i-bankers and consultants - extra curriculars

Last summer I met one of the GSB alumni, who was an HEC undergrad, had worked for 3 years at McK, and got in in R3. When I asked her about extracurriculars as a consultants, she simply replied "If you want to do something, you can do it..."

While at that point I thought that she was full of it, I see it differently today. Look at all of us. We all want to get into B-School. We really do... How many hours did each one of us spend on his applications ? Where does this time come from ? Try to imagine what you could have done in the past 5 years with 1/4 th of that time...

My opinion, as a consultant myself, is that there is no real reason behind non extracurriculars but a certain lazyness (and I've been lazy a lot after school), and being a consultant or an Ibanker cannot be seen as a real excuse... So either you BS your way through it, or you own it, but I think that besides exceptional circumstances, no matter what the cultural setting is, everyone can do something interesting besides work... And you don't need to carry food in a backpack for the dying last tribe living up mount Kilimandjaro to have something interesting to say...

Just my 2 cents...

Yes but it all depends on your priorities and travel schedule. Can you realistically get involved in a sports team (something that I really wanted to do when I was in consulting), when you know that you wont be in town for more than 2 days a month ? After a 12 hour day at work, can you realistically go and spend time with homeless folks ? What about spending time with your own folks ? *Most* people consultants or otherwise do their share of traveling within their time off during the year; whether that counts as "unique" extra-curricular, I don't know.

It is only AFTER I left consulting, I was able to join a sports team. While the hours were bad at work at my new job, at least I had the stability of location.

You are right on that one... I mean, all consultants I know are home for the week end at least. They may catch up with some work, but in a two days weekend, you can do a lot... But if you don't know when you will go home the next time (exceptional circumstances), it may make having a life difficult...

What kind of consulting firm were you in bsd ? Is that schedule related by any mean to the geographical constraints of Australia ? Besides the food, being a consultant in France has the significant advantage that most of the clients are based in Paris or London, which makes it radically different from a consultant based in DC and flying every week to Arizona...

Technology consulting - You are spot on about the geography; believe me after that six hour flight from Perth to Sydney on Friday evening, the LAST thing you want to do is anything extra-curricular on Saturday, especially in anticipation of that 6 hour flight back to Perth on Sunday afternoon. Spending time with the family and relaxing a bit is just about the only thing one can think of doing on the weekend with that kind of time table...

Of course many people take the option of staying at the assignment destination rather than flying back every week. However, the uncertainty of being put on a different project in a different location without much notice means that one can't get involved in anything in the destination city either.

Totally agree with you. I am myself a member of a well-known charity involved in Human Rights. I have been a few times to their meetings, but not regularly. I wanted to do something for them and therefore organised a group parachute jump and we collected money. It just took me a few hours to organise everything.

It might not be climbing the Hymalaya or cross the English channel by swimming, but you can make a impact with only a few hours/ days of your time.

At my consulting firm pretty much everyone is back in the office on Fridays. The firm sponsors a lot of volunteer/extracirricular activities you can get involved with on Fridays such as running a site for our annual volunteer day, organizing all hand's meetings, sitting on a committee for a group etc. A lot of the work for these groups can be done remotely and then people meet in person if they need to on Fridays. So, it wouldn't technically need to be outside of the office. It may not be as much as someone who can volunteer during the week, but it is something. Plus to some extent b-schools understand that the amount of time I-bankers and consultants can give is limited.

I am hugely motivated to do "something". But I had postponed it and I plan to do it now.

My take on this is that individual is the smallest unit of society and family is the smallest collective uint of the society. Priority of our duties : 1-Slef, 2-Family, 3-Society. If I am postponing my plans to have a family for career (actually I am not), I would focus on these things first.

I have done some insignificant volunteer work too. But then I had to rethink. A sustainable and scalable solution to poverty, child health, environment and healthcare is not ging to evolve in the form of a volunteer organization. We, as a group of thoughtful and well informed people, do the best for the society when we start thinking about long term solutions to social problems. If one is capable of planning an innovative healthcare delivery moel and working towards implementing the same while doing all this for money, in my opinion one is underutilizing oneself by spending time volunteering.

From my experience on the side of the world that we talk about changing, it will need some serously "COMMITTED" individuals to make the difference significant enough. If we think about a cause strongly, I believe we should think seriously and plan, not jump in right away and do our small part. We always hear and assume that it is good things to be passionate, well, "Powerful passions cloud clear thinking."

I completely agree with her. If you have a passion and it really means something to you, you will be able to sustain it. I worked with a guy who had been in the Cambridge rowing team, and he still managed to go rowing (on a river or in the gym) at least 2-3 times a week. If he was working in a different city for a project, he joined a local rowing club and made it happen. It all just comes down to commitment. He was ready to come back into the office afterwards and finish his assignments, even if it meant working after everybody had already left.

However, what's even more interesting to me since I work in consulting:

I-bankers and consultants, how do you differentiate yourself from the hordes of industry peers out there who all apply to the same schools as you? Does it only come down to extracurriculars? I'm curious.

I played the diversity card, talked about a specific volunteer project I did in Asia, and also put emphasis the specific aspects of my projects that shaped my career goals... We'll see how that works, as I have just posted my applications last week...

I work in banking, though my hours are decidedly not that bad. But then again, I don't work on Wall Street for any of the bulge bracket firms. Sometimes I have to work 80 hours, sometimes I can work 45. It just depends on what's going on. Anyways, yes, those consistently working 80-100 hour weeks would have a hard time with extracurriculars.

Specifically, my firm brings the volunteer opportunities to us. They don't do it to make our resumes look better, but they understand that we can't commit to regular volunteer activites so they build in the time for us. Once a week we tutor 3rd/4th graders after school, but they come to our office. We are assigned the same student for the whole school year. This is my fourth year tutoring, and it's lots of fun, but particularly helpful to the kids who need help with homework or improving their math or reading skills. I know that many big firms are involved in the same program or do something similar.

As for other activites, I do what I can when I know I'll have the time. I don't think that one should depend on their firm to provide the necessary EC's to get into business school. But I know that many of my banking colleagues are all about doing only the activities that will get them into school. Personally, I'm not involved in other EC's because it would get me into school, I'm involved in them because I enjoy them. And because I enjoy them, I make time for them.

Does being a part of your corporate recruiting team and/or doing work for an affinity group at work count as EC?

I'm trying to get involved with virtual volunteering - essentially providing services remotely online. Is that perceived as a negative since it involves less direct peer interaction?
thanks,
ac.

recruiting i would say no, its part of the job (although your recommenders can note it as going above and beyond). affinity group yes.