What career path to pursue ahead? How to differentiate myself? How to think big?

Choices, Choices, Choices !!!

Now that I have some free time, I have been doing some thinking. (We have no classes now. No more assignments, deadlines or presentations this month, Yay!)

Lets face it. There are tons of MBA graduates around. How do I differentiate myself? How do I position myself in the job market? This is a very important question indeed. If I do what every one else does, I shall be just another face in the crowd. Gotta take myself a notch up, a step ahead by being not only better, but also different.

A lot of my fellow classmates at this stage are still in the process of deciding what career path to pursue as well - many people in the same boat. We have Engineers, business undergrad degree holders, Philosophy students and so on in the class. While some may want to continue studying and focusing on the same career path, many would like to change their career paths.

Prior to starting the MBA, I used to have this nagging question in my mind - Can I, with my Medical background be able to fit into any other industry? For example, is it stupid for me to think of a future in the Oil and Gas industry after MBA? The answer is NO. I know this now.

An MBA enables you to be empowered with Business Management skills to be able to fit into ANY industry as long as you are not doing a technical work and are doing functions of General Business Management, IMHO. So I feel ok about entering any industry. In fact, the more diverse, the merrier. I want to be able to learn many diverse skill sets.

For now, these are the options I can think of:

1. Sales position - in a Pharmaceutical or Medical Device industry
2. Marketing Position - in a Pharmaceutical or Medical Device Industry. More specifically, the position of Assistant Brand Manager or Brand Manager. 
3. General Management position in any industry
4. Strategic Consulting position
5. Healthcare Management Consulting
6. Hospital Management position 
7. Entrepreneurship: The final option is to start my own venture - I do have an idea in mind for the same.
8. I had another weird idea - Finance! Now, I know that Finance is not my main background or even my expertise, so far. But it is not that hard to learn. I do have a passion for the subject already. If I become an expert in Finance, by taking the relevant courses and getting the relevant certifications, I could go into Trading or Investment Banking with a specialized focus on Healthcare industry stocks. I reckon that I would do a good job. Am gonna give it a thought and perhaps a shot! Being a Finance expert is not only empowering, it is also highly paid! I hear that during the boom times, some Investment Bankers were paid bonuses which were as large as 40 times their annual salaries! Damn! That is huge. Who wouldn't want to make that kind of money? Who would not want to have the option of retiring early with a good bank balance. Now I know that money is not the only consideration, but it is silly not to think of financial security...

I do try to motivate myself from time to time. At this stage, I have begun to shy away from jobs that pay less that $60,000 a year. I think I deserve better than that and should not go for jobs that offer a small compensation package. I have to focus on getting close to $100,000 a year. I think that is what I am going to do now on. Focus on bigger, better deals and not the small positions. Additionally, I have begun to shy away from Sales positions. I think it is going to be too much of driving around and running around. I should prefer an office based job like Strategy or Management. I do love Marketing and Sales, but I think I need to look at senior positions rather than entry level positions...

If I seem a bit confused, it is not abnormal. Getting into the MBA program and navigating your way through it can be pretty daunting and confusing. It is very hard to plan and chart your future course. I guess luck plays a big role (what job you start with, first) and so does preparation, to some extent. But I know this - I have applied to a gazillion jobs already. And the first company that accepts me and offers me a good compensation package (more than  $75,000 a year) shall be able to hire me - or so I think! And that shall chart the future course, to an extent. For now, I have no clue what that is going to be like! I guess, sometimes, you just have to go with the flow, coz you can not micro-manage and micro-plan every event of your life!

I am an extremely ambitious guy. I do not consider myself inferior / lesser compared to any other bunch of graduates from any other Business School in Canada, in terms of over all finished product, when I shall be done with my MBA.  I know that MBA grads from some other schools are offered around $100,000 a year packages with signing bonuses more than $10,000. I should try and not only position myself in the same manner, but also prepare myself (by spending LOTs of hours in the library studying!) well in advance to qualify for that bracket...

I know that some Biz Schools have the Case study method. Yeah, we have done a lot of case studies too (ironically, using material written by Ivey of UWO as well as cases written by HBS). Integrative thinking? Yes, I get that Four Seasons model. Presentations? Yeah, I have done a ton of them - even uploaded videos and slides on this blog for display. Class discussion - yeah, I have done a LOT of that, to the extent of pissing off people (and almost being labeled a loud-mouth, lol. I even got told off a few times during discussions - "You have to keep it down". And by another - "I will take you down!" Ha Ha. But hey, when you have a valid point - and you know your points make sense - you have to make sure it is conveyed!). A little more effort and I hope to catch up to the quality that the best business schools in the country churn out AND command the same compensation packages :) . As for the question of Branding, I shall try to build my own strong Personal Brand (as every MBA should) to position myself properly to my employers.

There, I just spilled all my secrets, LOL. But this blog has been about sharing and spreading the wealth of knowledge so that others can benefit from it. I was once a total outsider to this MBA world. Now that I am a part of it, I wanna try and help others who are outside and are trying to get a peek in! :)

- Gerry. 

I wish I had better skills with video making / film making. Would come in handy!

Skill is defined as: "An expertise / ability to do something well based on training or experience".

I have made some YouTube Vlogs (Video-Blogs) already. And I did feature in a LipDub of TRSM, Ryerson University, that I hear is a lot of fun. I have not viewed it yet.  

I wish I had better skills with regards to being both in front of the video camera as well as behind the camera. Media industry skills - what an amazing skill set to have! If a picture can paint a thousand words, a video / movie clip can paint a million. Like Sunjay Gupta, MD, of CNN, I wish I could be a television journalist too, covering Medical news Reporting (in my dreams). I believe that we have not even scratched the surface of communication by the visual medium (video phones have not gone main stream. YouTube was invented only 6 years ago) and there is a great future for the media industry. As more people have cell phones in new growth markets, demand for fresh content is huge. In a country like India, where this phenomenon has taken off, people use downloaded clips on Sim cards rather than live streaming to watch video content. The TV industry has exploded in India. Professionals in other fields work their butts off with no recognition, but eye-candy singers become overnight sensations with one song. I envy the power of the Media / TV industry and those already in it :)

"Brand imprinting for later actuation in life"

BRAND IMPRINTING FOR LATER ACTUATION IN LIFE

This is a line that I read in the movie "Super-size Me" about McDonalds. The idea behind the sentence above is to expose children and Attract children with brands from a very young age and presumably, when they grow up, they shall have continued loyalty to that brand.

It is very shrewd, yes. But corporations are known to go to great lengths to maintain their customer bases. Welcome to the cut throat world of business. Hey, if you can not keep 1 customer of yours, you have lost him / her, because there are enough alternatives and substitutes available in the market....

So this sentence is indeed a big deal! 

How Goldman Sachs Turns Graduates into Professionals - Marc Ferrentino

Why Corporate Roles Make for Great First Jobs - Marc Ferrentino

14 Easy Ways to Get Insanely Motivated

From the link: http://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/how-to-motivate-yourself-14-easy-ways.html

These simple strategies will keep you energized through the holidays and well into the new year.

It's getting toward the end of the year, so with the holidays in sight, I thought it appropriate to give you all a little gift: a column that I guarantee will make you more more successful in the coming year.

Here are 14 quick strategies to get and keep yourself motivated:

1. Condition your mind. Train yourself to think positive thoughts while avoiding negative thoughts.

2. Condition your body. It takes physical energy to take action.  Get your food and exercise budget in place and follow it like a business plan.

3. Avoid negative people. They drain your energy and waste your time, so hanging with them is like shooting yourself in the foot.

4. Seek out the similarly motivated. Their positive energy will rub off on you and you can imitate their success strategies.

5. Have goals–but remain flexible. No plan should be cast in concrete, lest it become more important than achieving the goal.

6. Act with a higher purpose.  Any activity or action that doesn’t serve your higher goal is wasted effort--and should be avoided.

7. Take responsibility for your own results. If you blame (or credit) luck, fate or divine intervention, you’ll always have an excuse.

8. Stretch past your limits on a daily basis. Walking the old, familiar paths is how you grow old. Stretching makes you grow and evolve.

9. Don't wait for perfection; do it now! Perfectionists are the losers in the game of life.  Strive for excellence rather than the unachievable.

10. Celebrate your failures. Your most important lessons in life will come from what you don't achieve. Take time to understand where you fell short.

11. Don’t take success too seriously. Success can breed tomorrow's failure if you use it as an excuse to become complacent.

12. Avoid weak goals.  Goals are the soul of achievement, so never begin them with "I'll try ..."  Always start with "I will" or "I must."

13. Treat inaction as the only real failure.  If you don’t take action, you fail by default and can't even learn from the experience.

14. Think before you speak.  Keep silent rather than express something that doesn’t serve your purpose.

The above is based on a conversation with Omar Periu, one of the world’s best (and best known) motivational speakers.

Super Rich The Greed Game

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