Countdown to Cornell’s Johnson School

I have some things that I need to update everyone on.

Last week I had a call with my career managment coach who was assigned to me because of my marketing career interests.  We worked on my resume and then had a call.  I feel much better and more relaxed about OP – Consortium Orientation Program occurring at the end of June where we can walk away with our internships for next year!  I know the company I’m going to target and will have an incredibly more relaxed first semester if I get an internship offer at OP.

I definitely see and understand why they say that you need to enter school with a clear vision of what you want to do.  Whether it be true or not, if you’ve been accepted through Consortium it’s kind of a must.  Otherwise you’ll miss out on the great opportunities throughout the summer.  OP is just the beginning of it, and actually it’s not but I’ll get to that later.

There are pre-mba internship program emails flying around behind the scenes.  There are also multiple “camps” and one day programs that companies have throughout the summer.  There’s no way anyone would be able to attend all of them because A.) it wouldn’t make sense because they’re industry specific and B.) there’s just not enough time.  Like it was very tempting for me to want to attend the LGBT event at one of the banks but it just didn’t make sense.  I don’t want to go in to banking in any way, shape, or form so that would have just been a waste for me.  Sure I would have been able to networking with people who will be attending b-school, but yeah not my cup of tea.  Also, there’s the P&G Brand camp – which I did not apply too.  I can’t take off from work that many days but also, CPG is not REALLY the direction that I want to go in.  Remember, I want to do Product Marketing so while they’re in the same job function classification, I want to do High-Tech.

Given that all of these events are occuring now in the summer, can you imagine how many different ways one can be pulled in once school begins?  I imagine it would be incredibly frustrating and exhausting.  Thankfully I won’t have to go through that.  Now that’s not to say that I won’t sit in on other industry specific discussions and learn about the things that I’m missing.  By no means would I let that happen, because I want to be able to have a conversation with folks who are in those industries.  As it stands right now, when I hear someone say that they do (Insert Really Financ(y) related word here) my brain shuts down and I try to pick up on what they’re saying but it doesn’t work.  I don’t know any of the terminology.

What I like about the classmates that I’ve met so far – one in particular – everytime I get the glazed over look on my face I stop him and say “wait… I don’t know what you’re talking about, can you explain it to me?”  and he laughs and says yes and dumbs it down for me.  It’s really not all that complicated (to understand) the implementation may be.  But I digress…

The sheer logistics of moving to a new town is another reason why it’s good to enter business school with an idea of what you want to do.  I have a friend who is moving to NYC and as someone who has been through that process before here in NYC IT IS NOT FUN!   I did it when I didn’t really have a hard cut off by when I needed to be moved in.  I moved in 2009 in January but it could have been February or March or whenever.  Imagine having the deadline of school ahead of you?  Yeah, I can’t deal with all that.  Too stressful and time consuming.  But the upside to that is that he’ll be here this weekend so we can HANG!  BTW He’s going to NYU – Woop Woop!

So needless to say – HAVE A PLAN like they tell you to when you prepare to enter business school.  Is this to say that everyone has a plan?  Nope they don’t.  I have some classmates who are already undecided BUT… they conveyed 1 single plan throughout the application process.  So if there’s any takeaway in this whole post that would be it for new applicants – if you’re unsure about what you want to do in b-school, at least have a plan laid out in the application process.

So yesterday I started my new job!  I’m very excited to be able to relax when going in to work.  As I stated before, I am now back on the agency side of things whereas before I was on the client side at Bloomingdale’s.  To me it’s a breath of fresh air and I’m excited to be able to work on the client that I’ve been assigned.  Should be a fun ride!

“After Getting An Acceptance, I’m Thinking About…”