In the months leading up to attending orientation at Booth I often wondered “do I even belong at business school?” I definitely didn’t feel like I fit the typical business school student mold – I had a wife and two kids, had grown up in a relatively rural small town and spent the past three years working for the railroad in Nebraska, and definitely had no aspirations to be a consultant, investment banker, or to try and save the world through business. I wasn’t even sure what benefit I could really expect from attending business school, especially since my ultimate goal was just to get a better job that would improve my ability to provide for my family. This all led me to continue to question “are my background and goals ok, or would I be wasting my time and the school’s (and other students’) resources by going to Booth for two years?”
Not to ruin the suspense or anything, but I can truthfully answer now after nearly a year and a half of school that these fears were completely unfounded. From orientation onward I have never felt like I was the least bit looked down on for my background, and once classes started I realized that despite what I perceived as my “inferior” work experience, I was able to make meaningful contributions to classroom discussions. For example, in my macroeconomics class I was able to leverage my familiarity with intermodal shipping to add value to the class dialogue about international trade. These experiences have helped me better understand two things about the Booth community. First, students here are really down-to-earth and very accepting of people with differing viewpoints. Second, Booth does a great job of creating a class with diverse experiences and expertise, which means everyone has something valuable to contribute. In the end, my original fear of my “less glamorous” background being a roadblock to my success at business school was completely unfounded. No matter where you come from or what you’ve been doing, you belong at Booth.
As I’ve gotten to know my classmates at Booth, I’ve also realized that their career goals are almost as diverse as they are. Granted, there are a lot of aspiring consultants and bankers, but I’ve also met numerous classmates who are interested in marketing, entrepreneurship, operations, corporate finance, etc. Also, while some of my classmates are using business school to pivot their careers in a different direction, many are planning to return to roles the same industry or company where they worked before business school. Wrapping my mind around this fact helped me to understand that business school isn’t only for those looking to significantly shift their career paths. While Booth is a great place to come if you want to change directions for your career, it also offers a great way to bridge the gaps in your business knowledge in order to be a better job candidate (regardless of what type of job you’re seeking) going forward. This fact, coupled with the realization that there are a ton of career opportunities that fit my “rewarding job with good work-life balance” criteria has helped to dispel my fears that an MBA didn’t match up with my career goals.
In summary, I have been very pleasantly surprised that my original misgivings about attending business school were completely unfounded. Booth has been an amazing experience for me and I feel like I’ve been a contributing member of the community, and have also benefited from the many career-related doors that the school has helped open for me. In large part, my positive experience has been because of (not despite) my non-traditional background and goals.
