Last year, my sixth semester exams were about to begin in a day. I distinctly remember sitting on the terrace and contemplating the quintessential “What next?” but it was a little different for me. My “what next?” was pretty clear because this company I had been interning at for over 2 years then had already offered me a pre-placement offer, it was in the same city that my parents lived in and I had grown up in so at the face of it, it all looked sorted.

What daunted me then, was the “why?” and before we get to that, let me do some context setting. Although I had an offer from a company I had been working with, I was very used to my new job description, I knew what problem they were trying to solve and what the roadmap looked like there was this constant conflict between my logos (logic) and pathos (emotions). To validate this conflict, I spent about 4 months preparing for all the entrance exams for a master’s in psychology that were possible within the country and would be held between February 2022 – June 2022; cracked 2 and that’s where the contemplation on the terrace began.

For the 18-year-old me who was very clear, she couldn’t do a 9-5 job and wanted to be a kind person and work in a community space when she entered college, the offer, the logic; none of it made sense. There was this constant back and forth as to whether I am digressing from the larger goal in life for something that looks defined in the short term. But the 21-year-old me who had evolved as someone who prioritized logic over emotions was very clear about the “why?” of switching to the corporate world and leaving behind my career as a therapist.

There were a couple of reasons, a master’s degree in psychology then was not adding much value to my learning because I had already applied what a master’s course would teach me by the time I was finishing my undergraduate degree. I realized as much as I love being a listener and interacting with people, it also drains me; I cannot do it for long or build a career in a field that is all about interaction and connection. I need my own space and time to function.

So then, I convinced my pathos by saying, “Psychology is a very practical subject, you will apply it in business as well. You need to understand the needs of your target audience, their habits, their behavior – all of this is psychology.”

I absolutely had no clue how much sense did this sentence make in reality but I still decided to take a bet. Fast forward to today, where I work in a generalist role and have been for the past 7 months, I see the fusion of psychology in business being a game changer almost every other day.

A lot of things become common sense to you if you come from a psychology background because you are wired that way. Some of the most intertwined skills are understanding consumer behavior, communication, and prioritization, change management, collaboration, and team management, leadership. All of these require a certain amount of understanding of human motivations, drives, empathy, active listening skills, and the psychological aspects of change, adaption, and resistance.

As you start to leverage these skills in your first few years as a corporate employee or in the business world, it stands out as an investment later as it enables you to build great experiences for your customers, foster collaborative and inclusive work environments, and lead with empathy and effectiveness; even if it’s at a micro level.

With every passing day, I see my bet transform into reality and I am sure there’s more to come but what this whole process taught me in retrospect is that one, bet on your “why?”. Second, follow your logos, pathos usually settles in a while when its needs are met. Third, as you evolve and grow a lot of your rights from the past will not make any sense in the present and that’s okay. Trust your instinct and take the leap of faith; what’s the worse that could happen? You will fail. But you will have an experience and a tale to tell. Fourth, you are too young to play safe, it is okay to convince yourself of things that look defined for the short term. There is really nothing to lose when you are just graduating, so take the wildest bet possible and work on it because we are here for a good time, not a long time.