Hello again,
Recently I had some questions and read a few posts regarding the competitiveness of recruiting while at Booth. As we are in the middle of interview season, I thought it would be a perfect topic to touch upon for this blog entry.
No doubt recruiting is a major interest to almost anyone attending Business school. Unless you are going back to the firm you were at prior to b-school, you will likely be recruiting and the ability to transition the MBA into your dream job tops the list of concerns.
The great news for all those interested in Booth, is that we have a world class career services department (Booth was recently ranked #1 across all MBA schools by the Economist largely in part due to our career services program) and a student body which together, help ensure we can land that dream job. As I have touched upon Career Services in previous blogs, I will focus on the student body for this posting.
At the end of the day it is true that some people are competing for similar jobs or roles (a fact that is true at any business school) but what I have found to be impressive at Booth is how the student community still supports one another in making sure we are at our best for interviews. To try and convey this aspect I am going to use my own personal recruiting experiences over the past year and a half.
Starting my first year at Booth, I was excited about switching careers. Eager and anxious, I started reaching out to classmates for advice and information much, much earlier than was appropriate. Despite this fact, every second year I reached out to was more than happy to help out, meet, and provide advice. While this might not seem like a big deal, they themselves were in the middle of their full-time interviews, classes and other responsibilities. As the internship recruiting season started to roll around for first-years, people in similar career fields started forming groups to help each other practice for interviews. Speaking from a consultant’s perspective, I joined a group of about 20 classmates who gave each other mock case interviews and beneficial feedback on a daily basis. Even during the actual interviews people were still helping each other out. I often saw classmates reminding people about critical dates/times, helping on last minute resume changes, or even just providing encouragement. Ultimately, while we were applying to similar jobs, we all realized that with our Booth education we were all capable of getting a great job and a cooperative environment was much more beneficial than a competitive one.
Although my internship recruiting turned out well, I decided to rerecruit during my second year. During this process, I experienced this same cooperative atmosphere again – something ultimately helping me to receive an offer from my dream company. With my full-time job taken care of, my involvement did not end, now it was my turn to help out the new first years with their internship recruiting (to date I have given over 35 practice cases to the first year class). This type of situation is not abnormal. From talking with my classmates, I know that regardless of intended career field, area of study, or anything else, at Booth, you will find a family-like culture and incredible support.
I hope this helps shed some additional light on the collaborative recruiting environment at Booth. As always, I am happy to write more in the next blog if people are interested.
Good luck to those who applied in round two, I know the decision date is coming up pretty soon.
Until next time, take care.
Todd
