Life is good

Earlier today I overheard a classmate talking to a recruiter saying “I am a second year in business school, life doesn’t get much better than this.” To which the recruiter responded, “it’ll be all downhill after you graduate.”

 

The exchange illustrates something I am keenly aware of, that life as a second year is a significant and substantial improvement over life as a first year and that this big party all comes to an end once we rejoin the workforce. Much of this has to do with the classes and schedule most second years have. To illustrate, I am only taking four classes this Mod, services marketing, brand strategy, leading organizational change, and negotiations. Negotiations meets only three times for an entire day on Friday. I have no classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. My current “weekend” began when my services marketing class ended at 5pm yesterday and will not end until my leading organizational change class begins Monday at 2pm. This four and a half day “weekend” is longer than the work week of some people I know, especially those who work for the national government. I was having dinner with a friend of mine after class on Monday and when I mentioned this incredible schedule that I have, he said “you will never it this good again.”

Mardi Gras on Franklin Street

Tonight me and a friend from my life prior to the Kenan-Flagler program went out to Franklin Street for the biggest Halloween party in North Carolina. An entire stretch of Franklin was shut down to vehicular traffic and filled with revelers dressed in the most creative costumes I have ever seen. I saw guys dressed up as Bill Clinton, girls dressed up as bumblebees, Dick Cheney, a giant penis, George W. Bush (if I have more time I would insert a very funny joke here linking the last three items), women in short skirts, the camera crew from Girls Gone Wild, an iPod, Hare Krishna followers parading down Franklin Street (oh wait … I think they were actual Hare Krishna followers), women in extremely short skirts, Adam and Eve.

I went as Uncle Sam and my friend went as (one of many) Johnny Cash. After tonight’s Halloween party I can finally say I have seen everything.

Update: Here is the link to the newspaper article in the Daily Tar Heel about the party.

“Tell me about a time when …..”

Did anyone see Game 7 of the National League Championship Series when Scott Rolen of the New York Mets thought he had hit a two run homerun only to see his ball caught by outfielder Endy Chavez of the Detroit Tigers? That is how I would describe this morning’s interview with a telecom company.

 

The interview began with the predictable softball questions about my past work experience. The lead interviewer was a Kenan-Flagler grad who currently works in the management leadership program and the other was a human resource personnel. The next question was about what strategy I would pursue to deploy the company’s new television service. I listed my strategy into three bullet points which demonstrated my understanding of the industry, its challenges, and where it was going. I even referenced an article in the Wall Street Journal last year about a Verizon executive whose job it was to negotiate deals with content providers to appear on its FIOS television service. The lead interviewer was familiar with the article and was impressed that I had read it.

 

I was beginning to think I had hit a homerun until I glanced at the clock and realized the interview was nowhere near the halfway point. Then the real questions came in. There were three behavioral questions in a row about situations I have been in where I showed leadership, changed other people’s point of view, or had to prepare for a meeting. I struggled with answering them and it showed. The truth of the matter is during the years when I was working, 99% of the time I went into the office, sat at my desk, and waited for work to appear. I know what I just wrote is shocking (except perhaps to my former co-workers who no doubt are giggling as they read this) for it is something you almost never hear an MBA student say but hey …. the subtitle of this blog is “a place for me to share my hopes and thoughts” and not “a place for me to brag about how smart I am to a potential employer.” Some of my answers were about situations with working in groups at Kenan-Flagler, which I have been told are not as impressive as examples from actual work experience. I could tell from the lead interviewer’s response that while he tried to be positive and encouraging, that he was not as impressed with my behavioral answers as he was with my earlier answers.

 

When the interview ended, we performed our obligatory handshakes and the interviewer said “good luck.” It was the same “good luck” I have heard so many times during my first year, the “good luck” which tells me that I would not be getting a second round.

“I am buckyhoo and I do not approve the contents of this ad”

Hey, looks like someone was trying to make a political statement around Chapel Hill last Thursday by driving her (if I remember correctly, I think it was a woman) Celica through main campus by the well. This reminds me of a joke that my Advanced Placement American history teacher told in high school, that when God made this country, he tilted it and all the nuts rolled to the left (geographically, not politically) and landed in California.

Attempting to score at NSHMBA

Greetings from Cincinnati where I am attending the National Society of Hispanic MBA (pronounced nar-SHIM-bar) job fair. I woke up early yesterday morning and took a irect flight from to Cincinnati where I got a free cab ride to the Duke Convention Energy courtesy a recruiter who gave a presentation at Kenan-Flagler the night before and was on my flight also on his way to NSHMBA.

At the event yesterday, it was wall to wall recruiters and nonstop networking with them. I hit up the three companies that I talked to at the Atlanta job fair a month ago. I made yet another attempt to score with the world’s largest software company, and the attempt once again failed to result in success. I had more success with a couple of companies that I have been trying to get into including the online retailer, a wireless phone company from the Midwest, and a newspaper company that owns a portfolio of internet content web sites.

When the career fair ended, I went back to my hotel room to change into something only slightly more casual and returned to the area around the convention center for the receptions and parties. I went to the reception for the world’s largest software company where someone confirmed my suspicions that the company is hiring in its online division, and that the recruiter I interviewed with on Tuesday was blowing me off by telling me otherwise. I also went to a reception for a company that I will be interviewing with at Kenan-Flagler later on this month. But the main event was a dance party organized by a major retailer and major sponsor of NSHMBA. The entire Hyatt ballroom was decorated with items that bore the company’s red and white logo, which is a circle within another circle. Guests were given round magnets that they wore on their clothes that blink a red light. I met a girl from another business school who had on a tight red turtleneck and she strategically placed two magnets on each end of her breast. As we were talking,I found her “dots” to be quite distracting and at one point she said “hello my eyes are up here.” There were other guys coming up to her and offering to shake her hand, have their pictures taken with her, and one recruiter even gave her his business card jokingly told her to email her resume and write on the subject line “I am the girl with the blinking (expletive deleted).”

I returned to the job fair today to hit some of the companies that I did not talk to yesterday. I went up to a restaurant company from Orlando and while talking to the recruiters about a marketing position, I decided to take a gamble by disclosing that I had second round interview in March for a finance internship with the company. The gamble paid off; instead of coming across as unfocused, the recruiters were impressed at how much I already know about the firm. The recruiters gave me the email address of someone they want me to talk to (recruiters are usually reluctant to disclose contact information so getting an email address is usually a good sign) and a $5 gift card.

Arming MBA students with hand sanitizers

When I get around to it, hopefully later today, I will give a full wrap up of the National Society of Hispanic MBA (pronounced nar-SHIM-bar) job fair. But I saw this article last night on the internets, politicians from the Vice President to Senator Barack Obama are carrying around bottles of hand sanitizers and using the product after every event that involves massive hand shakings.

 

Not only do I think this is a great idea, I think most MBA students should consider doing something similar, especially at networking events like job fairs which requires a massive number of handshakes.

“You have been added to a Closed List”

These have got to be the most beautiful eight words that can possibly greet me when I check my email the first thing in the morning. I have just been added to the closed interview list for a credit card marketing position of a major financial firm.

I am not exactly sure why the rate of return on my cover letters has improved so much this year. It could be that I am not longer targeting finance jobs, it could also be that a friend helped me rewrite many of the bullet points on my resume.

Now if only this friend can walk into the interview room with me and help me craft the answer to every question before it comes out of my mouth, then I’d be golden.