Zara Ibrahim ’12 works for Infosys as an Analyst and lives in Manhattan. She worships Atul Gawande, hopes to go to medical school one day, and shares a blog with her roommate/fellow Wellesley alum (check it out here).
Below are 3 ideas that I’ve found to help me explore the path I am currently on as an alumna, but wish I had realized and acted on earlier during my time at Wellesley.
1. Crafting and tailoring a story to a specific situation is key.
I’m sure a writing professor at one point or another has told you “show, don’t tell”. This is what I’m talking about, but it’s really about taking it one step further to persuasion. Story telling puts your audience in your shoes and forces them to experience your world and your thinking. All you need is a beginning, middle, and end, and the rest is up to you on how you choose to wield its power. This can be used in any situation where you are looking for your audience to invest time and energy on you. If I were to conduct a job interview and ask, “Why do you think you are a good fit for…?”, I don’t want to hear a grocery list of your qualities and activities. I want to hear a convincing story of your background (beginning), how it’s led you to this interview (middle), and how you’ll positively contribute to the same place I work (end).
Story telling doesn’t just stop at interviews. It captivates an audience and makes you more relatable at a cocktail party (networking). It grips fellow students and proclaims why you should be their Class President (leadership). And it prompts me to buy Abuelita’s tortilla chips from Whole Foods (also known as “why I spend 5 minutes in each grocery aisle”). A grandmother brings a recipe from Mexico and grinds whole kernel corn a few miles away from my family home in Virginia. Suddenly, I’m gobbling carbs wrapped in tradition and hugs…how can you say no to that?
2. Take some initiative and close the deal.
Life is not what you see in the movies where you catch someone’s eye for a fleeting second, discover that an Italian superstar is in love with you, and proceed to hop on the back of their Vespa into the sunset. I’m not saying I was this naïve at Wellesley (or that this only pertains to relationships!), but rather settling for the status quo won’t take me anywhere if I want to continue moving forward. That equation has flipped, and the sooner I would have realized that, the better it would have been for it.
For instance, even though there are an extraordinary amount of non-profit volunteer positions I applied to in NYC, there is also an extraordinary amount of people who are applying for those same opportunities. I can’t wait around for the Director of Volunteer Services to contact me; I’m going to need to call and/or email them to put myself on their (actual) radar and get a response.
3. Pinpoint your idol.
For the longest time, I couldn’t see the direction my potpourri of passions was taking me. There was no coherent image in my mind of how to merge all the things I loved. I thought I would have to choose one passion over the others at the end of the day…until I read an article in The New Yorker from a practicing physician who argued how hospital chains could possibly improve the medical industry. It was thought provoking, creative, and different. He even cited The Cheesecake Factory as an example. Suddenly, I started to construct in my head a more concrete image of what I wanted to work towards—melding my drive to improve patient care, my goal to argue creatively about current issues through writing, and my wish to share that voice with a touch of humor to the public. Another plus: I knew what I wanted for dinner.