MSG Presents: "Characters From Corporate"-" MBA Reality or Music Industry Dreams: Navigating a Career Crossroads"

In this episode of Characters from Corporate, we explore the tough choices faced by a recent MBA graduate from the University of Virginia. After landing multiple offers from prestigious Big Four consulting firms, they find themselves wrestling with a major dilemma: pursue the safe, lucrative corporate path or follow their true passion—managing artists in the music industry.

Caught between career expectations and personal fulfillment, our guest grapples with guilt over their expensive education and fear of disappointing their significant other, who envisioned a different future. Eric and Stew unpack the emotional struggle of aligning professional achievements with personal dreams and offer practical advice for moving forward without regret.

Tune in to hear a candid conversation about redefining success, challenging societal expectations, and navigating career crossroads when your heart and mind are pulling you in opposite directions.

Transcript

Is characters from corporate this week. If you are just tuning in, we do this every week. We give corporate feedback to those who submit their story. Today it is the story is, hello. I'm 28 years old. I live in Norfolk va. Shout out to va. Shout out to the va. Yes sir. Don't wanna say my gender, because I wanna keep who I am hidden.

I just got my MBA from the University of Virginia. Okay. Alright. I think that's the Garden School of Business. I believe. I'm really struggling with figuring out my next move. I have several offers to do consulting from each of the Big four firms. Okay. But my heart is really not in it. I worked for similar firms doing internships and was not really feeling the whole corporate environment.

I wake up most mornings now in a cold sweat because I'm so anxious. I know what I really want to do, but I'm realizing I didn't need an MBA [00:01:00] to do it. Mm-hmm. What's really in my heart is to manage artists in the music industry. Mm-hmm. I can't bear to tell my significant other because we set a five year plan and this was not part of it.

Am I a character from corporate for getting this NBA that I don't even want use? Wow. Nah, nah. It was a lot. Yeah. That was a lot. But no, no, not for that. No, not at all. Not at all. Not at all. The only thing that's gonna make you a character from corporate is if you decide not to tell your significant other, that your, your, your, your trajectory has changed.

Your, your vision has changed. Yeah. But since that's not the question. My answer. No, you're not a character from corporate 'cause you're, you got an MBA but you're not using it. Who cares? Who cares? Who cares? You got an MBA period. So you have proven the ability to get an advanced degree. Okay. And I think that's, that's what [00:02:00] matters.

You know, things change. So, no, I, what do you say? I'm gonna let this person go. Norfolk Va I'm gonna let you go on this one. I'm gonna say you're not a character, but I'm gonna start calling y'all characters for getting these degrees that you're not gonna use. Now, things could change. Things could change, like, you know, things could change, but that's a lot.

You know, the University of Virginia is not no punk when it comes to pricing and all of this stuff. Like they spent a lot of money for that MBA. So, I don't know. And I'm, I'm not the expert on education, but there's gotta be more thorough analysis that we can do to make sure. Into the right career, maybe to get a career coach.

Right. I don't know. So I, I'm not gonna say you're a character, but I hope we evolve from spending all this money unnecessarily. That's my take. Okay. All right. All right. I'm, I'm gonna roll with you on that. Start holding some people accountable for getting their, getting [00:03:00] and using their degrees. There you go.

Because I, I'm not, I'm not big. I'm just like, get a degree. I don't care where you go to school. I don't care. I don't, I mean, you know, we've had this conversation about one of my episodes about you know, as college you know, about college. Yeah. You know, just get the degree as normally just get the degree.

Just get it. Just get it. And then you could do whatever you want to in life. You've, you've got a degree, you know, but I do agree with you that at the, at the rate at the expense level of college or university or higher ed. Then Yeah, you want to, you want to, you do want to try to put it to you. So, I mean, I'm with you on that.

I'm gonna start paying attention to that a little bit more. Okay.