it comes to conceivably feeling inferior simply because the golf bag you're carrying has the team logos of a school that doesn't rank as well in the US News and World Reports ranking of the top academic universities as the college your work golfing partner graduated from the key is to realize that whatever inferiority issue you're grappling with is probably all in your head.

In many instances the absolutely worst thing that you can do is to let your nerves get the better of you.

Here's the single best piece of advice that you'll hear on this topic and it carries over to job interviews, asking someone out on a date, and yes - going tee shot for tee shot with someone that went to a "better" school.

If you only take one piece of advice away from this entire website remember this next sentence because it might be one of the most sound pieces of advice that you ever hear.

If you're confident be yourself. If you're not confident be confident - ooze confidence.

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