I’ve received quite a few emails from folks who are considering applying law school. It’s interesting what they share in common:

• they’re all young, smart, and ambitious.
• they attended well-known undergraduate programs. In fact, several of them graduated from Ivy schools. They have all done exceptionally well throughout their academic careers.
• they have limited work experience. Most of them have worked one or two years. 
• they were laid off or just finished Peace Corp./teaching broad/NGO assignment/etc.
• they got very good scores on the GMAT.
• they were rejected by top business schools.

They’re desperate. It’s hard for them to accept the fact that they were rejected by business schools. They had believed that business schools would lead them out of unemployment and take them into their professional promise lands. Unfortunately, they didn’t get into business schools. They had to figure out an alternative.

Some of them are studying for LSAT and planning to apply law school in a few months. I ask them if they’re passionate about becoming lawyers. Most of them would tell me that they didn’t really want to work as a lawyer, but it seemed to be the best option for them now.

I disagree. Throughout my career, I have worked and befriended many lawyers. Very few of them enjoyed their work. There are a lot of unhappy, stressed-out, and miserable lawyers in this world.

If you’re not sure that you want to be a lawyer, don’t apply law school. It’s a very expensive investment in term of your money, your time, and your happiness. You’re much better off to spend time to figure out what you want for your life and career. You should pursue a career that

• you’re good at
• you’ve a strong interest in
• you can make enough money to support yourself

It seems to me that the "book-smart" students tend to believe that more schooling will solve their career problems. Neither business school nor law school will solve your career problem. Real-world work experience, failures, and trial-by-errors will help you find your calling, identify your strength, and steer you to the right direction.

Swallow your pride. Get your hands dirty. Work, create, and add values.

Related posts:

• 8 Things you should do if you feel stuck in your career
• Business School or Law School? You’re asking the wrong question!
• Are you interested in a lot of different things, but not sure what exactly you want to do about  your career?
• 10 Professional Development Actions that you can take to make you more competitive in today’s job market
• Who are making a lot of money from the economic downturn and where do they get their financial news and analysis?

To put it bluntly, if you’re asking this question, I think you don’t know what you want, and you’re asking the wrong question.  Professional programs such as MBA and JD will help you get to your destination, but you need first figure out where your destination is.

Ask yourself

• What makes you excited? What are you passionate about? 
• What are you really good at?
• On Monday morning, do you have a sick feeling about going to work? Which aspect of your work give you the sick feeling? What changes can you make to your career to increase your happiness and reduce your stress?
• Let’s assume for a second that you have achieved financial independence today, which career would you choose?
• Fast forward 60 years, when you’re on your death bed, would you feel good about your career and how you have spent your life?

Ask yourself these fundamental questions. It’s about you, your unique strength, talent, passion, interest, and personal fulfillment. Once you can figure out these questions, you will be able to decide whether you want to apply business school or law school.

Life is too short. I knew several lawyers who were near retirement and hated their jobs for many years. They couldn’t wait to get out of their jobs. Do you want to be one of them? (Note: I’m not trying to discourage anyone from applying law school. I’m just using this as an example. )

What’s next?

Should you go back to school to escape from Depression 2.0? More in-depth posts from GeekMBa360.com:

• Seven lessons I learned from attending business school during recession
• Should you go back to business school to hide from recession (Part 1)
• Should you go back to business school to hide from recession (Par 2): 4 compelling reasons and 3 overrated reasons
• 7 tips to improve your chance to get into business school
• How to improve your GMAT Score from 650 to 730

I recently got laid off from an IT position in the Silicon Valley and even during the time I was working I have been thinking about a career change.

I’m 26 and don’t even have a computer science degree. I think it’s going to be difficult finding another job in IT. I think I was lucky last time for this past job. Anyway, I’m not even sure what I want to do. The areas/industry I am interested in (TV Production) I’ve heard isn’t doing very well or is mostly freelance which I don’t think is a smart career to enter into during these times.

I’ve been contemplating relocating to NYC because that’s the hub of TV production but not sure if this is the right time. I don’t have any baggage right now and am open to many possibilities. I’m the type to try different things out and see what I like. Should I go back to school or relocate to another city and see what happens and who I can network with?

How do I figure out what I want to do during these unstable times and know I’m entering into a secure career and not something that I’ll get laid off from or can’t find work in another 6 months? I’m very persistent and have the energy to job search and network, but not when I don’t even know what to look for or how I want to update my resume for a different type of job.

Should I just get another IT job and wait this stuff out and take more time to decide what I want to do? I feel like I won’t know I want to do something until I can actually do it and try it out but not sure if this is the time to experiment….

Thanks for any advice, help, or insight.

My Reply
Thanks for your question. I’ll try my best to help.

Below is a list of my thoughts after reading your email:

1. Do you like the IT work you’ve been doing? If you hate it, then I think you should make up your mind to change your career. Life is too short to keep working on something you don’t like.
2. How long can you survive without a paycheck? Do you have enough saving to support you for a year? This is a very important consideration. Before pursuing your dream, you need to make sure you can have food, sheltering and basic living arrangement. Make sure your personal finance is in order. If your parents are nearby, I wouldn’t rule out the possibility to move home for a while. Conserving cash will give you a lot of flexibility down the road.
3. It’s risky to move to NYC to pursue TV Production if you don’t know anybody. The media production industry is all about connections — it’s hard to break in when the economy is bad, and you have very few connections. One alternative might be to get an IT job in NYC to pay the bill, and work on the media production side as a volunteer (or low pay assistant) on a part-time basis. Instead of going for drastic career move, try to made gradual progress.
4. You seems to have a lot of interest, but don’t know what you want to do. That’s fine. a lot of people are in your shoes. You should identify your top 3 professional interests, and try each of them. It’s okay that you don’t have a stable career for the next 2-3 years. You’re only 26. The key is to figure out what you want before you turn 30. It’s really sad if you regret your career decision when you turn 50. Take your time to figure out what you want to do. It’s perfectly fine — as long as you make sure you have enough money to meet your basic living needs.
5. Regarding whether you should look for a job now — let’s say you get a well-paid IT job, will you be happy? if you won’t be happy and you have enough money to support yourself for a while, I think you should consider give other career option a try. Your age is  your advantage. You can still afford to experiment.
   Hope this helps.
   cheers.

Final thoughts

I was in similar situation during the last recession. For anyone who is still in your 20′s and don’t have a family to support, I strongly encourage you to experiment with different careers options if you’re not happy at your current career. Don’t let the societal, parental or peer expectation to stop you — it’s your career, your happiness, and your future. Experiment and decide for yourself.

Below is my list of top 4 compelling reasons to justify going back to business school:

1. You want to make a career transition to a new field. The new field tends to hire a lot of business school graduates. In my opinion, only three fields fit into this description: strategic/management consulting in firms such as McKinsey/Bain/BCG, Investment Banking (which is disappearing), and Brand Management in traditional CPG companies such as P&G. Notice that I have left out quite a few career option such as high tech product management, venture capitalist, and investment management.
   • High tech product management: I have known plenty of MBA who struggled to get a product manager job in high tech, while former engineers, support specialists, or sale engineers move into product management without getting MBA degrees. The high tech industry is very much a meritocracy. If you know your stuff, you’ll find a way to move into product management. MBA is neither necessary nor sufficient for making transition to product management.
   • Venture Capitalist: regardless of which business school you attend, it’s virtually impossible to get a VC job out of business school. And most of the really great and successful venture capitalists had very strong operational background, and/or have started their own businesses. Having a HBS/Stanford/Wharton pedigree won’t get you a job in Venture Capital. It might be helpful in the long run, but I just don’t think it should be the primary factor that motivates you to apply business school.
   • Investment Management: even with a MBA, you probably still need get CFA certification. However, if you’ve the CFA credential, you probably don’t need MBA to move up in the ladder.
2. You work in non-profit, government, peace corp. or other low-paying fields. You fed up with the low salary, and you want to get a big pay increase without taking whole lot of risk. Attending business school will give you the credential and skills to enter the corporate world, and start to make six-figure salary within a reasonable period of time. Comparing to starting a company or other making-money scheme, business school is also low-risk and legitimate. However, you need to make sure you attend a top-25 business school. Otherwise, you probably won’t see a big salary increase as you expect.
3. You have served our country by enlisting in the army, navy, National Guard or other branches of our military. You plan to enter the private sector. Business School will provide you the training, skills and opportunities to make the career transition.
4. Your current career track requires you to attend business school, and you plan to continue to climb up your current career path. For example, you’re an analyst working for McKinsey. Attending a top business school is almost like the recommended next step in your career.

I left out a lot of other reasons because I think they’re overrated, and you could accomplish those goals without spending the $80K+ to go back to business school. Below is my list of top 3 overrated reasons for going back to business school:

1. “Business school is largely about networking. I’ll make a lot of great friends who are future business leaders of the world.” It’s true that you’ll meet a lot of people. But, the fact is that most of them are struggling young professionals like you. And they’ll still be middle-level managers for the next five years. When they become super successful (which is unlikely), you probably haven’t seen them for a long time. If you’re in high tech, your odd is much better by joining a promising start-up, and getting to know the founder, the venture capitalists that fund the company, and the early employees. They will be more valuable and helpful contacts for you than your business school contacts. Plus, one thing I learned about friendship in business school is how superficial they’re. Remember, most people go to business school because they want to make a lot of money. Very often the relationship is based on how much value you can bring to the table.
2. “Business school will teach me to be an entrepreneur. I will start a business after getting my MBA.” You learn to be an entrepreneur by doing it. You cannot learn to be an entrepreneur. Most of your business school professors don’t have a club about running a business. To be brutally honest, I think the name “MBA entrepreneur program” is an oxymoron.
3. “When I have the HBS/Stanford/Wharton/Kellogg/Chicago GSB/whatever top school” brand on my resume, people will forever view me differently. I’m part of an elite club.” I attended one of those aforementioned schools. But, you should never feel entitled. The truth is that a lot of people don’t really care which business school you attend. Your school name/brand will open a few doors for you during the first 1-3 years after you graduate from your school. Afterward, it’s all about your experience, track record, and who you know in your industry.

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Privacy

It’s NOT true. Business school is not a place to hide from recession. It is a substantial commitment in term  of time, money, and opportunity cost. You should attend business school for the right reasons.

First, there are a lot of opportunities during recession. In fact, great companies tend to be built during recessions. I could have joined Google in its early days if I didn’t go back to business school. I could have joined VMware. I could have started a web 2.0 start-up. My industry (Internet/high tech industry) moves so fast that there are tremendous opportunity costs to leave the industry for two years. You might be working at a different industry. But, I suggest you to consider the opportunity cost before you make up your  mind to go back to school.

Second, business school is not about "partying and having a good time". Academically, business school is probably not as challenging as law school and other rigorous graduate programs. And there are plenty of social events for you to attend. However, the recruiting process could be very difficult and stressful. My early post "Several lessons I learned from attending business school during recession" gives you the realistic picture of attending business school during recession.

Third, business school is not a place to figure out what to do next because you’re laid off and confused about your career. Most business school career office will offer you "personality/career test" to help you figure out your strengths and career orientation. I haven’t known a single person who tells me that he/she finds his/her calling because of taking the test. And I have helped a lot of my friends to get into top business schools and continue to consult with them on their career issues.

To figure out what you really want to do, you need time to think. You need time to try out different things. But, time is the most scarce resource in business school — you’ll be assigned hundreds of pages of reading each week. You’ll have tons of team projects and course work. You need to attend social clubs. And you will devote a lot of time to corporate presentations, case practices, and job interviews. You’ll be so busy that you will barely have time to sleep. How could you find time to think, reflect, and figure out what you want to do? On top of that, you’ll be under tremendous peer pressure to get a job. To beat the competition and get an internship or full-time job, you need to be laser focused. If you couldn’t make up your mind and keep "experimenting" with different career options, you probably won’t get any internship/job.

So, make up your mind and know what you want before you start business school.

Fourth, don’t apply business school because your MBA admission consultant told you so. Several MBA admission consulting firms have message boards/blogs. When someone posts the question "should I attend business school during recession", the consistent answer from the consultant is "MBA is a great investment. Regardless of recession, you should make the investment. And there is no better time than recession to attend business school". This is like asking a restaurant waiter if the food tastes great in the restaurant. The decision to attend business is a very personal decision. Your situation is different and unique, so make your own decision.

Fifth, don’t apply business school because you’re fed up with your current job and you need an escape. There is no escape. If you’re fed up with corporate politics, unless you become an entrepreneur, you’ll continue to encounter office politics. If you’re fed up with a bad boss, the chance is that you’ll encounter another bad boss. True power is within. You’ll gain a lot of confidence if you can handle the office politics, deal with the bad boss, and overcome whatever obstacles coming your way. Using business school as an escape will only delay your progress, not accelerate your progress. You go to business school to get an education. You’re not going there to solve your personal issues and work problems.

Part 2: 4 compelling reasons and 3 overrated reasons to attend business school during recession.

As the job market gets tighter and growing number of people get laid off, more people will take a hard look at their careers, and explore alternative career options. Business school enrollment will increase as many people consider B-school as a good "stepping stone" for making career transitions. Some also believe that B-school is a good place to "hide" during economic recession.

I applied to business schools in Fall, 2001 when the high tech industry was hitting its bottom during the last recession. I started business school in Fall, 2002, and graduated in June, 2004. Although I enjoyed many aspects of business school, I had to say that it was very difficult and stressful for almost everyone I knew. When you put hundreds of smart, ambitious, driven, and competitive individuals into the same environment, and had them compete for very limited number of internships and full-time opportunities during an economic recession, the competition was fierce. Many of my classmates had become disillusioned about their previous careers, and determined to use business school as the opportunity to transition to a completely different career path. Going back to previous careers was not an option. On top of those stresses, there were also long-distance relationship and marriage issues, as well as financial concerns.

In addition to aforementioned stresses, international students had their own unique challenges. Not only they had to quickly adjust to new language, culture, and educational environment, they were hit hard by the limited number of job opportunities available to international students; not every employer sponsored foreign students. Recruiting was not a fair game to international students, and it was worse during an economic recession. Disclaimer: I was not an international students myself, but I knew a large number of international students who had to work much harder than their American counterparts to get jobs.

You might say that I have painted a bleak and depressing picture about attending business school during recession. But, it is not my intention to discourage anyone from getting an MBA. I just feel that the marketing machines from HBS, Stanford, Kellogg, Wharton, Chicago and other top schools have painted a very unrealistic pictures about business school experience. And a significant percentage of MBA graduates have a confirmation bias — after you have invested two-year of your life and have spent thousands of dollars on tuition and fees, you don’t want to dilute the brand value of your business school experience by saying bad things about your own school.

Business school education could add tremendous value to your career. But, I think it’s important for everyone to understand what you’re getting ourselves into, and how you can get most out of it. This is especially important under the current economic condition. Below is seven lessons I learned from attending a top-5 business school during the last recession.

#1: Take a long-term view of your career.
During recession, internship/full-time recruiting is going to be very difficult. You probably won’t get your dream job. But, don’t give up — think about indirect ways to reach your goals.

For example, I have a classmate whose goal is to become an equity research analyst. But, he couldn’t pass even the first round of interviews during internship and full-time job recruiting. He was very smart and capable. But, his background was in biochemistry research. It’s very difficult to make career transitions during recession. At time of graduation, he ended up working for large pharmaceutical company. However, he didn’t give up his career goal. He gained valuable domain experience in the big pharmaceutical company. One and half year after graduation, she joined a large investment firm as equity research analyst, covering pharmaceutical sector.

So, keep a long-term view of your career. Take steps to fulfill your career goals.

#2: A "loser" in b-school might be a winner in a few years
During recession, there were fewer jobs. However, it seemed that a few "smart kids" in business school get all of the jobs — e.g. sometime one person got multiple offers from management consulting firms and investment banks, while the "losers" didn’t get any job offers.

Well, a few years after graduation, I compared the "smart kids" with the "losers". Several "losers" who didn’t have job offers at graduation time ended up joining Google right after its IPO. They had made a lot more money than the "smart kids" who had been slaving away at McKinsey, Morgan Stanley, Microsoft, etc.

Some people are just better suited for playing the business school recruiting game — e.g. they have worked in consulting/banking before, and knew how to perform case interviews. Or they’re just really smooth at networking. However, once you enter the real world, it’s very different. Your future and career success will have very little to do with your business school performance. I would even say there is no relationship whatsoever.

#3: Practice case interview regardless of your career choice
If you’re determined to get a good internship/full-time offer, do your best to practice case interviews. Case Interviews practice help you develop a structured approach to answer interview questions. Even you’re not interested in consulting, you’ll still benefit greatly by becoming a good case interviewer. Plus, most corporate interviewers who come to campus are MBA graduates. They’re also trained to ask case questions. So, by all means, practice case interviews regardless of your career choice.

#4: You must be laser-focused
Some of my classmates interviewed with every possible company/industry in the world because they’re afraid that they won’t get an internship/job during difficult time. On the same day, a classmate of mine interviewed with a Pet company for brand manager position, with a invest bank for associate position, with an industrial company for product manager position, and finally with McKinsey for consulting position. He was afraid that he wouldn’t get any job offers due to the tough economy. So, he wanted to play the numbers game.

You would be surprised by how many people used this strategy — it would NOT work. In a tough economy, instead of casting your net wide, you must be extremely focused. Target one industry, and be relentless in your preparation.

#5: Have a back-up plan, and leverage your strength
This advice contradicts the previous advice — you do need to be laser focused on one industry. But, you also need to have a backup plan, too. What if you just cannot get a job in management consulting and that’s your dream job? Well, take a job at your previous company/industry while continue to look for new opportunities. It’s much easier to make a career transition when you’re employed.

#6: Address your relationship/marriage issues before you start school
Attending business school during recession is very stressful. Don’t underestimate how your relationship/marriage will be affected. I had written a long series on Get an MBA, Get a Divorce. If you’re in a serious relationship/marriage, read my article.

#7: Take your career center counselor’s advice with a grain of salt.

Business School is run like a corporation. School Ranking matters to a lot of schools. And one of the key metrics for ranking is job placement rate. Your school’s career counselors are under a lot of pressure to help every single student to land A job. It doesn’t matter if it’s the ideal/optimal/preferred job for you.

In fact, from my own experience, the career counselors I talked to at my school really didn’t care much about my own goals/aspirations. When I got a job offer but wasn’t not sure about accepting, I called my career counselor for advice. His immediate response was to ask me to update the school database for job placement. And he pushed me to accept the job as hard as he could. I called another career counselor, and I got the same treatment.

Many of my classmates had similar experience. We concluded that you had to take your career center counselor’s advice with a grain of salt. Their incentive is not aligned with students’ interests.