La rentrée

At the end of October, I am just starting to reflect on “la rentrée,” the French term for the return to school and work after the usual month-long summer holidays in France. In unofficial terms, this is when the country returns to productivity and you can expect to reach someone when you call. It’s a rush, as you can imagine, to readjust oneself to the former settings.

For me, la rentrée was four years in the making. I graduated Cornell University in 2012. After four years of working in finance I find myself back again in a classroom as part of the July 2017 INSEAD MBA class. To sit in class again, take notes, study for exams - I had thought I said goodbye to them all when I graduated university.

Obtaining an MBA was never part of the “plan”. I remember shortly after I started working, my mentor told me quite out of the blue that if I should want to do grad school, I’m better off doing it as early as possible because the opportunity costs for doing so would only increase more and more. At the time, I found it to be strange advice. I was keen and fresh into my first job, and he was already telling me to think about leaving? I left that idea to sit in the corner as I moved on with my career.

We all learn on the job. It’s part of the learning curve we all face when we begin something new. But the more I worked, the more I realized, there is a certain je ne sais quoi that you do not pick up with experience alone.

After my initial few years of working, I realized I was losing perspective. It’s hard to be in touch with how the world is changing behind the walls of an institution such as finance. I hear about the growing tech sector, how Internet of Things will be transforming our future, but sitting on the trading floor, life is as it has always been.

When everything floating around in my mind finally came together, I realized it was time for action. As my mentor had told me very early on, go for graduate school as soon as you realize you are going.

I looked for a place where I can have the most perspective, or the most disorientation. And so INSEAD became part of the plan.