Bittersweet

There is a classmate whom I am quite fond of. We have many things in common; we are both finance concentrators, we both have invested a great deal of effort into our internship search and have both gotten a low rate of return on our investments. We have one more thing in common, we both interviewed for the same position this past week.

 

I had mixed feelings last week when I saw his name on the list of interviewees. My initial thoughts were that since the offer could not go to both of us, at least one of us would have been disappointed. Then I decided that if I wasn’t going to be the offer, I’d like to see him have it. I emailed him several Morningstar research reports on the company over the weekend (oh …. this is my secret weapon on interviewing, I have an online account with a brokerage firm which gives me access to research reports from several research and broker firms, I have found these reports to be incredibly useful and current when it comes to learning about the company you’re interviewing with) and wished him luck on his interview.

 

When I got the news on Wednesday that I didn’t get an offer, I was disappointed. I take that back; when you are still interviewing in April, you are no longer disappointed when an interview does not result in an offer, you get pissed. Then when he told me yesterday that he got the offer, it was a bit awkward when I congratulated and I could sense he felt bad that I didn’t get it. Then later I thought  about it and realized it wasn’t so bad.

 

At least both of us didn’t walk away disappointed.