rhyme wrote:
You guys crack me up.
You think THIS is bad? This is nothing. On a stress scale, this is the equivalent of ordering a decaf espresso and accidentally getting a regular.
Allow me to transport you ahead in time, on a journey through the bowels of hell. The year is 2012 and you find yourself sitting at a desk in the atrium of your dream school, staring mindlessly at your finance homework wondering how this could possibly be relevant to your more immediate pressing issue: landing an internship. Someone you barely know sits down at the table next to you. You try to ignore the conversation but he's being loud - intentionally perhaps - something about how he's got three internship offers and can't decide which to take. Your instant thought is if any of those three are from firms you are waiting to hear from; fortunately, it turns out none are. Sadly, one of your best friends who was hoping to get that Kraft gig clearly won't be. You wonder if you should tell him or just wait till they call. Suddenly a phone rings across the room - a girl jolts to life and scurries off to a corner. She returns shortly thereafter, head down. Diageo maybe? Could be, rumour has it they were making calls today. You think you recognize her from your marketing courses, but you aren't sure. This is the real walk of shame.
The guy a the other table is still yapping away about his offers and debating an M3 or an M5. Your mind starts to drift: was this worth $120K? What if it doesn't pan out? Now that you've been admitted, what if this was a mistake? Maybe you should reconsider banking, after all how bad can it be? And then you remember your days in banking and quickly shrug it off. Its 11.30, people begin scurrying outside of class and you snap out of it. You look at your finance homework once more and just can't find the motivation to continue, closing your laptop, you head to the cafeteria for another day of bland sandwiches and poorly prepared pastas. By the time you've finished lunch, there's little more you'd like to do than just go home, but unfortunately that coffee chat with Microsoft is kicking off in an hour and you know you'll have to go to have any chance of an interview.
An hour into the Microsoft meeting you come to the realization that perhaps ".NET Server Architecture Sales Manager" isn't quite as interesting as it somehow appeared last night at 1am when, in a bout of uncertainty, you foolishly decided you should just go to more events.
You finish your courses for the day and scramble to put on a clean dress shirt. Stupid pasta sauce, always get the sandwiches. Why did they make these damn lockers so small? You'd think for $100K you could get something bigger than 5 inches wide. You glance down at your BB and notice that tonight's dinner event is on the west side of town - and its snowing. Heavily. Well, it was invitation only, so you have to go. You fight traffic for 30 minutes to get to the hole in the wall restaurant realizing some partner must have picked this place with no consideration for the attendees. Walking from the car to the restaurant without covering your shoes and suit in a mix of deicing chips, snow and dirt is a challenge but you manage. You've even arrived a little early and give yourself a pat on the back for juggling this one too. Sadly, you are the first to arrive and as you sit at the bar nursing a surprisingly poorly prepared gin and tonic, you debate leaving - just as the first recruiter shows up. Dinner is a disastrously boring affair accompanied by overcooked salmon and small filets; the monotony only occasionally broken up by the girl at the end who took "open bar" too literally.
As you wait for your coma inducing tres leches, your phone rings - a blocked number - you excuse yourself momentarily. It's the firm you've been waiting on, they've called to say you haven't been selected for a 2nd round. You attempt to thank them for their time but realize the partner on the other end has already hung up. Turning around, you return to the table of six. At least the girl on the ends taken herself out of the running. You put on a fake smile and return to the pointless banter.
It's almost 11pm, why wont they just leave? Finally, the recruiters call an end to the evening... You drive home in foot deep snow - your friend calls. He heard. He didn't get that job he wanted. You want to make him feel better, but you are just too tired... and then you realize you still havent done that finance homework. Crap.
Great post! I agree, as stressing as the process can be, its nothing like having to deal with the uncertainty of post-MBA career.
02 Nov 2011, 10:26
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