Area radar: totally agree with you about grads(Talkdownman and HD have also said so in the past). They might be OK at knowing 'the book', but when it comes to something that's not in it, using their own initiative, they're lost.
As a finalist at Uni, with a current application to NATS, I can't help but feel a little concerned, as this sentiment has been raised several times that I've noticed.
It leads me to ask the question: "Do you feel that Graduate candidates, really, fail to laterally think at a higher percentage than non-graduates? Or is it more a case of: "Graduates think they know it all, but actually they are just the same as the rest of us.".
I personally hope for the second one, as in my case I'm well aware that a Music Degree isn't setting me up for ATCO training, and that indeed, passing the selection based on aptitude, followed by hard work and learning at CATC is the only way I can succeed, and it's exactly the same way as everyone else succeeds with NATS training!
I am just hoping that I'm not embarking on a journey where:
1. Being a graduate will be considered to disadvantage me, and
2. I will be discriminated against by collogues, both senior and peers, for holding a degree - I'm just a guy, just like anybody else, and I'd like to be viewed that way, on my merits as a guy, and not on how much student debt I've chosen to get into!
Note quite a rant, but I'm very anxious to begin to understand the basis of this argument.
Phil