To Net Impact or Not Net Impact?

Of all the aspects of the first year of business school, perhaps the most challenging is the beginning of the job search. The Johnson School really gets its students going early on with thinking about the summer internship, assessing industries, doing research, etc. This is all fine and good, on the one hand. After all, I don't think I would have reached out to the several individuals, nor started making inroads into new industries that I have, without the outside prodding. On the other hand, it's overwhelming. The core is challenging and stressful in a totally different way than other things in my life have been challenging and stressful. One friend said that he had never had to make so many compromises -- mostly of his time, but also of his energy, resources, and money. You really do have to constantly be assessing your next move and its impact on your future. In many ways, it's just like the business world.

Which leads me to my current dilemma. Should I attend the Net Impact National Conference in Nashville, Tennessee or not? Well, looked at in purely economic terms, I don't have $1000 to spend on a weekend of anything. There just isn't enough of the green stuff coming in. But that hasn't stopped me from looking closer at the matter. I've established some of my own direction in the job search, but I'm far from decided or settled on my future career. The list of attending companies at the conference is formidable, diverse, and really interesting to me.

Connections made at Net Impact have led a number of second-years that I know to their summer internships with organizations as diverse as GE and the National Park Service. Not to mention that the event is attended by scores of like-minded, socially conscious MBAs from around the country. It could very well be inspiring and instructive to see what those folks plan to do with their degree, and compare notes.

This is definitely going to be a tough decision, and one that will be a challenge either way. It's just one of the many compromises that are growing to define my year so far.

Mentors

I’ve complained a lot over the years (to my wife especially) about the lack of positive male role models in my life. Of course, my Dad’s a great and talented guy, and I respect his renaissance man skills and abilities. To give a sense of what the guy is like, he's spent time in the last two years doing all of the following: substitute teaching in Maryland, working in a golf pro shop, building and restoring frames for Picassos at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.c., and testing electronic voting machines for the 2008 election. All that while he's supposedly "retired."

But I’m talking about people closer to my age, that have had similar life experiences, or at least who see themselves and where they’re going in a similar way that I do. And although I didn't come to business school just to find that kind of influence, it seems to have found me.

The Park Leadership Fellows program requires that all first-year students have a second-year Park as their mentor. A graduate of the Air Force Academy and officer in that branch, my mentor, Kyle, has the kind of leadership experience that is rare at any age. And the fact that he commanded about 800 people and a fleet of high-performance military aircraft at the age of 24 puts him in a league without too much company. Like me, he’s married (in fact he just had his first child about two weeks ago). Also like me, he took the Sustainable Global Enterprise immersion.

Since his wife was pregnant and he couldn't travel to New York or some other urban locale for his internship this past summer, he took the lead on the business side of a joint project with the engineering school to develop a radically fuel efficient car. He's dedicated to continuing that project through this year. Kyle's career interests are varied; he's a many with many passions, all strong.

But at the bottom of it all, Kyle says he's most committed to saving the world. Coming from a strong, self-assured, military man, that's a powerful thing to hear, and something that has already helped me take my commitment to my future (and my family's and the world's, etc.) much more seriously.

I connected with my other mentor, Rishad, as part of the Johnson Career Management Center's Career Work Group program. Of course, they didn't pair us up for nothing; our interests align quite closely. Like me, Rishad worked in the media industry. He spent nine years, most recently as a freelance production manager in video and film production, in Los Angeles.

Rishad focused on environmental studies as an undergrad at Cornell and always kept his eye on the rapidly evolving clean technology space, even as he was managing the production of commercials for clients like Nike, GM, and Heineken, among many others. After a while, he grew to believe that his dream career change was fast becoming a "now or never" proposition.

So Rishad jumped in with both feet. And he's so far succeeded in the process of making his career leap. He completed the Sustainable Global Enterprise immersion, helping a venture capital firm assess opportunities for renewable energy in emerging markets second semester last year. He landed a great internship in the solar sector for the summer and is currently planning his next move.

Along his path so far, Rishad has learned a lot of lessons about the job search, and he's set on passing those lessons along to me, and the other guy in our group. He's already challenging me not just to take a job, but to pursue the best of what's out there.

It's obvious that there are great people at Cornell. But to have access to them, and to have them challenging me every day, is, well... overwhelming, to be honest! But I believe that learning and growth comes from constant challenge, and with such great role models, I know I'll be much more at the end of my time here than I was coming in.