We had our first LEAD dinner. It was quite a reminder of LEAD class. We were asked to prepare a skit, and I again had to ask myself what I had signed up for. It was a send off for the LEAD facilitators and a welcome for the new recruits.
Friday, I attended a case prep workshop for undergrads and PhDs. We were invited to attend, so I decided to check it out. It was such a difference from the intense regimented structure that everyone at the GSB was pushing. The demonstration seemed more like a game of 20 questions.
I have been sick all week and thus had to rearrange my plans. I picked up my suits from the dry cleaners and got my hair did. I then put myself to bed with some soup and tea. I’ve got four interviews this week.
Now that the time is finally here, I feel like it is somewhat anticlimactic. I mean we have been learning about companies, practicing cases, and talking with hundreds of people, and it all comes down to a 2 hour interview. The process seems a bit laughable. I kept going from super confident to “sure-I-am-going-to-blow-this” and every feeling in between. I’ve given up on feeling “ready”, I’m not even sure it exists. You just have to go, be yourself, and do it. I’ll let you know how painful it is.
We got our interview schedules and then the emails asking to trade spots started pretty soon afterward. I got the three companies that I’d made the closed list for and one other company that I’d bid on. The bankers are walking tension. People got notices for second round interviews Monday night, and some people had offers by Wednesday. The mood on campus continues to grow more and more divergent; the “haves” are a mixture of exhilaration and relief and the “have-nots” are battling panic and questioning their skills in comparison to their classmates.
I started feeling a bit worn down on Monday, and immediately ran home to pop some medicine and ward off the ailment. Tuesday, I had a group meeting at Hyde Park Center. After two hours, I was done and went right home. I attended interview prep with one of my top choices on Wednesday. I got a few little tips that helped to make me feel a little more confident and ready. I’m getting more relaxed as I have class all day.
It has been an overwhelming week. I was elected as a co-chair for the African-American MBA Association (AAMBAA), and then I found out I’d been selected as a LEAD Facilitator. It took a couple of days for this to sink in. You spend so much time in “opportunity seek” mode, that it is surprising to look around and question just exactly what you’ve gotten yourself into. I’m looking forward to the experience though.
There was a huge snowstorm that started Friday and finally ended last night. So the streets and sidewalks are covered with about six inches of snow. This makes getting around inconvenient and a bit daunting. I’ve been trying to balance case interview preparation, group work, and reading cases for class. I also need to take my suits in to the dry cleaners to prepare for next week. But I really need to relax, which is difficult when everyone around you has put their entire self esteem and future happiness on a single interview. It’s like playing a really morbid game of blackjack.
I still like my classes, though we’re getting more heavily into groupwork which means it is time intensive. So along with the pressures of getting the right job, I want to get a job just so that I don’t have to think about it again until the fall. Not having to recruit would free up about 30-40% of my time on a weekly basis. It is amazing to think of how many hours I’ve spent on dinners, receptions, cover letters, phone interviews, and, of course, follow-up emails.
It is an interesting roller coaster. I change from day to day my confidence. Yesterday I was sure I would screw up all my interviews, while today I’m more confident that it will work out. I’ve done some preparation, and built my relationships, and now I’ve just got to do the best I can and be myself. I’ll get an offer where I’m supposed to be. Resisting the pressure of the people around you is a major component of business school.
The closed lists for consulting interviews were posted tonight. People were bugged out! Some people got confirmation of their self-perceived importance. Many others felt betrayed after courting the firms for the past few months, only to be passed over. There were the surprises of people who hadn’t attended any of the firms events that were close listed, and of course there were a few who got everything they wanted. I got on the closed list for the three firms I was pursuing heavily, and I bid on 4 others.
Now I’m trying to relax and prepare. I’ve done a good job so far of resisting the social pressure of freaking out. Banking interviews start Monday, and the atmosphere is tense. Students are walking around speaking in complicated lingo. “I know there gonna ask me to do a DCF.” “I’ve been working on my models, but I’ve got to keep up with the market.” They are completely oblivious to the outside world. It’s investment banking, period!
I’m worried about what happens when a lot of people don’t get a job by Friday. I anticipate that the atmosphere on campus will be very different in a couple of weeks. The “hierarchy” on campus is about to turn on its axis. People have attributed certain qualities to their classmates/competitors. These hypotheses will either be reinforced or totally shattered. Some people that we’ve expected to get the best job, will blow it, and somebody that you were sleeping on, is gonna come from nowhere and get mad offers.
I just hope that we don’t split apart into “employed” and “unemployed”.
There was an awesome celebration on campus for Martin Luther King’s birthday. Kweisi Mfume gave the keynote address and was very entertaining. This was the culminating event, as they held a cultural open mic, and a gospel celebration. There were also several discussions about the state of race relations and progress.
I can’t believe it, but I’ve survived another seemingly insurmountable week. I attended my Consumer Behavior class on Wednesday. It is definitely the most enjoyable class I’ve had so far. This week we learned about how politicians use marketing in campaigning. I’ve never really thought about a candidate as a product before, but there are several parallels. The three hours flew by. Then I had Strategy and Structure, which is about how different organizations can use their company structure to either help them or hurt them. It was an interesting and sometimes heated discussion, and I’m finding the case classes much more enjoyable than the strictly lecture based classes.
Thursday brought Operations Management and Strategy, as I’m pursuing a concentration in Operations. This class is also case based and it has a lot of overlap with my previous industrial engineering work. That evening, I attended a company cocktail reception. I felt a little bit more in my groove, and was ready to ask insightful questions. All of the consulting companies are offering to help with case interview prep, and I’ve been in contact with many of the African-American contingents within the companies I’m interested in. There does seem to be a big priority and emphasis on increasing diversity in the top firms and they want us to do well.
Friday morning, the Management Consulting Group, a club on campus, organized the First Year Case Workshop. Many of the top firms sent representatives, most of them alums, to give us an introduction to case interviewing as well as practice with us. I was very intimidated going in, because I haven’t done many cases and really had no idea what to expect. We did three rounds with five students, and three different company representatives. The first round was somewhat laughable. The student doing the case was pretty good, but I didn’t know where to start. I had a good answer for the question, but found it difficult to organize my thoughts and produce them in a logical order to someone else. In the third round, we found out it is difficult to do math when someone is both watching and evaluating you. I found it impossible to do long division, and under the pressure was unable to figure out how to fix the answer that I knew was incorrect. It was very frustrating.
But I left feeling a little more confident. I was procrastinating on cases, because it felt foreign and like I’d never get everything in time. Now I know that my problem solving ability will serve me well and I need only focus on structuring my answer and staying calm, cool, and collected. That is doable in two weeks. I returned from Gleacher Center at about two and then spent 6 hours doing eight loads of laundry. It was madness, but I finally got it all done. In theory, this gave me all day Saturday to start reading my cases for next week, but I really just took the opportunity to chill out.
I was supposed to go to a review session for Investments, but I’m feeling lazy and I’d rather just stumble through it on my own. We’ll see how that attitude changes as we get closer to midterms. So I’ve got homework for four classes and interview preparation to do. It’s going to be a fun few weeks.
As I have been running on pure adrenaline this week, I haven’t really been worried about HOW well I’ve been doing. Only that I’m doing it. I had the second portion of my LEAD Facilitator Application Process in the afternoon and I think I did fairly well.
I went to Investments on Monday night, and despite completing the homework assignment in two hours, I comprehended very little of the lecture. But I’m not very intimidated, as I’d planned for this to be my hardest class. Tuesday brought a bit of breathing room which I used to read some of the cases I need to know this week.
Then it was time for my first company presentation of the New Year, and an invite-only dinner. I walked into the room with another 250 people and blanched. I didn’t really feel up to talking to people. Especially given that it wasn’t actually talking, but the parrot act we all perform for our select list of companies. I talked with a few students who hadn’t seen me in so long; they’d assumed I’d dropped out of school. Eventually I got my act together and talked to a couple of company representatives.
I was really trying to gear myself up for the dinner, since it would be a lot less people and therefore a lot more attention. It was actually pretty enjoyable, and I always meet some more classmates at these things. I definitely have to get my momentum back!
I’m dragging! I’ve just returned from a week of finance and strategy and am anxiously looking at the next five days in which I must make up the classes I’ve missed and attend three company dinners. I am daunted by the prospect, and my optimistic plans to do laundry and start on homework are dashed as soon as I got on the train at the airport. I haven’t even unpacked and frankly, don’t see it happening in the next few hours. I don’t remember feeling this tired last term, and I wonder if I’ve already lost my touch.
I checked my email on Wednesday night and after seeing that I had 117 messages waiting, I was so overwhelmed, I just exited without looking at even one message. Upon checking on Thursday, now fortified enough to delete, I find an invitation to lunch with a CEO on Wednesday. Oops! I wrote an apology, but what are you gonna do? Now blessed oblivion!
Okay, so I’ve been slacking. But the time off was great, and I didn’t think everyone needed to hear about my fantastically boring holiday. So now I’m back in it and I’m feeling a bit rusty. Everybody acts like you haven’t seen them in years. We were all calling each other last night to catch up and I felt like the first day of high school when you have to coordinate outfits with your friends. On the positive side, I can finally pick up my second installment of student loans in the form of a check. I love school!
I turned in my LEAD Facilitator application and I am trying to come up with something unique for a presentation. We’ll see how much that adds to my stress level. To further complicate things, I’m heading out in the morning to attend a financial seminar in Cincinnati that will hopefully lead to a summer internship offer. The down side is I will miss the entire first week of classes. I was really stressed about this fact until I realized that I did very little during the first week of last term. So, I’m taking advantage of my time in Cincinnati to visit the Underground Railroad Freedom Center which just opened recently. I will try to minimize my anxiety of wondering what my classmates are doing and I’m missing out on.