Journey Map

Because the one interviewed wishes to remain anonymous, I will refer to him as Havisham.

The size of picture illustrates amount of confidence

Havisham grew up in a typical suburban area in Plano, Texas (aka the safest city in America). However, his life growing up wasn’t always easy. Being the first generation in his family born in the United States, Havisham struggled to balance the often-conflicting values learned from his parents and peers. As he grew older, Havisham became better at balancing and separating his identities inside and outside the home. Seeing the struggles his parents went to to provide for the family greatly inspired the choices Havisham made over the years.

Before College

As I mentioned before, Havisham’s parents overcame many obstacles to provide the typical middle class lifestyle. Barely knowing any English when they emigrated from India, his parents had to work even harder than those born here in the United States. Seeing the hurdles his parents had to overcome, Havisham knew that he never wanted to be in a position where he would have to struggle for finances. He made up his mind from a very early age that he would pursue a career where a lot of money could be made. And, once he realized his childhood dream of becoming a world famous Pokémon master was never going to happen, Havisham decided that he would pursue a degree in Finance at the Southern Methodist University. Not knowing a whole lot about the major other than salary figures, he was “phenomenally” confident in his choice. Havisham thought that he would breeze through college just as he did highschool and believed his choice in major was just a means to an end. Regardless of if he liked Finance or not, he was going to stick with it until the end.

Freshman Year

Freshman year hit Havisham like a sack of bricks. He moved away from home and into an apartment with his long-time best friend. It would be an understatement if I said he put school on the backburner. This newfound freedom accompanied with equally crazy friends and a fake ID led to many sleepless nights no one could remember. Needless to say, Havisham scraped by and nearly lost his scholarship. Despite his terrible scholastic performance, he was still very confident in his major choice. Havisham hadn’t taken any type of finance class to deter his decision and was still only concerned with the salary a finance major would bring.

Once second semester rolled around, Havisham’s parents had had enough and forced him to move back home. Ask any college kid and they will tell you that nothing straightens out a kid more than constant parental supervision. Havisham had to give up his extreme partying ways and focused all of his attention on school. With little to do but focus 100 percent of his attention on his studies, Havisham came to realize that he only needed to take 3 more history classes to receive a minor. Finally, all those AP classes in high school had paid off! Havisham was on the path to success, but still had yet to take a finance class, let alone a business class. He was still very confident in his choice, but this confidence stemmed from knowing he had a plan and was following through with it, not experience.

I would also like to note that Havisham and I became friends between the first and second semester of his freshman year. I like to think that my unwavering support (which he may have mistaken for nagging) can be attributed to his success.

Sophomore Year

With the fear of having another repeat of Havisham’s first semester at SMU, they decided that it was best for him to spend another year at home. Havisham knew they were leery and took this chance to prove himself to them. He took his very first business classes this semester and found that the concepts came easily to him. Although they had nothing to do with finance, this reinforced his major choice to some extent. At least now he realized that the Business School was the right choice.

The constant motivation and supervision resulted in a near 4.0 GPA for the first semester, which landed him an internship at a company called ClickMotive the second semester. He loved his new job mainly for the office experience. He soon found that it didn’t really enforce his choice of Finance but made him grateful he wasn’t an MIS major. Building websites for car dealerships is only so entertaining. However, it was at this point in Havisham’s college career that he took a Finance class. But, because he found everything about it easy, he actually did horrible. A little confusing, right? He found the concepts so easy to grasp that he refused to do any of the homework (which actually ended up being a large portion of his grade). Now, you would think that getting a bad grade in his first major specific class would make Havisham rethink his career path, but it didn’t. Obviously, he was less confident than he had been the first year and a half; but, he had actually enjoyed the subject matter. This setback just made him work harder in the future.

Junior Year

Havisham’s began taking more finance classes and with effort, passed them with flying colors. Yet, something surprised him. Havisham took an accounting class this semester and found that even with a minimal amount of effort, he was making straight As. He had an innate talent for accounting. This really made him rethink his decision of having Finance as a major. He played around with the idea of switching over to an accounting major throughout this semester and hit an all-time low of feeling uncertain.

After thinking all winter break, Havisham ultimately decided that although accounting came naturally to him, Finance was the path he wanted to take. Part of the reason he loved finance was because it was interesting and made him want to learn more. Accounting, on the other hand, was easy but also boring. Havisham was back at the same level of certainty he had felt his sophomore year.

Senior Year

Over the summer Havisham began an internship for finance at Tolleson, a private wealth management company. He was using what he had learning in his finance classes and applying what he had learned to the corporate world. At the beginning of the semester, he received a full-time offer from the company and has accepted! He is now more confident than ever that Finance is what he wants to do and cannot wait to finish school.

The uncertainties Havisham faced over the years helped reinforce his decision to pursue a degree in Finance. He had to experience the bad to know when things felt right. Although taking classes helped to some extent, the internship at Tolleson is what really upped Havisham’s confidence. Getting that taste of the real world of a finance major was what really set him over the edge. In the words of Havisham, “I am not a finance major, I am a funance major!”