Wednesday, January 26, 2005
Interview Schedule
Well, my closed interview schedule is set for Hell Week. I don't have an overload on any particular day, but I do have 6 interviews that week, with another the following week. I'm also an alternate for a company, and there is still the lottery/open interview process to go through, so all is not said and done. The process has been relatively painless and straightforward, but there is a lot of competition in certain fields, which makes it very challenging for career switchers to get closed spots.
All in all, I did about as well as I expected for the closed process. Hopefully during the lottery I'll get an additional interview, and hopefully my alternate spot works out as well. What is frustrating about many positions is that a company may be interviewing 12-24 people for 1 or 2 slots. Most of the companies that come here also go to Wharton, Chicago, Kellogg, etc., and so they are probably interviewing 100 people for 4-6 slots or so. Those odds are worse than getting into HBS in the first place.
Of course, if I wanted to go into sales or general management I would have a significantly easier time of it. I can only blame myself for targeting one of the perennial favorite industries among MBAs.
All in all, I did about as well as I expected for the closed process. Hopefully during the lottery I'll get an additional interview, and hopefully my alternate spot works out as well. What is frustrating about many positions is that a company may be interviewing 12-24 people for 1 or 2 slots. Most of the companies that come here also go to Wharton, Chicago, Kellogg, etc., and so they are probably interviewing 100 people for 4-6 slots or so. Those odds are worse than getting into HBS in the first place.
Of course, if I wanted to go into sales or general management I would have a significantly easier time of it. I can only blame myself for targeting one of the perennial favorite industries among MBAs.
