I was invited to interview with a company to attend a Mini-Finance Camp at their headquarters. They take 25 first-years from different schools and give them business problems to work on, etc. I’d heard it was a great program. Before the interviews, they asked all of the candidates from Chicago both first and second years to come to a cocktail reception beforehand. It was much tamer than the banking presentations that I’m used to. People were civil. But there was the occasional flub on which many of our stereotypes are based. A second year actually criticized a product’s design and compared it unfavorably to its competitor. Now keep in mind that we were talking to finance people who have absolutely nothing to do with the design of the product, besides the obvious faux pas in blowing up the competitor of your interviewer. It was just bad.
This morning, I worked in Career Services and actually escorted the same interviewers from last night to their respective interview rooms. I went to my Accounting class fully mentally prepared to receive the proverbial beating I deserved from the midterm. The professor prolonged the anticipation until Wednesday.
I got two mentors assigned to me, which is cool. It is just interesting to hear about their experiences. They are both freshman at the University and their concerns are so different from my own. There is some parallels as we’re all getting started, and it gives me some perspective in helping me to remember that I faced their same concerns and did OK. These are the days when I need that reassurance…