What a Difference a Global Economic Shutdown Makes

Ugh, such a long time since my last blog post. If this blog were a plant, its leaves would be all shriveled, stem wilting from neglect. If this blog were a fish, it might be floating upside down in the tank, no longer content to hang out with the little scuba man instead of eating.

Fortunately for us, the blog doesn't have feelings or physical needs. Starve it or leave it without water, and it will have no idea.

Anyway, now that I'm on winter break, I'm thinking it would be a good idea to really get back to blogging consistently, maybe even to the extent of a 12-days of Xmas type blogging marathon. Only instead of calling birds and french hens, you'll get curse-filled diatribes on people/things/life philosophies that get me riled up. Might happen, might not, it really depends on whether there's anything good on TV.

But with that said, I thought that since it has been quite a while since our last chat, I'd let you all know how my fall recruiting process went. (In a word: underwhelming, with a little sprinkle of soul crushing)

You'll be happy to know that I'm past the point of being sad that I couldn't get any of my "dream" jobs. I also blew through denial, anger, and acceptance. Where am I now? I'm in what I would describe as a post-acceptance re-attribution state, where I take absolutely no responsibility for failure and instead blame macroeconomic conditions for my situation.

It's quite nice, just try it yourself, say things like the following:

It couldn't possibly be MY fault...

Companies were really just interviewing to keep up appearances...

Alan Greenspan should personally write me a check for screwing up my livelihood...

Anyway, to keep a series of long stories relatively short, I only applied to five other firms this fall after my internship in management consulting. I really liked my internship, but had a couple of concerns that precipitated dropping a couple of resumes. Of the five first rounds, I got final rounds for four of them. At the time, it seemed like a pretty good start.

Then, as is usually the case with me, when things start going well, the wheels completely fall off.

I nailed my first final round, but the firm refused to listen to my preferences and offered me a job in a location that I wasn't hoping to work in. The reason I came to business school was to have opportunities that really interest me, and while the position would be nice, it was clear the firm wouldn't do anything to accommodate me (something about having hundreds and hundreds of newly interested consultant wannabes makes them less inclined to bend over backwards for you...weird).

Following that, I had three more final rounds with various firms in various locations...ok, two. But every time I flew out to those locations and met with people, things did not go as well as I needed them to. That was unfortunate.

So I'm left with going back to the firm where I interned this summer, and while I'm certainly excited to go back, it's not exactly how I envisioned this whole thing playing out. With that said, I could definitely be in a worse position given friends that have dream jobs that no longer exist. Of course, that explosion caused a trickle-down effect that I think was reflected in my results this year compared to last year ( Last year: 4 final rounds, 3 offers...this year: 4 final rounds, 1 offer...do the math)

But again, I'm not upset...in fact, I'm taking away a lot of positives from all my unsuccessful interviews...

- The opportunity to get much closer with my Ipod on long flights and airport waits. In particular, I used a lot of those flights as a chance to rent ITunes movies I always wanted to see but never got a chance to (e.g. Bullit and After the Thin Man) As an aside, the Thin Man movies always convince me to switch careers and become a rich detective that goes around solving mysteries, drinking like crazy, and firing off one-liners.

- The chance to sample a whole bunch of different podcasts, with the eventual goal of working them into a rotation once I start work and begin ignoring the general public on long train rides/commutes. Rotation currently includes Talk of the Nation, MSNBC Countdown, Filmspotting, ESPN's B.S. Report, and Kevin Smith's smodcast.

- I got to sample a number of hotels...which is always fun. One hotel in Los Angeles actually put a robe in the closet for me when I got out of the shower...what? you say that's normal??? Well, this one was a leopard print robe. Obviously, I had to wear it, even though it felt weird, like I should be in a 1970's porn movie with a giant mustache. I didn't take a picture, but I kind of looked like this guy...


Sweet right?