To grad school or to work straight after college –that is the question.

And the answer? It depends! To provide some perspective for those navigating this decision, I will outline my thought process that ultimately led me to decide to pursue grad school.

Growing up, I always gravitated towards the sciences, so it was no surprise that I ended up majoring in Chemistry in college. Given the Amherst College Open Curriculum, though, I also had the opportunity to take whatever class I wanted outside of my major with no distribution requirements to worry about. This allowed me to create my own Interdisciplinary Major that combined all my personal and academic interests into what became “Development In Africa”, a major that combined classes in sociology, development economics, history, political science and current issues African nations were navigating.

My Development In Africa major brought me to the realization that even though my academic interests were in the sciences, professionally I was more interested in working in international development and public health to help address one of the main issues plaguing the developing world: limited access to quality and affordable health care. So my career plan was never more clear in my mind at that point – my goal was to work in global health or international development, and to do that, I would start with an internship in the industry as a junior, then use that experience to apply for entry-level roles as a senior. I was fortunate enough to land an internship as an Economic Development Intern at the Urban Affairs Coalition as a junior. My plan was off to a great start!

Unfortunately, things went downhill from there. For my senior year recruiting, I put my head down and applied to a number of roles in global health and international development, but it was not easy for the following reasons:

1. For most entry-level roles, employers were seeking people with experience in the industry–which was very disappointing because it felt counterintuitive that an entry level role would require experience. Who comes up with these requirements??
2. Over 80% of the roles that fit my criteria required candidates to be an American citizen or permanent resident, so all my applications were dead on arrival.

My second idea was to expand my job search into consulting. My thought process here was: I could get my foot in the door of a big consulting firm, then focus on international development and health care projects from there. In addition to applying for jobs, I also started making a plan to apply to graduate school to gain some academic knowledge in the industry. You can read more about my First Xperience Case Interviewing blog if that is a topic of interest to you. When it became clear that my ideal job search was hitting a wall, I shifted my focus to getting a one-year job and using that time to apply to graduate school. I was hoping if I had some related academic experience, it would make it easier to land a role in the industry. I was fortunate enough to get into three out of the four programs I applied for, and I attended the Yale School of Public Health for 2 years, with a focus in Health Care Management. There, not only did I learn more about the healthcare industry, I also met a lot of like-minded people and got involved in some societies such as the American College of Healthcare Executives and multiple activities and presentations that got me the experience I was seeking.

So you might be wondering how my career in global health is going. Well, the answer is: it isn’t. At least not yet. Since graduating, I spent two and a half years gaining experience as a healthcare consultant and an additional two years as a finance and operations manager in a hospital, and I am now a data analytics manager at a healthcare tech company. So my journey to global health is still ongoing, and I am gaining the necessary experiences that I hope will ultimately lead me to roles in the industry where I can provide the most impact. My goal is still to institute processes, policies and procedures that will alleviate some of the challenges underprivileged communities face in their quest to access quality and affordable health care!

If you are thinking about going to grad school and are interested in a free one on one session with me to go into more detail about my experience and cover even more topics about the process in depth, feel free to reach out to us here or send us an email at [email protected] with the subject line: Free Grad School Info Session and we will reach out to you to schedule a session. Looking forward to connecting with you and helping you in your case interviewing journey!