Now that I’ve been working in corporate America for a while, I have come across and been invited to SO MANY mentorship programs but when I was actually IN college, I did not see this many programs despite attending a business school that had a ton of connections to well established professionals in Fortune 500 companies. These professional programs typically request that we (established professionals) reach out to high school or college students and give them guidance on how they can make the best decisions with their education and how it will translate to a career. I hope that by me sharing my insights, those out there without access to such programs can still benefit by this knowledge share. Below I will cover some popular questions that high school and college students often ask:
What would you tell yourself from 10 years ago?
One of the most common questions is ‘what would you tell yourself from 10 years ago?’. Truth be told, I am REALLY happy with the decisions I made from picking the right college for me and my career path. That being said, I know this is NOT the same for several of my colleagues and friends but let me dive a bit deeper into what I’ve seen are the top 3 common ‘regrets’ that you might want to keep in mind.
Regret #1 : STUDENT LOANS
Yes and likely very obvious… as this is one of the biggest issues plaguing our nation. The astronomical amount of student loan debt held by people is absolute insanity [$1.6trillion as of mid 2024]. The worst part about this is that the action of taking out student loans is SO NORMALIZED that some people actually think its required in order to get a job after college. I think as you get older and look back on your life, you realize there are so many things that felt like the world at the time but really didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. One of the core points of this blog is to discuss how to be comfortable with what you have and how to make informed decisions that can better your life. If you have hundreds of thousands of dollars in student loans, I will tell you right now that you being debt free will TAKE A LONG TIME. This will also take away freedoms in what could be seen as the some of the most critical and life changing years of your life.
I remember back to when I got my first big girl paycheck from my first full time job. I felt SO RICH receiving thousands of dollars at a time compared to the part time job paychecks which typically only amounted to $200-400 each time. When you start to receive large sums of money, many folks instinct is to buy something nice for themselves or their friends and family. I love this and truly believe that you should do what you want with the money you earned BUT if you are sinking in heavy student loan debt, you will NOT be able to do this without consequences. Student loans aren’t the friendly HELPFUL thing that many young high schoolers think they are – do they help you attend college? YES but that is 4 years of your life versus the possibly 10+ years you will spend paying off the student loan debt after you graduate. This is on top of a bunch of other adult responsibilities many people take on after graduation such as starting to cover your own living expenses: rent, utilities, food, bills, etc. After calculating for everything, how much do you even have left to start paying off your student loans? Typically not much which is why so many Americans are drowning in debt. Outside of student loan debt, the massive credit card debt so many people have is pushing them further and further away from financial freedom. Don’t let your high school decision hurt you for so many years of your adulthood.
After thinking about all that, what should you do then? Think about the next few questions…
How do I pick which college to go to?
Regret #2: Going to the wrong school. Pick a college where you will be happy. I know so many people who picked a school they thought they wanted, were miserable for 1-2 years, transferred out, and then became the ‘transfer student’ at the next school still struggling to fully fit in! This differs for everyone so you really need to take the time to think about it but for reference, my number one deciding factor was the cost / tuition. I could save SO MUCH MONEY going to an in state school AND knew that the school was amazing for business majors and that is exactly how I figured out very quickly where I wanted to be. Cherry on top was that it was in the city, had a ton of Asian people (which was relatively rare for me growing up), and I would constantly be surrounded by the plethora of Manhattan’s restaurants. The location not only comes with ‘pleasure’, but also ‘purpose’. Located in the heart of Manhattan, this opens me up to SO MANY options when it comes to finding a part time job, internship, or full time job after graduation. I ended up picking a college that none of my friends were going to but did not care at all!
Below is a quick chart I put together on what other factors you could consider when deciding on your college/university:
| Cost | Location | Social | Career |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Tuition, Scholarships, Student Loans |
Do you want to be close to home? |
Where are your friends going? |
Ease of finding a part time job |
|
Dormitory Fee / Local Rent |
Warm or Cold Weather |
School Demographic |
Ease of finding a full time job |
|
Local cost of living (big cities are expensive even for the basics!) |
Convenience of going to/from school during breaks |
Clubs / Organizations available |
Campus Recruiting |
Based off the above factors, think about your options! How many schools did you apply to? Do you have a dream school and if so, why is it your dream school? Does your school specialize in your major? One big thought is also: Would you rather be a big fish in a small pond or a small fish in a big pond? Will you be happy going to a really tough university and struggle to stay out of the bottom of your class or do you prefer to excel and stay near the top while also being satisfied with other aspects of the school? Don’t let too many other people sway your opinion and FOCUS ON YOU. The school itself (regardless of brand name) is not the most important thing – the most important thing is how it will impact you and your future! I believe in my readers and trust you will all know what is best for you.
What major should I pick?
Regret #3 – Believing that you can study whatever you want and easily find a job in the field. This may be true for a few lucky individuals but for a large majority of people that pick non-corporate friendly majors (and ultimately want a job in corporate America), they are out of luck finding a job upon graduation. Some popular majors that I personally would not recommend through experience are history, philosophy, art, sports management, human resources, psychology, etc. No hate at all on these majors but I know so many people personally that chose these majors are struggled for sometimes YEARS to find a job (and also a job they liked). In typical corporate business, the popular majors are finance, accounting, statistics, mathematics, marketing, etc. For engineering, computer science, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, data science, etc are also popular and typically job friendly. For less popular or niche majors, unless you are going to be at the top of your class, finding a job will be difficult as the job pool itself is much smaller and therefore unless you are the top history or art student, someone will usually get picked over you.
In short, I would recommend picking a major with a big job pool so you can get a job more easily and then understanding that GPA is REALLY IMPORTANT for corporate America so don’t pick a major that you will struggle to keep up in. (That’s exactly what happened to me when I started in Finance and had to move to Marketing because it was just too hard for me….! ╮ (. ❛ ᴗ ❛.) ╭
How do I get a job?
For corporate America which is the ONLY sector I can give guidance on, getting a job means you need to have a resume. Always try to DO SOMETHING – whether that is being active in school clubs or getting part time jobs… These days, there is an annoying culture where you seemingly need to know exactly what you want to do with your life and career before the age of 20. This is incredibly NOT REALISTIC and makes for incredibly inflexible decision making later on but it IS a critical piece of information to keep in mind. The top things corporate America looks for are: GPA over 3.5/4.0, internships, part-time jobs, academic involvement, awards, etc. Smaller companies are generally much more flexible and a great starting point in your career if you didn’t or couldn’t ace everything during school. Again, no hate as everyone has things going on in their lives and its not uncommon that college students are going through significant hardship. Let’s keep a positive community going where we are all here to help and bring each other up!
In the typical business industry, sometimes half the battle is also just networking. As much as you could have a perfect GPA, if you don’t have some sort of job experience, it could mean nothing. Don’t be that academic overachiever who loses sight of everything else but also don’t be that student who is having the time of their live and giving up on everything else like grades, organizational involvement, and networking.