More from Angela Ahrendts

Your great education is what got you the interview, but it is who you truly are that will get you the job.

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Angela Ahrendts

Ball State University Commencement 2008, 2008

The Story Behind This Quote

Ahrendts structured her speech around the concept of 'Core Values'—the guiding principles that she argued are a person's most important and enduring assets. She shared how her own core values, developed in her Indiana childhood long before she set foot on a corporate campus, had remained the guiding force of her career through three decades in fashion and business. When interviewing candidates, she told the graduates, she reminded them that their education is what earned them the interview—but character is what earns the job. Getting to understand a person's character in less than an hour of conversation is how she determined cultural compatibility. Her father's wisdom anchored this insight: 'You can teach people anything, but you can't teach them to care.' Caring, she said, was the core value that no resume could demonstrate.

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