just hire me

Fo' rizzle, just hire me already!

For those wondering about the interviewing process/recruiting/internships or whatever, this post should shed some light on the subject. Or not--I don't really know what I'm going to write yet.

So, there are two basic, generic approaches that you can take to the internship interviewing process. A lot of b-school applicants aren't familiar with the whole process, so I'll give a brief rundown of that first, I suppose. It goes like this:

-Beginning the first week of school (I'm not joking), companies begin coming to campus...often. You go to "corporate briefings", where the companies tell you about themselves, give you a bag full of their products, and start to "scope you out". You then get their business cards, talk with them, brown nose, etc., and ideally, follow up with them on email. You then touch base every few weeks and ask interesting questions. This is called networking. Surprisingly enough, most of the kids won't do much of this, a handful will really do a great job. The results of heavy networking are expected to be positive, but at this point I have no data to present to you (future post will certainly address this).

Ok, now as January approaches, you will prepare resumes and coverletters to all of the companies you would be interested in working for. You submit them online by the "drop date", and within ten days, each company will provide the Career Management Center with a "closed list". These are the people the company wants to interview, based on networking, resume, and coverletter. There are limited spots!!! There are usually more applicants than interview spots, so you can see where networking becomes important.

Another wrinkle is the bidding system. After the closed list is published, sometimes (read: not all that often) a company will effectively admit that it is possible that they don't know everything about you based on a little networking and your resume--and allow a few extra interview spots. These spots are filled by bidding. Each student who did NOT make the closed list can bid a certain amount of points (you start the year with 1000), and the highest bidders get interviews. It is that simple, and I believe the system is VERY similar at all of the top schools.

Now, for the two approaches I was talking about: 1) Network heavily, and only drop for 4-6 companies. This is the "Quality over Quantity" approach. 2) Shotgun your resume to everyone in your chosen field, and maybe even some to other fields.

It seems that most people I have talked to (small sample) are going for approach #1 or a variation thereof. I have personally blended the two as follows: I heavily networked at 4 companies, mildly networked at 3 more. I of course dropped for all 7, but then shotgunned to just about everyone else I talked to, and even to some companies that didn't come to campus. I suppose this is because I really want one of those 4 companies, but at the same time, I have extreme respect for my classmates and by no means am I certain I will land one of those internships. So really, I took the "CYA" approach...it was a lot of work, and my coverletters are a bit on the form-letter side, but the sheer numbers should prove somewhat effective. What can I say? I came from a sales background, and I look at everything as a numbers game!

As some of you may know, I'm heading to Cali tomorrow to visit a company. I'm picking up a classmate in Phoenix today, which should prove interesting since it is snowing like crazy up here (100 miles north of Phoenix). We will then brave the highways on the way to CA that have been closed on and off over the last week. Some parts of I-5 got as much as 7 feet of snow overnight, so...it will be exciting if nothing else.

I'm still trying to get over the extreme housing prices in New York. I'll bitch about that in my next post, along w/ some closed list updates? :)