This is a review of P4 at INSEAD, so go back and read what P0, P1, P2 and P3 were like for this to make more sense and give you better context. Or not, you don’t have to listen to me. In summary, I’ve come to realise that I’m extremely blessed and lucky to be in a wonderful community having spent time living in two different countries now, visiting many more and making good friends from even more. In short, b-school has been a truly transformative year. I’m serious.
This post is a review of the time that we got around to recruitment and how it has panned out for me and what I think it has been for others based on my observations. As always, it is a way for me to process the events of the year without casting judgement or changing narratives.
Recruitment
At this point of the b-school journey, I’ve reached the stage that we all dread, anticipate and wish we weren’t dealing with. It’s a point in time that came about much earlier than any of us would’ve wanted and heralds the final stage of our time at b-school and this one (ish) year of suspension of belief and respite from regular adulthood. For the most part. Many, including I, would argue that recruitment is pretty much the Raison d’être of being at b-school. It’s a little sad that this was my thought process going into law school and coming in b-school. But I would also highlight that I’ve been superbly lucky to see that there are several other reasons of being here which I’ve got to see thanks to the great professors, classmates and friends I’ve been lucky to find here (yes, yes, the real knowledge was the friends we made along the way).
Recruitment is a scary time. I’ll be the first in line to admit this. Personally, it’s been additionally scary because I hadn’t even changed jobs in the seven years since I’d left law school. I was absolutely not in the zone of going through the song and dance of wooing potential employers. I had attended a few recruitment events in P1 which were aimed at the 23D batch but that was mainly for the food and drink (as any good student would do). I also did use that as a testing ground to get back into habit and ability to have interesting conversations with people I’ve never known and to be able to start convincing them of my own abilities to do…corporate things. It’s a whole process.
This whole process is one of pain. I am mincing no words because that’s just how it is, to be honest. Nonetheless it’s been an interesting process that’s got me speaking to a lot of interesting people, see a lot of great work being done out there and taken me to interesting places. Fun fact, this post is being partially written at a train station at Geneva whilst I wait to go back to my adopted homeland, France (I adopted them, they’re accommodating so far).
Why it’s been a pain
Recruitment at the moment is my day time job. It’s been an activity that has needed it’s own time and continuous effort. Long ago I’d read somewhere on LinkedIn about how someone treated a job search like a 9–5 and I’m grateful that I remembered that at the right time and resolved to do just that. I realised that this process is not going to succeed (and if you’re morbidly curious, at the time of writing it has still not) if I did not give it the respect and discipline that it deserves.
My routine, from the start of P4 has been to get to college around 9/930 and sit in a BOR (SW003 has been my dojo) and write out on the white board my task list. I also had an excel tracker (because obviously) and would set out a definition of success for all the work that I had to do for the day. This included mechanical tasks such as checking out job postings on LinkedIn and our own job portal; creating new alerts on roles that I fancied; reaching out to alumni and other people or scoring connects. The remainder of my time went in actually having those conversations, noting down what advice I got (and I got some solid advice!), looking out for new roles and helping other folks with case-study preparation. That’s it. Day in and day out, I did this, punctuated with breaks of course.
I’m still in the process. I’m still learning. I’m still doing. But here’s what I’ve learnt and think have kept me sane so far. Think of this piece as a reference on what you could do whilst looking for a job post b-school. Maybe times would be better in the future and this would just be a vestige of the ancient world to laugh at. Who knows.
Talk to people early
This is a piece of advice that is doled out by alumni, senior batches and the career development centre (CDC) right from the start (or ab initio as we’d say in the law). It does not feel like something that one would want to do especially when you’re in a situation where you’re getting to know your batchmates and even yourself, but getting into the practice of being able to chat with people, articulating yourself on what you’d like and how you’d like to get it requires practice and practice in this case only happens when speaking with actual people. It feels like it’s a burdensome process but it needn’t be. Being authentic (as much of a cliched LinkedIn post as it sounds like) actually helps.
I wish I’d done this before, but I hadn’t and corrected it when I could. That’s the best response one can have.
Stay disciplined
This may not work for everyone, but I for one, am a creature of habit and for me, predictability is a great means of finding comfort. Being able to know what is happening and what would happen is a fantastic way to maintain my calm and that helps me stave of anxiety and apprehension. I also think that keeping a process is a healthy way of staying on track. It’s easy to get disheartened by events and then stop one’s outreach, but knowing that you’re going against the process is one way to keep true to oneself.
I’ve also come to realise that regardless of the outcome, continuing to do what one’s been doing is pretty much the best way to stay steady. The point being that even if some outcomes are sub-optimal, it doesn’t mean that you stop moving forward. Perhaps the process needs tweaking, perhaps it needs updating and needs to be rewound, but not moving forward would be the real failure in such times.
Ask and ye shall receive
A common theme I’ve noticed with many batchmates has been of not getting what they need simply because they never asked. I don’t remember when it happened, but at some point in life, I became rather forthcoming in asking people for help and for things when I needed them. This has been super helpful in the recruitment search too. I’ve asked for reviews of my cover letters, case prep help, inputs on my CV, being connected to persons and god even knows what other brazen requests I’ve put out there. Of course, not all of them were successful, but a good number of them — especially requests to batchmates I did not know too well — have been such a blessing. They’ve allowed me to get key nuggets of information and at virtually no cost.
It cost me zero dollars (euros?) to make a request and usually cost the other person about that much to fulfill. When they say that you miss a hundred percent of the shots you don’t take, they meant it. Take every shot, you’ve nothing to lose.
Say yes to everything. Help everyone.
Converse to the point above, I’ve said yes to almost every time someone asked me for help. I’ve helped with multiple case study preparations, CV rewriting, introductions and sharing of job posting because why on earth not! We’re all in this literally together and there’s absolutely no reason for us not to collaborate on resources, time and abilities to be able to bring success for each other. All of us have got to our places of being because of others’ help and the least we can do is take an active role in helping them out in their journey.
This is also a great time to learn to revel in the success of others. Just the fact that someone has made it where they wanted to and being happy for them and if you were a part of it, then being proud of their achievement as well. It’s a feeling like no other. It really is. In a difficult time, it’s very pertinent to take every opportunity to celebrate.
Touch grass. You know, the one the grows outside
Searching for a job is an all consuming, boring, repetitive and very draining task. It’s also very easy to start thinking of it as the only task and obligation that one has at the time. It might be a big obligation, but by no means is it the only one. There are plenty of other things that one needs to do in life and those things cannot wait until the right job is found. I found that a routine involving swimming has been absolutely integral to keeping my sanity. I’ve also taken steps to ensure that I get sunlight (good thing the days are long now innit!) and some good non-work related conversations in at least once a day. It’s almost like a tonic to be able to get one’s mind away from that single track that it occupies.
Swimming worked well for me now. It could be something else — music, dancing, sport whatever. But there’s that one thing everyone’s good at and that’s the key to staying afloat when there’s that sinking feeling of nothing going one’s way. Touching grass is necessary and important.
There’s only so much one can control
There was a time, or so we’re told, that companies would line up to hire MBAs and students would have to really fight them off as they piled on. Apparently this magical time comprised low interest rates, executives who took bold bets on people and an overall atmosphere of reasonable risk taking. Fun fact: that’s 180 degrees away from the environment I happen to find myself in. Tough luck. The world is a funny place, it’s funny how everytime I need it to be in my favour, it feels like it isn’t ;) But after three decades and a year of living (yes, so old), I acknowledge that life is hard and one has to get used to it. Much as I’d like to, I cannot control the macro-economic factors that would adversely affect the corporate world at exactly the time that I need a job. Did I ask for uncertain interest rates, two full blown wars, correction of over-optimistic hiring during a certain pandemic, elections for half the world or generally pessimistic state of affairs? No. But am I getting it anyway? Yes. And what can I do about that? Absolutely nothing. Nothing that I do will change those individual instances or make it more or less favourable for me, but all I can do is just keep doing what I’ve been doing so far and trust that it will eventually workout. Statistically, firing enough shots will result in at least one hitting the target!
The twelve step prayer thing is very useful in times like this. “…grant to us the serenity of mind to accept that which cannot be changed, courage to change that which can be change”
Everytime I feel overwhelmed by the dings, the automated rejection emails, the rejection emails that speak of careful review of my CV a mere 2 hours after applying, the “we’re not hiring this year unfortunately” chats, the promises of getting back as quick as they can but not keeping up with those promises I’ve talked to people. I’ve talked to some wonderful folks who have counseled me, given me perspective, talked to me, shown me the silver lining and given me hope again.
Everytime someone gets angry at a failed interview, I can’t help but chuckle to myself about how they feel much angrier at the situation on my behalf. Each time I’ve had someone hype me up before an interview, I feel lucky to have such cheerleaders next to me. Multiple times I’ve had a shoulder to whine on and each time it’s been my good fortune to be able to do this.
I’m very grateful and fortunate to be able to navigate this messy time with some of the smartest, kindest, most loving and magnanimous people out there. I couldn’t have asked to be funemployed with anyone else, but the INSEAD MBA 24J batch! We’ll all get through this, we shall.
