Job search about to get ugly

One thing I can’t get over is, compared to this point (two weeks out) in Mod III, how much unhappier I am in Mod IV. I didn’t have class today and spent a good part of today doing what I do best, entertaining my worst nightmares. April is around the corner. Early May I leave for two weeks in India. I have two interviews later this week at two great companies but both are for non-finance positions. I am going to ask the thirty-three thousand dollar (the amount of tuition I paid this year) question: what happens if I don’t get a summer internship?

 

I talked to a college buddy of mine earlier today. He was trying to be encouraging and asked “things have got to turn up right?” I coldly replied “no they don’t.”  There was an awkward pause followed by an uncomfortable laugh on both ends. My answer addresses something that has been on my mind since I completed the MBA application process –there is no rule that states that every student, regardless of how intelligent, aggressive, and deserving he is, will get an internship. And unlike the search for a full time job that second years have to conduct, the search for a summer internship has a time limit.

 

If I don’t do a summer internship, it becomes substantially harder for me to find a full time job during my second year. I have been told that, as a last resort, I can work at Kenan-Flagler during the summer as a researcher or a teaching assistant during the summer workshops for the incoming students. If I take the teaching assistant route, I will become better at explaining different concepts to people. This will help me in next year’s job search as I try to explain why I was the only one in my class of 271 who did not do an internship.

 

I went out to the gym late in the afternoon and felt much better afterwards. To be completely objective, I have to tell you that I am not the only one who has not found an internship. In addition, my classmates who are not U.S. citizens have a much tougher time than I do because many companies do not sponsor …. I don’t even know what the title is for the legal document that is needed for a foreigner to work in this country but you know what I mean …. and in many situations these students (especially the ones from India) are much brighter than the ones with a U.S. passport.