What to do, what not to do...?

Strategy Consulting. San Francisco. Healthcare. Operating jobs vs. agency jobs. Brand Management Singapore. High-tech. Start ups vs. behemoths. New York. Non-profits. Investment banking. Ad infinitum ad nauseam.

With a plethora of permutations and combinations of industries, functions, geographies and the like inundating me, I have been at a crossroads in my first few months at business school. While I realized coming in that my school would open the doors for me to explore virtually any and every career opportunity, I have been in awe of the options provided. Like most other students (yes yes, I know there are a few amongst us who knew *exactly* what they wanted to do), I struggled through the process.

I finished up a lunch and learn with the CMO of Kimberly Clark thinking, “Brand management is totally up my alley!”, only to be swayed by BCG at the Operations Consulting panel later in the evening. While a project with a local non-profit made me want to take up a career in non-profits, the ex-CEO of Baxter made me want to try out ‘general management’. Choices, choices!

While navigating through this unending maze, I took a step back to analyze and see if there was indeed a method to this madness, to evaluate if there was a pattern that emerged out of all the chaos. As an engineer by training and a consultant by profession, I had to break it down into a model!

The more I reflected, the more it became clear that there were three distinct pieces to this puzzle. One, was to evaluate what was I best at, i.e. my capability (or ‘core competencies’ for you jargon obsessed folk!) – was it thought leadership, was it managing people or was it my ability to sell? The second, was to realize what I was most passionate about – was it ‘social impact’, was it providing client service or was it managing a P&L? The third was to zero in on what was the best opportunity – financially, geographically, from an overall personal and career growth perspective, etc. And lo and behold, Venn diagrams came to the rescue. As I began to draw out the three circles, I realized that my goal at business school was to hit ‘the sweet spot’, i.e. to optimize my chances of hitting the area between the three circles below.I hope to make the best use of the opportunities that b-school provides to optimize my potential and career growth. I implore you to do the same. Here’s to Venn diagrams!