Electives: ‘Follow your energy, pursue the path that interests you’
Having spent most of my life outside of the United States, I came to business school unsure how to pursue the seemingly overwhelming task of picking a direction with my studies and career. Luckily, due to the intimate size of the cohort within Goizueta, I was able to have a one-on-one meeting with Associate Dean Brian Mitchell. His advice was to follow your energy, pursue the path that interests and energizes you.
Initially, I was puzzled as I craved certainty in my guidance. However, I took his word and going forward asked myself “does this fundamentally interest me?” each time I was faced with a choice. This was especially useful when choosing my electives. Instead of trying to think what I “ought to take” or imagining an end-goal portfolio, I pursued courses where the content of the material excited me.
I feared this was a selfish course of action that wouldn’t generate the best educational experience, but that could not have been further from the truth. The excitement I felt for the material catalyzed my efforts and allowed me to immerse myself in topics without draining myself. As a result, I put in considerably more time into my coursework and frequently found myself doing work and analysis outside of required material simply because I was interested.
This personal investment into the material meant that I not only learned a tremendous amount, but also felt a profound confidence in the material that I studied. This pairing of knowledge and confidence proved essential during recruiting where case interviews were designed to push the confidence in your knowledge to the limit. This was especially true in a group case in front of senior executives were the pressure was palpable. Ultimately, I credit Dean Brian and his advice for successfully navigating these tests, and for building both my knowledge and confidence in my abilities.
Post scriptum:
For reference of this blog, I decided to analyze all the concentration requirements I will have fulfilled by the end of my time at Goizueta. Although the core of my interests lie around strategy and analytics, I am extremely pleased to find I have managed to get a broad-based education simply by following my interests.
| Concentration | Courses (Threshold of 3) |
| Strategy | 8 |
| Business Process Consulting | 5 |
| Marketing Analytics | 4 |
| Marketing Consulting | 4 |
| Product & Brand Management | 3 |
| Business Analytics | 3 |
| Entrepreneurship | 3 |
| General Marketing | 3 |
| Operations Management | 3 |
| Organization & Management | 3 |
