ONE-YEAR AT GOIZUETA: DEEPTI DABRAL – Time to Suit Up and Get Recruitment Ready
Yes, the Summer is over. So, what next? In the coming semester, the academic rigor of our electives won’t dilute and the recruiting season will be in full bloom. Networking efforts are ramping up.
This blog might make it look like I am looking for a job at a Career Management Center of a business school. Even though I do not want to sound preachy, I still want to share some of my most important learnings with anyone and everyone who is serious about securing an on-campus job offer in an organization that interests the student and provides her the launch pad for a career path that she envisioned as an end result of a successful MBA journey. This is particularly crucial for potential applicants to business schools to ensure that they come with the correct set of expectations about the amount of effort and self-motivation required from a student to be successful in recruitment.
Companies today do not want to hire people whose interests and behaviors are not aligned with the company’s brand identity and culture. As I heard it in one of the recent informational interviews I conducted with a rising Second Year at GBS, companies are skeptical about “attracting the wrong talent”. This makes sense because recruiting a professional who would does not fit in well with an organization’s culture, turns out to be a low yield investment for the company. Hence, the widely used phrase of ‘determining the cultural fit’ has gained paramount importance in today’s hiring context. Gone are the days when hard skills were the gateway to a plush, comfortable and secure job. Cracking the behavioral interviews have become pivotal, in addition to cracking the technical business cases, to succeed in landing a dream job offer.
Snapshot of Fall 2014 GCC Event
I have briefed some of the key pieces of advice that I have learnt by numerous interactions with people at Goizueta. By no means, I have aced the following points and adhered to them verbatim but I am trying to follow them as much as I can.
- First and foremost, recruiting preparation has to be highly self-motivated since there is no particular course or format under which you can expect to achieve certain milestones. Tasks such as finalizing the bucket list of firms you want to work, conducting informational interviews with critical people in those companies, continuous case preparation and developing impactful STAR stories are not minor tasks and require regular commitment by candidates. They need to be plugged in into the fiercely chaotic calendar of every MBA candidate. By this time in mid of August, the entire graduating Class of 2016 is expected to be ready with their updated resume, STAR stories and cover letters. The push and contribution of CMC in helping every student refine his or her resume and STAR stories is immense.
- Knowing the career path that really interests you can be a huge advantage. But for those who are not sure have a wide spectrum of opportunities available to them. This definitely means going to speaking to and conducting informational interviews with a huge number of people to really understand how your skills, competencies and interests can fit in your future functions or industries.
- It is essential and pragmatic to gain some wisdom from your seniors. The rising second years have returned or are returning to campus after completing their summer internships and bagging some coveted offers in their kitty. They have proved to be an indispensable source of information about recruitment preparation and networking. Casual coffee chats with them are an unparalleled way to get candid and sincere feedback about their industries and learn from their preparations. The fact that Goizueta’s students and alumni live the values of Team and Community only makes lives of current students such as myself tremendously easier.
- Nothing can replace the value of solid and robust preparation for case interviews specifically for candidates looking for career opportunities in consulting. Case interviews are the acid test of the analytical, critical thinking and communication skills of any candidate and acing them is a pre-requisite to succeed in consulting.
- Working on certain things that make you stand out in the crowd is imperative too. Whether it is leading a student club or pursuing a part-time internship in an industry that you are targeting, doing that extra bit can only make you more memorable in the mind of a recruiter who is scanning several resumes at once.
It is an exciting time. We are days away from the official kick-off of the recruiting season at Goizueta which happens at an annual event called Goizueta Career Connection (GCC). The event attracts top-notch global and boutique firms spanning across industries and functions and provides Goizueta students a platform to network with recruiters directly. The stage is set. It is time to overpower the butterflies in stomach and succeed in landing the opp. And we are moments away from Lights, Camera & Action!