MBA Voices: How To Narrow Your Path When You Have No Idea Where You’re Going

At the beginning of business school, I approached recruiting with what felt like a very reasonable strategy.

I signed up for everything.

Company information session? I was there. Career trek? Absolutely. Coffee chat? Put it on the calendar. Employer presentation for an industry I had never considered? Sure. Maybe this was the one.

Somewhere between the company presentations, networking events, career fairs, and conversations with second years, I became convinced of one thing. If I just exposed myself to enough options, eventually one of them would magically “feel right.” Instead, my calendar filled up, while my career direction became a game of recruiting Tetris, packed to the edge while I still felt no closer to knowing where I actually wanted to go.

DESTINATION UNKNOWN

After working for six years, I knew what I was good at doing. I knew I liked solving problems, working across teams, and being close enough to the work to see the impact of my decisions. What I did not know was how or where those strengths translated into a post-MBA career I actually wanted.

Strategy? Operations? Energy? Consumer products? I wasn’t sure. I knew that I did not want to recruit for consulting or investment banking. That narrowed the field, but it also meant stepping away from two of the most structured recruiting paths in the MBA program without having a clear alternative.

That was harder than I expected. I watched classmates move through recruiting with defined targets while I was still trying to figure out mine. It was easy to wonder if everyone else had it figured out something I had missed.

Without an obvious track to follow, I tried to create one by exploring everything. My engineering background had taught me that when I did not have an answer, I should gather more information. The problem was that I was collecting information without having a good way to evaluate it. I was busy, but not necessarily getting closer to an answer.

I could leave an event thinking, “That company seems great,” without ever asking the more important question: Would I actually like the work?

That realization changed how I recruited.

FINDING A FIT IN ENERGY

Instead of searching for the “perfect job,” I started paying more attention to my reactions. Which conversations made me itch to ask another question? Which roles used the parts of my previous career that I actually enjoyed? Could I picture myself doing the work – or did it only sound appealing because everyone around me seemed drawn to it?

Those questions gave my exploration a much higher return. A coffee chat could help me identify something I wanted or eliminate something I did not. An information session did not have to result in a submitted application to be valuable. Sometimes, learning that I was not interested was just as useful. Saying no started to feel less like giving something up and more like narrowing the field to options that actually fit.

In the process, one industry kept making it through the filter: energy.

In hindsight, the connection makes sense. I had spent six years working on large infrastructure projects, partnering with complicated stakeholders, and making decisions with tangible consequences. In construction, I could point to something we built and know the work mattered. I wanted my next career to still feel tangible, even if my role looked completely different.

Energy gave me that feeling. It had the infrastructure and operational complexity I understood, while exposing me to the challenges I came to business school wanting to learn: investment, growth, technology, and long-term strategy.

CONNECTING TRANSFERRABLE SKILLS WITH A PURPOSE

Being at Rice made that path more tangible. The city’s energy ecosystem spans oil and gas, utilities, renewables, technology, and the companies that support all of them. I did not have to choose between staying close to infrastructure and exploring a broader business role. That range gave me room to imagine not just my first post-MBA job, but multiple directions my career could take over time.

Rice also gave me ways to test that interest rather than just think about it. Through energy-focused coursework, the Rice Business Energy Case Competition, and ultimately a summer internship on CenterPoint Energy’s Strategic Planning team, I got to see how the industry’s operational realities connect to the strategic questions companies are trying to solve. Each experience made energy feel less like one option on a long list and more like a direction I could see myself growing into.

But there was a bigger reason energy kept pulling me back. Energy sits underneath so much of how people live and how communities grow: it powers homes and businesses, supports new infrastructure, and shapes what communities are able to build next. I was not going to solve the industry’s biggest challenges on my own. But I liked the idea that my work could be one small part of something bigger, alongside many others trying to make an impact.

ADVICE TO FUTURE MBAs

Looking back, I do not regret the events, coffee chats, or even the opportunities that went nowhere. I needed to explore. What I also needed to learn was how to explore on purpose.

If you are coming into an MBA program without a perfectly mapped-out career plan, resist the urge to treat everyone else’s certainty as evidence that you are late. Go to the events. Take the coffee chats. Learn about the company you never heard of before or the industry you had never even considered. But do not confuse a booked calendar with progress.

Pay attention to what stays with you afterwards. What made you curious? What problems would you want to help solve? What opportunity uses your strengths? What feels meaningful to you? And would you still want the opportunity if nobody else around you were recruiting for it?

Give yourself permission to eliminate things, too. Narrowing your path does not mean deciding what you want to do for the rest of your life. It means learning enough about yourself to make the next choice with more intention than the last.

I entered business school thinking clarity would come once I gathered enough information. Instead, it came when I learned how to decide which information mattered, and which questions were actually mine to answer.

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Sydney Harrison, Forté Fellow, is a second-year MBA candidate at Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business, graduating in May 2027. Before Rice, she spent six years at Zachry Construction, where she managed complex infrastructure projects and field teams across Texas. She holds a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Texas A&M University, with a concentration in Construction Management and minor in Sustainable Architecture and Planning. She just completed a summer internship on the Strategic Planning team at CenterPoint Energy. At Rice, Sydney serves as Vice President of the Rice Business Student Association, Marketing Chair for the Rice Business Energy Case Competition, Co-President of the Rice Business Cork & Cask Club, Senior Lead Fellow for Strategic Business Communications I, and Rice Business Recruiting and Admissions Ambassador. Outside of school, she enjoys reading a good thriller or sci-fi novel, attending yoga or Pilates classes, and exploring Houston’s food scene.

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