Life After Business School

As a student, you often times wonder, When am I ever going to use this stuff? As a business school graduate myself, I'm here to tell you that what you learn in business school is knowledge that you will actually use in the real world of business. Some of your lessons will even prepare you for the real world of life. It may not seem like it at the time but there is rhyme and reason for the classes that are involved in earning a business degree.

Believe it or not, learning how to use a financial calculator to figure out present value, payments and future value does come in handy later. As a matter of fact, it helped me land my first job out of college as a mortgage originator for Merrill Lynch. Being able to use my financial calculator gave me the foundation I needed to help clients with mortgage payment calculations and more.

Knowledge empowers you in more ways than you think. In my personal life I've whipped out my financial calculator on many occasions. For example, after working for Merrill Lynch for a year, I was eligible to invest in a 401k plan. Here's where future values came in handy. I was actually able to determine if I invested X amount of money today and my expected rate of return was Y%, then I would be able to be a millionaire by the time I retire.

Using my financial calculator didn't end there either. The first time I went to a car dealer to buy a car, my trustee calculator went along with me. When the salesman started going over figures with me, I removed my calculator from my purse and started doing some calculations of my own. Using how much of a monthly payment I wanted to make and taking into consideration at the going interest rate, I was able to back in to the amount that I should pay for the car. You should have seen the look on the salesman's face! This is just another example of how knowledge empowers you.

So even though it may not seem like it at the time you are studying a particular subject or lesson, you really can apply your acquired knowledge in the real world. Maybe the next time you are questioning, When am I ever going to use this stuff, you can take a few minutes to research how the knowledge can be applied to real life or business situations. You'll be pleasantly surprised how many ways you will be able to use your knowledge. You may even find a career you are interested in pursuing.