Attention MBA students, big brother is watching

With summer generally comes nice weather and laziness. Chicago seems to have kept the nice weather at bay this year, but the city has done nothing to stop me from being lazy about blogging (a nice vacation in CA also didn't help).

I know postings have been long overdue, and I'm going to try and put some more out before I start work in ~2 weeks and I'm lost to the real world forever.

I got an email today that took me back, all the way back to last fall, when I was just another MBA student in the recruiting crunch.

When you try to get a job with a consulting firm (or any firm really) that recruits on campus, you're schedule quickly fills up with all kinds of sponsored events.

- Come meet a few company employees for dinner

- Attend a presentation on new intellectual capital from a company partner

- Swing by your local office to do some interview prep work with the firm

Etc. Etc. Etc., the list goes on and on, and for those trying to juggle multiple firms (which is everyone), it can get rather complicated.

This is only made worse for those paranoid students out there who worry that their every move is being tracked and evaluated. These types (and yes, I was certainly one of them), struggle with which events to attend, which to skip, and how that will be perceived by potential hiring decision makers.

Of course, there were some that dismissed such concerns, some that sat back and felt like these firms had way more important things to do rather than track candidates every move.

Well, score one for the paranoids among us.

Earlier today I got a job postings email from the school's career services office (and no, I'm not looking for a new job, I just like to see what's going on). In today's email there was a posting from a major consulting firm for a 'Recruiting Associate.' I thought that was interesting, not as a career switch for myself, but just as someone who's gone through the recruiting process. Anyway, the description was fairly generic and typical for an HR recruiting description (leaving out the odd decision to recruit MBAs for a position that doesn't require an MBA)

But the following section of the 'Essential Duties and Responsibilities' section caught my eye:


- Database Maintanence
: Maintain candidate records in database, as well as hard copy candidate files
: Maintain event records, including logistical details and candidate attendance


Paranoia justified.