I was just out of university and at the end of my first week in work when an older colleague took me aside, in the pub, inevitably. “You seem like a nice guy,” said this careworn veteran, who might have been 32 at the time, “but you give the impression that you’re studying journalism, not practising it.”
He had a point, which I took to heart. But this exchange came back to me as I read the latest headlines about how anxious today’s employers seem about their newest recruits.
Deloitte and PwC have felt the need to give their youngest UK staff extra coaching after concluding their years in Covid lockdowns and restrictions had left them less adept at networking and speaking up in meetings, the FT reported this month.