No way to go back

No way to go back

The biggest question on every high school senior’s mind is a daunting one: what next? College? A career?

Many seniors applying for college are required to register for a specific school within a university. Thus, it stands to reason that high schoolers benefit from early career choices. With a specific occupation in mind, teenagers are able to customize their college choices.

While some might already have an idea of what career to pursue, many students find themselves unsure of what profession to follow.

How early should students know what career to follow? And how should they even know what career to pursue at all?

Senior Aaron Weiser already knows he wants to be an English teacher and is tailoring his college search accordingly.

“I love math, and I love science,” Weiser said. “But once I got more and more into English and more and more into storytelling and teaching, it’s broadened my college view into some more liberal arts schools.”

Much of Weiser’s motivation to pursue a profession in education comes from his experience in AP United States history with instructor Bryan Boucher. Weiser was not particularly passionate about the subject, but when he took the class, Boucher opened up a new worldview for him.

“It’s probably the best class that I’ve ever taken at St. Mark’s,” Weiser said. “And I knew I wanted to do this, help change kids’ perspectives about things that they don’t seem to like at the beginning.”

Even though Weiser already knows what he wants to do, he realizes that most of his peers are still undecided.

“Some colleges don’t even let you pick a major until your sophomore year, which I think is actually really good, so kids don’t have a one-track mind,” Weiser said. “They can explore more things and learn about new stuff.”

David Vallejo ‘19, currently a freshman at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, knew in high school he wanted to pursue a career in business.

“Every school I applied to was with business in mind,” Vallejo said. “I didn’t apply to any liberal arts schools.”

Vallejo is currently seeking out a summer internship. As the academic year comes to a close, he has his eye on the Freshman Diversity Leadership Internship at McKinsey and Company, which he has applied to and is preparing for an interview.

“It’s not really like I’m going to be getting instruction on how to be an investment banker,” Vallejo said. “It’s more of an introduction to investment banking and an opportunity to meet people, analysts, associates, maybe a [vice president] or two to start networking.”

As an intern networks, he accumulates job opportunities. In the business world, summer internships can especially affect the full time job one gets out of college.

“Some people are more worried about getting the junior year internship than thinking about their full-time job,” Vallejo said. “Because typically you go to the internship, and then they give you the full-time offer. You really have to mess up your internship to not get a full-time offer.”

While internships may have large implications for the first jobs undergraduates are able to attain out of universities, Vallejo believes it is perfectly fine if a student does not get a particular internship.

“If you don’t get a super structured internship your freshman year, it’s not the end of the world,” Vallejo said.

Although he knows he wants to pursue business in some capacity, Vallejo is still unsure exactly which role within the field to pursue. He’s narrowed it down to most likely consulting or banking.

“I think I could see myself more as a consultant just because it’s a lifestyle I think I would be able to have when I’m young and just graduated,” Vallejo said. “Whereas in banking, typically you’re working long hours and you have little free time to yourself. I still have an open mind, and I’ll definitely recruit for it. I just think right now the way I see it, I’d rather be in consulting.”

According to Vallejo, it’s fine to not know exactly what you want to do long-term.

“You don’t have to have your life planned completely,” Vallejo said. “It’s okay to not know what lies ahead, but I would recommend starting to think about it because I remember junior year seems like yesterday, and now I’m here.”

Unlike Vallejo, Graham Radman ’05 had only a vague idea as to what profession he wanted to study after Upper School.

“I knew certain things that I didn’t want to do,” Radman said. “I didn’t want to go to medical school. I didn’t want to be a lawyer. I really had no idea what I did want to do, so I left my options open as much as I possibly could.”

Owing to his uncertainty, Radman figured he would look at colleges that maintained strong programs in all academic fields. Eventually, he chose Yale.

“I had learned in middle school to program, so the first major that I gravitated toward was computer science, but I also didn’t want to be a programmer,” Radman said. “I knew that. Not the traditional programmer long-term. So, I kind of was looking for other avenues out of that.”

In addition to computer science, Radman took classes in economics, computer science and electrical engineering, biological computing, computer science and psychology.

“Yale was very much focused on theory and not so much on practice,” Radman said. “Not to say that I didn’t learn how to think and learn how to build a work ethic and things like that, but in terms of actual practical skills, [they taught] virtually none.”

Out of college, Radman was a data analyst for Argus Information and Advisory, a consulting company working in the credit card industry. After working as an analyst for nine months, he took a job on Wall Street for ten years, working for a hedge fund in New York and London. Now, he has come back to Dallas and is in the process of beginning his own start-up.

“People can generate returns in the markets, but computers could be doing it a lot better,” Radman said. “I set out to prove that point by using artificial intelligence technology to effectively build a stock-picker that could outperform humans.”

After a decade of navigating the professional world, Radman has advice for upperclassmen who are unsure of their career path.

“Don’t worry about getting too specialized in something,” he said. “Just dive into it, and do it. You can always become less specialized later on.”

At the end of the day, there is no set time at which a Marksman must decide what he wants to do after he leaves 10600 Preston Rd. Weiser believes the best way to carve out a profession is to consult people who care.

“If you’re feeling like you’re stuck, you might need to just take a leap,” Weiser said. “Talk to your parents, talk to your teachers, talk to your friends, talk to your advisor and the college counselors about what you think is the best path for you. Everyone is going to be helpful. Have a conversation with yourself and with others about what you really want to do.”