Out of the Office, Into the Classroom
Increasingly, Young Professionals Use
Graduate School to Launch Career Changes
After a two-year stint as an investment counselor in Boston at Putnam Investments, a unit of Marsh & McLennan Cos., Kenny Lao decided to pursue an MBA because he "just didn't want to sit in an office anymore."
That antioffice stance may sound counterintuitive for a business student, but it worked for Mr. Lao: He went on to win the 2003 business plan competition at New York University's Leonard N. Stern School of Business. The plan resulted in Manhattan's upscale Rickshaw Dumpling Bar -- a favorite of college students that Mr. Lao says has also drawn celebrities including Martha Stewart, Diane Sawyer, Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick. "People are using education to do what they have always wanted to do," says the 29-year-old restaurateur.
While graduate schools are eager to recruit professionals who want to make a career switch to return for another degree, such a change can also be attractive to employers -- if it is accompanied by the right degree of focus. Rick Capozzi, managing director for advisory recruiting at Merrill Lynch & Co. in New Jersey, says such second-career professionals bring a commitment to financial advising and analysis that younger graduates may not have. "They come with a lot of diverse skills, they tend to enjoy building meaningful relationships, are goal-oriented and are self-starters," he says.
Curtis Rogers, dean of admissions at Columbia University's undergraduate School of General Studies, says that students are making more radical changes than in earlier decades. "There are many students that we see switching from finance, technology and law to an intense field like medicine. There are also a growing number of liberal arts professionals like dancers and actors who come back to education to take up careers in teaching, economics, business," he says. Mr. Rogers notes that such returning students bring fresh commitment to their studies. "They have a wider skill set," he says, "and end up becoming much more compelling and sophisticated workers."
Shazia Ahmad, associate director for career services at the Department of Journalism at New York University and a former deputy managing editor at the New York Observer, says it can be a plus when applicants have worked in a different profession. "It is great to have people working in different fields coming to a field like journalism, for example, because it shows their level of commitment," Ms. Ahmad says.
Mateo Jaramillo, 29, who has a bachelor's degree in economics from Harvard, left a budding job as a product development executive with software maker Predictive Networks, to study theology at Yale Divinity School. After completing the program six months early -- and realizing he wasn't part of the third of the students in his class who wanted to be ordained -- he returned to product development, but in a field that had always fascinated him: renewable energy. He's worked at Gaia Power Technologies in New York since 2004. "I deal in a field that has been my personal passion for a long time," Mr. Jaramillo says. "It's how I feel I can give back to society."
After graduating with a visual arts degree from Columbia, Shazi Visram took a job teaching children how to use the Internet at the Learning Center, a nonprofit in New York. "I had this idea for producing and marketing organic food for babies," she says. Lacking the business credentials to put it into action, she returned to Columbia for an M.B.A. Ms. Visram dabbled with different partners but she said none quite understood her idea, until she met Jessica Rolph.
Ms. Rolph had worked for a year at the Federal Trade Commission in Washington after college at Cornell University in New York state, moved to San Francisco to do political consulting for an Internet company, and finally settled at a job as an analyst for Whole Foods Market Inc. in Austin, Texas. But, she says, "I itched to do something more hands-on. I had the entrepreneurial skills, but lacked that one big idea."
She and Ms. Visram met through common friends. They used personal savings and tapped credit cards and bank loans to prepare their pitch. Ms. Rolph says the company has already raised half a million dollars from "angel investors" and manufacturers, and last month won a $10,000 Vision Grant for Women-Owned Businesses from women's clothing company Eileen Fisher.
Nurture Inc., based in New York, plans to begin marketing organic frozen baby food in March, under a brand name that has yet to be determined. The women work with a skeletal staff but say they return home every night happy -- and looking forward to the next day.
Deciding to make the move was "a choice between risking your personal security and your personal happiness," Ms. Rolph says.
"Jessica ...somehow understood why I was doing what I was doing. She understood the concept of giving back to society," Ms. Visram says.
年轻职业人士重返校园渐成风尚
在波士顿Marsh & McLennan Cos.旗下Putnam Investments当了两年投资顾问后，Kenny Lao决定攻读MBA，原因很简单，他“只是不想再呆在办公室里了。”
一个商学院学生“厌恶办公室”听起来令人费解，不过Kenny Lao却因此大有收获：他后来赢得了纽约大学(New York University)斯特恩商学院2003年商业计划比赛。这个计划的成果就是曼哈顿的一家高档餐厅──人力车(Rickshaw Dumpling Bar)。它深受大学生的喜爱，而且据Kenny Lao说，它还吸引了包括家政女王玛莎?斯图尔特(Martha Stewart)、著名主持人黛安?索耶(Diane Sawyer)、演员莎拉?杰西卡?帕克(Sarah Jessica Parker)和马修?布罗德里克(Matthew Broderick)在内的名人。29岁的餐厅老板Kenny Lao说，“人们通过学习实现自己的理想。”
这些为转行而回来读书的学生们不仅得到了商学院的青睐，如果专业对口，招聘公司对他们也非常看好。美林公司(Merrill Lynch & Co.)在新泽西州负责招聘的里克?卡波齐(Rick Capozzi)表示，二次就业者对于金融咨询和金融分析非常专注，这可能是年轻毕业生没有的。他说，“他们具备各种才能，喜欢构建深层关系，努力达成目标、具有主动精神。”
哥伦比亚大学(Columbia University)成人继续教育学院招生办主任柯蒂斯?罗杰斯(Curtis Rogers)说，学生转专业的学科跨度比从前更大了。“许多学生从金融、科技或法律转到了像医药这类专业领域。还有越来越多的舞蹈员和演员这类艺术工作者回到学校攻读教育、经济学和商贸。”罗杰斯指出，重返校园的学生对学业更加投入。他说，“他们的能力更全面，可以成为更能干、更富经验的员工。”
纽约大学新闻学院就业服务副主任、《纽约观察家》(New York Observer)前副总编辑沙兹亚?艾哈迈德(Shazia Ahmad)说，从事过多种职业可能是申请者的优势所在。艾哈迈德说，“各行各业的人们能来到新闻这样一个行业是件好事，这显示出他们对这个领域的投入。”
29岁的马特奥?哈拉米略(Mateo Jaramillo)拥有哈佛大学经济学士学位。他离开了软件制造商Predictive Networks，辞去了那里颇有前途的产品开发经理的职位，回到耶鲁神学院(Yale Divinity School)研究神学。在提前6个月完成学业──并且意识到他不属于班上希望成为牧师的三分之一的人之后──他重返产品开发，不过这次他从事的是他一直很感兴趣的领域：可再生能源。他从2004年起为纽约的Gaia Power Technologies工作。哈拉米略说，“我的工作领域是我长期以来的兴趣所在。我感觉这样可以回报社会。”
沙兹?维斯拉姆(Shazi Visram)在哥伦比亚大学视觉艺术专业毕业后，开始在纽约一家非盈利组织Learning Center教孩子们如何使用互联网。她说，“我想生产、推广一种有机婴儿食品。”由于缺少将理想变成现实的商科学历，她回到了哥伦比亚大学攻读MBA。维斯拉姆曾和许多生意伙伴有过短暂合作，不过没有人理解她的想法──直到遇见杰西卡?罗尔夫(Jessica Rolph)。
在纽约州的康乃尔大学(Cornell University)毕业后，罗尔夫为华盛顿的联邦贸易委员会(Federal Trade Commission)工作了一年时间，之后搬到旧金山为一家互联网公司作政治咨询，最后又到得克萨斯州奥斯汀为Whole Foods Market Inc.作分析师。她说，“我渴望做些更实际的事。我有企业家的能力，但缺乏一个好创意。”
罗尔夫和维斯拉姆是通过朋友介绍认识的。她们用个人存款、信用卡和银行贷款为产品上市作准备。罗尔夫说她们已经从“天使投资者”和制造商手中筹集了100万美元，上月她们还赢得了女装公司Eileen Fisher提供的1万美元女性创业基金。
总部设在纽约的Nurture Inc.计划从3月开始推广有机婴儿冷冻食品，品牌名称还未确定。虽然员工人数有限，不过她们说，每天晚上回家时都感到很愉快，而且期待著第二天的到来。
罗尔夫说，决定迈出这一步是“在你的个人保障和个人幸福之间作出的抉择。”
维斯拉姆说，“杰西卡……比较了解我为什么会有现在的举动。她理解什么是回馈社会。”
