Barry Zhang: Graduation Approaches

Hey guys! I just got back from spring break in Morocco. My wife and I went with five other Kellogg students on a self-organized trip where we saw all the major sights and spent a lot of time bonding over good food and drinks.

Everyone on the trip, with the exception of me, had their full-time jobs lined up already. One future banker, one consultant, two brand managers, and one operations guy. It was an eclectic group but the makeup was representative of the main careers that Kellogg's Class of 2006 will soon enter. I was the lone job holdout, not necessarily playing hard to get, but I am still in the thick of recruiting for a solid job in finance. Although I don't know the exact statistics, the overwhelming majority of my classmates have finished their full-time recruiting by now. These days, most are spending lots of time hanging out with other classmates before everyone heads in different directions.

Kellogg's culture has always encouraged socializing with fellow classmates; now is the chance to solidify those lifelong friendships that motivated so many of us to come to business school. If class schedules are any indication, I know several second-year students taking three classes (four is a normal course load) and others planning their class schedules so they can fit in a few rounds of golf after the spring weather takes over. I don't want to suggest that the entire class is checking out. There are many students focused on maximizing their learning before they leave. Several are taking a full course load of five classes and others are auditing the classes that they didn't have a chance to take earlier.

Most of the students that are still recruiting are doing so typically because they have some unique criteria which they are looking for in their dream job. I happen to fall into this camp. My wife and I decided that we want to relocate to Texas after graduation, where she has family. So I am looking for a banking or investment job that provides a good cultural fit and is also in Texas.

I was warned by my friends in the class above mine that as graduation approaches, the peer pressure to land a job gets more intense. Part of the pressure comes from complacency – it's hard to stick to it when your peers are starting to relax. The other part of the equation is risk appetite. Those who want the warm feeling of knowing what they'll be doing or where they'll be after graduation have accepted offers with the firms that came on-campus last fall. There are a few of us who are willing to wait a bit longer for that perfect job. If you had asked me at the beginning of this school year which group I belonged in, I wouldn't have known for sure. My second year has really forced me to do a lot of thinking about how dedicated I am to finding a firm with the fit I want. Much like how doing B-school application essays force you to think about your career, this waiting game is a personal growth process that has forced me to make serious decisions about what industry I want to join, what geography I want to move to, and what work/life balance I want in my next job.

There are some advantages to recruiting this late in the game. As most of your peers across all the business schools commit to companies, the competition gets a bit easier if you're going after a selective job. Some smaller firms simply don't start thinking about their hiring needs until late spring, so there's also a handful of us at Kellogg who have just started knocking on doors of private equity and hedge funds, for example.

Although I am focused on recruiting, I am careful to balance my energies between that and making friends at Kellogg. Just today, I met someone in my class who I didn't know before. There are also friends that I bump into in the hallways that I've lost touch with during the recruiting whirlwind. The two years here pass very quickly. So as graduation approaches, I am trying to catch up with friends before we all leave school. If you visit Jacobs Hall (our building) on any day, you'll see the hallways lined with clusters of people chatting. Months before, we were helping one another prepare for interviews. Now, the conversations are starting to revolve around what firms and areas of the world people will be transitioning to. I think we're all going through our last quarter at Kellogg with nervous anticipation about who we'll be able to keep in touch with after graduation.

Thankfully, Kellogg has provided myriad opportunities to form friendships that last. I know I will keep in touch with everyone from my Morocco trip. Many other second years went on self-organized trips, too. During last spring break, the first-year students went on GIM (Global Initiatives in Management) trips to India, China and other parts of the world. These are just a few examples of how Kellogg's program fosters friendships, many of which will last long beyond the two years we spend in Evanston.