Yup, it's still my first semester, but I feel that I'm putting hard-core recruiting efforts in already. My classmates and I all know that the economy's getting better, and companies have to step up their game as they're all planning to hire significantly more MBAs than they had in recent years, however, what we're also experiencing is residual panic from the second years and Class of 2004.
At the time the Class of 2005 had started its first semester, things were still not rosy...at all. They inherited the requisite sense of "find-internship-at-all-costs" sense of the Class of 2004 and started job-hunting pretty early. Well, turns out that for the most part, the Class of 2006 also has that sense, but now we also have to mix that with the realization that things are getting better on the hiring front.
The end result is that we're relieved everytime there's a headline announcing that companies are expecting to hire more throughout the next two years, but we also are like "well, you never know what can happen! Gotta keep meeting with those companies and those alums!"
Fridays are when I find I can get a lot of informational sessions done, but I somehow devote at least 2 hours every day to the hunt. Honestly, internship-hunting is like having an additional 2 classes, but of course, they'd easily be the 2 most important classes - for me anyway. Of course, not everyone is gung ho on doing consulting...at CBS, most students are going into asset mgt/sales & trading/investment banking etc. That said, a significant portion of students are interested in consulting. Given that I don't have a consulting background, and only think I know what it's really like, it's imperative that I dabble in the field via an internship. If I find that it's a great match, I'd better have performed really well over the summer so I can get an early offer to return to the company full-time.
My year, of course, is praying that the second years all wind up with 3 - 4 offers apiece so we can look forward to an excellent, chill second year.
I've definitely figured out that as a 29 year-old woman, grades are not as important to me as they were when I was in high school and college. "So what's left?" you grade-oriented souls ask. Well, how about soul-satisfying conversations with the best professors around. Heated yet friendly debates with classmates. Learning new ways of looking at everything that happens in a business or in a country. And no, my grades aren't bad.
I'm far from failing any of my classes, yet I've found that as another set of finals start looming on the horizon, I'm not really rattled. I understand all of the major concepts taught in my classes, and really want to engage more in meaningful conversations about them with my professors outside of the classroom.
I've also figured out that 2 of the biggest reasons I'm at CBS is because of the network, including the Black alumni network which is second-to-none, and because I want to choose what my next career will look like more consciously than I've ever felt I could do before.
I think I can sign off on that note. I hope everyone knows how to post comments or questions (I'm not sure how, but the website should direct you). I'll answer any questions posted specifically for me in a following blog.