By Chana Wakslak, Senior Business Editor and Business Manager
There’s a unique kind of exhaustion that hits at some point during senior year. More than just tiredness from working, it’s a tiredness from performing.
If you look around the Sy Syms School of Business, or any other business school, you’ll find the same thing – overachieving students stacking internships, leading three clubs and maintaining unrealistically high GPAs. Everyone is always “so busy” in a tone that is equal parts complaint and brag. Busyness has become our primary credential, proof that we are ambitious and going somewhere.
But here’s what no one says out loud: research suggests that people who are busy feel more productive, not that they actually are. The feeling of motion and the fact of progress are two separate things. Business culture is built around the feeling. Think corporate offices. Employees are always busy, but are they really productive?
The problem isn’t that we work hard. The problem is that institutions reward busyness so consistently that we stop asking what the busyness is for. GPA is measurable. Club positions are measurable. Internships are measurable. Purpose is not. So, we chase what shows up on a rubric and call it ambition.
There’s nothing wrong with these jobs we’re aiming for or the way we’ve filled our time over the last four years. But there might be something worth calling out about how we’ve focused on becoming busy without putting much effort into becoming intentional. We were so busy building a resume that we weren’t able to stop and ask, “A resume for what?”
Graduation has a way of forcing the question. You’ve been on a treadmill, and all of a sudden it stops. Suddenly, you’re standing still and have to decide where to go.
The most useful thing I did in my three years here wasn’t getting the internship with a fancy name, it was finally taking a moment to consider what I actually wanted and where I want to take my life. It was the quiet moment I decided to stop following the default path I had set up, taking the internship return offer and working 60-80 hour weeks, and instead turn it down to pursue something I might actually enjoy.
So here’s the question I’ll leave you with, for whatever it’s worth: What would you be doing if no one cared, if it didn’t show up on a resume? What would you do if the ambition was yours and not borrowed from everyone’s expectations?
We spent four years learning how to be productive. Maybe the next chapter is finally figuring out what for.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Chana Waksak