Formal recruiting is finally over!
All of the horror stories that you have heard are true. You will start your day with an 8 AM coffee chat with McBain, go to class, go to a lunch coffee chat with Pomegranate, have back to back calls for 3 hours, head to dinner with the BC-OMG NY office, after which you will run over to a cocktail event with FivePentagon. You will get home at 11 PM, eat real dinner since you didn’t REALLY get to eat at the BC-OMG dinner, do research for the next days set of infosessions and networking sessions, and finally pass out at 3 AM.
You will do this every day, all week, for two weeks. I am told that these are the worst two weeks at Wharton.
People’s true colors really come out during recruiting. For example, there are some students who, despite their own busy schedules, will take the time to have lunch with you and tell you about their previous job at Company X. And then there are the “small circle” dudes (and dudettes) who, when speaking with a recruiter at a cocktail event among a circle of fellow classmates, will inch closer and closer to the recruiter and attempt to push others out of the circle. FYI, that’s really annoying. The relationships that you forge with your classmates at Wharton are potentially the most valuable thing you will walk away with. Don’t screw over your fellow classmates.
In any case, before you get to b-school, make some decisions:
- Banking or consulting? You can’t do both.
- Entrepreneurship or late stage startup? You either have the risk tolerance to be an entrepreneur or you don’t. You can test this out during b-school, but if you’re going to go for it, GO FOR IT.
- Live with others or live alone? (I was feeling down this week, so my housemate promised to take me to the zoo!)
*Note – All company names are fictional and being used for illustrative purposes only.