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News from the Trenches! A former BSer sends a first-term report with astute observations on NYU Stern

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Just in case you were starting to wonder why you put in all this effort only to have to sit on your hands for what seems an interminable amount of time while the schools figure out if they even want to meet you to interview… Today we have a fun update to share! This person sent in a happy update once they started their first semester at their Dream School last Fall. We are sharing it with permission so that it hopefully can infect you with excitement for what you are working towards.

B-school has pretty much lived up to the hype. And all the things I heard about the first semester are actually true – recruiting hits you earlier than you thought it would, there are some tough courses, and it’s easy to sometimes get blown away by the diversity you see in your class. This last point, more than anything else, has been what I’ve enjoyed most at NYU Stern in the two months I’ve been here. And by the way, the EQ thing seems to be true too. My classmates are highly accomplished in multiple ways, but they are mostly nice and helpful human beings as well.

As you had suggested, this was the right choice for me – I love the people, the exposure to media that I have here, and yes, New York!

But when I was randomly going through some of your latest posts, I find one very interesting comparison between Columbia and Stern (not the first time you’ve pitted those two against each other). I entirely agree with you – Stern is still seen as an ‘inferior’ school by many, even some of my current classmates! There are some who have remarked that they decided to attend Stern only because either they got a sizeable scholarship or that it happened to be the highest ranked school they could get into. This is rather perplexing to me, and even disheartening. Stern was one of my top choices, as you know, and I have been more than impressed by the quality of the student body, professors and the access that I have to all top companies across industries so early in my MBA. What else were these people looking for? This ‘status anxiety’ is rather disappointing.

That being said, I do wish we had some time for career exploration before recruiting began. It starts too early in my opinion, and the process is even more stressful because of the increasing conversion rates for summer internships into full-time offers. Most students see getting a big summer internship as their primary goal, after which the second year promises to be more relaxed. This is not entirely surprising for international students though, as the number of companies ready to sponsor them have reduced significantly in the last two years.

Anyway, I have to get back to work. I promise to be back again for another update in a few months.

All the best for the admissions season!

 
And all the best to you, too, former BSer! And all we can say is: When trying for an MBA, it’s very easy to get caught up in the hype and FOMO and get confused around what an MBA will actually bestow. Going to a “top” school becomes paramount, and there’s a good chunk of Sternies who end up there only because everywhere else that they tried turned them down. Stern remains one of those sleeper schools that flies under the radar, but which in our eyes is an underappreciated gem! But if someone wants an MBA because of the prestige they think it’ll bestow, then an admit to NYU and NYU only is gunna be a letdown. It’s not an ego-enhancing school. Maybe that’s why we appreciate them so much, because they are high quality and innovative and they have been strong carriers of culture and values since the beginning of time. That’s one reason it was so enjoyable to work with this BSer when they were applying to bschools, because it seemed that they were choosing their targets intelligently, for personal and professional reasons that went beyond the shine, to the substance. Always gratifying to see a candidate like that make it in to their top choice institution!! And always fun to get reports like this from the field when they start in on the adventure. All of you now applying: Don’t forget about the ‘Snark, ya hear? We’d love to post updates like this from your experiences, too, when the time comes next Fall. Fingers are crossed for all of your successes to come!! 🙂

Success Story! A post-MBA retrospective (part 3)

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We’re still in the throes of a Thanksgiving food coma so we’ll take this opportunity to continue the so-generous and so-insightful contribution received from a seasons-past former BSer about his pre- and post-MBA experiences, and the transformations he had in his thinking along the way. If you missed it, start with Part 1 here or Part 2 here.
 
 

## **EssaySnark:** So how do you think you have been changed by the overall business school experience?

**former BSer** Hah. It was big changes from start to finish!

The first big change was deciding to go for the EMBA instead of the MBA. That required thinking deeply about my motivations and expectations.

As for the actual experience at bschool, my presence and confidence grew significantly. My EQ is higher. And for sure I’m better at managing pressure and ambiguity. (This one is a big deal for some of us engineers, who like to know we have the best answer to any given problem, and like to get that answer on our terms).

But the biggest change is that I don’t care about consulting now.

Consulting was a thing I had been interested when I was burning out as an engineer. It’s a place to apply analytic thinking and problem-solving skills while you build communication and relationship management skills. I heard it once described as finishing school for executives, which described it succinctly.

By the time I graduated, I decided that I’d rather create value in the marketplace directly, rather than as a professional advisor to top management of large firms. In part it was my experience in the entrepreneurial classes. In part it was the relationships I was establishing within my cohort. But a big part was the podcasting.

This requires a little detour and backstory.

The short version is that I cohosted a podcast series with Firmsconsulting.com on EMBA candidates seeking to transition into management consulting. We recorded about a hundred small episodes. It went well, and gave me ideas for training products I could launch on my own. (Shout out to Firmsconsulting—I’ve known them for several years, and they helped me understand exactly what the best professional values ought to look like in action). [Based on this former BSer’s recommendation, we’re telling all you current BSers about this company — they have resources to teach you about case interviews in consulting hiring, which some of you may be interested in. EssaySnark has not vetted them but we trust this BSer, so check ’em out if you’re curious. -ES]

This leads to the final big change from bschool.

Instead of switching into consulting, I left the federal government for an engineering role at Fluke in the private sector. Now I’m learning about their highly complex thermal imaging products, and with my MBA, I have both technical and business career paths open to me.
 

## **EssaySnark:** What was the one thing in business school that you did not want to do or were reluctant or resistant about? How did it turn out?

**former BSer** During our second year, I was selected to lead the Executive Student Investment Fund. This was a brand-new club that gave EMBA students a chance to manage a small fund. We listened to stock pitches from our classmates, opened and closed positions, and did everything necessary to manage both the fund as well as the club.

We had faculty support, but the club had only just been started by the cohort before us. Therefore, there was no long history of operations, and we would have to figure out how to handle things ourselves. There was also the responsibility of making sure that this newly born club continued on into it’s second and third years of existence.

This may seem like a trivial conundrum, but it was scary for me. I’ve generally preferred indirect leadership based on influence over roles with direct leadership authority.

In the end, with the encouragement of my classmates, I made my application and was selected to lead the fund. We oversaw stock pitches, made some adjustments to the portfolio, and successfully transitioned the club to an even better group of leaders from the following cohort.
 

## **EssaySnark:** What was the one thing in business school that you were most excited about? How did it turn out?

**former BSer** Going in, I was excited about going back to BCG to knock their socks off with my shine new Darden EMBA.

That didn’t happen, because I have better plans now:

I’ve moved to Minneapolis. I’ve started a new career with Fluke. I’m starting a side business. I’m consulting with one classmate. I’m friends with many others—and they are some of the most amazing people I know. Finally, one of our cases inspired me to start rowing after graduation, and as soon as I moved for my new job, I joined the Minneapolis Rowing Club, and am well on my way to becoming a competitive rower.
 

## **EssaySnark:** When talking to people interested in getting an MBA, what is the main thing you find yourself repeating to them over and over, that you really want them to listen to or hear?

**former BSer** Visit the schools.

Oh, and think hard about what you need from your MBA. Course content is available online for a fraction of the cost. If you spend the time to learn proper networking, the recruiting pipeline available on-campus is redundant. An MBA can be useful and life-changing, but don’t underestimate what you yourself are capable of.

 
 
 

 

 
Most wonderful advice indeed!! The last point, the first point, and all points in between. Obviously this is capturing one person’s evolution through how he thought about the process and the value and what he wanted out of it — but these are critical questions for YOU to be thinking about, too. Do you know why you want an MBA? Do you REALLY know why? This might be some good questions to ponder for anyone in the process of applying!!

And finally: THANK YOU to this former BSer, who clearly is making good use of the opportunities and has launched his life into an entirely new direction! A big relocation? Competitive rowing? A startup on the side? And you thought an EMBA was not as valuable or worthwhile!!

Stories like these are priceless for those who come after, to better reflect on options and potential and validate the very endeavor they’re undertaking. Any other former BSers who want to share in a similar Q&A format, just let us know! You can leave a note for us in SnarkCenter or drop an email to Team EssaySnark — we’re always so grateful for these types of contributions.

Success Story! A post-MBA retrospective (part 2)

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Let’s continue what we started on Friday! Here’s a Q&A from EssaySnark to a long-ago Brave Supplicant who’s now made it all the way through the process, completed his MBA, and been spit out the other side. Catch up on Part 1 if you missed it, and here is Part 2!
 

## **EssaySnark:** How did you determine if a school met those priorities or not? What was the best resource you used or action you took to learn about the school and decide if it was a fit for you?

**former BSer** Any school on my list would have been fine. Heck, any school in the top 20 or 30 would have worked for my original consulting goal. Mainly this was because I didn’t care about recruiting. After networking into BCG on my own without an MBA, I knew I did not need to depend on the usual recruiting game.

What really changed everything was the visits.

My first visit specifically.

To Tuck.

Ah, Tuck! Tuck is like the high-school crush you move on from, but always remember with a sigh. My visit was amazing, and it helped me realize what all the jabber about “fit” really meant. This, ahem… refocused my priorities, and it’s why Darden eventually rose to the top.

You see, Darden is akin to a southern Tuck, which made it a fantastic fit for me. Furthermore, Darden prides itself on an educational experience built around the case method classroom, which is exactly what I needed to do better in consulting case interview. (The GMAT proved it wasn’t a mental horsepower issue, and my earlier networking provided it wasn’t a fit issue. This left confidence as the problem, and so a classroom built on the case method would be perfect).

The school visits changed my thinking.

At Tuck, I fell in love with the school.

Then, at Wharton, I felt like a number in a large system. A good friend with a Wharton MBA would later tell me that it took her almost a full year to find her crew. Looking back, that would not have been the best place for me. (Wharton is a fantastic school, and “not the best for me” is nearly a distinction without a difference).

At Kellogg, I had a good time. Almost too good of a time. Actually, I was beginning to suspect the hardest part of my MBA would be keeping up with all the twenty-somethings late night shenanigan-izing.

At Darden, they let me visit a real class. And I still remember it clearly. It was the last session of a first-year strategy class. The interactivity and thoughtfulness of the classroom discussion blew me away.

Honestly.

Best classroom I’d ever seen. Hands down.

Darden only lets you visit one class, but I charmed my way into a second one, because I figured the one I had seen was a fluke. So I visited an operations class. I saw the same level of interaction. It was as if the students were teaching the course, while the professor was conducting or directing the discussion.

As you guessed from all that gushing, Darden went to the top of my shortlist.

Actually, Darden turned me down for their regular MBA but wanted me to interview for the EMBA. I was so totally and emotionally invested in the MBA that it took a couple weeks to work through my feelings to make an objective assessment. I boiled the situation down to a simple question. Was an MBA worth $200,000 more than an EMBA? (This is a simplistic estimate based on lost wages and loans, disregarding the NPV of future income, but it was the key question that focused my analysis of the choice.)

Because I had been so caught up in my plan to get an MBA for consulting, it was difficult to admit the EMBA was actually a far better option for me. However, I still stand by this assessment. It would have been a personal and financial step backwards for me to go into a regular MBA.

 
 
 

 

 
Hmmmm….. the plot thickens! More to come as we follow along retrospectively with this former BSer’s adventures to bschool! UPDATE: POSTED HERE! In the meantime, we can offer this post from the ‘snarchive on related topics….!

Success Story! A post-MBA retrospective (part 1)

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We’re of course always thrilled when a Brave Supplicant makes it into a school of their dreams, and even more gratifying is when we get to follow them through the process and back out into the Real World again! It’s always slightly disconcerting to realize how quickly the time passes. Any of you BSers who are currently in the throes of MBA admissions: This will be over soon and before you know it, you too will be starting at your fancy-dancy MBA program — and then in the blink of an eye, you’ll be graduating!! Today we have some words of wisdom shared by a BSer from an admissions season in the past, who has generously written up a few response to questions we posed a few months ago (and apologies to said former BSer; regardless of how much we really do enjoy hearing from these folks, sometimes we’re super lame about responding to them when we do!!!).

Here’s the Q&A format — first question today, more of them coming in the next few weeks!

 

## **EssaySnark:** What priorities did you have or criteria did you use when selecting your bschool program? Did they change as you went through the process of applying?

**former BSer:** Well, this requires a brief flashback and a little background.

I was an engineer for the US Navy for over a decade, and had specialized in modeling underwater sound and submarine sonar. I was also looking for something more, although I wasn’t exactly sure what that was, so I became interested in consulting.

After several months of networking—this was before I was interested in an MBA—I was invited to interview with BCG as an experienced hire. I didn’t get the offer, but I still wanted in, so I decided an MBA would help me address the gap that prevented me from getting an offer from BCG. As a result, I was looking at schools traditionally known for consulting. I was also interested in the case method. And I was interested in schools that would admit someone in their very late 30’s.

Insead was the first school I took an interest in. It was European, exotic, and notorious for consulting, so I started an application. I began studying french to meet the language requirement. Heck, I even bought Jean-Louis Barsoux’s history, “Insead: From Intuition to Institution”. (It’s a really interesting story, by the way!)

But then I scored a 770 on the GMAT, and suddenly the top US schools suddenly seemed within reach. I added Wharton, Tuck, Kellogg, and Darden to my short list.

Actually, my reasoning was sadly generic up to this point. “Engineer wants to become a consultant, looks at top business schools” is a tale as old as time. Rankings, employment data, and my estimated probability of admittance were all that really mattered to be back then.

 

Sound familiar?? Stay tuned to hear more on this former BSer’s experience in moving from that undefined state of uncertainty into the next phase of clarity and the stepping stones taken to success! UPDATE: POSTED HERE!

“Update from the trenches”

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We recently received this most amazing note from a long-ago BSer, and we asked for permission to post it, because it’s just that good! Since many of you are in Essay H3ll right now, we figured we’d share this so you can see what’s on the other side this massive effort and loss of hair you’re experiencing.
 

Hi EssaySnark,

Hope all is well.

I wanted to give you an update on my progress so far. I spent the summer interning with [bigname] investment bank in New York, and was fortunate to receive a return offer.

My experiences at [topschool] have been very positive, life-changing even. During the Spring Quarter, I took the [specific leadership course] which had a pronounced effect in the way I organised my life.

True to [topschool]’s culture, I was taught that behaving ethically meant acting with the goal of producing pro social outcomes. I was also shown research on how behaving ethically would have a positive effect on my reputation, happiness, and even my productivity.

The internship was a great time to put the course’s lessons into practice. Over the summer, I stayed later to help colleagues, gave to the homeless, helped the assistants out with their IT troubles, and performed other assorted random acts of kindness. I never expected that I would say this, but business school has shown me how to be a happier person.

This holistic growth would not have been possible without your help, EssaySnark, and I thought it would be nice to show you how your help has, in turn, helped others.

Best,

[Brave Supplicant]

 
 

Obviously this person is walking the walk! So cool to get this from them, and so cool to think that all this harping on you folks with the essays we’re decimating may lead to many of you having similar transformations in your future!

And now… back to work! 😀

Success Story! Beyond bschool to the next big thing!

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We’re always thrilled when a Brave Supplicant we know makes it into a school of their dreams.

We’re even more thrilled when they stay in touch with us as they actually go to bschool, and share news of their subsequent successes along the way.

We got a report from one such former BSer last fall and we’re happy to be able to share it with you today:

Hello Essay Snark,

Apologies for the severely delayed reply to both of your emails.

I am going to start working full-time at McKinsey.

It just seems so long ago when I first started reading your blog (about 3.5 years). MBA has been such a crazy wonderful journey… it has been truly a transformative journey. All the cliches happened to me and some more. I made some best friends, organised the largest conference at [this school] (Diversity Conference), chaired a few clubs not because I have to (like during undergrad) but because I was really passionate about leading those clubs… and finally, traveled to 6 continents while I was at [this school] (went to Antarctica earlier this year.. it was surreal).

Immersing oneself at an MBA school (especially at schools such as [this school]), is once in a lifetime opportunity that not many people can get. And you work towards helping aspiring kids like me get into that journey. Keep up the great work.. and thank you for helping me 3 years back!

I thought I ll leave you with a picture of my parents and me at graduation. My parents never went to school or college, so it was a special moment for them to come from a village in India and see their son get an Ivy League degree.

Regards,
[MBA graduate!!]

The graduation picture was a wonderful touch! Thank you, proud graduate, for sharing that!

It’s also pretty effing awesome to get a report of a BSer who took advantage of the opportunities, who dove in and made big contributions to their school, and who actually is doing the things that they said they would do when they wrote those essays.

We took the liberty of pulling out this graduate’s admissions essays that we reviewed for them, and were floored with what we read:

[Bschool’s] learning team model will provide me an incredible opportunity to share my ideas and perspectives with a diverse group of successful peers from different industries, functions and geographies. Having lived in India, Singapore, Germany and United Kingdom and having travelled to more than 35 countries, I will bring to [Bschool] a truly global perspective. I will play a significant role in ensuring my team member’s distinctive abilities come to the forefront, to create a tremendous learning experience for the group. At [Bschool], I will leverage my trekking experience in Swedish Lapland (200 km north of Arctic circle) to facilitate the Antarctica trip in 2015.

That’s just one example where they had told the adcom what they intended to do at bschool – and clearly, they meant it! Pretty cool stuff.

To this and all other former BSers who may wander back around these parts: Your successes are so exciting to hear about! Thank you for sharing the news and keeping EssaySnark inspired through your achievements in the world.

“MBA students should take more risks.”

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We’ve seen some interesting videos come out from different top business schools with an ever increasing frequency and Duke in particular seems to be releasing a lot of them. Here’s one from last summer that is short and sweet (always appreciated!) with an important message about 2/3 of the way through. For context, at the beginning she’s talking about tri-sector partnerships (government, non-profit, business) – that’s not the reason we’re posting but it helps to know what this video is about:

The reason we’re posting though is for all of you newly-admitted future MBA students, to hear her advice about taking risk.

Business school is indeed a special opportunity. You get to put life on hold and go do this other almost self-indulgent thing for two years. You get to explore new disciplines, or go deeper into the ones you already know and love. You get to meet all sorts of people, and travel to exotic places. There are sanctioned drinking events every single week! What’s not to like?

Of course, all of this starts in the year(s) before you even set foot on campus, with the work and the introspection involved with pulling together a good set of essays and figuring out how to present yourself in the all-important MBA application. That’s the beginning of this opportunity for self-reflection and discovery, where you get to identify and/or reconfirm your values, and chart a course to build a life that resonates with those. (This piece from NY Times columnist David Brooks may be useful as a reminder , in case you lost sight of that goal along the way.) Frequently, BSers become very inspired when they dream up what life they might like to have (sometimes a little over enthusiastic, in fact, and we have to walk them back to reality when we offer feedback on some too-aggressive or perhaps otherwise unrealistic goals in their essays – but that’s a topic for another day).

Despite that awesome enthusiasm, though, and the thrill of being surrounded by a bunch of other super smart whippersnappers in the MBA community, all of whom want to go out and change the world – or at least, change their own lives – what happens so often is that people end up taking the safe route.

This video from the Duke prof hints at that.

For those of you celebrating your success of getting in: You may want to take a moment to capture your real goals. Sitting here now, bright-eyed and smiling, with the world laid out in front of you, what do you really want from the experience?

Perhaps what you wrote in your essays is the full-honest truth. (We sorta hope that it was!!) But regardless of how much you were being sincere, versus wanting to impress your adcom reader, when you crafted your 500-word essays a few months back… Why not take stock today of where you’re at?

You’re facing this limitless sunshine world of opportunity. What will you do with it?

Your life is going to be very, very different in a few short years. How exactly do you want the rest of the story to play out?

Make some decisions now. You can always change them as you learn more and discover additional truths. But what do you want to do with this opportunity? How do you want it to end up? Make a date with yourself in six months, and a year, to check in with these plans and intentions. When you get caught up in the whirlwind of bschool, it’s intoxicating, yes – but it’s also too easy to get distracted by everyone else’s agendas and priorities.

Make sure you know what you want out of it, and stay true to yourself as you modify and adjust those goals and dreams in the months and years ahead.

Tales from the Trenches! A belated Success Story, with important advice to BSers who are headed to school this Fall.

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In a mini-chastisement blahg post back in January, we tsk-tsked over those long-forgotten BSers who said they’d send us a little something to capture their trials and tribulations of applying to bschool, and then never did. We laid out several instances of ghosting that we were on the receiving end of.

Well lo and behold! We never expected our guilt-trip post words of advice to be so well received! One very very long-ago BSer resurfaced and immediately sent us something. And it’s golden!

Thank you to this former BSer, not just for coming through on something, but also for how great it is! A dose of realism and practicality for many. Here it is for all of you next-generation up-and-comers.

Hey Snark, long time no see, eh?
I still follow your blahg and got the message from the “Success Stories that never materialized” post. So, I’m gonna try to make it right and give you my (top3-Minto style MBA mumbo-jumbo) thoughts about this journey so far.

Just to contextualize, as you (or your CRM system) might remember, before BS I was working as a consultant for [top firm] in [country] – frustrated with unskilled/impolite (way beyond the moral harassment line) bosses and my career prospects. I applied to a few 1Y programs (Kellogg, Cornell, Emory and Ivey) and got accepted in all except for Kellogg. Before putting the money down for Cornell I approached you to discuss the Emory “95% scholarship” vs Cornell “no-scholarship” conundrum. [We have a bunch of posts on “deciding on a school (multiple offers)” category on the blahg and we also can help new clients with such decisions through our Private Consult service. -ES] Went to Cornell, had an intense summer (20 credits in 8 weeks), and landed a job at [top consulting firm] (doing a similar job, with much nicer/qualified bosses, and making 4-5 times my pre-MBA paycheck).

So, here are my top3 thoughts about BSchool:

  • Recruiting starts before BSchool
    • Being a foreigner I initially underestimated the importance of networking in the US. I mean, from where I come from it’s seen as (at least a bit) inappropriate to try to build connections within a firm before applying for a job. Not in the US, here is part of the “courtship ritual”, and the best way to do it is to start networking before you get to BSchool. Aim for the graduating students first, as most will have some networks within companies, and offer you a low risk (if you end up blowing the informationals they won’t care much, nor have the power to block you). Start shooting requests for informationals by end of April/beginning of May to catch them in a good mood, but first read “The 2-Hour Job Search” by Steve Dalton to avoid stupid mistakes.
  • Immigration matters actually matter
    • I’m not going to sugarcoat this – the US H1B immigration system is broken (read this article if you’re interested). It is a pain to go through all the recruiting process, land a competitive job, and end up getting kicked out of the US in the end of your OPT visa due to a broken lottery system (don’t assume that just because you got a job in a multinational firm they’ll happily transfer you abroad and bring you back next year). Honestly, knowing what I do now, I’d have taken Ivey’s offer much more seriously, as Canada offfers a meritocratic immigration system (where the incentives to bring in qualified people exist/work).
  • It’s not over until it’s over
    • After getting 2 job offers I gave up on recruiting, withdrawing from a ton of final round interviews. Now I regret that decision, because having more options gives you more leverage to negotiate (as long as you do it the smart way – kindly asking, not demanding). This is a key point here: even if you’re tired and landed the dream job, give it a shot and go through all your final round interviews.

I hope this helps future applicants (at least helps me to come through my commitments… lol).

Cheers,
[former BSer]

We told you there was good stuff here!! THANK YOU, FORMER BSER! Very interesting insights, in so many ways. We also recently had some posts from a different international student who struggled with immigration issues for a significant other. If there are any more of your past-season lurkers out there who want to offer your own advice to add to these that we’ve seen recently, we would surely appreciate getting more like these!

From the Trenches: Year 2 of your MBA program

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And here’s Part 2 from our former BSer/now MBA grad – appropriately covering what you have to look forward to in Year 2 of your coming MBA experience. If you missed Part 1, catch up here.

Year 2: That internship was fun. Do I want to do that after school?

2nd year of B-school may seem like a long way off, but it happens fast. Yes, you’re probably so ecstatic about the prospect of going to school in this fall and leaving those losers you currently work with behind, but just remember – like your essays, goals can change during the course of B-school. It seems like every first year student’s wet dream is to get an offer from their summer internship so they can accept and then coast through their 2nd year. This is fine if you loved your internship. But what happens more often than not is that people just don’t feel like recruiting and if they have the option not to, they take the summer offer. This is bad. Yes you will have a lot of free time your second year, but if you’re working a job after graduation that isn’t what you’d hoped it would be, you’ve only got yourself to blame. You only get to do this MBA thing once – do it right. Even if you get an offer from your internship, if you have any reservations about it, it means you should be recruiting in the fall. That summer between your first year and second year is a luxury that most people don’t understand. NEVER AGAIN WILL YOU GET TO TEST DRIVE A COMPANY FOR 10-12 WEEKS WITH NO COMMITMENT. Think about that last thing I just shouted at you. After B-school, any time you get an offer from another company, you’ll be going in based off of the interview/headhunting process and until you show up on the first day, you won’t know what it’s like to work there. The internship gives you a free shot at figuring some things out. I’m not saying no one should jump on their internship offer, I’m saying if you’re honest with yourself and know the company isn’t a fit or that consulting/brand management/investment banking/underground cockfighting isn’t quite what you had built up in your mind, be strong and walk away, even if you don’t have an offer in hand. Full-time recruiting differs from internship recruiting in that you’re not on anyone’s timeline. With an internship you NEED to start in June so you can finish in August. That makes finding one by April or May at the latest a must. In full-time recruiting if you don’t have a job by graduation, so what? I understand it can be nerve wrecking, but if you take a little more time to find your Jam, even if it’s after graduation while your classmates are laying waste to Europe and Southeast Asia, you’ll be happier in the long run. I guarantee it – just like the Men’s Warehouse guy.

THANK YOU, FORMER BSER! You’re off to big new adventures in greener pastures now but you may still be lurking around here – and please know that this contribution is greatly appreciated. To all you who are in the throes of the app process, GOOD LUCK! And remember that we also have the Admitted Student’s Guide if you’re struggling with what are the right next steps to take after you’ve been accepted but before you actually matriculate.

($) Admitted Applicant Problems! Bschool and significant others

by EssaySnark

No this post is not talking about the challenges of attending business school while in a committed relationship – though there’s probably a whole blog that could be devoted to that topic! Today we’re talking about international applicants who get admitted to American schools and then have a very common life situation to grapple with….

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