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发表于 2003-8-28 03:26:00
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INTERNSHIP INTERVIEWS
By the time this journal makes its way online, many of you who applied in the first and second rounds will have heard from HBS and those of you who applied in the third round should be hearing in early May. It can be an extremely tense and challenging few months, but when it's all over, most look back with both relief and happiness. I look forward to welcoming incoming HBS students and hope that all applicants, regardless of where they applied, are happy with their results.
Let me jump into what's been going on this semester and what our classes consist of. Our classes include Finance 2; Negotiations; The Entrepreneurial Manager; Strategy; Social Enterprise, and Business, Government, and the International Economy (otherwise known as "BGIE."). I have to give a lot of credit to the administration for the variety of classes they have exposed us to in the first year's required curriculum. No matter what background students are from, each class poses a unique set of challenges and keeps students on their toes, even though they may have prior experience in the field. In fact, each section (comprised of about 80 students) at HBS was designed to promote as much dialogue during class as possible, so that students are teaching each other as much as the professor is teaching us.
My study group has been extremely helpful this semester, as we are able to analyze cases more thoroughly and engage each other bright and early every morning as an important part of preparing for our classes. One particularly memorable day, our study group vigorously debated the relative strengths of Amazon.com vs. Barnes & Noble and which company would survive in the long term. Days such as this help crystallized the true benefits of being part of a study group and why they can be so helpful as part of the HBS academic process.
This unique diversity and co-mingling of opinions are best exemplified, however, by our class on Business, Government, and the International Economy ("BGIE"), where we study everything from monetary and fiscal policies, to the role of business and government in different nations, to free trade and various countries' attempts at crafting democracies. Our professor, a former advisor at the Brookings Institution, has a talent for guiding the discussion in a way to help students independently uncover the hidden facets of every case.
Given the remarkable number of countries my section-mates hail from, being in a class like BGIE truly opens up new horizons and takes advantage of HBS' pedagogical strength in eliciting lively discussions. We've had cases on South Africa, Singapore, China, India, the Soviet Union, and Japan, to name just a few, and each time our classmates from these countries share their personal experiences about growing up in these societies, and the unique pros and cons of various government policies. Many students have even taken it upon themselves to prepare PowerPoint presentations to update the class on more recent events in these countries.
Of course, outside class, recruiting season has arrived and students have begun (and completed, in most cases) the march toward finding summer internships. Despite massive layoffs in many corporate sectors and the continuing fallout from the Enron debacle, students are upbeat and have cast wide nets in finding the perfect summer internship. For its part, the career services office has gone out of its way to help students navigate these difficult waters and have sponsored many afternoon presentations on better job searching techniques, including advice on effective networking. Although historically, students have reached out to dozens of potential sources in finding summer internships through the networked job search, the results can be unpredictable. You have to prepare yourself for the inevitable fact that a certain number of emails and phone calls will go unreturned and brace for an exercise in persistence. Still, the networked job search has many advantages, as my friend, Andy, found out. After spending five months on a highly-tailored job search that included countless emails, numerous conferences, several trans-Pacific conference calls, and a two-week networking trip to three cities in China, he was able to craft a much-coveted position in the semiconductor industry in Shanghai for the summer. There may be more twists and turns when undertaking a networked job search as opposed to a more traditional search, but you're likely to make some good contacts and uncover jobs which are not usually advertised or which employers may decide to tailor based on your particular strengths. In Andy's case, he was able to convince the GM of Intel's software lab the value he could provide as an intern working with a group of 150 engineers.
My own interests for the summer are not as narrowly defined that those of some of my colleagues. I've been searching for summer positions through the Web-based job bank, as well as through friends in industries of interest. Although the relatively small number of positions in the job bank relative to the number of students is indicative of the challenging times, career services has gone out of its way to recruit new companies and place more jobs online. In addition, many alumni have been contacted over the last couple of months and encouraged to speak to current students and post any available positions to help enhance the school's current job offerings.
My search for a summer internship is nearly complete, although I have had a few interviews with firms in a variety of areas, including finance and entertainment. Having prepared with a few friends beforehand and having taken advantage of the practice interviews hosted by HBS alumni, I felt very much prepared for the barrage of questions on my background, my experience, and what I'd bring to the position. One of the central tenets of the HBS experience--and an idea promoted by Dean Kim Clark in his opening address to our class back in August--was investing in each other and really reaching out to fellow students. I've seen the current economic climate help create a certain esprit de corps among students, with many reaching out to one another to investigate new industries and quickly get up to speed on what to expect.
One notable example of cooperation among various schools and students can be found at the Cyberposium technology conference held on campus February 8-9. Cyberposium is the world's largest student-run technology conference, with over 1,000 participants every year. This year, an enterprising first-year HBS student, Nitzan, and his team of HBS and MIT students planned one of the largest career fairs this academic year, with 28 participating companies, despite stiff resistance from many companies reluctant to come on campus or who were unsure of their hiring plans. The career fair provided access to many leading technology firms, including entrepreneur Dean Kamen's company, Segway. Nitzan and his team were able to overcome many companies' initial reluctance and in the final two weeks convinced 15 companies to send representatives, all of whom were offering jobs. When asked about the experience, he remarked that the event had proven how tightly-knit the HBS community is, evidenced by students really going the extra mile to help each other, not only at HBS, but at neighboring schools as well.
The solidarity among students has also extended beyond the daily rigmarole of searching for summer internships. Many students made elaborate plans for Spring Break, taking place from March 18-22, to travel together to places such as Costa Rica, Belize, Brazil, and South Africa. Other students have joined forces to volunteer their time working with non-profits or conduct charity auctions, for example. Three students in my section, Rayford, Jeff, and Claudia spearheaded what's called the Summer Search Charity Auction, which has become an annual tradition at HBS. Each year, first-year sections organize and host an auction to benefit the Summer Search organization and other select charities. Volunteers in each section donate something to the rest of the section, which is auctioned off; proceeds in the past topped $20,000. In fact, this year, my section set a school record, with over $31,000 raised!
Other students across the HBS campus have chosen to take part in another rewarding program, called Volunteer Consulting Organization (VCO), which links students with non-profits in the New England area. Four talented members of my section, Pat, Rosalia, Jed, and Kirsten, were matched up with Virtual Voyages, Inc (VVI), a New London, CT., non-profit founded to introduce under-privileged children in the New London and surrounding communities to sailing. Over a three month period, the group of MBAs worked closely with founder Dick Lathrop, the organizations served by VVI, city officials, and donors to understand the mission and core competencies of VVI and to set a path for future successes. "It's been a very rewarding project both from the perspective of serving the New England community as well as the opportunity to put into practice some of the lessons from the classroom," says Pat."
Showcasing other talents beyond their ability to dissect case studies, a rock band of first-year students, named Corporate Whore, has been playing to large crowds at most local venues, including two straight sell-outs at the House of Blues. These guys really rock! The band was originally formed in cyberspace, through the HBS prematriculation Web site (which provides a wealth of information to incoming students) and started discussing songs and performances while many of us were still trying to figure out where to live and solve other related challenges. They are currently recording their first album and will donate time this summer to a volunteer music tour of U.S. military bases. Take a peek at their Web site, www.CorporateWhore.moonfruit.com, to get a feel for what they are up to and look for them to be performing early next year at HBS for incoming students. Hopefully, some new admits are up to the challenge of putting together their own band and giving Corporate Whore a run for their money!
Finally, a number of students, including myself, recently launched the first-ever Mobius Forum here at HBS, which was a conference dedicated to "Leadership, Values, and Spirituality." The conference, which lasted two days, delved into numerous issues surrounding spirituality in the workplace, and featured a case study on Anita Roddick (founder of The Body Shop) as well as panels and speeches by our dean, Kim Clark, Alan Dershowitz, and Deepak Chopra, among many others. More information on Mobius can be found at www.mobiusforum.org. I would encourage you to view our "Virtual Conference" online.
Frequent trips together, engaging study group and class discussions, thought-provoking faculty, multi-talented students, and volunteer opportunities such as these are among the many reasons HBS stands out in my eyes. Especially in difficult recruiting periods, students reach out to one another, not just inside the classroom--where it remains an important priority--but also outside the classroom through volunteer work and other collaborative efforts.
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