College Experiences That Helped A Climate Venture Fellow At An Early Stage Venture Capital Firm Succeed

I'll be the first to admit, I did not do nearly enough to set myself up for success as an undergrad at UCLA. I always think about the things I wish I had done, but I also recognize that I was on my own journey. You might have some regrets, but also be really glad you went about things in other ways.

So, I'd say give yourself a little bit of grace. No one's perfect. I've certainly had to learn to give myself a lot of grace. A lot of times, we think the point of undergrad is to go in with an interest, take classes, do internships, graduate, and have a clear sense of what we want to do with our lives.

But that's just not the reality for the vast majority of us. Yes, some folks know they want to go into graduate school and begin years of training to be a doctor, or they immediately go to law school. But the rest of us are figuring out where we fit within other jobs and roles that were never talked about growing up.

What is a development officer? What is a chief marketing officer? What is a strategy consultant? I had no idea what any of these jobs or professions were that you can still do post-grad. I think it's really about taking the time to learn about yourself and develop this framework.

It's like four circles that overlap in a four-part Venn diagram: What are you good at? What do you enjoy doing? What will you get paid to do? And in my case, what does the planet need? But it might be, what does your community or family need? Who is this external stakeholder that you care about? What does society need?

Putting those four together, you find that inner piece where you begin to understand, "This is what I want to do. This is my calling." You might not have that figured out after four years of undergrad, and that's okay. But if you start building that list and whittling it away, you do an internship in something you're good at and have an interest in.

If it's successful, great. Keep testing that. Maybe you figure out it's absolutely not what you want to do at all, and that's also okay. It's not wasted time; it's important for you to figure out. I don't think we talk about that enough.

So just keep learning outside the classroom. Yes, know what the molecules are or how to do data analysis, but also figure out what you want to do and what you're actually good at. Instead of focusing on what you're being told you need to do, if it's tough and you don't enjoy it, that's going to be a miserable job even if you get paid.

So maybe try to find something you can get paid for, but you also really enjoy and are good at. Focusing on that is a really important thing to do in undergrad.