Remember that children’s book Are You My Mother? It’s about a baby bird who hatches when his mother is away, and he falls out of the nest. Throughout the book, he searches for his mother, approaching a dog, a plane, a cow, and even a steam shovel and asking them the titular question. (I don’t want to spoil it for you, but it’s safe to say he finds her by book’s end.)
This variation on the “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” story is how I’ve approached business school — looking for the right fit. Lucky for me, the program seems aligned with my plan. Consisting of 28 six-week courses, it aims to give students a well-rounded view of the business world. I figure, out of 28 topics, I should be able to find a calling.
It’s worked for me before. As an undergrad, I decided to study journalism for lack of a better idea. I had been on the yearbook staff in high school and enjoyed it, and nothing else interested me more. I figured I could find a way to make a living.
Halfway through college, I was less optimistic and a bit more concerned. After fielding that same old question time after time — so what are you going to do with a journalism degree? — I still didn’t have an answer.
The thing is, I don’t love writing (ironic, yes?), I hated reporting, and my design skills weren’t exactly inspiring. Panic was starting to hit.
Then, my very last semester, I took a class and at last found my calling: Editing. Here, finally, was something I both excelled at and enjoyed. My sigh of relief was profound. (It wasn’t until after I graduated that I realized there wasn’t exactly a plethora of editing jobs out there.)
Why the walk down memory lane? Lately, I’ve been turning to this experience as a reminder that it can take time to find the right fit. Over the past six months, I’ve approached each class like that baby bird, asking each time, “Are you the one?” Through Strategic Analysis and Decision Analysis to Organizational Behavior and Economics to Leadership and back to Economics again — is this the one?
Unfortunately, so far, the answer has been a resounding “No.” And a different sort of panic has started to set in. This time, the stakes feel higher. Going to school while working full-time and paying both tuition and a mortgage tend to make you feel that way.
Luckily, this session is waning; we only have three classes left, and then we begin again. I’m already gearing up to ask my question when I start Technology Management and Financial Accounting in a couple of weeks. I’m just a bit worried that both will answer “No” once again.
If it happens, I’ll pull out that undergrad anecdote once more to remind myself that some things — especially important things, like careers — often take time. And sooner or later, I’m bound to hear one answer back, “Yes.”
How did you come to do what you do? Is it what you studied, or did you just fall into it? Do you think, like me, that something else might be out there that challenges you just as much? Did any of you find your career by going back to school?
