The Placements season is fundamentally a time for reflection. A time to do some soul-searching about what you want to do short-term and how it connects with your long-term vision. Basically, revisiting your MBA essays with the prism of your newfound wisdom/nihilism that your core courses have scarred you with. It's a time to understand your strengths and those achievements which you want to showcase in the pony race ahead. Oh, and not to forget - how to convey any weakness and what you have done about it in a polished manner.
But all this has to happen in that parallel universe that is ISB, where time flies by faster than light. You still have those case submissions, B-school competitions, club activities, leadership summits and parties to waltz with. And the corridor of uncertainty ahead, married with the scare of scarcity that CAS invariably ends up creating can lead to stressful months and at times some avoidable bad blood with your classmates.
So here are my $0.02 for grinning and bearing all this. As with any piece of unsolicited advice, these are personal views, so you must pick and choose what works for you. More importantly do remember that almost everyone gets placed by the end of the process. And, there are many who shift companies within a year of joining. So placements are just a means and definitely not the end. Play hard, and have fun.
Resumes
By now, I presume that you have a good final versions of your resume ready, with multiple iterations carried out to please the whims of alums across classes. The only tip on top of that I have to offer is to keep a copy of the latest versions of your resume (customized by the industries/functions you are applying to - e.g. Consulting, Marketing, Leadership Roles) in a Dropbox folder. Have the discipline of always keeping the folder up-to-date and only uploading the relevant resume from this Dropbox folder.
This ensures that you:
• Are not confused with multiple iterations floating around in your computer,
• Always have the latest version on-the-go, stored in the cloud
• Avoid HCC violations on account of not representing the latest CGPA
EoIs / Cover Letters
These may seem to be unnecessary burden on your already crunched time., but trust me, these documents offer you two benefits.
1. Let's face it, all the resumes of your classmates showcase spikes. A good Cover letter is a differentiator. If you do your research on the KMPortal of resumes and EoIs of students who ultimately got placed in the companies you want to apply to, you will get a fair sense of the kind of people the companies look for and the kind of relevant achievements you can highlight in your EoI to catch some attention. In many cases, the interview discussions will hover a lot around cover letters, as these act as a good starting point of conversations for the interviewer.
2. The Cover Letters, like resumes, become more polished as you write for more and more companies, until the point you know exactly what to convey. This is, in turn, an interview prep for knowing what are the right notes to hit during the D-day.
Case Prep
A common prevailing misconception is that Case Preps are only for aspirants to consulting jobs. While Case Preps are indeed absolutely necessary for the consulting aspirants, they are very useful for others as well. Many of us are non-linear thinkers, and this poses a problem in time-constrained interviews as we can easily veer away the discussion to many directions, leaving the interviewer with the impression that our thought process is muddled. Cases teach you to focus only on the problem at hand, structure your thoughts and use the tools of guesstimations, back-of-the-envelope calculations and frameworks to solve business problems. Needless to say, they are good skills to pick up and use, even in a real job.
As for the Case Preps themselves, choose a style which suits you. In my time, there were the zealots who formed teams early on to tackle cases and religiously met up for months. There were also the floaters, who invariably started the prep late and flirted around with different groups.
Watch the videos of Victor Cheng in the beginning of your prep, if you have the time. "Case-in-point" is a good starting point to learn and apply frameworks. I found the "ISB Consulting Club Casebook" to be particularly effective in two aspects. I liked the frameworks given in the beginning of the book, and I found them to be decently comprehensive. More importantly, the ISB Consulting Club casebook has the questions that alums who ultimately got through faced. And my own interview experience was remarkably similar to the ones that the alums had faced. (Of course, this is valid only for Consulting companies. It would be great if the other Pro Clubs bring out similar books)
Interview Prep
Make sure you have cloud-accessible notes on these four aspects:
1. Know your Past (Previous employer/Industry) - Facts and Figures, Trends of the industry, what you learnt from the job etc.
2. Know your Present - Current Affairs, Global Macroeconomic and Geopolitical issues - at least the major ones pertinent to your industry
3. Know your future (Prospective employer) - Facts and figures, Leadership, the role offered per se, what differentiates them from their competitors, the culture of the firm, how you fit etc.
4. Know about yourself - Be thorough with your resume, have crisp summaries for each sub-section of it, your achievements etc.
The most important question one needs to have a crisp and confident answer is "Tell me about yourself". This sets the stage for the interview and if played right, you can veer the interview to highlight what you want to. Have a crisp summary of your education and work ex, and
highlight either hobbies/interests or what kind of person you are.
Group preps among peers targeting similar companies are useful to get everyone up to speed with trends etc. efficiently. Be open to sharing and learning. With the limited time at your disposal, and the general awesomeness of your peers, this is the most effective way to prep for interviews.
Get mock-interviews done with peers (whose feedback you value) and alums. For specialized roles such as Product Managers or startups, find out the right peers with relevant experience. During mock-interviews with peers, have couple of observers to give feedback to both parties - the interviewer and interviewee. Seek feedback on clarity of thought, body language, confidence and energy levels sustained through the interviews.
Good luck, God Bless and Enjoy the Ride! :)
Currently working at Accenture Strategy, Ajay Srinath is an alum from the Class of 2014. In his free time, he likes to quiz, be quizzed and travel around the world. He was popularly known as 'The Quiz Club guy' doing the 'O' week at ISB.
