After graduating from Utah State, I went to work for Coltrin & Associates, a hard-driving, New York-based PR firm. There I was thrown into the water, expected to swim, and given every menial task imaginable. As I’ve moved into management over the years, I’ve had to teach and mentor many recent grads. My experience thus far: Some schools, “Branded” schools (tempting, but I’m not going to mention school names), put it into the heads of graduates that upon leaving the workforce, they can enter a company mid-level. They’re too good for the typical grunt work that most ‘newbies’ are asked to do. They’re ready to manage accounts!  I’ve come to call this the “Harvard Syndrome”. That’s not to say that graduates from great and prominent schools can’t exhibit humility and eagerness to learn. But too many of these graduates are extremely difficult to teach and direct. I have a buddy at another agency who will no longer hire grads from certain schools. A “branded” grad versus  a humble and teachable one from a mediocre school? I’ll take the latter every time.