Tuesday, February 13, 2007
"Prison life consists of routine, and then more routine. " - Ellis Redding (The Shawshank Redemption)
Like most MBA students out there my routine these days consists of meetings, and meetings and more meetings. Whether it's meetings with my Brazil consulting group, or meetings with my local New Haven consulting engagement, or meetings with the folks in the internship fund exec committee, the steady stream of meetings continue on and on. I'm a little stressed out about it all to be perfectly honest, but all these meetings are really my own doing so I can't really complain there.
In between meetings (and the compulsory daily gym visit that really is the highpoint of my day) classes are thrown in the mix, followed by submission of coverletters, a few informational interviews thrown in here and there, and then lamentations of how much it sucks to be unemployed when it seems like everyone is getting offers.
Of course the reality is that those with job offers here at SOM are still outweighed by those who don't. But knowing this fact is of little comfort, and truthfully I am starting to get irked at being unemployed. I've ramped up my career-related activities in the past two weeks and submitted a few more job applications but progress has been slow. SOM Alumni have been remarkably responsive to offering their time for informational interviews but sadly I haven't been able to convert any of these into anything substantial. I have more informational interviews next week though, and all I can do is keep plugging away.
What's frustrating most to me though are the mixed messages that I keep hearing about the nonprofit sector and the demand for MBA's. Last week for example, Yale SOM hosted an Economic Development conference that I volunteered for. We had a bunch of interesting speakers, and in one of the more memorable speeches a speaker from the "Inter-American Development Bank" implied that there was a great deal of demand for MBAs and their skills in Economic Development. His speech was somewhat dramatic and over the top, and he almost challenged us (as MBAs) that once we were ready to really "make a difference", there will be opportunities waiting for us.
My problem is here I am - ready and willing to jump into the nonprofit sector- and not finding anything. So far there are very few economic development postings on our CDO website, the informational interviews I've had have lead to nowhere (granted I've only done a couple), and the few applications I've submitted haven't been fruitful. I've mused with some of my fellow applicants to a social-venture capital fund that all of us would have had a better chance getting an offer with McKinsey or KKR then getting an analyst position with the fund we applied to.
Anyway, thats all the ranting I want to do for now. On a completely unrelated after thought to this entry, Go Raptors Go - winners of 9 of their past 11, 1st place in the Atlantic division, and playing meaningful and entertaining basketball for the first time in years. ¶ 10:43 PM
Like most MBA students out there my routine these days consists of meetings, and meetings and more meetings. Whether it's meetings with my Brazil consulting group, or meetings with my local New Haven consulting engagement, or meetings with the folks in the internship fund exec committee, the steady stream of meetings continue on and on. I'm a little stressed out about it all to be perfectly honest, but all these meetings are really my own doing so I can't really complain there.In between meetings (and the compulsory daily gym visit that really is the highpoint of my day) classes are thrown in the mix, followed by submission of coverletters, a few informational interviews thrown in here and there, and then lamentations of how much it sucks to be unemployed when it seems like everyone is getting offers.
Of course the reality is that those with job offers here at SOM are still outweighed by those who don't. But knowing this fact is of little comfort, and truthfully I am starting to get irked at being unemployed. I've ramped up my career-related activities in the past two weeks and submitted a few more job applications but progress has been slow. SOM Alumni have been remarkably responsive to offering their time for informational interviews but sadly I haven't been able to convert any of these into anything substantial. I have more informational interviews next week though, and all I can do is keep plugging away.
What's frustrating most to me though are the mixed messages that I keep hearing about the nonprofit sector and the demand for MBA's. Last week for example, Yale SOM hosted an Economic Development conference that I volunteered for. We had a bunch of interesting speakers, and in one of the more memorable speeches a speaker from the "Inter-American Development Bank" implied that there was a great deal of demand for MBAs and their skills in Economic Development. His speech was somewhat dramatic and over the top, and he almost challenged us (as MBAs) that once we were ready to really "make a difference", there will be opportunities waiting for us.
My problem is here I am - ready and willing to jump into the nonprofit sector- and not finding anything. So far there are very few economic development postings on our CDO website, the informational interviews I've had have lead to nowhere (granted I've only done a couple), and the few applications I've submitted haven't been fruitful. I've mused with some of my fellow applicants to a social-venture capital fund that all of us would have had a better chance getting an offer with McKinsey or KKR then getting an analyst position with the fund we applied to.
Anyway, thats all the ranting I want to do for now. On a completely unrelated after thought to this entry, Go Raptors Go - winners of 9 of their past 11, 1st place in the Atlantic division, and playing meaningful and entertaining basketball for the first time in years. ¶ 10:43 PM
