Girl and City

My life in the last four weeks can be summed up in one word: suckage.
Although I don’t think that’s actually a word, but you get the idea.

January at The Business School has been a crazed frenzy of info sessions, recruiters, and job applications. We were given no warning as to how crazy it would get, and I was sucked into this frenzy with no preparation, and thus no hope of getting a job for the summer.
Summer recruitment at The Business School is always taken very seriously because 1) the companies that come are the best in their industry, and 2) after the summer, you are almost guaranteed a full-time offer, so you won’t even have to worry about going through the job search process again in September.
Anyway, what this really means is that everyone is crazy competitive, and it’s so much worse this year because of the economy. There are fewer job openings and even more people competing, especially for my career path of choice: consulting.
In consulting, there are basically four big names: McKinsey, Bain, BCG, and Deloitte. My dream job would be at Bain, but with the competition this year, I did not even get a first-round interview.
Twenty job applications and fifty cups of coffee later, I managed only to get one interview with Deloitte’s strategy & operations department. Pretty sweet deal, if I could actually get through to the final round and get an offer, but this story does not end that way. I did not get to the final round, I did not get an offer.

This is all fine and dandy, but here’s the kicker. With my marks, extra-curriculars, and charming demeanor (*bats eyelashes*), I would have gotten interviews everywhere had it been any other year. But not this year. And the worst part is that I don’t even know what I could have done better. So instead of torturing myself with the what-ifs, I blame January.

January has always been a terrible month for me. My first January away from home was spent combating pneumonia and an allergy reaction to the antibiotics that my doctor gave me. On the first day of class that term, my laptop died and I had a midterm in a week.
The second January of my university life, my purse was stolen in class, and I was left without money, a phone, or keys, and nowhere to go. I also ended up paying for a spring break trip I didn’t go because I was, essentially, scammed by the tour company. Later that week, my laptop died. Seeing a trend here?
This January, not only has summer recruitment gone nowhere, but someone used my credit card and spent $700 with it before I noticed and called the credit card company.
So you can imagine why I was unsurprised that I did not get a single job offer. The fact that my laptop hasn’t died yet is already making it a better month than previous years.

(more…)

“I got new boots!” was the first thing I said when I saw ALS at the “mini-reunion” organized by one of my high school classmates. “These are my I-don’t-need-a-job-after-business-school boots,” I declared, mimicking Rachel of Friends.
“Oh, congratulations!” ALS said, playing along as she gave me a hug. “Why don’t you need a job?”
“My first-term marks are out. I don’t think it’s enough to get that job with the big comfy bonus on Wall St.,” I said, more sadly than I felt.
“Aw, it’s ok honey. At least you got the boots.” I do! I thought to myself with glee, admiring my purchase. Sure, I broke my only-buy-sale-items rule to buy these, but they were worth it.

The mini-reunion was organized by a certain classmate of mine who went to UPenn after high school. He only comes back twice a year, so he regards the winter holidays as an opportunity to host a dinner reunion for whoever is back in town. This year’s guestlist was remarkably different from the previous year, which had been limited to misfits mostly. Classmates I had not seen since graduation attended this year’s dinner, which was held at an intimate downtown bar stocked with the most impressive array of beers and wines. PMG and I split a bottle of Gewurtzraminer Reserve between us (delish), and I was sufficiently tipsy by the time everyone had arrived. In attendance were some of my closest friends, including HB, who lavished attention upon me as always. MFL was there as well, although he spent more time interacting with his cell phone than a real-live person. I don’t think he was very happy seeing me with HB, but he may have been comforted in knowing that I would leave with him at the end of the night (he was my ride home).

The reunion made me think about my high school friends though. Many of us had gone through or were going through the same difficult task of deciding what we wanted to do. Made more difficult because we are a group of highly capable people with endless opportunities. Many of us were settling on med school, law school, or grad school “just because.” It suddenly made my decision to pursue a law degree after business school seem less arbitrary.

Worse comes to worse, I will just buy a pair of I-don’t-need-a-reason-to-go-to-law-school boots and march on.