Hi Hannah! I’m way out of your target demographic, but 20 years ago this was me right after getting my MBA from INSEAD and feeling pretty miserable as a management consultant. But I will tell you this — at 50 most of us are still going through the same thing. Getting laid off by ageist Corporate America, having to cover a big mortgage with another 10-20 years of raising kids ahead of us. A steady income these days is a blessing and often more important than excitement at work. If I could go back to 30, I would have picked a path that ages well, where experience is valued as knowledge and wisdom and not a sign of being outdated or expired. Personally I would have become a doctor, but other paths that value age include professor, therapist, politician… okay I guess not that many, I wish there were more. Anyway my point is similar to your first one — this is a problem as old as humans, but it’s also a problem that doesn’t get “solved”. And AI is only making the future of careers more uncertain. These days my thought is this: choose a path that requires you to be a physically present human. I might start over at 50 as a nurse.
Caroline, this resonates so much! The journey really is the same regardless of when you did your MBA. One thing I'd add, I went into my MBA with significantly more experience than most of my classmates, which shaped my expectations entirely differently. I however fell for the noise of corporate, when I was already past that phase and looking for something deeper, impact, building, sustainability. That gap between what the MBA promises and what it actually delivers on entrepreneurship is real, and I felt it sharply. Like you, I wish I'd spent more time building for myself than playing the traditional MBA game. Your point about choosing paths that age well really hit home, experience should be a currency, not a liability.
This was such a great read Hannah! I left the corporate world in February and this is exactly what I did. To anyone reading, take time out, you can't think straight when you've been stuck in flight or fight mode for so long!
The line I keep coming back to is “stop trying to manufacture an interest that isn’t there.” Most advice in this genre can’t bear to say that—it has to promise a hidden passion if you just journal hard enough. There’s a quieter version I’ve lived, where the not-knowing wasn’t a fog to clear so much as a room I had to actually live in for a while before anything honest showed up. The side quests didn’t hand me the answer; they just gave me enough quiet to stop auditioning for the old one. Enjoy the two weeks fully offline—that’s its own kind of side quest. 🫶🏻
Hi Hannah! I’m way out of your target demographic, but 20 years ago this was me right after getting my MBA from INSEAD and feeling pretty miserable as a management consultant. But I will tell you this — at 50 most of us are still going through the same thing. Getting laid off by ageist Corporate America, having to cover a big mortgage with another 10-20 years of raising kids ahead of us. A steady income these days is a blessing and often more important than excitement at work. If I could go back to 30, I would have picked a path that ages well, where experience is valued as knowledge and wisdom and not a sign of being outdated or expired. Personally I would have become a doctor, but other paths that value age include professor, therapist, politician… okay I guess not that many, I wish there were more. Anyway my point is similar to your first one — this is a problem as old as humans, but it’s also a problem that doesn’t get “solved”. And AI is only making the future of careers more uncertain. These days my thought is this: choose a path that requires you to be a physically present human. I might start over at 50 as a nurse.
Caroline, this resonates so much! The journey really is the same regardless of when you did your MBA. One thing I'd add, I went into my MBA with significantly more experience than most of my classmates, which shaped my expectations entirely differently. I however fell for the noise of corporate, when I was already past that phase and looking for something deeper, impact, building, sustainability. That gap between what the MBA promises and what it actually delivers on entrepreneurship is real, and I felt it sharply. Like you, I wish I'd spent more time building for myself than playing the traditional MBA game. Your point about choosing paths that age well really hit home, experience should be a currency, not a liability.
This was such a great read Hannah! I left the corporate world in February and this is exactly what I did. To anyone reading, take time out, you can't think straight when you've been stuck in flight or fight mode for so long!
I’m so glad!! Rooting for you
The line I keep coming back to is “stop trying to manufacture an interest that isn’t there.” Most advice in this genre can’t bear to say that—it has to promise a hidden passion if you just journal hard enough. There’s a quieter version I’ve lived, where the not-knowing wasn’t a fog to clear so much as a room I had to actually live in for a while before anything honest showed up. The side quests didn’t hand me the answer; they just gave me enough quiet to stop auditioning for the old one. Enjoy the two weeks fully offline—that’s its own kind of side quest. 🫶🏻
This is so helpful, thank you 🫶🏼