Getting back into the swing of classes. But they were not the traditional classes. They were classes in ethics, negotiation, and crisis management. I learned that form an ethics standpoint, I am an consquentialist, someone who thinks the end event is most relevant.
Then came the company presentations again. This is when the stress among my classmates started. It’s kinda mass hysteria. I think we must have been told 150,000 times this year that we are 90 “exceptional people”. It’s amazing how some of these 90 exceptional people let the job hunt get to them. Sure, we are in need of jobs, but if we are truly exceptional, experienced managers, shouldn’t jobs just come to us? Relax, people. What’s more worrying is how some people have what I called a “shotgun” job search strategy. They will interview with any company, any position, just to make sure that they land something. I heard someone who had 23 interviews in 2 weeks. It’s just amazing. All the workshops, all the stuff the career office has been telling us all year: be focused, choose a type of position, choose a few companies you really want to work for, and go for it. I am not sure what a power tools company, a commercial boiler company, a wood products company, an oil company, a flavor company, a high tech company, and three consulting companies have in common, but I am sure whoever has 23 interviews must have put them together in a coherent, focused job search strategy. I’d certainly love to hear the pitch though.
In some ways, I am not better, I did apply to l’Oreal. Why, you may ask. Well, I guess they marketed themselves well at the company presentation. I truly believed that they are hiring for talent, and I was looking for a totally different industry to work in. I fell for it.
Traveling for the Ericsson project meant I had to travel. And that did it for me. I had traveled enough during my VeriSign years. The horror came right back to me. It reminded me how I said I would never travel like that again. I didn’t want to do it any more. That meant no consulting for me in the future.
The interview process also helped eliminating options. I failed out of all the consulting interviews. Or in the consulting lingo: I was “dinged”. Before I came to IMD, all I wanted was to work for Bain or McKinsey. I wanted to work for a top rated consulting company because it guaranteed a good income, provided for interesting, challenging work, and some social prestige. Bain didn’t recruit on campus, and I interviewed with McKinsey and Monitor. It was actually fun preparing for these interviews. The case interview style is interesting but I am not sure how effective they really are. It does test for approaches and nerves, but I am not sure how good they really are. Regardless, I was happy to not get any further with the consulting interviews. Monitor deserves a special mention here. The guy that called me back to give me feedback was really up front and honest with me. He said that he could see that I am an action oriented person and might not be the best match for a consulting company. He also said that the passion I have for people really would make me a better manager than a consultant. Furthermore, he said I already have some management experience and why not just continue on that track, and move up the ladder. All good, solid observations and fitting recommendations. That truly affirmed my choice to not go into consulting.
The other option was TECOM in
No comments:
Post a Comment