Year after year, Dartmouth students have earned and maintained reputations as diverse as the very students themselves. We are DOC enthused outdoorists and adventurists who like to work hard and party harder. We pride ourselves on our extracurricular involvements and our continued efforts for humanitarian and service work, and we seek out every type of fellowship, internship, scholarship and every other type of ship under the sun (clouds and rain).
Yet, at some point during junior year, many of us wake up to notice that we've been bit by the iBanker bug, and many of us will succumb to this craze. Our passions for humanitarian work in Rwanda and studying ancient Byzantine archaeology soon become overshadowed by Goldman this and Capital Partners that. We find ourselves frantically pacing to career services while we ask ourselves questions like "how many golf-balls would fit in a 747" as we desperately compare ourselves to the few, the proud, the McKinsey bound.
(If you find yourself lost at this point in the article, I commend you for following your dreams or you're a '13, in which case please read on.)
The Ivy League is known for its place on Wall Street and Dartmouth is no maverick when it comes to graduation plans. But, would it surprise you to know that Ivy Leaguers, who were once ubiquitous in the leadership positions of our nation's largest companies, are seeing ever dwindling representation there? Several reports over the past few years have shown, for example, that Ivy League undergraduate alums account for a surprisingly small portion of Fortune 1000 CEOs and that they are being appointed CEOships at a decreasing rate.
This should come as no surprise. The United States is filled with hundreds of great universities, both public and private, which are pumping out many talented future business leaders. And that's a good thing, even if it comes at the expense of what has developed into an Ivy League sense of entitlement to such positions.
There could be a couple plausible explanations for the management changes. Maybe the competition is just getting tougher. Alternatively, and more realistically, students who have had to convince themselves that they must seek these positions ultimately find it harder to convince their superiors that this is where they really belong. By shying away from what we're actually good at, we're only placing ourselves in a more competitive environment in which we lack the true passion necessary for successful advancement.
But I'm here to offer an alternative plan. Not a plan per se, but a few words of encouragement. I'm telling you to follow your own great idea, whatever that may be. Now we've all heard of the inspiring stories of the Steve Jobs and Bill Gates of the world, but dismissing them and their successes as flukes of the system rather than an example to be followed would only show imprudence and cowardice.
I'm not recommending that you leave school and follow your 10th grade ambition to start the next Facebook, but I am recommending that you to stay true to the reasons that got you into this school. Sure, you had good grades and top test scores, but I bet at least I hope that there was something else special about your personality that sealed the deal. If whatever you did worked this far, who is to say that you can't apply that same enthusiasm and talent to achieve success in the real world while staying true to your actual ambitions?
You're never going to be the best when you're playing someone else's game. And, unless you're an anomaly of a student yourself, you probably didn't come here dreaming to sell your soul to a boutique investment firm. If you did come here under the auspices of starting a company upon graduation or of becoming a novelist or playwright, then I beg you not to give up on your dreams, but to pursue them tenaciously. For, not only will pursuing them actually make you happy, but it is in doing what you love that you'll show the diligence and commitment that success will require.
Psychologists have classified three types of work that exist: jobs, careers and callings. A job is a way to make money before returning home to your real interests. A career is a field of work you are engaged in and care about. A calling is when you're intrinsically connected to the work that you do. So, if your calling really is trading collateralized debt obligations, then carry on. But, as I suspect, if you are more excited about the Byzantines or if you've always wanted to publish a book, then go for it. You've been successful thus far, so there's no reason to doubt yourself now.
