Get the grade or get the job?

The answer to the above caption seems like a no-brainer but I cannot but feel a little bad (Not really :-) ) sometimes when I think of the fact that I’ve been paying serious attention to only one of my classes (Finance) and just coasting along with the other four. The reason of course is that there are a gazillion recruiting activities to keep up with. Anyone that has ever written a cover letter for an MBA job application will understand just how painful and time consuming those can be. Don’t even think about using a template!

I’m blogging from JFK airport right now after an interesting day with a firm that insisted I come for an informational interview today. I tried to explain that I’ll be in NY for 3 days next week but they had a deadline to meet. So off I went. I think it was a very productive trip.

I thought I was the only one feeling like 24 hours is not enough until one of my classmates came to me to express how she feels right now. Let’s just say I felt much better with my situation after listening to her.

The school is giving us Monday and Tuesday off next week to travel for our informational interviews. This is very good because it allows us to really focus. There is some much information to keep track of on each bank…PE ratio, EPS, where the stock closed the previous day, marketcap etc…Now imagine that you are going for the shot gun approach and talking to every bank that claims to have an I-Banking operation. May God help you. Oh yeah, you need to flawlessly master the art of resume walking too. In case you are wondering what an Informational Interview is, it is one of the boxes you need to check with the banks and your last chance to get a feel for how well you’ll fit with the bank. This means you have to make it count by having very good questions to ask the banker. On the flip side, you should also be ready to get grilled on some fundamentals of accounting and finance.

After next week’s informational, I’m dropping everything related to recruiting and focusing on preparing for my finals. Shooot… Who am I kidding? If they call me tomorrow for a return trip, you know I’ll be racing up to Wall Street again.

I look forward to the day I’ll report here that I have my first offer.