A Transition 18 Months in the Making

Jacob Kerr
Aug 24, 2017 · 6 min read

Humans are simultaneously great at adapting on the fly and also notoriously resistant to change when forced upon us.

At this point in our evolutionary history, mankind is accustomed to a relatively modest pace that naturally encourages settling for extended periods. Our hunter-gatherer ancestors would be shocked by our inability to pick up and change on a whim; for thousands of years humans walked the earth as nomads, where the only constant was inconsistency.

In some ways, I feel like a prehistoric homo sapien. For the last 8 months, my life has been in a state of partial flux — living a double life as both a graduating undergraduate and full-time employee. As many already know, and I learned recently, transitions are difficult. To be blunt: they completely suck and take all the energy out of you.

Graduation picture with my parents!

For many students, the transition from undergraduate to the “real world” is punctuated by the pomp and circumstance of graduation ceremonies, senior festivities, family BBQs, and tearful goodbyes. My send-off from college has been similar, but the actual transition elongated significantly — starting in March of my junior year and finally concluding in the next few days.

This is the story of that process as I look forward to the next chapter.


As I reflect, my transition from undergrad actually started in March of 2016, the spring of my junior year, when I started seriously contemplating dropping pre-med. As I spent the spring and summer reading and doing some major soul-searching, it seemed less and less likely that I would be a doctor. When I thought about the activities and topics that consumed my attention — the things I did for fun, regardless of dominating stress and long hours — it was all about people within organizations and the intersection of culture and execution. I like thinking about how the collective synchronization of people could make borderline miracles happen… 1+1=3 seems to make sense when I think about people in the context of a larger institution.

I still wanted to help people, but more and more it seemed this would manifest itself in medicine. If this (organizational behavior, I/O psychology, leadership, culture, etc. etc.) is what I found fun, I might as well pursue it for the rest of my career. Anyway, my personal reflections — my soul — left me no choice, so I couldn’t look back even if I forced myself to continue down the pre-med path.

Like many other students, the fall of my senior year centered on job recruitment. Balancing a few courses, a part-time internship, a few campus activities, and recruitment was stressful. It turns out finding a job is a job in itself. If I’m being honest, I didn’t devote enough time to the process, so it’s not a surprise when I finished my courses in December with no full-time offer. Even as my internal stress built and I struggled to get to sleep at night, I reminded myself that this was actually normal — most students don’t have post-graduation plans figured out until Spring. Some graduates still don’t have anything to look forward to.

While enduring rejection after rejection, I was also networking with several Northwestern alumni. Student organizations and research labs comprised the bulk of my experience on paper, but it turns out these are not particularly compelling to campus recruiters unless it is absolutely outstanding or unique. I was over involved, but hardly unique. In an effort to make up for lost time, I started reaching out to lots of people in the Northwestern alumni community for advice and insight. The roles I was looking to break into — executive search, leadership consulting, human capital consulting — had narrow access and few opportunities, and I didn’t have any work experience to leverage. Talking to people in the industry helped me fill some of the knowledge gaps I would have gained through internships.

I’ll be the first to tell you — I was extremely lucky.

One of the people who was providing some mentorship and advice happened to get a new job during winter break. He called me on a Monday morning and said, “I think I’m going to take this opportunity. That means once people slide around, there will be an open spot at my previous firm. I’ll put you in touch with people there.” Talk about an inside lead, eh?

Within a week, I flew through phone interviews with 2 Consultants and 1 Director. A few weeks later I interviewed by phone with another Consultant and Director. Then I did two in person interviews with the Chicago-based team — 6 people in 5 hours. Apparently they liked me enough to give me an offer doing business development & operations support, even though I had no real training in marketing or sales.

Getting an offer was a huge relief — I finally had some idea of my life after graduation, I had money coming in to pay over-due bills, and I was on a trajectory that better aligned with my life’s goals. It also meant I worked during the school year while I was still living partly as a college student. I still attended student group meetings in the evenings. I still went out on weekends (and even some Tuesdays and Thursdays); I didn’t miss a formal or a date night. I still went to the gym and cooked regularly. It was like living as a “real adult” from 7am-6pm, and then living as a college student from 6pm-2am.

Living like this is do-able but draining. Between the commute and the lack of sleep from trying to maximize my time in college with friends, I basically survived on fumes for a few months.

Working also meant I made some trade-offs that I’m sure future Jake will regret — I turned down roadtrips, student shows, senior activities, and late nights with friends because of costs and schedule.

One thing suck with me through the rest of the year. Since January, I felt like I was waiting for graduation to come. As a student, I was doing everything I could to enjoy being a senior; as a professional, I was networking, attending events, getting involved in side projects, and taking on more responsibility at work. Doing both stretched my resources, and I wanted to engross myself in the next chapter of my life. Graduation was the last major hurdle before I could do so.

Even as I lived my double life, I continuously told myself and others:

“I feel like I’m waiting for June, and I know I’m going to kick myself for thinking that when October rolls around.”

Commencement was a long, emotional, and draining weekend, but it finally felt like I could start looking to the future. And then, after two days off for ceremonies, it was back to work on Monday. Nothing really changed.

Since graduation, I have been moving to a new apartment in Chicago, driving my personal belongings down one weekend at a time. Even as roommates and friends have moved on from Evanston, I lingered behind to spend as much time as I could surrounded by a handful of people still near campus.

In just a few days, the 18 months of transition will conclude and I will hit the ground running. If I look back, one thing I’ve definitely learned to appreciate is living in the moment. I did my best to soak up as much of the current day while still looking forward to the future. I cherished every day, knowing soon it would be over, and I tried to live without regrets.

As one chapter closes in life, another begins and I’m ready to take on some major challenges. Starting Sunday I will be operating at full-speed (and I’ll be documenting here more consistently from then on). It will be a fun, demanding grind, and I can’t wait any longer.

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Jacob Kerr

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Helping orgs find their Hamilton or Daenerys by day… Building @AlumniVentures by night. Every strategy, change, mission starts with people! @NorthwesternU '17

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