I really don't even know where to start with this blog post. My name is Andrew Mewborn and I love startups, technology, all kinds of juice and breakfast. I do not consider myself a great writer - probably because I am an EE major and haven't written as much as I should have throughout college. I guess now is the time to start grinding on my writing skills.
So then what is the purpose of this blog post. Well, it is the beginning of a story; and we all like stories right? I want explain how I got to where I am today and the plans that my best friend Armand Pizzicarola and I have post graduation. As any recent or previous graduate may have guessed, post graduation is a scary thought. I never took into consideration why it would make people feel so confused and now I do have some understanding of why I think that may be.
Not knowing what one is "passionate" about
I have been at this point before - hell, I am still at that point. I know that I enjoy involving myself in certain occasions: water balloon fights, snow ball fights, startups, travel and spontaneous activities. There are so many different avenues that I feel like I could take, yet it is hard to know what is best for me and I think many others my age feel the same way.
So how will I decide what field to go into? People tell Armand and I, "Oh man guys, you are going to start some crazy business and get rich fast." To be honest, everything we have done in the past has been because we thought it was FUN. And, everything that we do in the future will be because it is FUN. There was never any thought that we would get rich quick or we would become the next Bill Gates.
In the process of having fun there have been a copious amount of times where we felt like pulling our hair out (our favorite remedy tends to be an epson salt bath by the way). However, the fun always outweighs the negatives. The situations in which we had to stay up all night to come up with a formal document to be submitted, the times we had to go to meetings after staying up all night, and the times that we would sound like complete idiots in front of people of great stature were in no way something to look forward to. Yet, we would take these situations and CHOOSE to have an optimistic attitude toward them - that is what makes all of these moments fun.
I won't find a Job
After speaking with some friends, it seems that a bunch of the confusion of post graduation is mostly due to fear - and I can attest to this. People think that the next job they accept will be the final curtain in their career path or that they have to find a job that is somehow tied to their major. Well, I'm here to tell one that this is not the case.
I was recently offered a position at a company to become an "Account Executive" selling advertising slots to different vendors aka sales. Why did they want an EE major in sales? The dude I initially met with at a recruiting event at Seattle University felt that I was fully capable of handling sales. And, I am sure that these employers like to have a wide variety of people with different perspectives on their team.
Sales has nothing to do with my major. Albeit I think that I would eventually like to go into sales. And I thought that if I were to take the job, then what would my next step be if I hated sales? Would I go back into engineering? My thinking is that I would do what I would have done even if I loved the job: Start looking for a better one. I know that because I have company X listed on my LinkedIn, I would be one step closer to finding the next best thing.
Knowing that one is always looking for the next best thing eliminates the pressure of having to "stick" with one career path. One's first job may not be anywhere close to where one ends up. Once again, it's all about finding where you have the most fun.
