One of the companies I talked with at the NBMBAA Conference invited me to interview at their Headquarters. I didn’t realize that I would be interviewing with five people! I flew in and checked into the hotel and then met an employee for dinner. We talked about the company and what she likes about her job. We got comfortable and then the real info started flowing. I was very honest about where I am in this process. (I’m still considering consulting, though banking is about to fall off my list.)
Of course, me being Natasha, I spilled a drop of brown sauce right in the middle of my shirt during the appetizer course. I had no hope that it wasn’t noticeable. So I just talked all through dinner and dessert as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. And nothing had, since I am usually pretty clumsy and accident-prone. I’m used to it. I didn’t drink anything and turned in pretty early, which was probably just as well. In the morning, I had a monster day of interviewing.
I entered the company’s lobby and found that there would be three other interviewees. There was another first year seeking a marketing internship and two second year students, one seeking a finance job and one seeking a marketing job. I guess the intention was to minimize the competitive feel. It is always interesting to see the dynamic between business school students. We size each other up based on where we go to school. People deliver the name of their school with such pride, “I go to Tepper.” (That’s Carnegie Mellon for the uninitiated.) I think it’s ridiculous. Chicago’s reputation doesn’t make me any better. It’s giving me a lot of credit which could only lead to disappointment.
My first interview of the morning, I wasn’t sure how to play. I had no idea what to expect and so just decided to be myself. The HR people had laid out the format and stated that each interviewer had precise questions that they were to ask you. It was all very scientific. So it was with great relish that my first interviewer firmly stated that he didn’t care for the questions and he knew from my resume that I would be great. He wanted to know about me. So I regaled him with some exciting tales of my upbringing and then asked him questions about his job and why he stays where he is. He got so excited to talk about his day, I just sat back and absorbed the deluge of info. One down, four to go…
My second interviewer was a VP who reported right to the CFO of the company. I did not let this intimidate me and asked him about his experience, and what he’s looking for in an intern. He was a little more standoffish, but I faired pretty well. After that it was easy. I got into a groove and just went with the momentum. Repeating myself over and over was a drag. I think I got more daring as the day went on, so that in my last interview I asked the interviewer if he felt that he could go to his boss and say that a project he’d been given was crap. Yes, I said crap in an interview. Surprisingly no lightning came out of the ceiling and struck me down, and no language police showed up to give me a ticket. Amazingly, he answered my question and he relaxed and then I really got my questions answered. Who knows if I got a job offer, but I gained some points for self expression. I really feel that a job offer would be an indication that they really think I could succeed there, and not an acknowledgment that I’d said what they wanted me to. We’ll see.
Of course, all this riveting conversation led to me writing seven thank you notes to mail early this morning. It’s crazy. I returned home to a sink full of dishes, a tornado of clothes I’d been amassing at each of my pit-stops between plane trips, 6 voicemails, and 74 e-mails. I will definitely suffer for being out of sight for most of the last week, but I think I made some strides on the career front, both personally and from the internship standpoint. And I’m still having more fun than when I was at work.