Eight months into working at my job, I answered a question confidently, knowing I had the right answer:
“Cortisol,” I loudly announced from my desk, interrupting a conversation my CEO was having with our Product Manager (they were speaking in English rather than Hindi so I figured it was okay to chime in). “Cortisol is a stress hormone that can lead to weight gain.”
“See! Kristin is a biology major. She knows. It’s not me, it’s because you all cause me a lot of stress,” Rohit triumphantly replied.
I refrained from correcting him with “HumBio,” and took satisfaction from the fact that, though I still was rather hazy on application programming interfaces and software development kits, the best 401k practices, and constantly Googling “best user acquisition practices” or “what your startup should do,” I could tell my boss why, perhaps (besides the fact that he loved curry and had an aversion to the gym), he was gaining weight.
Four years of HumBio classes and eight months of work at Relcy had boiled down to this. Done. The most confident I had felt thus far.
About this time last year, I was panicking. For someone who thrives on having a plan and clear direction, I was a mess. With a B.A. in Human Biology, I was studying for Physical Therapy school, something I decided on sophomore year. Naturally I couldn’t deviate from that plan, despite my omnipresent hesitations. After a fitful sleep, I decided to “keep my options open,” as my father constantly chided me. I emailed both Richard Branson and Rohit Satapahty (GSB class of 2012) asking if they needed an assistant. I’d had dinner with Sir Branson at his hotel in Africa when my family went on a safari and decided he was a cool guy. Satapathy had posted in Alpha Phi asking if anyone wanted to be a user tester for the mobile search app he was developing and as technology adverse as I am, thought it would be a neat opportunity.
Richard Branson didn’t respond but Rohit did. And few weeks later, I was sitting at a desk in an office filled with incredibly smart Indian men, trying to figure out what exactly I was doing. Some days are easier than others, and though I still often have Professor Friedlander’s voice in the back of my head saying “sitting is the new smoking,” as I sit at a desk for nine hours, I’ve had a fantastic eight months working at Relcy. I have absolutely no idea what will happen in the next eight months, but I’ve learned the age-old lesson: It’s okay if you don’t have a clear career direction right after graduation.
I may have forgotten about the Krebs cycle and the exact purpose of the tensor fasciae latae, but the experience I’ve gained here and the different culture I’ve been a part of (from working at a predominately male, Indian, tech startup and simply working in Silicon Valley) are invaluable. Learning real life business tactics, becoming familiar with the tech industry and having an opportunity to learn something new every day regardless of the fact that it has taken me away from my “life path” is something I would recommend to anyone. At 23, I definitely can’t say I have life figured out and that each day I wake up gloriously happy with a clear idea of what I am doing at my job; but what I can say is that it will work out. And it’s okay not to let your degree dictate your path. So take a random chance, email whomever you know, and give it a go because you might stumble into something worthwhile.
Contact Krisin Wentzel at kristin ‘at’ relcy.com.