Aenigma wrote:
Quote:
Right or wrong, banking candidates get judged on everything from the shirts they wear to the font they use on the resume.
Not to hijack the threat, but: Wow, really?
A guy I know was given feedback after not getting invited to the next round of interviews that he "sat too close to the table." True story. Recruiting is even more seemingly random than bschool admissions.
As for the OP, there's really two issues here: 1) to what extent is heavy drinking expected/accepted at bschool, and 2) is it appropriate to talk about in an interview. As for the first, certainly there is a sizable majority of people who go out drinking a lot during business school, and in many ways that scene can resemble a frat party. So if that's the social scene you're looking for at school, you won't have any problem finding it. That said, it's not expected that you will be a heavy drinker. There are plenty of people who don't hit up the bars that often, if at all, and they still have plenty of fun and have good relationships with their classmates. We're all adults here, and nobody judges you based on the social choices you make. As for it being necessary for recruiting, certainly a lot of networking receptions with recruiters take place at bars or cocktail hour type events. That said, there have been times where I drank at those, and times where I ordered soda because I didn't feel like drinking that night. None of the recruiters made any comment about it nor did it have any effect whatsoever on my internship applications.
As for whether it's appropriate to talk about during an interview, the answer is probably not. Again, we all know that there's a lot of drinking and partying at bschool, but during the application process the adcom is looking for people who can balance both the serious side of bschool (academics, recruiting) and the social side. No school - either the administration or the students - wants to have a reputation as a party school. Now I don't think the comment you made is an automatic ding, but it's also not the best final impression to leave the interviewer with.