JOB → FIELD → COUNTRY → PROGRAM → UNIVERSITY

Not University → Program → Country → Career

Last month a student sat down with me and opened with “I want Columbia.” I asked what she wanted to be doing at 27. She hadn’t thought about it. Not once. She’d spent two years thinking about Columbia.

That’s how most of our first conversations start. With a university, or a country, or “an MBA.” Rarely with a job.

“I want to study in the US.”

“I want a top-20.”

“I want to do an MBA.”

None of those is a bad goal. They’re just the wrong first question.

For years students have chosen college backwards: get into the highest-ranked place you can, pick whatever degree is popular, go where everyone else is going, and sort out the career in final year. That worked, more or less, when a good brand name on a CV was enough. It isn’t anymore. AI is eating some jobs and reshaping the rest, and employers I talk to have stopped asking “where did you study” and started asking “what can you actually do.” Degrees still matter. The margin for choosing them lazily has gone.

Start with the job

Before “which university?”, ask: what kind of work do I want to be doing five years from now?

You don’t need one perfect job title. You need a cluster. If you’re drawn to technology, that cluster might be software engineering, ML, data, security, product. If it’s business, maybe consulting, finance, product, strategy, or building something of your own. Vague is fine. Blank is not.

Once you have the cluster, almost every other decision gets easier, because now there’s something to test the decision against.

JOB → FIELD

Which academic foundation actually opens the doors to those jobs?

Don’t pick a degree because it’s hot this year. Pick the one that keeps the most doors open. A student who wants to work in AI could do Computer Science, Maths, Statistics or Electrical Engineering, and the right answer depends entirely on which part of AI they want to be in. Someone who wants to build models needs more maths than someone who wants to ship products that use them.

At 17 you will change your mind. Probably twice. That’s not a flaw in the plan; it’s the reason the undergraduate degree has to leave room to move.

FIELD → COUNTRY

This is where people jump the gun. “I want the US.” “I want the UK.” Why?

The better question: where are the strongest opportunities for the career I’ve just described? That means looking at who the employers are, whether you can legally work there after graduating, what the salaries look like against what the degree costs, and whether there’s a path to staying if you want to.

The best country for an MBA is often not the best country for an MS in AI. And the most popular destination in your friend circle is frequently the worst return for your particular case. I’ve watched students pay $80,000 for a degree in USA that would have cost a third as much and led to the same job in Singapore — that sort of thing happens more than anyone admits.

COUNTRY → PROGRAM

Degree titles lie. Not deliberately, but they do.

Two universities can both call it an MS in Data Science and be teaching completely different things: one heavy on statistics and systems, the other essentially a business analytics course with Python bolted on. Students fall in love with the title and never open the curriculum.

So open it. What’s in the core? Which electives exist, and which actually run? Is there a co-op or internship built in? Which companies recruit on campus, and where did last year’s graduates end up? That last one is on the department website more often than you’d think.

PROGRAM → UNIVERSITY

Only now does the university become the main question.

Rankings matter. I’m not going to pretend they don’t. But they’re an input, not a verdict. A university ranked #40 with the right program, a scholarship, strong employer access and good placement data can beat a #15 that costs twice as much and doesn’t fit the career. I’ve recommended the #40 more than once, and the pushback is always from parents, never from employers.

The question isn’t “which university is better?” It’s “which is better for me, for this career, at this price?”

MBA: know what changes after it

An MBA can still change a life. But “I want an MBA” isn’t a reason to do one, and I’ll say that to anyone’s face.

The question is: what can I reach after the MBA that I can’t reach today? Consulting, product leadership, a different country, an industry switch — all legitimate. “A better job” isn’t an answer; it’s a wish.

The MBA profiles that are winning right now pair business with something deeper: product with AI, finance with analytics, marketing with technology, healthcare with strategy. The degree should extend a story you’ve already started, not replace one you never had.

Master’s: know what you’re buying

Before applying for a Master’s you should be able to finish this sentence:

“I’m doing this to move from ______ to ______.”

Engineering to robotics. CS to AI. Economics to data science. India to a global tech market. If you can’t fill in the blanks, you’re not ready to apply, and that’s fine. Wait a year, work, and come back with blanks you can fill.

A Master’s is not a passport with a syllabus attached. If it doesn’t change your skills, your options or your geography, it’s an expensive way to delay a decision.

Bachelor’s: keep your options open

At 17 nobody should expect you to know your exact career. What a Bachelor’s should do is build real fundamentals, keep several paths open, and give you enough contact with the real world to find out what you’re good at, which is often not what you thought.

And don’t graduate holding only the degree. Internships, research, projects, competitions, a portfolio. Your transcript shows what you studied. What you’ve built shows what you can do, and that’s what gets you hired.

The career is the goal

Somewhere along the way, admission became the finish line. It isn’t. It’s a checkpoint.

The career is the goal. The university is one part of the route to it. So instead of

University → Degree → Hopefully a job

think

JOB → FIELD → COUNTRY → PROGRAM → UNIVERSITY

Start with the future you’re trying to build. Then choose the education that gets you there.