Who hasn't at one time in their adult life had to do a bit of career self-reflection? Unless you happen to have inherited stupendous amounts of money - and are quite happy to spend the rest of your life spending money you haven't earned - I assume you've probably been in a similar situation to me right now. I've just started my MBA so it's finally an opportunity to take a blank sheet of paper and think of what I really want to do next with my life!
I've NOT known what I wanted to do a few times already: when I was choosing what subject to study at university, what type of internship to apply for, what career move to make once I knew that investment banking wasn't my kettle of fish... So on the surface this is no different. But it's a thin surface because as soon as I start digging, I realise that for this to work, for me to really choose the right career at this junction, my approach has to be radically different.
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| Is the World really my oyster?! |
I have the luxury of not having any geographical or family constraints, and genuinely not being overly driven by money (anyone who's worked for Virgin will understand this!). So I have to throw all pre-conceptions out the window, and be as open-minded about all the opportunities and learnings of an INSEAD experience.
As the MBA programme lasts only 10 months, the careers team suggested that we do a bit of self-reflection ahead of joining. And whilst past experiences (both in school and at university) have instilled a fairly unequivocal disregard for the added-value of careers teams up to now, I was quite impressed the INSEAD careers crew during the Open Day so I therefore paid close attention to the links which they sent us.
The first was an on-line multiple choice test, called 'Career Leader', which generates a Professional Report revealing one's core interests, motivations, career aspirations, strengths and weaknesses, etc. I'm not usually a strong believer of such tests so I was absolutely dumb-struck when I started reading the computer-generated report an hour later. Unfortunately you need a login and password to take the test so you'll have to take my word for it, but it described me better than I could have done myself - and probably better than both my parents could have as well (hats off to Director of Harvard Business School's MBA Careers who developed the test!).
There were a few things which were out of sync, but clearly for a reason. I particularly laughed at the top 5 career path matches, which, in order of appearance, were (drum roll please):
1. Private Equity investment
2. Venture Capital
3. Sales management
4. Investment management
5. Investment banking
Sigh, sigh, and sigh again.
Who knows, I may have to eat my words if I end up back in London working in finance, but my little finger tells me that the likelihood of that is low. Thankfully my bottom match was Accounting which I was quite pleased about actually... nothing like a piece of paper confirming one's lack of interest in something!
The second notable link we were sent was to a video by Randy Pausch, a professor of computer science and virtual reality at Carnegie Mellon University, who learned that he was terminally ill with pancreatic cancer, a terminal illness, in September 2006. He gave an upbeat lecture entitled 'The Last Lecture: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams' which became a popular video on YouTube.
I'm not 100% convinced that I know quite yet how to achieve my childhood dreams, but it's an inspiring life story, and it's certainly made me joggle my memory to recall my childhood ambitions. The first one I recall was one when I was very young and proclaimed to whoever wanted to hear that I wanted to become a baker (I loved French patisseries - some things never change). The other one was that I wanted to become a professional athlete. However, I soon realised that I was pretty average at baking and only marginally above average in sports!
Whilst I've tried to curb my love of French patisseries since, the passion for sport still remains intact today. In fact, I'll never forget a discussion I had in my first week of university. I mentioned to a friend that I was really interested in careers in sport - anything from sports commentating to organising events - and she responded, in a visible state of shock: 'You have come to Oxford in order to become a SPORTS commentator?!!!'. Well, she did have a point, sport is hardly the most intellectual of disciplines on the surface, but like anything, in order to be exceptional in the world of sport, it requires the same sort of core skills as in any other aspect of life: knowing your own strengths and weaknesses, setting clear goals, being passionate, surrounding yourself with the right people, working hard, taking risks, etc.
And on that note, Pausch spends much of his lecture talking about ambition and the 'brick walls' which can sometimes complicate the realisation of ones dreams:
"Remember, brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people."
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| Plan B? |
As the title suggests, Rowling suggests that failing can actually be hugely beneficial, even if it may not seem that way at the time.
"It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all - in which case, you fail by default."
So whilst today I can confirm that I am neither a baker, nor a professional athlete, I'm more than ever prepared to challenge myself and take risks. And if all else fails, I know there's always Plan B of throwing on my evening wear and becoming Superwoman.
