Mayberry 2005: Themes

Dr Reimann: Any other comments on that? I think in some way, one of the important themes of a discussion like this with students because they hear so much, and there is sort of gut level truth associated with it. But actually hearing about how that plays out in individual careers: the blend of formal and informal. The attitude has to be there because by and large rarely will a firm spoon feed which implies that the person needs the motivation, needs the attitude, and then on top of it, needs the skills. The market place is changing much too rapidly and in many punishing ways. So firms can't necessarily hire for life and then also be very patient that the employees will take all these various initiatives. It is funny how through teams and a number of other things opportunities come up and you have thousands of ways to say no thank you. And it will all sound logical on the day you say it. But then later you can look back and say those were things even though they weren't pretty and they weren't that clear that was an opportunity to learn something adjacent; next to; related to the skills I already had, that would have been a good thing to tie together with some other things that are now so clearly needed. So I‘d say that you need to come to terms with that and the comments made today I think are very helpful, the combination of the formal and informal and the number of ways in which companies and jobs are training, some of which you can kind of see happening: reading outside of your company literature via professional literature, continuing education and so on. You will see all sorts of things that will enrich your overall knowledge set. That is my own bit of preaching. I have been at this thing; you talked about long careers; I just passed 55 years of some kinds of work. I started off as a lab technician at a competitor of yours: Colgate in Jersey City in the 1950s. So a very, very good place to start. But anyway, are there any other questions or comments that allow you to sort of tap into the rich careers and current active business knowledge that enrich your own experience here at Tech?