Semester 2 at Wharton. Part I: recruiting for summers!

So the time after winter break was when the Second semester and the recruiting for summers started. I wasn’t looking forward to coming back at all from India but it was only when I got back, I realized how much I had missed the place, the pace and all the people here.

Second semester was pretty easy, academically – yeah they make it such that you don’t have to worry too much about studies while recruiting. We had two weeks off for recruiting – a departure from the usual 1-week holidays across all US B-schools. It really helped too, especially when you’re juggling multiple interviews in multiple locations across Philadelphia.

Those two weeks were stressful, to say the least. It’s the time when you suddenly realize that getting into Wharton was not the big deal that everyone thought it was. The big deal was competing against the most amazing people from across the world for a job that you liked and had your mind set upon. The phone becomes a much reviled object when you are called up to be told that you’ve been dinged!! I stopped counting the dings after a while and instead focused on drawing happiness from the job offers that I did have! It also turned out that those were the ones I really wanted..so maybe those recruiters do know something about a good fit, skeptical as I am!

Some friends though really struck gold. IJC for eg, maxed it out with probably the most consulting company offers than anyone else in Wharton. NT still preens at turning down Goldman Sachs to do something he really wanted and CJS who was uber-lazy at the beginning of recruiting season (yeah by some strange quirk of fate he had only 1 class on Mondays and slept all damn day!) finally got active around spring break and easily managed a PE fund offer.

One company dinged me twice – once after I had applied, apologizing that they couldn’t have me over for the interviews because there were so many other more qualified candidates. Then, on the day they had their interviews, they called me to ding me AGAIN, apologizing that I wasn’t moving to the second round interviews though the interviewers really enjoyed speaking with me –it was hilarious when I told them I hadn’t even been called for an interview…I guess they were just making sure that there was no way I joined :)

So anyway to cut a long story short, after some trials and tribulations all of us ended up in jobs we wanted. I will be spending my summers in 2 internships across Amsterdam, Hague, London and Washington DC. The first is with a private equity fund that focuses on energy assets and the second is with a leadership program in an energy behemoth. MM recently sent across a mail that we had exchanged much before coming to Wharton where I had gushed about how I wanted to be in a leadership program – I guess I got what I wanted and now it is up to me to make the most of it.

[so this is stuff from Feb 08 - I am right now in the middle of my first internship in Holland - hoping to bring the blog up to date!!]

@ Wharton: Life as a 1st year MBA – Semester 1

[disclaimer: most of this was written during Winter break, Dec07 and things have changed significantly for the better in terms of a better lifestyle since Sem 2:-)]

Crazy Blur - Life in Sem 1

Classes that counted towards the MBA officially started in September and that’s when things got REALLY busy. If preterm was where you met with classmates in the corridors and chatted them up or hung out with over coffee/lunch, the 1^st quarter was all about nodding at familiar faces with a quick ‘hey, hows it going’ and rushing on to your class (haha, without bothering to hear the answer – an American peculiarity that I’m still getting used to).

Assignments, quizzes, exams and some more assignments – that’s what September was all about. September was also when the 2^nd years and Wharton undergrads got back to campus so it was about seeing 2,000 more faces on a daily basis and you finally giving up hope of knowing more than 50 people over the next few months.

At Wharton, everything is layered in a chronological manner and if you thought you’re busy now just wait till the next month! So while preterm was about attending basic classes and September was about doing the core course and just trying to cope with the weekly quizzes and assignments, October and November were all of the previous AND attending informational sessions that the hundreds of companies that recruit at Wharton organize.

Recruitment for summer internships happens in the last week of January but the companies start courting you right from October. While in the beginning it feels as if you’re being seduced and wined-dined by the recruiters, reality sinks in pretty soon that it is really you who’s networking with these companies, spending hours on hours after classes in cocktail receptions in various hotels (where you should be working on an assignment or hanging out with friends), trying to land that perfect summer internship.

Industries and companies soon get slotted into whether they’re ‘high-touch’ or ‘low-touch’, depending on the number of brownie points you get by attending all their cocktails, receptions, case workshops and lectures on campus and off-campus. Investment banks are the highest of ‘high-touch’, requiring you to also speak with multiple people from the group you’re interested in, over the phone or go over to New York to meet with them on Fridays (whoops, I forgot to mention that Wharton has a 4-day class week but before you start having issues with anyone whining about the workload, just think of a Friday for most dressed in business formal, going up to NY and juggling meetings and ‘informational interviews’ to assess a good ‘fit’ with different banks).

For those who’re recruiting for the traditional post-MBA industries – banking/consulting, the academic and social life takes a major hit. What starts out as a few classmates coming to class dressed in a suit for an event after class soon multiplies and people soon stop asking which event you’re going to, or even saying, ‘hey, looking sharp, there!’

And if you thought that the networking with companies ends at attending their events, think again. You go home with all the business cards you collected, write thank-you mails to all of them and if this is investment banking, request to have a one-on-one conversation with them over the phone or in their office in NY to ‘assess a better fit’.

The open-to-all receptions soon progress into ‘closed-list’ receptions where only the ones who made that extra effort get invited to. Getting on to a ‘closed-list’ even is definitely a leg-up to your recruiting efforts and the people who don’t get invited to them, suddenly get insecure and redouble their networking.

And yeah, you’re doomed if you dare to even think of exploring more than one industry to work with – you soon get slotted as a banker or a consultant or something else and will get woeful stares from everyone if you attend events that people haven’t slotted you in. Of course, it’s a logistical nightmare to juggle between events from different industries. So you have people quietly sneaking out of a banking reception and jumping into a cab and rushing to another end of town just in time to make it for the break-out networking session (the session after the usual speech about how good our company is and how different our people and teams are) being organized by a consulting firm.

You drag yourself back home at 11pm after having smiled constantly, shook multiple hands and asked meaningful sounding questions about multiple firms in different industries, write thank you emails, check the 134 other cohort/learning team/Wharton club emails that have come in and finally think about starting the assignment due at 9am tomorrow morning.

You groan some more because there’s a quiz happening at 1030am tomorrow and you are ready to scream because there is also a team assignment that is due at 7pm tomorrow (you have to finish it tonight because tomorrow evening will also be full of the same smiling, asking meaningful questions and collecting business cards till 11pm).

Oh well, you’ve paid $150,000 for this so you may as well do it. And the lure of huge future cash-flows and a perfect work-life balance after you land that perfect job keeps you going.

Its 3am and its time for all the Wharton e-room emails to start pouring in with updates about the day and the various sign-up/resume drop/application for leadership position deadlines. You still have to start studying for the quiz and are only halfway done on the team assignment (and have mails coming in from frantic team members asking for your part of the assignments). Classes start at 9am. Welcome to the Wharton MBA!

It is a transformational experience for sure. It is a very humbling experience where you’re no longer the super-star you thought you were when you got your admission offer. It is a mind-numbing experience when you grit your teeth and fuck your quiz up because you know you can’t let your team down in the group assignment. It is an experience where you come to terms with the fact that there are 749 more superstars in the same building, most of whom understand Stackleberg or Game theory or CAPM or Deferred Taxes much faster and much better than you can ever hope to, and will invariably push you further up (or down) The Curve that is all-pervasive in the academic life at Wharton.

No matter how hard you study, there will almost always be someone who can do it better and screw your position on the normal distribution. After a while you stop caring about grades since there is not much you can do about them anyway. It is also an experience where there are crazy parties in which you forget all your woes and…partaaaaaayyyy! And feel guilty as hell at not having studied anything/written any thank-you notes/networked/done an assignment over the weekend.

It is a transformational experience when you realize that you’ve lost about 20 pounds in weight (not from working out at the gym) and have darker circles than ever before. It is an amazing experience where you never cease to be amazed by your classmates and the awesome things they’ve done in the past and you know you’re talking to people who’ll chart the future of the world.

It is also an exhilarating experience where you’re being taught by people whose names you’ve so far only seen on covers of books. It is, overall, a supremely tiring experience where you learn to truly multitask and realizing that its not humanly possible to be on top of everything, you learn to prioritize.

Thursdays at Wharton are much looked forward to. They signal an end to all the academic stress built up over the week and an end to all the recruiting events that you hate attending but have to attend. The Wharton pub is a regular Thursday evening event with free beer/wine/pizza where about 500-600 people from 1^st and 2^nd years get together…and let their hair down. Occasionally the faculty will join in and really spice things up.

Foam Party

Rainbow Pub - where the faculty dresses in drag and celebrate the 'coming out day'

Walnut Walk - Wharton 1st years dress up above the waist with little below for an infamous pub crawl just before recruiting season begins

White Party

Studying - end of Sem 1..horrible memories:)

Wharton54 party - the most scandalous of 'em all! (although this happens in Sem2)

Oh and there are also exams that one has to contend with, every month. Wharton has a quarter system hence many courses end every two months and have mid-term/final exams. The finals for the 1^st semester (Q1 and Q2) ended on the 19^th December and have been the craziest exams so far. It was during the finals that I realized the importance of studying in a group to maintain a good pace and also how it feels to be up till 730am and then sleep for 3 hours to wake up again at 1030am and start studying again.

I’ve realized that it’s the friends at Wharton that really keep me going. After 5 months of pure punishment, its friends that keep me alive and provide an oasis of sanity where we can just sit and bounce our frustrations/ideas/opinions off each other. S in Boston is another pillar of support and I know I can pick up the phone anytime and pour out all my joys and sorrows and have a sympathetic ear to listen to me and offer some amazing advice.

Had I known before Wharton exactly what I was getting into, I’d have probably balked at the thought of putting myself through the grueling lifestyle. Looking back at the few months however I think I’ve learnt and enjoyed more in the last five months than in the last many years. Wharton in many ways has toughened me more in 5 months than my jobs over the last 6 years. And there is a year and half more to go. Am I looking forward to it? Hell, of course - bring it on! I am sure now that I can take anything you throw at me and then some more.