Fast Pass Insights: What No One Tells You About Life After the MBA

So let's get into the Fast Pass Insights part of our podcast where I'm going to ask you a couple of quick questions for your your immediate response. So what would you say is the best way to stay connected with your MBA friends after graduation?

Oh, I've planned a few trips together with some of my friends. Like I hosted a few friends in Brazil. We, we went to Taylor Swift, like you know, staying a week in New York and reaching out to people for a coffee or dinner. Instagram can be helpful if you do it in a healthy way. And again, my best friends, some group of friends, we have WhatsApp groups and they are pretty active. I mean I try to, you know, every week or every other week try to meet with someone to catch up. And again, my closest friends are actually far but like we either FaceTime or Message each other. It's like you need to be proactive to like foster those relationships. But just use WhatsApp, Instagram, whatever you have to your advantage.

That's a great tip. And what's something that you think everybody worries about too much when it comes to their post MBA life?

I think we all, think we all worry about getting it right. Like I want to get the first job right. You know, we want to optimize for everything. No trade offs and that's not real. Not for your first job after business school, not for any job after business goal. So it's like being really okay and at peace with your trade offs. You know, like maybe I'm not getting the highest paying salary but I, I have a great lifestyle that's more important to me and why am I going to compare myself to someone? That's all this person is making so much more money but like, yeah, but like they don't have time for themselves and their own things and they need to be available 247 and the level of stress that that would put me on, like I don't want it and it's fine. I already said a little bit about self confidence, but also ident because I've always thought I was going to go back to Brazil and give back to my community. And it was like just this guilt I felt and I still feel a lot of guilt that I decided to stay in the US I feel guilt that I'm not, you know, working in a Brazilian company for a Brazil project, even though at my company there is a project in Brazil. So there is ways to give back even if you're not there. I feel guilty that I'm not, you know, close to my parents and Taking care of them because they are in their 60s. So I think the hardest part for me is handling this guilt, and it's going to be a challenge that is constant in my life because I made this decision, and nothing is forever, you know, you never know where life is going to take you. But I think that's the hardest challenge.

Yeah, that's a tough one. Only therapy can help with that. Yeah. Knowing. Yes. Class that prepares. And I think that's a really unique challenge for international students. Right. This. Do I stay? Do I go? There's great opportunities. I'm happy here. But you have to leave so much behind, too, right?

Yeah, exactly. You do need to start over and adapt to a new environment and build community in this new place. Because if I hadn't built my community here in Miami and my. My routine, this place wouldn't feel like home, and I would be guilty and upset and, you know, depressed. And it's like, I feel like a lot of Brazilians go back because they don't feel like themselves in the US and they miss the culture, the food. I miss the food, But I feel like otherwise, I was able to create a support system that works pretty well.

Yeah. As somebody who's also lived abroad for a while, you know that it's. It's hard. It's a really hard decision. And then even if you go back, it's not the same because you're leaving something behind that you've built there now.

So it's.

But I think it makes you a better person. Right. You kind of get to take advantage of all of the great things of both countries. And. And, yes, you never know where life's going to take you. Right. You never know how your projects are going to give back to your community and the people that you're going to impact, so.

Exactly. And the funny thing, Ellen, is that, like, here in Miami, my social life, it's all in Spanish, which I love. Like, I. I became really good at speaking Spanish. You know, when I'm talking to my family, it's Portuguese. When I'm working, it's English. So I love that every day I get to practice the three language. Three languages. And there is a coffee shop close to my place that's a Brazilian coffee shop. And I went there, and, you know, usually people who work there are Brazilian. And I ordered a coffee in Portuguese. I don't know. And the guy's like, oh, my God, where did you learn your Portuguese? You speak Portuguese so well. He thought I was American speaking Portuguese. And I was like, I'm offended. And some people here think I'm Colombian because most of my friends are Colombian. And I just got their way of, you know, manner of speaking. And it's like, again, the whole identity thing, it's fun, but sometimes it's like, who am I?

The good thing is you're never going to get dementia or Alzheimer's. Like your brain switching all those languages all the time. And what was something that you felt was really important before the MBA that turned out not to be.

I do think I over indexed on my nerdy study self, you know, like I'm gonna bring. And I love it. Like, I love studying and reading and putting color codes and stationary things, but fast, fast, fast. At hbs, I noticed that I shouldn't over index on that. It was not only about that, so I thought that was my biggest asset. But I feel like my, the value that I brought was really more on the vulnerable side and, you know, my authenticity and being who I am versus, you know, being my nerd, the nerdiest nerdy self that I could be. Oh, that's. Yeah, that's.

That's a good, good advice. And especially with the hbs, we talked about that in our other episode a lot about how much time you spent indexing and preparing for cases and then you wouldn't get called in class. If you guys haven't listened to that episode, listen to it. Um, she gives a lot of great insights about hbs, but that's interesting. That's definitely an interesting also identity transition during the program. Right. And what's been the best thing that you've done for yourself after the mba?

Best thing I've done for myself after the mba, I, I do think was getting into fitness. So like going to CrossFit at, at the time I was going like five times a week. And then now I'm also running, so I don't go five times a week because otherwise it can't run. And I do yoga three times a week. So it's like that consistency. And in the other episode, I think we talk about consistency and resiliency in the aspect of applying for an mba. Like I've applied that now on like creating this new habit or lifestyle. And that's the best gift I gave myself because before it was a struggle. It was like, it was hard. And then it became enjoyable because I was making friends. And when you've never worked out, every day you're hitting a personal record because you never lifted before. So every time you lift it's like, yay, I hit my personal record and then you, and you lose weight and it's like the progress is kind of fast, but then you hit a wall. And I remember the times through the past two years where I was like hitting those walls where you like, you are like less motivated because it's like you're not progressing as fast. But it's then that you need to tap into the, the consistency, the repetition, the showing up aspect of it versus I'm really motivated to work out today. So I think that was the biggest gift I gave myself, like building that. And now it's a part of me. Like it's, it's just like a part of me as I don't know what other parts of me. You know, the things that you do without realizing or needing to plan a lot, you are going to organize your week around those things. Like the same way that I'm not going to skip a day at work unless something happens. I'm not going to skip a workout unless something happens. It's like that level of commitment is like showing up for yourself in these different dimensions. I did not have that before. Like I would work out for maybe three months and then give up for a year. That was me before.

Oh, wow.

So that was the biggest gift I gave myself after business school for sure.

That's a good one. That's a really good one. One that will also benefit you for years and years and years to come. Right.

Health. Health is really important and I sacrificed a little bit of it during business school, so now I'm getting it back.

My dad always gave me great advice that, like in life we have a bunch of balls that we're juggling, right? And some of them are rubber and some of them are glass and we have to be really careful about understanding which ones we can drop and they'll bounce back and which ones we can drop and they'll shatter. And I think it makes sense, you know, in the NBA you can get by on a little less sleep and that'll. You'll bounce back from that. But you know, other things like consistency and things like this and taking care of your, your well being, you know, your psychological well being and your identity and things like that are maybe not the easiest things to recover. But it's awesome that, you know, you've been able to kind of after the mba, reconcile all of those things. Not an easy thing to do.