Like many arriving on a college campus, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I chose my classes with the finesse of paint splatter. Art history here, biology there, and of course, Econ 101. When I first left home, my father told me that college was for learning how to learn, and that I could do anything I set my mind to.
Luckily, I was quickly disabused of that nonsense.
Duke is known for its competitive environment, academic and pre-professional. From Perkins to B.C. Plaza, you’ll find drones in suits, laptops opened to LinkedUp and whispers of first-round interview invites. It’s truly hard to escape. The campus consensus is clear: Join an illustrious firm or get your master’s degree trying. Before I knew it, I too joined in the corporate hustle.
The numbers more than back this up. More than half of Duke graduates find a full-time role in finance, tech or consulting. Who am I to be different from the crowd? I played these games before when I got into Duke; I might as well play them again. By sophomore year, I was signed up for FMKT 256 and had my fair share of virtual insight programs plastered across my LinkedUp. I coffee-chatted every upperclassman I knew with an internship (only at the bulge brackets and big 3, naturally). I worked my butt off, bought the case-prep books and called junior associates more times than my now-ex long-distance partner all for that offer letter.
After a broken relationship, hundreds of dollars spent on energy drinks and memorizing case books from front to back, I succeeded. I became one of the rare few to win the rat race. MacKinsee was in the palm of my hands. Harverrd Business School was right around the corner. Maybe a few years later, I could even get into private equity. The opportunities were plentiful, and I was rewarded greatly. A flood of new LinkedUp connections, my family sending congratulations, and even my ex responding to my texts.
Consulting, I believe, gives you the best skill set coming straight out of undergrad. You learn how to be flexible, how to adapt and how to context-shift when necessary. While critics may point out I’m being an inch deep and a mile wide, a mile sounds good to me. Last summer, I was placed on projects as varied as helping to source informal liquidity solutions for a financial services company in Thailand to assisting a domestic pharmaceutical company’s in-house counsel. I also had the chance to connect with a diverse intern cohort composed of people from all across the Tri-State area.
Selling your soul requires a synergy of passion and deliberation. Not everyone has what it takes to lay off 5,000 people from a small town in rural Pennsylvania. When selling out is easier than changing the world, a true Blue Devil knows you make partner first, then do the changing. As representatives of our alma mater, we bear a responsibility to put our world-class education to good use and carry on our school’s name in the boardrooms we will inherit and the buildings that will share our names.
The world will move on, with or without us. The malaise we might feel about global problems has been felt for centuries, if not longer, and nothing we might do about it today will realistically change that. So why not take part in this movement, where you can find out what’s in it for you?
So, whether you coffee-chat me now or in five years when your graduate program gets cut, I’d be glad to give you a referral.
Editor's Note: Happy April Fools' Day! In case you couldn't tell, this was a story for our satirical edition, The Chomicle. Check out more Chomicle stories here, guaranteed to make you laugh, or at least cry.
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