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As a youngster, I used to create “stores” in my driveway, selling things to other neighborhood kids. It was an entrepreneurial inclination fostered by growing up in a family that owned retail stores and enjoyed telling stories of their sales.
Advertising was a popular career with a certain amount of glamour in the 1950s and 1960s. I, too, liked the thought of developing ideas that would motivate consumers. As an undergrad at the University of Texas, I was a strong writer and was always looking for opportunities to be creative. I thought my future career would be in advertising, likely as a copywriter.
Two undergraduate internships at large retail advertisers gave me enough exposure and experience to discover that, in addition to advertising copywriting, I was interested in things like product attributes, pricing, and distribution.
My vision of the future changed to product management in the wider consumer goods industry. I was attracted to product management by the broad range of creative and strategic activities. I felt that product design and pricing were important determinants of success. It was a function that provided the opportunity to be involved in the whole marketing process.
To build my management skills and set myself on a path toward executive-level positions, I applied to business school in my final year of undergrad. I was accepted to other business schools right away but was told by Harvard Business School that I would only be accepted if I had a year of post-graduate work experience under my belt. I believed in the effectiveness of the case method for building my business skills, and in the influence of an HBS education and network as a doorway to the kinds of companies I hoped to work for, so I decided to hold out for HBS.
The wait proved worthwhile. At HBS, I learned how to be decisive with limited information, and that being decisive requires also being a team player, allowing the opinions and knowledge of others to fill my own experience gaps while being able to persuasively explain my own choices. HBS also provided the resources to help me in my job search and application process, and the tools to research companies ahead of interviews.
HBS connected me with my first post-graduate job as a research assistant for a highly respected marketing professor where I gained deep exposure to the management and decision processes of executives. While in this role, I worked with executives across several companies and ultimately accepted a job offer from one of them, also an HBS grad. They became a demanding mentor who offered guidance, helping me to mature as a manager, develop good business habits, and inform my intuition for decision making.
As I progressed in my career, taking on positions with more responsibility and leadership, I learned that I loved the challenge of leading through change and building things from scratch, rather than holding an already successful organization in its status quo. I have turned around businesses and worked with several startups. Both require a good degree of creativity in problem solving and opportunity identification, as well as the creation of action plans and strategies. I still found opportunities to be creative, albeit different ones than those of an advertising copywriter.
My career journey has not always been easy and positive, no career journey is. I’ve learned I prefer to stay away from workplace politics, a discovery that has impacted the choices I’ve made and paths I’ve taken. Likewise, when there have been interpersonal conflicts with colleagues I’ve had to work closely with, I’ve found ways to pursue different opportunities. Just as it is important to pursue what excites you, it is important to avoid what discourages you.
If I had advice for other HBS students and alumni, it would be to diversify your experiences and exposure, develop and foster a network of friends to keep in touch with after HBS, and to participate more in class. It would also be to consider the other areas in life worth building and pursue points of pride in them as much as you do with your career.