A Stranger's Advice

Everyone always wants to throw in their $0.02. Often, I listen because you never know what advice may help in the future, however, I remember to take all advice with a grain of salt. Granted, I am also one of those people that gives advice when warranted. That said, I was a bit thrown off tonight when a guy, many years my senior, started giving me advice about an MBA.

My friend J works at a local restaurant named Rocca. After dinner and drinks with the family and my friends who are in town, we headed to Rocca and took a seat at the bar. As the night winded down, J introduced me to what seemed to be a kind man with whom she shared her table. I suppose it was previously mention that I graduated from the University of Colorado, Boulder. Indeed, he also had a daughter who graduated from Boulder. He told me a story of his daughter and her friend, a Berkeley graduate, who was so stuck on the arrogance of graduating from Berkeley, she almost forgot about the power of a "real" major. As he put it, communications as a major is a waste of time. Luckily, I wasn't a comm major and he seemed slightly impressed with my degree in Finance and Accounting.

Only problem, he wasn't as keen on the fact that I work for a small company. He immediately said I need to get out, join Franklin Templeton or Wells Fargo. Then he asked what was next, MBA? Surely I thought he would be happy to hear I was already on that track. Next up, my stats? It never fails that someone wants to know what yours stats are, how did you do on the GMAT etc...I confidently told him and he retaliated with, can you retake it? In my mind, I'm content with my score, perhaps, even beyond content. And how do you tell a man you barely know that having a score over a 700 is not mandatory, though that is what he believes? As he asked what schools to which I applied, I hesitated. I rattled off the schools I haven't heard from, then proceeded to mention Kellogg and my Ding. I still am not quite sure how to tell people that I didn't get accepted and perhaps, I should start avoiding it all together. Nonetheless, he knew nothing of Virginia's reputation and claimed that Kellogg had fallen by the wayside since the Enron scandal. He also mentioned that everyone cheats in business school. The conversation drew to a quick close as the family wanted a ride home. I was a bit relieved, but also wanted to convey some misconceptions he had, however, maybe tonight wasn't the time and place.

This is one stranger's advice I will immediately forget.