Solving existential questions

Greetings! My apologies for the gap since my last post; I was taking finals and traveling home to celebrate the holidays. I've had some thoughts since then that have developed since the original seeds that burdened my brain, which seem appropriate as the inaugural post for 2010. Let me know what you think!

I recently drafted a blog about the minor existential crisis I was having. I never got to publishing it because, as was part of the mini-crisis, it seemed unfinished and questions unanswered. Ever since leaving undergrad, I've missed marketing classes more than any other. I love little known facts- be they useful or just interesting- as well as understanding sociological pieces about people that affect their decision-making. Statistics are actually useful, regardless of how good I am at it. These and other little things that interest me come together in the field of marketing. My career management class required us to do an interview with someone in our field of interest. A friend from undergrad now works for Gap, Inc. in San Francisco as a buyer for women's accessories at Banana Republic. He obliged my request for this informational interview, and as so many in marketing think his job is so cool, I had plenty to get him to explain. One of the questions that turned out to be most relevant was what about his job he loves most. "You know," he said, "when I see a woman walking down the street, and the bag she's carrying is one I tweaked something on, or the scarf she's wearing is one I changed the color on, she didn't need it, but she bought it because of something I did." Working for a company like this one in the marketing department is so sexy to so many, but I couldn't help but think that while my friend's job is enjoyable and exciting to him and would probably be nice in the short term, if I look back at 65 and feel as though I've sold a lot of stuff to people that they didn't need, I'm pretty sure I'll feel unsatisfied. I have no doubt that he is talented with a multitude of transferable skills, but I want to go about it differently. Armed with this insight, I decided to do something with more long-term value to me. But if working for a company like this is the dream of so many marketers, and I know I want to do marketing, how do I get there? What exactly can I do with my life? Severe confusion and doubt set in.

I'm sure this is something that most people ponder at some point in life. I'm in graduate school because I thought I knew. I really like strategy, I think I'd like to couple it with marketing. I'd like for it to be with a company/product that has intrinsic value (Leukemia and Lymphoma Society need marketing, too... that kind of thing) but non-profit also doesn't always have the feel I want, so I'm not sure that's the route for me, either. How do I iron everything out? My husband thinks I should do organizational behavior, but my school doesn't have a focus in that. HR? Too much paperwork of the stuff I don't enjoy, though I would enjoy the people element. I need quantifiable results, probably. I really enjoyed the volunteer stuff I did with the Army as liaison between the chain of command and families of deployed Soldiers. But a career in the Army? Something about that doesn't sound appealing (or is that my aversion to the organization after my husband's 15 months in the Sandbox?) immediately, anyway.

While I'm still in a bit of limbo on how to plod along with my career, all in one sort-of banner day, many things I'd been working on pieced together. A case my group of 8 had been working on, living, breathing for several weeks was presented, and we rocked it. Our argument was, "Korea's spectacular economic progress since the end of the Korean War has been due to an enlightened government industrial policy." Having spent a significant amount of time in this little country, I really got into the prep of this presentation, though it got quite hairy at times. The class voted and our team won, along with a higher grade on both the presentation and the paper. After this presentation, I had lunch with the dean. My program is very small as compared to many others even in the same town. My husband regularly comes home and tells me what happened at his school that day or what the administration said, and I can't help but think that our folks are doing the same thing, but that we know nothing about it. I brought this up at the meeting, and it resulted in him agreeing to create a blog. This is quite exciting to me because I will actually read it and love knowing what's going on and feel as if the administration wants us in the loop on things that will make our degree more valuable even after we've graduated... but I also think it is a wonderful selling point for future students! The dean himself writes about what is going on behind the scenes of the school? He even includes links to relevant topics, photos, et cetera. Cool! And as if that weren't enough, that afternoon I had an interview with a prominent paper for a spring internship in their strategy department. I may not want to work for a newspaper long-term, but there's undoubtedly good experience to be gained in an industry fighting for relevance. I liked the people I interviewed with, it sounds as though the work could be extremely interesting, and the head of the department all but told me she thought I was a good fit and should join their team! (The HR specialist later called with the formal offer). So my existential crisis is somewhat subdued. I certainly don't have all the answers yet, and I know my questions will continue to grow, but confusions may be narrowing for the time being.

If any of you have tips on how to progress through this, what decisions you went through to get your education, and how you figured out this is where you want to be, I'd love to hear them!