The worst thing about a mid-career crisis is the obvious lack of symptoms indicating that one’s career is on the road to nowhere. A manager wouldn’t splurge on a flashy red car or start wearing leather jackets to office just because he is dissatisfied; the malaise is so devious that by the time one realizes a significant career stall, one is deeply ensconced in the rhythm of periodic promotions and adequate increments for doing more of the same.
I woke up to this crisis, ironically, after receiving an offer from a company I had been quite keen to join. There were signs, I must admit, but like most of us in this situation, I had talked my self out of any doubts that threatened my acceptance of the direction my career was taking. The offer was everything I had expected so I don’t know exactly what triggered this self-evaluation (maybe it was the absence of any excitement that a new job should trigger). Upon close inspection the fact that jumped out was that while the new designation would be loftier and the increase in my salary substantial, the role itself would not add anything to my learning or even my resume in any considerable way. More alarmingly, I was not bringing any game changing attributes to the table. All the qualities that had made me successful in my current job had also prevented me to go after acquiring new ones. Absence of meaningful challenges had helped strengthen the stagnation that my career faced. If I continued on this path I would become a liability not just to the new company but also to the current organization. This reality was a bitter pill to swallow.
It took me a couple of days to say “no”. That was the easy part. What I had trouble with was coming up with a solution to drag my career out from the comfortable Lazy boy it had settled in. I doubled my efforts to look for an opportunity that would address the gaps and put my career back on track. But with every interview I grew more frustrated. I did not want the jobs I was being offered and the ones I really wanted to go after were not available to me. I couldn’t find a way out of this vicious circle. While I had diagnosed the malaise, the cure was still elusive.
The answer came to me while I was stuck in traffic on Hosur road on the way to electronic city (the only good thing that has ever come from Bangalore’s infernal traffic). I was trying to come up with a plan that would jumpstart the transition from a manager to business leader. Since the beginning of my career, I had been advised by one of my mentors Dr. Alok Chaturvedi, Professor in Purdue University’s Krannert Graduate School of Management, US to pursue an MBA. I had always scoffed at that idea because I did not see any merit in it beyond having a good time. I certainly didn’t want to sacrifice my then growing career and handy salary. But suddenly this advice made a lot of sense. It addressed a lot of my shortcomings and gaps. Once the idea took hold it was immovable. I would be taking a step back to move forward. I spoke to a few trusted friends, and family. My wife’s reaction was more along the line of “you might as well go to school full time instead of spending every other weekend preparing for that perfect job opportunity”. I realized I had been doing that for the last three years, another sign of discontent that I had missed completely.
Ok so I was going to get an MBA degree. What followed was the usual “what where, and how” dilemma. I decided early on that I wanted to go all out and enroll in a full time course from a good university instead of pursuing an executive/part time course. I could not see myself getting any benefit from an MBA if I also had to do well at my job at the same time.
But by the time I decided to do something about my stagnating career, I was a quintessential middle class family man with a wife, a kid and another on the way, parents and like everyone else I know, loans galore. I just did not have the luxury of taking 2 years off to put my professional life back on track and ignore personal responsibilities.
Fortunately I came across a one year full time course offered by a lot of good MBA schools that was perfect for ‘comfort zone’ obsessed mid-level managers who finally saw the light (also helped upwardly mobile managers who are being groomed for better things).
Getting into one of these schools, however, was a different ball game. First hurdle was GMAT. For somebody who had bid an ecstatic adieu to his student life 13 yrs. ago, studying for GMAT was a daunting task. Math was manageable but comprehension and English were taking a toll. The case studies were enough to make me give up (the lowest point was when I had to deal with a case study about the reproductive system of an earthworm-Huh?).
Add to this, the intense application process for the colleges. One of the most important elements of the application process was the essay. I realized how difficult it was to put your goals and dreams, achievements and failure on paper without losing track of the actual question asked. I had to write several Essays that stitched together my past experience and credentials, intentions, drive, competence and commitment to future goals. It went through several iterations and some very brutal reviews. They were not the most erudite piece of literature but they were sincere in their content. That must have worked in my favor because the first call I got was from Stanford Business School inviting me to join their Sloan Master’s Program. I am practically incapable of describing how I felt when I got the call but I walked in a daze for the next few days.
“Being in the Stanford Sloan Program will be like drinking from a fire hose. It’s wonderful being exposed to such a breadth of ideas and opportunities, but at the same time you will need to make purposeful choices about how to focus your time and attention. The year will go by very quickly – you want to be open to new ideas, while at the same time not losing sight of your key learning objectives.” – Marie Mookini – Director Sloan Program, Stanford Business School.
The bar was very high. My class had 56 students across 20 nationalities and 15 different Industries with each one of them having an envious track record. I was interacting with some of the best brains. I must admit my initial days were intimidating. The classroom discussions were electrifying and the energy levels in the class were far higher and infectious than what I had seen in my career or during my engineering days. Professors who were leaders in their subjects with international fame constituted the faculty. To engage them intellectually was a huge learning. Adding a different flavor to the mix was the youngsters in the 2 yr. MBA program who were in a different orbit. Every class I attended with them was a lesson in radical thinking. They had less experience but more spunk. It provided a powerful mix of experienced thought and raw energy in the classrooms that led to a huge transformation in my thought process
Every classroom lecture, project, training, career coaching, study trip and top management seminars were made to count. This level of involvement helped me harness the values that the program imparts and impacted me in various ways. A by-product of such an intense involvement was self-awareness. The tools are extremely effective in showing how others perceive us.
The Program also helped me enhance the management skills I had and provided insights into new arenas. In addition the program enabled me to specialize in areas that were more relevant to me. I focused a lot on learning Strategy, Operations and Finance & Accounting. The program has helped me define and refine leadership, Organization behavior and negotiations skills. The learnings are maximized when you go through real life case studies. “The Value Chain Strategies course explores C-level decisions that would help a company to create more values by integrating external partners, and designing the right outsourcing model in its value chain.” Prof. Hau L Lee, Thoma Professor of Operations, Information and Technology, Stanford Business School.
The learning seamlessly flew outside the classroom- and led to some of the most cherished friendships I have made in my life- faculty, alumni included. “Aside from Stanford’s world class facilities and the insights gleamed from the entrepreneurial spirit of Silicon Valley, my time at Stanford was very much about the people I was fortunate to meet. It sounds a little trite but the personal and professional networks I built at the Sloan Program continue to morph and enrich what I can do in the work place today”. Robert Lawson, Sloan 2008-09 & Global Head of Mergers & Acquisitions at a major oil and gas company.
Being a Stanford Sloan empowered me to embrace changes and take risks both in my personal as well as professional life. The program changes your outlook towards the world. You analyze problems and opportunities through a different lens. In the similar way, the world looks at you differently. One of the biggest advantages of the program was that people were willing to hear me and discuss my vision, willing to bet on me. The first job I got after the program was not the “dream” job but it was a job that pushed me in the right direction and gave me a sense of what I really wanted to do. It gave me a chance to test the knowledge gained in the last one year.
I also learnt that there is no substitute to real experience. It is important to be realistic in what to expect post the program. You don’t become Business Leader right after you graduate. There is a transformation journey. What it does is, arms you with fundamentals required to tackle integrated business problems in real life. It puts your career on the right track and accelerates your career progression. It also injects a fresh lease of excitement and energy, which will keep your career going steady for the next 20-25 years.
About the Author
Prabhat is a 2008-2009 Sloan Fellow and Master’s in Business Management from Stanford Business School with 20 yrs. of experience in IT Industry in application services and software product development. He is currently Sr. Vice President for a mid-tier IT Services company managing a large P&L for an application services SBU across multiple industry verticals.
Recent Comments