Earlier today I was talking with a friend that’s finishing up his senior year of college this spring. He’s smart, outgoing, hard working, and talented. From a school perspective, he’s a finance major with a good GPA at a large public university. From a career perspective, his current thinking is to get a masters in finance or a masters in management (like a lite MBA) with a goal of getting a job out West.
After talking for 30 minutes I probed further with questions like “what’s the value of a one year masters if you still don’t know what you want to do?” In the end, my recommendation was to join a startup or an entrepreneurial company where he can have a ton of responsibility and get exposed to a variety of areas before spending a year getting a degree he might or might not use.
Here are some benefits of joining a startup or an entrepreneurial company:
- Things move fast creating a great environment for learning
- Meritocracies are more rewarding, especially for an eager 22 year old
- Job responsibilities are greater, on average, at a smaller company, and more fulfilling for an ambitious person
- Startups are more a team sport than individual affair resulting in more exposure to different areas and opportunities
The message is simple: if you don’t know what you want to do in your career, join a startup or entrepreneurial company.
What else? What are your thoughts on joining a startup for people that don’t know what they want to do for a career but are interested in business?
David Cummings on Startups 
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