“What are you going to be when you grow up?” is a question that follows us our entire lives.

The speculation begins when we’re still in diapers. An interest in Tonka trucks might be interpreted as a portent to a future career in construction or engineering. Pick up a rolling pin, and your parents will start daydreaming about having a world renowned pastry chef in the family. Show a penchant for dressing up? You’ll be an actor or a model one day, no doubt.

Some people seem to have their future career path predestined for them. They grow up knowing with absolute certainty that they are meant to be a teacher or a doctor or a law enforcement officer. As their friends oscillate between aspirations of being a firefighter or veterinarian, those chosen few never waiver in their determination. They’re not the ones who wait until the last second to declare a major their sophomore year in college.

Can you guess where I fell on the spectrum?

My chosen field of study when I entered Manhattan College was International Business. What did that mean? I had no clue, but it sounded good. I had no idea what career opportunities it could lead to or what it would entail, but I figured I had four years to iron out all those minor details.

At good old MC, International Business was only offered as a second major so I was still in the waiting-to-the-last-second-to-declare boat. I finally settled on economics, because I loved it. But I still had no idea what I’d do with it. I assumed I’d end up in some aspect of finance with the rest of my non-accounting business brethren.

Until the last semester of my senior year, that is, when I sat in on a research presentation by a Ph.D. in that field, and had something of an epiphany. It was then that I realized I’d rather poke my own eyes out with a sharp stick than work in any facet of finance for a living.