I have set a goal this year to run and finish the Charlottesville 10-miler road run on March 27. For those runners out there, this may seem a minor goal; for someone like me who has never run that far however it’s scary. I’ve met with a few of Darden First Year students this week, and I believe I’m seeing the same emotion in them.
Why am I scared? Well, for starters, as I said, I have never done this before. I’m also scared because I don’t really have two hours to train every day. I’m scared because sometimes I feel like a “pretender” running—not one of those you see running around Grounds gliding effortlessly along. For me it’s real work and when I get to the end of five miles, I can hardly stand up. I’m also scared because I have made my goal very public, and I don’t want to lose face. I’m also scared because I spoke to a Darden First Year yesterday who ran it last year, and she told me that the hill coming up from the Corner (mile 9) was a killer. Like I needed to hear that. I’ve never even run a mile 9.
But okay, I’m going to do it. On March 28, I will be able to say I did it. On the Monday after I’ll come in and reminisce with the others in the office that also did it. We’ll be talking about every mile and how we plan to do it faster next year. I can’t wait.
Now about those Darden First Years: I have seen several this week who are scared. They didn’t use that word, but that is the sense I got. They are scared because they don’t have a job offer yet. They are scared because they worked their butts off to get into Darden, they worked even harder to get through the first year (unliketheir friends at other schools who cruised through), and they even practiced a mock interview on InterviewStream (feeling a bit foolish while doing so), and they still don’t have an offer. And everyone else does.
Well let’s clear up some facts. Not everyone else has a job. Less than 1/3 of the class has an offer. That statistic is right in line with last year. We have only been interviewing for three weeks. In the end only 50-65% of First Years get offers through on-Grounds recruiting anyway. (And thank goodness: why would you want to be limited to the 100 or so companies that come here when there are so many other great companies to work for.) The real fun of the job search is just beginning. Now you can turn your attention to the target list of companies that you created when you first arrived at Darden. You can pursue what you are interested in or passionate about, without the distractions of the “on-Grounds” companies. Or you can consider pursuing a “building block” for your resume: a job that will help you land the job you want when you interview next year. Some of you won’t find this job until the end of April.
But I can understand why you are scared. It sure seems like everyone else has jobs. I heard about a group of bankers that went to play Birdwood on a Wednesday this week. (They had it so easy by the way, since the CDC catered to them by having a week of banking interviews before school started—NOT! Over 100 students interviewed during that week, with a four major consulting firms, six major general management companies, and a couple of key CPG marketers—all Corporate Sponsors plus as many non-sponsoring, non-banking companies that we could convince to come that week.)
Woops—did I just get on a soap box? Sorry. Back to you: you have a right to be scared. You do want to be successful. You do want to get a good payback on your decision to come to b-school and Darden. But let me re-assure you of a few things: first, your emotions are no different than the emotions of the Class of 2008 at this time last year, and the Class of 2007 before them. Every year after that first round of offers, many without offers want to panic. Second, you are not a pretender. Your lack of success thus far is not because you are not a super star. It’s probably because of fit. We have heard more companies compliment the First Year class this year than ever before—companies from all functions. You have the right backgrounds, and you are prepared. One major consulting firm told me that of the five Darden students that were invited back for second rounds, the worst Darden student was better than any student from a top five business school. But you still don’t have an offer, because the fit has not been right. That’s okay. Keep interviewing. Finally, around May 1, you will be living the dream again, because your patience and hustle will have paid off, and you lwill have landed a great position. It happens every year. It will happen to you. And you will be out at Birdwood laughing about how long it took.
Which brings me to my last point: if your are scared, hustle. I’ve heard that word a few times this week, and it seems to be the perfect verb for a student in the job search. The easy part of the job search is over. Now comes the part where you have to hustle more. The companies don’t come to you—you go to the companies. (Before you get too far down the path of this phase of the search, it never hurts to pause and check in with a career consultant or Second-Year coach and have one of them review your marketing material: your resume, your story, your interview. If there is some tweaking that can be done, be sure to get feedback and adapt.) You need to out-hustle the rest of the MBA pack out there that is looking for the right position too. Make more networking calls. Travel to more cities. Speak to more alumni, faculty and friends. Meet more often with you Career Consultant, SY coach, and friends about job search strategies, target companies, and networking approaches.
If you hustle, you won’t have time to be scared.