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FEBRUARY 2002 MBA JOURNAL: FIRST SEMESTER WRAPUP George Mathew: The Second Half of First Semester "The second half of the term seemed to go at an even faster pace than the first. More core classes, combined with job search strategies, make this one of the most challenging terms at Fuqua." The experience was an education in itself, as we were taught specific lessons (i.e. "informational interviews" are actually preliminary interviews for most firms, not just Q&A sessions), as well as given an unofficial preview of the interview season to come. This year was going to be extremely competitive - the most competitive in the last decade or so. I also got the chance to meet my BusinessWeek Online editors face-to-face for a few hours during the week, before I headed back to Durham. (It was kind of like meeting distant pen-pals after months of correspondence.) After that, it was back to Durham for the next set of classes. If you can imagine it, I've been writing my journal entries with different songs in mind. For example, the first entry was done to Five for Fighting's It's Not Easy To Be Me. After the last six months in Durham, NC, I'm writing this one to Alan Jackson's Its All Right to be a Redneck, per my older sister's suggestion. Like the other selections, it just seems to help the flow of things a bit. That's not to say you can sing the words of my entries to the tunes, but it definitely puts me into the mood for what I'm writing. The second half of the term seemed to go at an even faster pace than the first. More core classes, combined with job search strategies, make this one of the most challenging terms at Fuqua. As before, the trick to everything seems to be time management and focus. Once you've set your sights on a specific type of occupation, you have to focus on it alongside the cacophony of classes, outside projects, clubs, and social life. Again, this seems like a skill I'm sure I'll master once I've completed Fuqua, but for now, sure feels like I'm not there just yet. CLASSWORK. The following term included three core classes: Finance, Marketing, and Accounting. To me, these classes were like learning three entirely different languages, simultaneously. Luckily, we had good professors in all three subjects to help us along. Though seemingly unrelated at first, the classes began to refer to similar topics repeatedly over time. These core classes lay the groundwork for all of what you need to know in business school. As a result, they all typically end up being the classes you need to perform well in, if you are pursuing that all-important summer internship in investment banking at Goldman Sachs, consulting at McKinsey, or the like. We've been warned several times that in the new economy, post-internet bubble, more companies will be asking about our grades in these classes--companies that did not ask before. This seems to fly in the face of the traditional mantra, "Grades don't matter in B-school," but we'll see how the job hunt goes over the next several months. Also, many companies, and some entire industries, seem to have tremendously reduced their recruitment efforts, or put them on hold indefinitely. Consequently, my class has been working its tail off to perform well in our core subjects. Between the camaraderie and the social events, I had almost forgotten the caliber of student that Duke admits. Trust me, everyone came to school to work hard and do well; there is a no-nonsense feeling whenever you see people at work in the library or the group meeting rooms. At the end of the term, I admit that all three subjects are still virtually foreign languages to me. However, despite my own non-business background, all have given me a solid basis for my further studies in B-school, as well as my future summer internship, wherever it may be. I have to say that I didn't get to see my old teammates as much this term. We were all reorganized into new teams for marketing class, and only got to see each other occasionally between classes. Still, after being apart for six weeks, we are looking forward to working together again next term.
The whole process itself seems a bit strange to me. I think that in some ways, those of us without a business background who are changing careers are at even a greater disadvantage than most. We have to go in with a clear goal as to what we wish to do and accomplish, and then pursue it, without any real experience to draw upon. It seems that that's the norm in any profession that you wish to succeed in. I emailed a friend of mine at Wharton, and she told me that job prospects looked pretty grim there, too. If the job market is this tough at schools like Wharton or Duke, I can't imagine how hard it must be at other schools without such resources. After our exams, we had our second trip up to New York City. The Fuqua "Week On Wall Street" program was, in some ways, the culmination of all of our efforts during the semester. Many of us went up to NYC after our final exams to check on investment banking jobs or to confirm contacts that had been made in the past for jobs. People were dressed up in their suits for every meeting, on their best behavior, scheduling mock interviews, pulling out their grades, etc. Every contact, whether Fuqua grad or recruiter, was surrounded by at least a dozen Fuqua students, and business cards and resumes flashed back and forth repeatedly. Unlike the previous trip, though, there was a palpable tension that hadn't been there earlier. I think the fear of not having a summer internship was beginning to creep in for all of us, and it began to show. Later, during our break, we had several other "Week in Cities" programs, specifically in New York (this time for marketing), London, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, so that students could pursue summer internships in these towns as well. The Health Sector Management program even offered a chance to spend time on Capitol Hill and talk to government officials about the current situation in healthcare. Though I didn't get to attend these other programs, I've heard that all were well-attended and positive experiences in general. The break after Term 2 examinations lasts for almost five weeks. Outside of job-hunting, I got the opportunity to visit with friends and family in New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and finally Michigan, for Christmas with my parents. Then, it was back to North Carolina, to get ready for Term 3, hopefully hear about offers and prepare for interviews.
One classmate remarked that during the next few weeks, between the third term classes and the job search, people would begin to show their "true colors," one way or the other. I'll just have to keep an eye out for it for now. To be continued...  Get BusinessWeek directly on your desktop with our RSS feeds.  Add BusinessWeek news to your Web site with our headline feed. Click to buy an e-print or reprint of a BusinessWeek or BusinessWeek Online story or video. To subscribe online to BusinessWeek magazine, please click here. Learn more, go to the BusinessWeekOnline home page  | | FEBRUARY Learn about your online education options |
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