Grateful for the Grind

Posted on May 21st, 2015

When I graduated from college a year ago, I was excited to be entering The Real World (a stupid euphemism for financial independence if I’ve ever heard one). But like so, so many people, I didn’t necessarily think I was starting my dream job. I had accepted an offer to be a consultant with a marketing analytics firm in the spring, and I definitely knew it was the right decision (still do), but I wasn’t entering the situation thinking the position checked each and every one of my boxes on my Dream Job Description.

The thing is most people don’t start out on their dream career path. In fact, hardly anyone does! This is 100% okay.  Part of this is that many people don’t even know what they want that career path to look like. So what’s important is to figure out how to be in a place that will help you identify that, and will help you develop a skill set that will position you well for the next step. The job I had this year really nailed it in that respect. Obviously I’m wrapping up my time here before beginning my new job next month, but I wanted to take some time to reflect on reasons (in no particular order) why I feel really lucky to have been in this situation:

1. I learned a really important industry. My company specialized in healthcare and pharmaceuticals, and given that Americans spend about $330 billion every year on pharmaceutical products, it’s a key space to know a lot about. Incidentally, I also discovered that there are some practices within the pharmaceutical industry that I find a little questionable (John Oliver can tell you why). Regardless, this is knowledge that will be extremely valuable throughout my life, even if I do not work in this space professionally in the future.
2. I had the opportunity to live in New York. I didn’t really think I would want to make New York my permanent home, but I am so glad I had the chance to experience this craziness for myself. New York is deeply engrained in so many cultural facets of life; I’m glad I “get it” now.
3. I learned big data. Like the cloud, big data is kind of a nebulous buzzword these days, but it turns out once you understand what’s happening, it’s incredibly compelling and incredibly powerful. Not only do I get big data—I believe in it. I believe there is so much opportunity in making the sorts of data- driven decisions big data facilitates. I’m very excited that my next role will include similar analytics.
4. My quantitative skills are markedly better. Growing up, I thought of myself as good at math, but there were definitely a couple of years in high school/college where we were not necessarily on speaking terms. It feels really good to have reclaimed that side of my brain!
5. I learned to juggle multiple perspectives. Working with clients helps you see things through a different lens, and I had the chance to practice taking a step back, keeping the stakeholders’ viewpoints and concerns in mind, and thinking about how the information I was sharing would ultimately help them drive their business.
6. This job got me to the next step. I would never want to view anything in my life as simply a stepping stone, but pragmatically speaking, I would not be positioned to enter this next chapter if I had not had this unique set of experiences in the past year. I was introduced to someone who helped me get connected with the right people, and when opportunity came knocking, I had the skill set and knowledge base to be prepared to answer!
7. The hardest projects are often the ones of which you’re proudest. A particular project comes to mind that was so, so painful to execute and pull together (I would be lying if I said I didn’t cry over it in the bathroom a few times). I stressed about this thing for weeks. But once it was presented, it was so well received, it’s some of the best work I have done, and I could talk your ear off about how great it was. But I won’t.
8. …And sometimes things fall into place anyway. One of the biggest new pieces of business I was a part of securing essentially fell into our laps. So then you just say thank you and make the most of it!

If you’re heading into the Real World without a job you want to post about on your Instagram, don’t feel bad. You’re certainly not alone; you’re in the majority. No matter what your situation is, figure out the positives you can glean from it to carry with you down the road. My best friend Julia is currently waiting tables, but we always say that her crazy stories will be perfect for her comedy career someday. I learned so, so much during my first year of work—I am so happy for every aspect of this experience.

Keep going, trust yourself, and remember: good things come to those who wait, and work hard in the meantime.