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.
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:
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...
Quite a brilliant post.
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