learning in the real world

You’ve just graduated with a shiny diploma and are starting your first real job. You’re excited about making money, meeting new people, and crafting your future.

What you don’t realize is that you’re about to go from being intellectually stimulated and engaged on a daily basis in the classroom through reading, writing, and discussion to potentially sitting in front of Outlook, Excel, and PowerPoint all day.

So what do you do?

You need to quickly understand that Corporate America can be a land devoid of learning in the conventional sense. You won’t necessarily need to memorize theories, regurgitate facts, or solve equations.

In my first management consulting job out of college, I felt like I wasn’t learning anything, simply because I didn’t have to. There were no exams, and the spreadsheets and decks I worked on rarely required me to bring in my own knowledge or research. When I realized that my career could indefinitely progress in that way, I decided to supplement this lack of learning through independently studying three different topics:

1) Client’s industry. I’ve been on consulting projects at both government agencies and financial institutions, and have found that learning more about my client’s industry, competition, and challenges thoroughly informs my understanding of the work. It’s easy to just jump onto a project and get bogged down by the details that you fail to understand the big picture. Understand the context and nature of the engagement to help yourself grasp the purpose of your work, whether it's for your company or for a client.

2) Random interest. Choose a random topic that you’re interested in and read everything you can possibly learn about it until you get bored and/or become a subject matter expert. For example, I chose to learn more about organizational behavior, a topic I was introduced to in college. Learning about something you’re passionate about is exciting and helps bring you back to your college days when learning was fun, and not necessarily always seen as a chore.

3) Myself. Ever since I moved to New York a year ago, I’ve been engaged in a lot more reflection than I’m used to, and I think the MTA is to blame. My daily subway commute to and from work has afforded me the opportunity to think about my life and be alone with my thoughts. If you don’t ride the subway daily, find 5-10 minutes daily to think about your day and life. You might get to know yourself too well, but trust me, it’s worth it!

There’s too much about the world and yourself that you could be studying. Stop procrastinating and get to work!