Natasha's Weblog

NBMBAA Conference

There was much confusion surrounding attending this year’s National Black MBA Association Conference. As the conference falls during CORE, which is mandatory, many of us felt that we couldn’t go. I had never heard of the conference, and so I asked a lot of questions about what happened there, what the benefits are, etc. When I heard that the banks and consulting companies would be there, I was determined to go. The key is face time and I need all the help I can get.
I got several compliments on my resume, and the reception from recruiters based on the Chicago name was enthusiastic. My strategy was to paper the entire convention center. I was able to talk with all of the banks, and a couple of consulting companies. I also talked with consumer goods companies about corporate finance and operations management. I thought it was a great step to learning about business careers and what exactly I want to do.

The Career Fair was huge, but very organized and efficient. The Chicago GSB had a table where students congregated between jaunts to grill recruiters. So we also got to talk to some prospective students as well as alumni. After the fair on Thursday, most companies held receptions in the adjoining hotel. This is great in theory, but since they are all held at the exact same time, it is difficult to go to every one. We’d planned a polite but efficient 20 minutes each for the six we wanted to attend. We quickly realized that the recruiter’s goal is to keep you in the room and talking to their representatives, rather than the competition. We were only able to make it to three receptions, and by this time we were pretty exhausted. Many people went out after, but I was asleep at 11 so that I could hit it again the next morning.
Friday had a different feel. There were a few new faces as many people decided to take only one day to attend the conference, and the atmosphere was a bit more relaxed as the everybody, including the recruiters, were tired. We learned that most of the higher level people (AKA, the people you want to talk to) leave about noon on Friday. In other words, you should be done with resumes and on to collecting freebies by 1pm. My classmates left the convention center with huge red bags emblazoned with the Coca Cola label filled with pens, shaving gel, chips, key chains, and (hopefully) company information. Trying to pack all of that stuff for the plane home was no small feat.
All in all, I am immensely glad that I attended the conference. I was able to see people I’d contacted over the summer and they remembered me. It made it so much easier to walk up to a booth and talk to someone you’d talked to before. I was so encouraged to see how Chicago students compared to students at other schools. I will admit to a biased opinion, but we came across as professional and polished, and just had our stuff together. We represented well!
Friday night we had a Chicago GSB reception and really got the inside scoop from the second years. It was encouraging to know that they are just as crazy as we are, and that they are normal people with social skills, so the stereotype has officially been proven wrong. Then we attended a party with several other schools which was not that great. Though I met a couple of people from Wharton, it wasn’t that easy to talk to them with the loud music and bump and grind.