Three words of advice every student should hear
In my final year at Harvard, as I debated what to do after graduation, an advisor told me: “by trying to keep all your doors open, you’re closing a door. To become truly great at anything, you must commit exclusively to it.”
Committing to one career path exclusively is difficult after the wonderful diversity of options in college. Few students are prepared for this choice. Classes don’t teach you how to make career decisions. I realized that school had taught me how to climb whatever hill I’m on, not how to choose the hill. I had little preparation – let alone conviction – for such an important decision.
My advice to today’s college students is simple: explore then commit. While these two steps might seem obvious, many students get it wrong.
Many students resist committing as graduation nears. I still remember the allure of preserving optionality. You consider grad school – not out of deep passion for research, but as a “snooze button” to buy time. You’re drawn to careers like management consulting and rotational roles like Facebook RPM that let you flip between projects. If you’re seeking escape tactics to keep exploring after graduation, it might mean you didn’t explore enough earlier.
Many students commit prematurely without exploring their options. It’s tempting to stay in your comfort zone, continue what you’re already good at, and follow what your peers do. I loved my freshman summer internship so much that I returned to the same big company the next summer. By doing so, I missed a key chance to branch out.
The frameworks that helped you get into university won’t maximize your potential after college. Instead of just applying to the most prestigious institutions, learn how to make decisions. Find conviction to choose your path.
Computer Science students have four major career paths: grad school, big tech, quant finance, and startups. Since you probably know what to expect from grad school, use your summer internships to explore the other three realms. The startup world has the most diversity, so consider working at multiple startups. If one of your aspirations is to be a founder, there’s no better experience than to work at a startup.
Don’t repeat the same summer experience: that’s wasting a priceless window to explore. Your college summers are a scarce resource: never again will you have such freedom to try new things. Use each to try something new and different. If your summer experiences are distinct enough, they can help you map out other options, just like axes in three-dimensional space. When considering any new option, you can project it against one of your prior experiences and visualize similarities and differences.
If you don’t have enough summers left, take a gap semester or gap year. Taking time off to explore is a good idea for everyone. Some schools, such as Univ. of Waterloo, institutionalize this idea: their 5-year program rotates between classes and co-op work opportunities. A gap semester may help you find your passion, which is far more important than graduating on time. [1]
What you do after graduation is of consequence. It will become harder to explore after you graduate. Your career will develop inertia with each passing year. Like a boulder pushed off a mountain top, the first shove greatly influences where you end up.
At Neo, we mentor America’s top CS students on what to do after college. I often find them making a spreadsheet of pros and cons – as if some algorithm can reveal the optimal path. Your career is not a math problem. While it’s comforting to think you can deduce the right answer from data, most life decisions require a leap of faith. You’ll need to decide with your heart.
Prepare for this by having enough diverse experiences that your pattern-matching instincts can take over. Explore, then commit. When you know what you’re passionate about, you can toss the spreadsheet and decide based on conviction.
Notes:
[1] If you feel pressure to graduate on time, ask yourself what it means, graduating “on time”? What determines when it’s time for you to leave college? Instead of adhering rigidly to a pre-determined institutional schedule, consider that “on time” means whenever you’ve discovered what you want to do in life. This may be earlier or later than your peers. If leaving the herd gives you trepidation, consider it useful practice: after all, you’ll need the courage to decide your own path for the rest of your life.