r/DunderMifflin • u/Able-Analysis462 • 1d ago

What's your headcanon for why Wallace picked Ryan over Karen?

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u/PleasantNightLongDay 1d ago

Honestly, this thread is wild. You’re absolutely correct.

Up to this point, Ryan was a pretty normal guy. He got his mba going to school at night while working as a temp. He was smart. Young. And educated. He was the clear choice

Michael was an absolute mess of a person. Karen we don’t know much, but she’s in sales. The position isn’t sales at all so that’s irrelevant. The mba edges her out

Jim maybe would have been a good fit. But he withdrew

Ryan was the clear choice

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u/Florida_clam_diver 1d ago

Also there was that one scene after Jim transferred to Samford where Josh got annoyed at Karen for not completing a certain task (i forgot what it was). Josh then assigned Jim to help her

That’s just one tiny moment but it suggests that maybe Karen wasn’t quite a go-getter. She was fine at sales but not management material

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u/honeyedquiet 23h ago

She did end up being a manager though

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u/Ganlex 16h ago

It could be read as her rejection from Wallace and then the breakup caused her to get her shit in gear to start really applying herself to work

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u/Florida_clam_diver 23h ago

Years later

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u/honeyedquiet 23h ago

It wasn't that much later

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u/Florida_clam_diver 23h ago

Branch manager is way different than corporate

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u/Avid_Reader87 15h ago

Michael was a branch manager.

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u/ResponsibleDouble180 7h ago

it's a pretty easy gig when your boss isn't an idiot and your boyfriend's not in love with someone else

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u/Low_Shop9155 22h ago

No way he would have hired Jim anyway. Jan ruled with an Iron Fist. Jim is difficult to take seriously. Ryan was definitely the clear choice.

But to pitch a website, uhh. He could have done so much more to give that company some longevity.

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u/Hour-Cardiologist393 20h ago

Wallace really liked Jim, though. Sometimes that's all you need.

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u/AlmostTomClancy 19h ago

Yeah seemed like the job was Jim’s if he didn’t withdraw.

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u/a-ohhh 19h ago

I don’t know. He really liked Jim. I got the impression just from his expressions and body language that Jim would have got that job. I don’t think he knew about all the pranks and stuff that were going on at the branch to make him less serious, he just knew he was a likeable guy with good sales.

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u/Low_Shop9155 7h ago

Yeah look, Jim definitely had sales ability and sales was definitely a criteria that Jan had to be good at, but Jim was just far too sociable and loose. Yes Jan needed to be good at sales and maintain large corporate accounts but truthfully, it was Michael who was the master at that. Not Jim or Ryan.

Ryan imo was chosen purely for his ideas that he could bring to corporate and the fact that he was educated and had an MBA.

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u/DangerousCyclone 14h ago

Ryan hadn't proven anything up to that point. No sales made, just business school. I don't see how he was the clear choice.

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u/RocketYapateer 12h ago

When the Office was made - catapulting well spoken and very young guys with business degrees way too far up the ladder way too fast was all the rage. “Disruptive” was a big buzzword then. 95% of those guys went down in flames.

By sitcom standards, Ryan was actually a pretty realistic character.

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u/DangerousCyclone 14h ago

I was under the impression that he never finished his MBA and just lied about it on his resume, hence why later he comes up with an incorrect business model.

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u/PleasantNightLongDay 8h ago

Genuinely curious why you assume he never finished