Estimates for the future – Kommersant FM

Good people achieve the greatest career success, this is the conclusion reached by the Rabota.ru service and the Maximum Education educational platform during a study. They collected the opinions of almost 3 thousand economically active citizens from all regions of Russia. It turned out that heads of departments and directors are mainly appointed by those who studied at school with B grades. At the same time, more than 50% of respondents believe that academic performance is not related to a successful career. What do entrepreneurs think about this? Vladislav Viktorov will tell you.

Little is known about the school grades of the world’s most successful businessmen, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg. But there is information on the Internet that the founder of SpaceX, at the age of 12, created his first computer game and sold it for $500. He invested this money in stocks and went to Canada to use the dividends.

The creator of Facebook (owned by Meta, a recognized extremist corporation banned in Russia), was invited to work at Microsoft while still in college, all thanks to the fact that he wrote successful programs.

Perhaps good grades really don’t affect the prospects of a business. But for leadership positions in a company, the skills that excellent students develop in school can be useful, noted Kirill Didenok, founder and CEO of the Didenok Team advertising agency:

“When we talk about managers, especially in large corporations, here, rather, you need to have an academic approach to work. That is, those talents and character traits that help you get A’s on exams.”

Data from a survey by Raboty.ru and Maximum Education showed that there are almost no C students in the top management, as well as excellent students: 8% of both. Directors, including general directors, are mostly good students – 57% of them, as well as former poor students (20%).

At the same time, it is those who received satisfactory grades who have important qualities for a businessman, as they learn to look for non-standard approaches, says Pavel Chesnokov, founder of the Pit Stop tire service chain:

“Among those with whom I communicate, there are neither excellent students nor poor students. Usually these are people who know how to get through life. The more complex the situation, the more experience you will have, accordingly. And standard, template solutions, of course, teach little. Rarely do these guys become some kind of businessmen.

In my experience, excellent students usually have good salaries, but are mid-level employees.”

It is noteworthy that, judging by the survey data, the majority of good people are not only among the heads of the company. They are also more likely than others to become department heads and team leaders. At the same time, Kommersant FM’s interlocutors are confident that a B in the certificate is not an indicator. Thus, entrepreneur Andrei Kovalev believes that school grades do not determine career prospects in any way:

“People change. Someone was a C student, was fond of slingshot shooting, but over time he entered the institute, where some hidden talents of either an organizer or a manager were awakened in him.

My grade point average at school was 4.5, I remember it very well, because at that time it was taken into account when entering college.”

Recent surveys show that Russian companies do not look not only at the certificate, but also at the diploma of the applicant. According to a study by the Rabota.ru portal, only 8% of employers pay attention to the candidate’s higher education. More than 40% of them believe that skills and relevant experience are more important than a document.

However, the exception, according to recruiters, is three specialties for which good grades in a diploma are important – these are doctors, pharmacists and lawyers.

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Maria Shirokova