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WHAT DID YOUR COLLEGE MAJOR DO FOR YOU?
Questions for:
Nataly, President of NATAVI GUIDES, Wesleyan '98
Q: What was your major in college?
A: A funky program called the College of Social Studies. Basically, political science combined with economics, with some philosophy and history thrown in just for fun.
Q: Why did you choose it as your major?
A: I liked that there would only be 30 or so people from each class selected for this program – I do much better in smaller groups, and that was important. The biggest class was 15 people, another plus for me.
Another reason was my vague thoughts – and my parents’ more clearer thoughts – about potentially going to law school after college, and this major covered the right disciplines.
I did want to study econ, but not in a quantitative sort of way, so this offered a method to do that. And I’d heard through the rumor mill that some great profs taught courses in the major, which was a huge plus.
Q: Were you happy with your choice?
A: For the most part, I’d have to say yes. I liked the subject matter, the professors, and the small tutorials. It was really intense and made me feel a bit isolated from the rest of the Wesleyan crowd, but I tried to manage that by taking outside classes.
Q: What did you end up doing after graduation?
A: I went to work for McKinsey & Co, the consulting mega house, in New York. I’d interned with them one summer, and although I never thought of being a consultant, the job seemed interesting and everyone and their brother wanted to work there, so I figured I should give it a shot.
Q: Did your major help you or hurt you in your search for a job?
A: To be honest, I don’t think it made much of a difference. I know McKinsey was looking for people with diverse backgrounds, and I filled the “general political science” niche. But they also hired art majors, physics majors, and all sorts of other funky majors.
Q: Did your major give you the skills to succeed at your first job?
A: Yes, but not through the subject matter that I learned. I mean, I learned economics, but it was so theoretical that I could not really apply it to my job in any way. But my major required that we write a ridiculous amount of papers and I found that my writing skills were pretty strong and important in my job as an analyst. So much of what happens at any job I think is communication – written and verbal – and that’s the skills that I brought from college, and from my major.
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