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I’ve written before about Conde Nast’s Portfolio magazine, a high end glossy for business types, and I can’t say enough about the excellence of their blog coverage. An offbeat item posted today on the Tech Observer blog goes way beyond business and gets down to real life advice to tell students as they graduate from high school. While all of it is good advice, I’m particularly struck with #1, #3, and #4.

While I had excellent grades in high school and was National Honors Society and all that, once I hit college none of that really mattered anymore. I also got excellent grades in college, but once I got my first job it didn’t matter again. Grades are a way to open doors for college and the first job when the person doing the selecting has little else to go on. Once you get there, you have to prove yourself with your skills and your knowledge. Once I was looking for my second job they never asked what my grades were in college. They asked what I knew.

While I remember various items from Chemistry and a little bit of Calculus, I’ve never used either. I have used Algebra, but I can’t say I’ve ever seen a use for knowing the derivative of a function.

Oh, and I largely stopped finding new music after high school. Even with my iPod, I purchase about three albums per year (though one was Lily Allen, that I’m still listening to). You won’t be cool anymore kids, sorry.

Any other tips for graduating seniors?