Life Plan for the Ambitious but Undecided

I was recently appointed to the board of my company's Young Professionals Association. As part of our activities, we had an outreach to local high schools yesterday. A kid asked me how he could get a high paying job right out of school, and I thought of writing a small guide -- I'll share said guide with WSO. As a disclaimer, I don't have all the answers, I just wish someone had told me this before I started school, would have made everything so much easier. This assumes relatively average levels of intelligence, patriotism and social skills.

1- Forget all that BS about learning and being happy. Screw learning. Higher education in 2018 is not about learning, it's about where you went to school, and what grades you obtained. Is that optimal? No. But it is what it is.

2- Target a major that's employable, but not too hard for you — aka not something like fine art, but also not something like applied math theory. Unless of course you're brilliant at that. Take the easiest classes within the major you choose, go on ratemyprofs to read all the recommendations and reviews, and make sure you sign up for the profs with the best recs for grades. Bonus if the test banks are the same & the prof is too lazy to ever change them. Get straight As. Argue the hell out of any unsatisfactory grade and badger your TA and prof. As a former TA, most of us didn't mind adding a point or two to get rid of a badgering student. Dean’s List every year and apply for scholarships and internships.

3- Use the extra free time you have to work out, stay in shape, network, socialize and get involved. Join organizations on campus. Meet people. Do fun sh*t. If there’s a sport you’re semi-good at, practice it like crazy and try trying out for the varsity team. Learn a second language, preferably Spanish or Mandarin.

4- If despite all this, you STILL don’t get the job you want after graduation, you’re still : - an athletic college grad with a stellar GPA - speak a foreign language - have multiple extra-curricular involvement

Join the military as an officer. They’ll love your profile & you’ll get to travel the world & serve your country. And who knows, you might actually make it a career.

5- After 5 years, apply to business schools. I guarantee you make it to at least one of the M7. Graduate with your MBA & job offers from the world’s top companies. Thank me later.

3 Comments
 

Hey numbermassager, I think you deserve a response...heck, everyone does. We're listening, sorry about the delay ...my best guess at places on WSO that could help:

  • A controversial “portfolio theory” of career planning be ambitious-- but don't bank on it. We've all heard glory stories of the obscenely wealthy ... a PE investor able to select a CEO) I believe this has direct consequences for career planning as your ... glory days of 2007 were back, but without the deal flow and still dealing with new regulations. As ...
  • Life Plan (for Everyone) to Ponder go back on the homepage for those who may have never seen it. After reading and commenting on this ... goal, but how long you have to get there. I think many of us worry so much about the near term that it ... paths to those positions and I myself wondered how I will get to the point in my career in which I have ...
  • Some questions from an ambitious dutch student systems) (9hours per week)- leadership function at a supermarket (not official finished the course, but ... the University of Amsterdam. For as far as I know, this is definitely a non-target school (if there ... about lots of topics. But my questions, I think, are speciific for my situation. I really want to ...
  • Life after Investment Banking was it for the majority of those I met. Life is short- you're young, you're old, you're ... a life partly my own, partly fantasy. I'm now going to uncloak the anonymous man and tell you my ... European Investment Bank, after interning there in 2009. I worked in the top team (on a revenue basis) for ...
  • What's a Monkey's typical weekend plans? regathering my life, prepping a little bit for the Monday status update meeting at work, and various other ... administrative things I need to complete. What are your guys' plans and best routines for the weekends? Hope ... weekends? Unfortunately I have to do the whole dinner and a movie routine with the old lady tonight, but ...
  • My IBD buddy just got engaged at 23. POLL: How many of YOU wouldve given up models and the partying life for this girl? lookin dude, extremely smart and ambitious. Back in college I knew for a fact that most of my female ... getting all kinds of tail for the next decade. NOW, movin onto her: I've been on double dates with ... My buddy I went to school with who worked at a BB (although he just got laid off but that's ...
  • Undecided about which Boston MSF program to go! ONLY covers living expenses, also comes with the obligation to return to home country for a period of ... adjusted for the amount of money that I would have to pay for the degree. Of course we would all like to go ... to Vanderbilt or MIT for an MSF but taking a $90k loan would be detrimental in my case. Here are my ...
  • More suggestions...

Maybe one of our professional members will share their wisdom: rjmurat Grass Samrangi

If those topics were completely useless, don't blame me, blame my programmers...

I'm an AI bot trained on the most helpful WSO content across 17+ years.
 

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