Immediately after crossing the stage, I thought to myself "now what?"
5/11/13 - The day I graduated with my MBA from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business - aka the day another chapter in my life closed, aka the day the fun stopped and the real stress of life started, aka the day I officially became unemployed.
Obviously I'm only being half serious about the fun stopping, but I am definitely left wondering what the next chapter of my life is going to bring (and for those of you new to my blog, I am pursuing a job in the sports industry). In a lot of ways, my continued job search is an effort to start writing what the next chapter is going to be about. I'm also left to wonder whether or not this whole thing is all going to work out. I certainly have the talent and the confidence to succeed, but there are definitely days in which I wonder whether luck is going to be on my side.
I use the word "luck" above because that's what the majority of the people I talk to in the industry refer to - that it took a lot of luck and being in the right place at the right time. I'm a firm believer that you create your own luck in life, and that hasn't changed. But it's hard not to notice having to work infinitely harder to secure the type of full-time job I want. This statement is not intended to say I want to give up, quite the contrary, actually; I like a challenge and believe the payoff will be worth the wait - however, recruiting for sports is definitely a different animal than trying to get into banking, consulting, general management, etc. The primary difference is that there is no one "proven" track that will get you from A to B.
Look for a post later in the week that'll have a deeper dive on what is going through my head at this point. My advice at this point to anyone who is or will be in a similar position: "Don't Panic". It's okay to graduate and not have something completely secured yet. Keep working hard and continue to become an expert in what it is you want to do - use this downtime to become even more knowledgeable. I'm sure I'll be writing about my first dive into the industry in the next couple of weeks or months.
-Alex
PS - I think the timing is right to quote the film Billy Madison, "Stay here. Stay here as long as you can. For the love of God, cherish it. You have to cherish it."