the financial times calls us tribal workers

“Her case is symptomatic of our times. In recent years, there has grown up a culture of discontent among the highly educated young something that seems to flare up, especially, when people reach their late 20s and early 30s. It arises not from frustration caused by lack of opportunity, as may have been true in the past, but from an excess of possibilities.”

Ne’er a truer article written about us. See the full Financial Times story here.

Tags: discontent, financial times, jobs, management consultant, tribal workers, work

today I cried in an informational interview

I went to Ravenswood and the CEO of a content company asked me what I wanted to do with my life. So I told him:

Something driven by qualitative market research and consumer insights, like the development of a new product or service, I said. Something where I can listen, and learn.

He remarked this was rather abstract, and tried again, instead asking what gets me up in the morning. So I told him:

Social impact. Using business skills to make a difference. Going to Uganda and doing market research on HIV diagnostic devices that would be used by engineers and R&D folks at medical device companies to create a low-cost way to test babies for diseases.

I started to feel my eyes glaze over. He nodded. And then asked me, “When was the last time you cried?”

It was all sort of disarming, and alarming. Yes, I cried during an informational interview.

Tags: ceo, crying, hiv, hiv diagnostic, informational interview, ravenswood, uganda

job club blues

Yesterday I mentioned to my job club — the small group of second-year, first-year, and part-time students that I meet with every Monday at lunchtime to talk about job search progress — that I might have to take a bartending job after we graduate from business school in  month or so in order to continue my daytime hunt for the perfect post-MBA job.

They did not find this very funny.

Well, some of them did. I mean, the idea of a bartender with an MBA? A bartender who doesn’t own or operate said bar? It’s a bit silly. But we live in uncertain times, and the MBA’s blessing and curse is that it’s so broad — we’re both imminently employable and totally unspecialized.

So, at some point, I’ll need income. For food, for a roof over my head, for birthday and wedding presents for my friends — and it’s not going to cut it to be around without any sort of job.

It’s true that while bartending may not be everyone’s go-to solution, you can make good money doing it. So do it I will, if necessary. In the meantime, I’ve not given up hope that the perfect job is out there for me, waiting, patiently, while I dust off my olive forks and double jiggers.

Tags: bartender, business school, job club, Kellogg School of Management, MBA