Diana's Weblog

More on Loss and Month Two 2nd Year

Hello readers! If you read the previous entry, you know that in mid September I attended the NBMBAA conference in Houston, Texas, at the conclusion of which I had to cancel my return trip to St. Louis and instead head back home to a funeral.

Returning to school and "getting into the swing of things" was easier said than done. I was not only behind in my school work, but also had a difficult time moving on. The "reality" back home again reminded me of how fleeting life is and how we are all on borrowed time. It also reminded me that life outside the school hallways continues that, as much as you are shielded from it for two years, there are certain events that put things into perspective. One day you are consumed by thoughts of school work and job hunting, the next you're dealing with loss and trying to regain normalcy.

That aside, I must say that regaining the motivation to catch up was made a lot easier because of the understanding of fellow classmates, specifically my two groups. As soon as they found out about the news from home, they supported me and told me to focus on my family and forget about school work and assignments due.

So I did put everything aside. Upon returning, as much as I always say to myself "the show must go on", it was tough to start over if your will. But, little by little, I regained some normalcy and was able to labor through school work until eventually I felt 100% again.

A couple of weeks into October (or month two of my second year), I was taking finals for two of my mini-courses the same week I was scheduled to attend conference two of the year: NSHMBA (National Society of Hispanic MBAs) in Ft. Worth, Texas. After finishing a three-hour exam, I headed back to my apartment, packed and left for the airport with a fellow classmate.

I was back for round two of the conference circuit, so that Friday I headed to the Ft. Worth convention center for another "battle" of talking to companies on my list. I must say that going into the conference I knew of at least three companies I wanted to talk to were not in hiring mode due to a decrease in consumption of branded consumer goods. However, since no one knows what can happen a few months from now when graduation time comes around, it is still important to talk to these companies. Perhaps in a couple of months or so their outlook has changed and they are able to offer some employment opportunities.

Anyway, while I didn't interview with any companies on site, I did get three solid leads that I acted on as soon as I returned to St. Louis. As I write, I am waiting to hear from the Latin America division of a consumer products company and am about to send my reference list and resume to another company for a potential interview in a marketing communications role.

After the conference, I began three other mini-courses: Services Marketing, Corporate Strategy and Finance II, which reminds me that I need to return to my school work. By the way, by the end of this week or the beginning of next week, I should be hearing from another multinational consumer products company that I interviewed with a month and a half ago. I will be keeping my fingers crossed! Positive news mean a trip to Florida in early December for second-round interviews.

Until my next entry.

First Month of Class (and Job Hunting!)

Hello again! Here's a recount of life since I returned to campus Sept. 7 to begin my second year. As expected, classes took off, some at lightning speed over the next seven weeks, others on a slower, semester-long format.

Between reading cases, of course, back to the job hunt, this time for a full-time opportunity. Part of finding a job entailed preparing for the upcoming NBMBAA conference held in Houston, Texas, from Sept. 15 to Sept. 18. where hundreds of companies gathered under the same roof to talk to thousands of students (some 11,000 people had registered for the career fair), both current and graduates racing madly through the conferece hall, networking and interviewing like soldiers on a mission.

Unlike other students who had lined up interviews before attending the conference (if you are able to this, great!), I took this conference as a warm-up for other conferences to come and as a chance to connect early with a specific list of target companies. I arrived in Houston in the wee hours of the morning on Thursday, Sept. 16, and tried to get some sleep before the first long day of the career fair.

I arrived at about 11 a.m. and mapped put my "booth-hitting" strategy, company list in hand. Yes, promoting oneself at time feels odd, but someone's got to do it! This is why we are all doing our MBAs, right? Anyway, I first paid a visit to a company that had e-mailed me about an rotational program. There I met with one of the Human Resources representatives who, upon seeing that I had received an e-mail from one of her colleagues, proceeded to write my name on the next day's interview schedule.

And so the conference took me from booth to booth, making my pitch. As you can imagine, the pitch gets old as the day winds down. At the end of day one I had one interview lined up. I then headed back to the hotel, ordered room service and began preparing for the interview the next day.

On Friday, after a bite to eat, it was time to head back to the conference and find the interview location. After finding the company booth, I was given a form I would hand in to the interviewer. The interview proceeded as planned and by the end, it became apparent that I wasn't the best fit for the position the company had mentioned in its e-mail (they wanted 2-3 years of marketing experience), but I could be a good fit for other positions.

Following the interview, I returned to the Career Fair, ready to pitch my story to another handful of companies. A few pitches later, I had landed my second interview with the consumer healthcare division of a pharmaceutical company. I would need to return to the booth several hours later, so in the meantime, I continued my networking.

As 3 p.m. rolled around, I walked down to the company booth for my interview. There I sat with a marketing executive and had an extensive conversation about my background and experiences. I then returned to the floor to visit a couple of other companies before heading back to the hotel.

[As an aside, during my interview I received a call (of course, I DID NOT answer the phone) from home to inform me that someone close had just passed away. As soon as I returned to the hotel, it became clear that I would cancel my trip to St. Louis and go home to the funeral.]

Well, I must head back to my studies and everything else going on. Next time I will share a bit more about loss and returning to my MBA reality.