The easy way out is always mined.
Recruiting marches merrily, scarily on, like a giant, er, scary marching thing. The “dings”, or rejections for interviews, have started rolling in already, leaving many among the 700-or-so people applying for the three consulting jobs open in London moping around the hallways in a frustrated sulk, spreading the sort of gloom I must have projected during my serial near-crises in winter.
What, Me Worry?
What, me worry indeed. I attribute my membership in the still-substantial but noticeably shrinking group of idiotically grinning, buck-toothed non-worriers, to my adoption of a healthy sense of denial (e.g. “self-preservation, ostrich-style”) that, while leaving me painfully aware of my shortcomings in the job market, lets me at least maintain a reasonable blood pressure and sleeping pattern. Thankfully my tendonitis have abated, allowing me to go running in the forest again, a welcome change from the INSEAD-encouraged sendentary lifestyle many of us lead.
I haven’t gone through the heartbreak of receiving any dings yet — I haven’t applied anywhere yet, at least not formally. That’s analogous to saying, “boy, look at the financial markets collapsing, poor bastards, good think I’m already broke.” Joke’s on you, guys. I’ll still be laughing when you guys collect your first BCG bonus checks. Bastards.
Nonetheless, I’ve been networking like hell, and coming to the interesting realization that many of my colleagues aren’t really clear on the concepts of networking outside of INSEAD — maybe that’s just a function of experience, many people here are far more versed in navigating a corporate environment, while others (hi mom, *waves*) have spent more time having to deal with the hardscrabble difficulties of making a living off the strength of our professional networks. I’m laboring under the hope that “all you need is one”, but that silver bullet is proving a bit elusive just right now.
At least I succeeded in digging myself out of my impending grade point average self-destruct, thanks to some divine intervention in the form of core subjects in P3 that I actually had the faintest, vaguest clue about (hooray for 10-year-old university political science acumen!) leaving me with one less worry this period. I’ve intentionally chosen a light schedule to leave me time for the job search, and many of my electives only begin in April, leaving me feeling disconcertingly undertaxed a lot of the time, despite my 24×7 mad scramble to build a credible career network and profile.
Networking, that nebulous art of selling yourself to as many (hopefully friendly and competent) people as possible, in the hope that someone will eventually be able to introduce you someone who will introduce you to someone who will consider forwarding your CV to someone who will look at it, lose it behind the radiator, have it picked up by the cleaning lady a month later, stolen from the recycling bin by a playful doberman, left to drift along the empty windswept streets of a recession-wracked economy for a few days, before blowing into a window somewhere and hopefully ending up on top of a far-more-qualified candidate’s resume on some CEO’s “HIRE AT ALL COSTS!” pile. Who then maybe will remember to have his undermotivated HR wonk give you a call for the mail clerk position. Internship. With its concordant generous pay package consisting of 3 days’ worth of subway tickets, some baseball cards and a halfway-smoked cigarette. Onward, fellow MBAs, the working world awaits!
No, it’s not really that bad, unless things really are as screwed up in the world economy as every single financial paper and analyst would have us believe (it’s kind of counter-productive for professors to encourage us to read the Financial Times “in order to be better informed” when all that would accomplish is to turn us into paranoid insomniacs. Or maybe harden us up a bit. True Klingon warriors do not worry about a bad job market. Real Klingon warriors do not apply for jobs, they TAKE THEM.)
It is a bit odd, though, engaging in a form of casting out your net this widely, looking for something, anything interesting to drop into your lap from a breadth of industries and companies vastly exceeding anything the scope of anything we are exposed to through our on-campus recruiting. In addition to companies (mainly larger conglomerates and consulting outfits) who can afford to make a dedicated presentation, and outfits that show up at career fairs with booths, brochures, and the occasional much-coveted freebie toys, there is a plethora of websites filled with job postings — unfortunately, limited to the sort of positions companies advertise, and thus not too conducive to entrepreneurial attempts to pitch some sort of unconventional value proposition (i.e. “I’m awesome, hire me, and pay me a bunch more cash than you would all those OTHER people.”)
Going through introducing ones self to recruiters and company reps at career day-type affairs is a bit of an odd experience; one group I spoke with was very keen on pushing internships on everyone who dropped by. Maybe I’m getting a bit ahead of myself, but it struck me as fairly cheeky, presenting highly challenging (albeit very interesting), international, cross-divisionally complex projects as “internships”, just because you have a hiring freeze. Other companies were looking for geographically very limited roles, internal consulting, entry-level finance and other sorts of jobs that don’t really have much in common from the kind of heuristic abilities and broad experience you could expect from an INSEAD graduate. What took the cake, though, was the fairly junior representative from one company (recent graduate, you know, the ones who’re supposed to look out for your interest and introduce you to the much-vaunted network) with whom I would have had an easier time pulling teeth than convincing him of the virtues of putting me in touch with someone senior in the company in order to pitch a business proposition.
In my experience over the last few week, many companies immediately react allergically to the prospect of hiring an MBA, as they don’t offer “MBA positions” — what exactly are those? I’d like to help with business development, channel management, strategy, what have you, and I have some background and education that might, maybe, add some value. A large part of my effort, as many persons warned me it would, consists of trying to convince managers of the possibilities inherent in bringing someone smart and motivated on board to help out with general business issues, not just finance, restructuring or internal consulting.
We experienced a refreshing change, through a group of executives attending one of the INSEAD management programs, whom we invited to Le Vivier for one of our weekly dinners. An all-around excellent group, I think they were relieved to have contact with some of us MBAs without the stress of having to deal with a bunch of job-hungry young lions. At least, we seem to have done a good job putting our ambitions on the back burner that evening and spent a mutually enjoyable time. One of the most striking insights I gained from these gentlemen was that a fair number of firms in “industry” (i.e. non-consulting non-finance non-startup, in INSEAD-ese) would love to have access to the kinds of skills and backgrounds we have; these seem to be, for the most part, companies that make things; motors, roofing tiles, toilets, whatever.
However, just as “we” don’t have easy access to “them”, “they” seemed not to know how to approach “us.” In fact, one of the guys mentioned being downright intimidated by the spate of slick consulting company recruiting posters slathered all over campus, and the hordes of be-suited future MBAs running around in full-power schmooze mode. However, the only description I can think of for the situation is “information overload” — most of us have no clue about what’s out there in terms of companies and sectors, and to be honest, it’s just not possible to process all the websites, company information, job offers and contact details that are available to us; the way to get qualified guys for real, interesting jobs in real, interesting companies where we could make a difference is to get a few companies from industry together, and to put on exactly the kind of “here it is” presentation and cocktail evening networking event that consulting companies have been so successfully organizing.
Side note, Facebook activity, at least among the P4s, seems to have gone down noticeably. At least, I haven’t seen a single business plan competition involving 30 submissions revolving around creating a Facebook application recently. I’m still not entirely clear on the concept of making money on these things, but then again, I may be perennially stuck in the previous Internet boom.
