Michael Olsen on Finding Career Direction in Your Thirties

In Chapter 1 of 20 in his 2014 Capture Your Flag interview, management consultant Michael Olsen answers "How Are Your Aspirations Changing as Your Experience Grows?" Olsen shares how his aspirations are less about achievement in his 30s than they were in his 20s. They are less about comparing himself against others and more about understanding himself better. He finds returning to graduate school helpful in this regard and uses the time to personalize a career path in line with not his younger aspirations but instead his current aspirations.

Michael Olsen is a management consultant at Accenture. Previous to Accenture, Olsen earned dual MBA and MPH degrees at Emory University in Atlanta. Olsen earned a BA in symbolic systems from Stanford University and spent the next five years founding an IT consulting company, Redwood Strategies.