My news from yesterday (refer to “How was your day, darling?”) set me thinking about the significance of an internship, and this analogy came to mind: an MBA is like a soccer game.
In this analogy, an internship represents half time. It’s terrific if you can be three goals ahead, and disastrous if you are three goals behind, but no matter what, you have the second half to make amends or solidify your strong position.
A full time job is the final whistle on the game, but it’s not the end of the season. What becomes all important is how you have played the game: have you avoided injuries and suspensions? Have you played sufficiently attractive soccer to entice fans back to watch your team in the future? Have you worked together and supported other team members, or scraped through on the back of flashes of individual genius?
How you played is as important as the result. Many people move on from their post-MBA jobs within a few years, but the skills, knowledge and networks one builds in an MBA stay with you way beyond that. In short, yesterday’s good news was a definite score on the board, but I need to defend, attack, and pass the ball gracefully if I am to win this game and be well positioned for the rest of the ’season’. Bring it on.
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