So, what do you want to do after school?

This questions is part of the holy trinity of business school introductions. Besides "Where are you from" and "What have you been doing before school", "What do you want to do after school" has been answered numerous times by me and my classmates especially in the beginning of out time at Stanford.

Theres a little problem though. A lot of people come to business school because they want to be exposed to different industries or functions, might be looking for a career change or want figure out what ultimately gets them excited. Answering "What do you want to do after school" therefore becomes quite difficult and usually leads to "Well, I want to try out different things and then see what I like".

Funny enough the big Stanford admissions questions is: "What matters most to you and why" accompanied by a little "Where do you see yourself after business school". Its interesting to see that I, along many, many other classmates answered this question, got admitted and now say "Well, I want to try out different things and then see what I like" when asked about what to do after school.

I believe it is totally fine to not know what ones goal in life is and where one wants to devote all energy and resources to. Actually, I find thinking about this quite scary. I like to have options and I like to be able to take opportunities once they come along. A narrow focus on one specific topic makes me feel that I am actively shutting out a lot of other options. An MBA compared to another Masters Degree is basically the result of that fear. Getting an MBA means getting a very generalist education. Joining consulting kind of is the same deal.

I wonder whether I will at some point find that ONE thing that I want to do or whether I will continue to flip-flop. One can never try everything out and be 100% sure. I sometimes wonder whether that fear of commitment and that constant search for better options is a characteristic of our generation. I for sure don't only see it in professional life.

Cheers + bis bald,
TIM