I was just sent a lovely review of That Crumpled Paper Was Due Last Week that was written by Julie McKinnell for MacClean’s Magazine in Canada (see article here). The reviewer called me a “former banker turned educational consultant” which could be a little misleading, though perhaps in Canada banker means ANYONE who worked at a bank… I worked as an investment banking analyst for a bulge bracket firm that no longer exists right after college, but quickly learned that Powerpoint and Excel were not my greatest skills. I think I glossed over the whole “building-a-financial-model” thing, and my Excel shortcuts were limited to copying and pasting rows of cells as needed.
I rarely talk about my previous (and incredibly brief) stint in finance – in fact, its usually not even on my biography. Working at the investment bank was the best and worst job I ever had. It was the best job because it taught me what type of work environment I did not want to spend time in, and what type of boss I did not want to ever be – truly valuable lessons to learn right out of college. I learned that I loved working with people, and that my great relationships helped my books move to the front of the que and got me extra help when needed. I also realized that I hate inefficiency, and that spending an entire weekend (11 pm on Saturday night) re-doing a powerpoint that would barely be glanced at on Wednesday morning was not a good use of my lifetime.
I think that every experience, whether good or bad, gives us the opportunity to learn – which is a lot of what I talk about today with my students. For instance, one of my students hates her club sport team, and for good reason. But talking about what she is learning about herself in why she doesn’t like her coaches and the way they run the team gives her the opportunity to be more discriminatory when choosing a new club team. In a sense, she now knows what to look for and how to find the right team for her in the future.
Tomorrow, February 18, I am speaking at a luncheon for the Sonoma Valley Mentoring Alliance (see info here). Its a great organization, so if you are up in Sonoma, hope you can join us – its at noon at Saddle’s Restaurant.