I've always been a fan of networking, but I had no idea that using a little networking could create such good results. I've gotten some great internship leads over the past few days as a result of reaching out to the folks in my circle of contacts.
First, my girl maya (1st year student at Columbia Business School) passed along an email from one of her alums saying that Booz-Allen's ATL office was looking for some candidates to fill intern spots in their office. This was about a month ago and I sent my resume to her, but I dind't hear a peep from them until a couple of days ago. I've been playing phone tag with their ATL office recruiter, but I'm going to hit her up tomorrow and I should be able to set up a first round interview at that point. When i first got the email from maya, I passed it along to my boys Detavio and Shawn and they've both set up their first round interviews, so there's a chance that we can all end up in ATL together at BAH.
Next, my boy Christian (who was my roomie back when i was in VA and works for Booz Allen's McLean, VA headquarters) asked me to give him my resume so he could put it into the system in case there are some openings there. I sent it to him over a month ago and received an email from a recruiter saying that they didn't have any openings. As soon as I told my boy that, he told me that he was going to ruffle some feathers and look around for other stuff in their office for me. Well, I got a message from a recruiter from that office when I came out of class tonight and I'm going to give her a call in the morning to see what kind of opportunities they have for me.
A couple of days ago, I sent out a post on a Princeton Alumni Career networking list and a Black Ivy league alumni list saying that I was looking for contacts at boutique strategy firms or in corporate strategy units of corporations and I got a bunch of good replies. I've been in contact with 5 or 6 companies as a result of that one message and I'm hoping to get some more good news from them in the next couple of days. In fact, the Accenture second round interview that I have on Friday came as a result of me networking with people in the Stanford GSB alumni network, as well. I will never ever doubt the power of networking again. I have a feeling that one or more of these leads will lead to some offers for me and allow me to finally start focusing on school fulltime again.
By the way I've got to send a huge shout out to a couple of cats that just found out that they were accepted for the Stanford GSB Class of 2007. First, my man Jason who I met at the many Voices event back in November got the call earlier today 3 minutes after getting off of the phone with me telling me how freaked out he was because he hadn't heard anything yet. I knew this dude was a cool cat from the time I met him and, after reviewing his essays for him and prepping him for his interview, he wanted it so bad that I knew he couldn't be denied. Also, my man Eugene (a Princeton alum) who found me through MBADiversity.com got the good word, which really made me smile because I helped him prep for his interview and, after talking to him, I knew he'd do well and would be getting the call from DB. Fellas, I don't know if you're seeing this, but I can't wait until y'all matriculate in the Fall.
Posted by marquis930 at March 31, 2005 06:55 AM