Reflections of the Internship Recruiting Process

I have survived recruiting season during my first year of business school and have emerged with a summer internship offer in my industry of choice! However, many of my classmates are still recruiting or just beginning the process as it varies greatly by industry. While it is a relief to have a position secured for the summer, it is by no means the norm and is only due to the fact that I was mainly recruiting for consulting. But consulting is not for everyone. Recruiting is a very personal journey and it’s best not to compare yourself to any of your peers. Instead, focus on your own personal and professional goals and measure your success that way. Here are some pieces of advice from the past semester regarding recruiting in general, and I am happy to provide more in-depth consulting advice for anyone who is interested.

A few pearls of wisdom from the other side:

• Have a clear idea of what you’re looking for out of a summer position (and note, this may be completely different than what you wrote in your admission essay - that’s ok).
• Know yourself inside and out: your story, your strengths, your weaknesses, your personal brand, what you bring to the table, and why you would be a good fit for a particular industry and company.
• Practice out loud with a real person (not just in front of a mirror). It sounds silly but trust me, it helps.
• Don’t get caught up in the recruiting ‘buzz’ or feel the need to participate in traditional on-campus recruiting in January/February just because ‘everyone else is doing it’. I assure, there are plenty of students who do not have internships at this point but definitely will.
• Have the confidence to explore a new area or switch careers.
• Keep your options open: attend corporation presentations or career fairs, and network with companies that sound interesting even if they weren’t initially on your radar.
• Have a back-up plan. Unfortunately, recruiting for summer internships can be competitive as there are limited spots. Have a few industries in mind and keep expanding your network and talking to companies. You might even discover a company that is a better fit.
• Remember, it’s just a 10-week internship, not a lifelong relationship. You can always leverage the experience to secure a fulltime job at another company or in another industry if the internship wasn’t what you wanted or not a good fit.
• Stay positive and have fun! Make a note of the companies that treat you well throughout the process and are just as interested in you as you are in them.

Best of luck! It always works out in the end and if it doesn’t work out, it’s not the end.

Beth Lovisa, Forté Fellow

MBA 2014, NYU Stern School of Business

MBA Internship Recruiting: Valuable Lessons That Will Make Your MBA Internship Recruiting Process Better Than Mine – Part II

Continued from last week…

I am six months into the MBA program and two weeks into the thick of internship recruiting, and I get it now. I finally understand why the MBA application process is so vigorous. Among many other reasons, MBA schools are preparing you for one of the most important activities in the MBA program, finding a job. Following are four key lessons I learned along the way, that is, the hard way.

Lesson number three: If applicable, get your internship recruitment done early at affinity conferences

As a female Pacific Islander, I kick myself all the time for not starting early with affinity conferences. Attending diversity conferences allow you to meet with your target companies, as well as to interview with them for target positions. These conferences typically occur in the months of August and October, and yes, it will be a stressful time for you while your colleagues enjoy the MBA social scene. However, the tables will be turned later in the year when you have received and accepted an ideal offer, taking advantage of the amazing MBA resources at your fingertips and having a real winter break, while your colleagues are busily preparing for interviews, which begin as early as the first week of January. To learn more about affinity conferences, contact your school’s career services.

Lesson number four: Keep your options open

Lastly, I know this may seem contradictory to my previous lessons, but here’s what I mean when I say to keep your options open: First of all, pursue both on- and off-campus opportunities. These will give you more options, minimize competitive pressures and ensure you get to your target companies, which sometimes do not recruit on campus. Secondly, think of your internship search as a two-year search, so do not completely exclude companies, because their offices are in unattractive locations, or positions, because you might be working on an unattractive project. A small percentage of MBA students get and accept full-time offers from their summer internships, so try not to get bogged down from the pressure of getting the perfect summer internship. Instead, think of your summer internship as experience you can leverage to get your ideal full-time position. Lastly, do not exclude yourself from applying for a job because you feel you may not have the “preferred” qualifications and experience listed on the job posting. Seriously, most MBA students are career switchers, therefore, are most likely in the same situation, and employers expect this. The worst that could happen is you do not get invited to interview for your ideal position. In that case, there is always full-time recruiting next year.

In summary, have an idea of what you want to out of your summer internship, start early by reaching out for assistance, attend a diversity conference, and keep an open-mind, because anything can happen. If you use any one of these four lessons in your internship search, your experience will most likely be a little better than mine.

Shaw-chin Ioana Chiu, Forté Fellow
MBA 2014, The Fuqua School of Business at Duke

MBA Internship Recruiting: Valuable Lessons That Will Make Your MBA Internship Recruiting Process Better Than Mine – Part I

I am six months into the MBA program and two weeks into the thick of internship recruiting, and I get it now. I finally understand why the MBA application process is so vigorous. Among many other reasons, MBA schools are preparing you for one of the most important activities in the MBA program, finding a job. Following are four key lessons I learned along the way, that is, the hard way.

Lesson number one: Stay true to your goals through a skills gap assessment

From those time-consuming, tedious introspective essays that ask you about your goals and passions, you should now have an idea about your long- and short-term goals and how the MBA program can help you accomplish them, at least in theory. Here’s the practical way to apply that introspection.

With a long-term goal in mind, see if you can come up with a post-MBA target position or company. Next, make a list of all the skills you have that would help you get to your target. Rank those skills in terms of proficiency and complete that list by adding in skills you lack. That list should help you identify your skill gaps. Use that skill gap assessment as your blueprint to navigate the internship recruitment process, specifically to target individuals for informational interviews and to determine which company corporate presentations to attend and for which positions to apply. Much like the MBA application process, the internship recruiting process is time-consuming, so the more true you are to your goals, the more guided you will be in internship-related decisions.  

By the way, don’t worry about having a clear idea. Mine was not that clear, and I found myself, many times, getting side-tracked by the ocean of opportunities in the MBA program. Informational interviews and networking will help clarify your focus.

Lesson number two: Network and conduct informational interviews as early as possible

Most schools will give you access to their alumni networks as soon as they receive your intent to attend confirmation.  Search that alumni network for people working at companies or in positions of interest, and begin your outreach as early as possible. Do not exclude current students, because they will actually be one of your most important resources. Once school starts, your time will be limited.  Your primary goals in the informational interviews should be to learn more about the interviewee’s position, company and why he or she chose that position or company. These conversations will not only help you narrow your internship search criteria early but also get you leads to off-campus career opportunities, as well as mentors to help you throughout the internship recruitment process. If you prepare early enough, you’ll be able to take advantage of the next lesson.

To be continued, watch for our next blog post.

Shaw-chin Ioana Chiu, Forté Fellow
MBA 2014, The Fuqua School of Business at Duke, Forte Fellow

Two Strategies to Jump-Start your Essay Writing Process

Write Great Essays While Preparing for your Internship Search

MBA orientation is different than undergrad orientation in only one way: it is incredibly job focused. Orientation made it clear to me that much of the preparation for my internship search could have been accomplished while writing my admissions essays. Many of you are preparing your applications for the first round of MBA admissions in October. The application process, much like your MBA program, makes incredible demands on your time, so working smart is key. Here’s how I propose you leverage interview logic and company research to write better admissions essays and prepare for your internship search at the same time.

Develop 10 core stories about yourself and your experience.

Hanna Morgan, writing for US News, likens interviewing to improvising and says that most improv performers“adapt pre-rehearsed stories based on the responses from the audience.” If you draft ten pre-rehearsed stories you can adapt them to almost any interview question; you’ll also have 10 stories to insert into your admissions essays.

The key to a great story is its structure. I recommend the STAR structure. When you first start outlining or when you’re stuck with an essay going nowhere fast, force yourself to identify 10 situations (S) were you were given a task (T) and took actions (A) to complete the task, producing tangible results (R). If you can do this when you’re brainstorming your essays then you’ll have no problem selling your experience during an interview.

Do company research.

Check out The Two Hour Job Search, by Steve Dalton. It is a quick and organized way to identify your dream companies and companies that hired alumni from your program (or future program.) Force yourself to compile your list while writing your essays. Not only will your personal statement become clearer, in combination with your 10 stories, this list will help you see connections between where you’ve been and where you want to go – a key component of a strong essay’s structure.

Hindsight is 20/20 and looking back I wish I had had a comprehensive approach to essay writing. If you approach your essays as an extension of your job search preparation you’ll save a lot of time your first semester. If you have other suggestions for how to work smart I’d love to hear your strategies!

Amelia Crist, Forté Fellow
MBA 2014, Michigan State University (Broad College of Business)

Road testing the MBA: summer internships

I never expected to use so soon what I’d learned in the classrooms at London Business School. But already during my internship this summer in the climate change group at Shell, I apply lessons from my MBA courses every day:

· Decision & Risk Analysis: How do you make an optimal decision about an uncertain future? In LBS’s Decision & Risk Analysis course (soon to be called Data, Models & Decisions), we learned frameworks and Excel-based models (like PrecisionTree) that I’ve been using to help Shell decide its long-term strategy in the face of changing climate regulations.

· Organizational Behavior & Management Accounting: How do you structure incentives to achieve business objectives? One helpful tool came from our core course on Managing Organizational Behavior. Vroom’s Expectancy Theory argues that employees expect: (1) that their effort will enable them to achieve performance objectives (e.g. increase sales); (2) that achieving this objective will result in a reward (e.g. promotion); and (3) that the reward will be something they care about (e.g. status). Sounds obvious, but just think how easy it is for a link to be missing: you are held accountable for results you can’t control, you enable your client to achieve a huge win but don’t get rewarded, or you are compensated with cash when you are really dying for more vacation days.

· Marketing: Great, so you have your idea – now how do you sell it to a diverse group of stakeholders? Market it! In our Marketing core and the simulation MarkStrat, we learned about the 5 stages of marketing penetration: (1) Make people aware of your idea; (2) help them consider how they might use it; (3) follow up to convince them that they should prefer it over the alternatives; (4) make it easy for them to “buy” into; and (5) make the experience of using your idea so good they become an loyal advocate.

I actually didn’t come to London Business School for the academics – I came for London, a career move, and the network – but the classes have been amazingly useful. See -- I’ve even become a loyal advocate!

Cheers,

Liz Aab
Forte Fellow & MBA 2012, London Business School

lizaab.mba2012@gmail.com