One of my college professors, who also doubled as my career advisor, gave me terrible career advice. Instead of listening, I chose to do the complete opposite of what he said.

I told my advisor that I wanted to get my MBA.

My advisor told me to get married and have kids before going to grad school. He assumed that I would be a stay at home mom first, and going back to grad school would help me improve the networking skills I would lose after having kids.

According to him, going back for my MBA after being a stay at home mom was the best path for my future success.

If women continue to be fed this advice, we will continue down the same path of not making it to the top of any industry. Advice like this is telling women to quit climbing that ladder.  In this video by Sheryl Sandberg, we learned that we cannot quit before we quit. We can’t pull back from work opportunities when we think of starting a family.

There is nothing wrong with being a stay at home mom or going back to grad school as a mom. There was one mom in my MBA program who was juggling work, school, and her three kids! I don’t know how she did it.  She faced the daily guilt of hardly seeing her kids or husband day or night for three years. I cringe as I think that this is the path that my advisor wanted me to take.

Moral of the story: Not all career advice is good advice.

I am glad that I did the opposite of what he said. With my MBA in hand and a job that I am proud of, I am glad I didn’t listen!

Have you received bad career advice? Please share!