Career advice in difficult B-school times

With the US economy stuttering as it is, and threatening to pull others down with it, its certainly a nervous time for fresh graduates (expecting to pass-out this year). Lehman & Merill were aspirational names for the fin dudes on campus. I remember people in my batch looking at these names with awe; the toppers knew they'd have a good shot at cracking into 'em; the bourgeois, on the other hand, mocked them for being so 'topper-friendly'.

For the two years I spent on campus, there was never really a fear of not getting the job you wanted. Of course you couldn't really get into a consult with a shitty academic record. But people were fairly chilled out about where they'd be going.

Now though, I imagine the situation is quite different. There's a good chance that the big names (and even the not-so-big ones), would be either entirely missing or recruiting in lesser numbers compared to previous years - more so for fin, but generally across sectors. I still expect 100% placements in the IIMs without too much trouble. But, people will, by and large, not get the companies and offers that they'd have thought of getting 6 months back.

While the situation might seem grim at the outset, there are still a lot of very good companies and jobs out there. This will force the students to look beyond those top few that they'd always been dreaming of, and they'd find that indeed there are still excellent jobs for the taking.

They do not offer the high pay-packets and aura of the large i-banks, but they can still offer roles which are deemed challenging. Its a hit the students should be expecting and willing to digest. They've put in a lot of effort to get here, no doubt. But a slowdown can be thought of as an opportunity to explore what you want to do - try out another industry or profile perhaps for a few years.

That's where in fact I think the problem lies. Folks want the first job to be in the exact field they always thought they'd fit in best. Instead, if you can change your line of thinking to - what could this job add to my profile, to my skills, which would help me in the long run - then it would make it more objective comparing profiles on offer (as opposed to pay packets & brand name).

Now, of course, the question would arise, what's 'long run'? Most people I knew on campus did not know what they wanted to do 5 years - 10 years, down the line. They either had a notion that they'd want to be in a certain field, and/or, have made tons of money by then, or, just generally doing well in life.

Lets consider these one by one.

If you're sure that you want to be in a certain field, its best that you look at all the jobs on offer that would give you skills and build your profile to do well in that field.

If you're looking to generally do well in life, look for skills that you feel you need to build. Then look for jobs that will help you build those skills to make you a more well-rounded individual. Instead, if you're extremely good at something, you can leverage that and become an expert in jobs that require that skill.

And, if all you want is to be a billionaire by 35, then there's prolly just a coupla ways to do it:

- Work your ass off. Lose your life. And with a coupla lucky breaks you'd get there by 35.
- Open your own firm with that big business idea, work your ass off, and you just might be the next Larry Page or Sabeer Bhatia.

[ Of course, there's 'marry-a-billionaire'... but I don't think I'd count that as a 'career option' :) ]

All in all, what I just want people to realize for themselves is this - there's still a lot of time left in life. You might as well live it up now, rather than lose sleep over where your next job is going to be. Do your research well, think 'long run', and that elusive happiness will come-a-courting.

xx