It was around a year ago that I received my first ding from business schools. It didn’t cross my mind that I would be going through a similar process a year later; I received my first ding of summer recruitment today.
The last two weeks has been an intense experience with recruiters coming to campus everyday to convince us that we should want to work for them. Some have an easier job than others – the lecture theatre for facebook’s presentation was packed to the gills. And for us, we’ve been performing our finest foxtrots and getting our goosesteps on playing the dreaded ‘n’ game – networking. Everyone has been flailing around (some with the poise of Harry Judd, others looking more like they were born with two left feet) to see if we can stick in the minds of recruiters long enough that perhaps they’ll recall our name as they scan through a pile of CVs that looks more epic than Tolstoy’s War and Peace.
We were warned early on that around this time everyone would go a little crazy as people received interview and job offers, while the rest of us were passed on and continued our search. Perhaps I was naive, but I thought I could pass through this period unperturbed by the offers that classmates were receiving. After all, pretty much everyone does end up with a summer internship of some description. What I didn’t count on is the feeling of seeing classmates getting acceptances and walking to interviews for jobs that I had applied for. It’s a blow to your confidence as you wonder what talents or magical CVs other people possessed.
Good on them for succeeding. But I am a tiny bit jealous. Just a tad.
Stay tuned for more highs and lows of summer recruitment.
P.S. It turns out that dings two and three cut even deeper.
When I first heard about the Masters in Management program, it was pitched to me as a very practical program or a program where you can pick up a lot of practical knowledge. Whilst I had one definition of what it could be, I still wondered what a practical program exactly is.
1.) Courses: We had four courses last semester and they were very, you guessed it, practical. So we actually performed regression analysis, identified personality biases and debugged financial statements. Yet the common factor, which makes such practice useful, is that we do these as part of solving a bigger problem. This not only makes the learning enjoyable but also helps us better understand real world applications of these skills.
2.) Clubs: The clubs are an awesome resource to learn how things really work out there. The biggest learning comes from the exceptional MBA students who are more than willing to mentor and pamper you. I’m part of the Impact Consulting club that gives me amazing opportunities to work with strategy consultants and learn how things work in their world while also nurturing my interest in the development sector. I get to learn a lot about dealing with clients and problem solving. Almost every MiM student is involved with one club or the other and the skills they pick up serve them well beyond the job hunt.
3.) Others: There are still so many other opportunities to pick up skills you’ll use in a work environment. Business Immersion Week, Career Week and the Exchange programs offer plenty of opportunities to not only learn how things work but also get your hands dirty through workshops conducted by the participating companies. You can also take up numerous roles of responsibility such as that of an Academic Representative or a member of the Business Connections Committee which provide you with a wide variety of management skills. Besides these, Career Services is always working to setup interactions with people working in the sectors of your interest and these interactions provide you with the inside scoop, the kind you don’t get in classrooms.
That’s a practical program.
The main reason I chose LBS was the opportunity to access and contribute to the world’s best b-school alumni network. At LBS we take great pride in our inclusive culture and the calibre of our graduates. Whether researching new markets, seeking advice from industry leaders, or simply sourcing the underground job market, LBS has the best tools to help you in your career.
Here are a few first-hand examples of the impact the LBS community has had on my first semester job hunt.
1) A few weeks after applying to an international FMCG firm, I received a random email from an LBS MiM alum offering her support/advice. She was hired by the same firm at the global HQ and graciously helped me connect with HR in international offices. In fact, she phoned regional offices on my behalf and helped me get in touch with a recruiter within a few days!
2) After doing independent research on technology and pharmaceutical marketing, I decided to scour our global alumni directory for some advice on entering these industries. Within a week I had appointments set up with MiM alumni and a head of marketing for a top media firm as well as an invitation to a talk by former Sony Entertainment execs.
3) Every week the school has a free drinks night hosted by an LBS employeer. During the first semester we had opportunities to meet with recruiters from Facebook, Booz and Co, AB-Inbev, and many more. After one of these sessions I had a chat with a former intern at Facebook and got to network with other LBS MBAs from Apple.
I hope this tasty morsel of information has whet your appetite for LBS. Wherever your work will take you, the LBS network as the international scope and professional depth of experience to help you get there.
Drop a line if you have any questions or comments!
Kasia
LBS Master in Management student
Networker Extra-ordinaire
Gamer and Science Geek
“Did you really jump off a 15 meter pole during your first week at LBS?” asked my puzzled family. Even though I had a sleepless overnight flight back home, I could tell from their looks it would be better to answer them before I reunited with my bed. Suspecting I had joined the circus, my family listened as I described to them my ‘LBS Away day’. Apart from jumping off a pole (it kind of helped having an ex-navy pilot jump with me), my study group and I walked on a hanging wire as well as managed to pass a ball to 14 people in less than half a second. I explained to my family that beneath the adrenaline rush I had, without realizing, learned my first lesson at LBS: Effective teamwork is essential for success.
Having heard enough about my acrobatics, my family asked me “did you learn anything this term?”. It wasn’t too hard to convince them as I described the 5 core courses, 2 leadership workshops, GLAM and countless club meetings. The core classes were a perfect mix of theory and practicality. Class discussions further enhance the real-life use of the tools we learn. It’s amazing how you get to listen to – and engage with – for example, strategy perspectives from a L’Oreal executive from someone in your own class! Moreover, the projects that we undertake for each class are not only designed to help tackle everyday management problems, such as calculating how many planes Airbus needed to sell per year to breakeven on its A380 investment, but also lead a diverse group of people in doing so under a very tight schedule.
As for the leadership workshops, these are workshops aimed at enhancing leadership characteristics. My favorite was by far Influencing & Persuading. We learned about the 4 categories of personalities that people have and which techniques are suitable for each personality. We then spent hours practicing scenarios that ranged from dealing with military generals to unmotivated employees in a struggling startup. Its just amazing how at LBS you learn so much about soft skills that you would have otherwise thought were unnecessary. As a testament to my newly acquired skills, I managed to persuade my landlord to knock a bit off when I renew my contract this term! No matter what workshop you are interested in, which range from Presentations to Personal Impact, the results are skills that are easily translated into any industry, position, and country that you will end up in after graduation.
Even though I have finished just one term, I already feel like I’ve learned a whole program’s worth of information. It is just incredible how the MBA program has so far pushed me one step closer to becoming a global leader. As excited as I am about next term, for now I will catch up on some much needed sleep!
Some time ago, I contemplated what to do after the first term of class. There was a whole pile of options thrown at us: a trek to India, a skiing to trip to France, and a number of other holiday type trips too. Instead of taking these fun sounding options though, I elected to spend a week sitting in meeting rooms on the Media Trek while the sun shone down outside in Los Angeles. Yes, it seemed a crazy decision at the time, and even more so as the end of term approached.
But it was a phenomenal experience and a brilliant learning opportunity. Perhaps the best way to sum it up briefly is that it felt like a crash course elective in the entertainment industry – only, without exams. But that doesn’t start to do it justice. It was fantastic to learn so much in such a short space of time, and, perhaps more importantly, we were learning it from the trendsetters and business builders of the iconic and up-and-coming Hollywood companies. It was brilliant to know that what we were learning was coming not from some academic professor, but straight from the front line of the industry with all the experience that entails.
Our week was action packed with meetings from morning into the evening. And, while I won’t capture everyone we spoke to here, to give you a taste of what you missed out on (and to make you eager for next year’s trip), we met with Jon Landau who produced both Avatar and Titanic; the team at Summit Entertainment who handle world wide distribution, including all the Twilight films (yes, the girls got very excited!); the President of NBC Universal who is in charge of all their digital entertainment; as well as the new media heavyweights like Google, Hulu, and DemandMedia.
But we didn’t confine ourselves only to office meetings for the entire week; we did a bit of celebrity spotting, as one does when one is in Hollywood. Clint Eastwood ate his lunch at the table next to us while we were at Warner Bros, we saw one of the stars from Entourage as we were leaving the W Hotel, we also heard that Will Smith and Adam Sandler were about the Sony Pictures lot while we had a private tour – we attempted to orchestrate a coincidental encounter, but unfortunately none materialised.
And then, to round off the week, we spent our final day in Los Angeles at Disneyland. The magical kingdom gave us a grand finale with fireworks to send us on our way to have a Merry Christmas.
And a magical week it was. With a big thanks to Katie Cannon and Andrew Rose for all their organistion of the trip and chauffeuring around LA.
