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MARCH 2004 MBA JOURNAL: YEAR TWO Amber Clark: Academics, the Placement Process, and More [Page 3 of 3] The whole Raytheon interview experience taught me some important lessons. First and foremost, it's really important to have clear in your mind what you want and what you don't want in a job, otherwise you'll get sucked down paths you never intended to follow. I think it also made clear that that shotgun approach to interviewing is not the best, at least not for me. Yuri still prefers that approach because he says MBA interviewing is a complete crap shoot with no apparent logic whatsoever, so it's best to go for volume to increase your odds of success. My original instinct, however, was to concentrate all of my efforts on throwing a few well-placed darts and beat out the competition through preparation and sincere interest. I think both strategies can be successful, it's a matter of what works best for you. Anyway, a week after I returned from Boston, I got a surprise. Borders wanted me back for a second-round interview! Preparation and sincere interest had carried the day. I started to prepare in earnest, calling MSU alums who had interviewed with Borders the previous year and trying to create some presentation materials to take with me to the interview. I worked up ideas for each of the four strategic areas the companies was focussing on, as well as a competitive analysis of Borders, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon. I also visited several Borders stores, and did an analysis of the merchandizing and use of technology in the stores. I had planned to create an entire presentation and management report, but with all of my other obligations I just didn't have time. It was extremely frustrating not to be able to give my best effort, but I couldn't let school projects slide, and I was behind on finishing the book already. Two weeks before the interview, I suddenly got an e-mail asking if I could attend an informal dinner with some of the other candidates and a few Borders marketing executives the next evening! I couldn't very well say no, could I? But I had other commitments that, combined with rain and traffic, made me ten minutes late. Not a good start, and in retrospect this "informal" interview was the toughest one I had with Borders. They lobbed some tough questions, and the whole thing felt a bit like an ambush. The official second-round interview a few weeks later was actually easier than I'd anticipated. I had five one-on-one interviews, all slightly different. The two people from HR concentrated on "why Borders?" and my leadership skills, while the two marketing executives did more of a get-to-know you interview. The only really difficult one was with the guy who would actually be my direct boss. He asked strategic case-style questions, and I wasn't entirely pleased with how that went. Partially this was because I could have done better, but also it was because he didn't want to see the prepared materials I'd brought. He was just interested in what I could come up with on the spot, which annoyed me. I would think that in most cases the MBAs companies hire are not going to be making major strategic decisions for a large multi-national corporation off the cuff, and that you might want to take a look at what they can produce with some real thought and effort. In any case, I walked out of that particular interview feeling that I had misdirected my preparation efforts. I had focused on store merchandizing because I think that's incredibly important in retail, but they wanted to hear more about global expansion strategies. Most of the other candidates they were interviewing had international experience, and so I tried to demonstrate strengths in different areas, but I don't think it worked. In any case, I didn't get the job. It's never nice to be rejected for something you want, but I've always had a philosophy that what is meant to be will be, and if something you think you want doesn't happen, it's for a reason. But the experience clarified some issues in my mind. I don't want to work for a large company. I can't handle the bureaucracy, and I think the way they go about hiring people is deeply flawed. For example, take that staple question, "What are your three greatest strengths, and your three greatest weaknesses?" There's no way to answer that question honestly and get hired. Everyone in the world has weaknesses, but if you're honest and upfront about what they are, that gets you eliminated. Meanwhile, if you give the trained-seal answer, which is to give weaknesses that are really strengths in disguise, or to list past weakness that you have since "corrected," the interviewer thinks you're wonderful and moves you on to the next round. Think about that for a minute. Essentially, the interviewer who asks that question is weeding out people who are honest, and rewarding people who lie. Behavioral interviews in general work to systematically single out the people who lie the most effectively and place them on the fast track to management in the world's most influential companies. Am I the only one who thinks that's a really bad idea? At this point I feel really jaded and disillusioned about the whole MBA world in general, and the recruitment process in particular. It's not taking me in a direction that I want to go. I think I'm going to have to create my own path here, combine the writing the business knowledge and take it in a new direction. I'm leaning towards freelancing, maybe as a ghostwriter or writing for magazines. I'm going to have to do some informational interviewing to see what's possible. I need a job that suits my personality and my lifestyle, one that I can get by showing examples of my work rather than doing the trained seal act. Whatever I'm going to do, I'd better figure it out quick graduation is only four months away!
 
BW MALL
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