Trials and Tribulations of Interview Season

It's Friday night. I'm in, in my humble opinion, one of the best cities in the world - New York. And NYC on a Friday night offers a plethora of incredible options. There's Broadway, great restaurants, stores still open for shopping, and the list goes on and on.

What have I chosen to do?

Interview prep.

Yes... Interview season at Darden officially kicks off on Monday morning. 10:15 am on Monday for me. And I am not quite as ready as I'd like to be.

Interview prep in my life before Darden was so much less work. I was naive and foolish and thought that having a few good examples of my leadership skills and work ethic were sufficient to land me a job. And, indeed, they were. However, I am now up for jobs against people who have all the same great qualities as I do. And all those people are likely also spending their Friday evening prepping for interviews.

Making the decision to stay home and work today was quite difficult, but with NYC close by and no second chances for interviews, it was a necessary one. And it's not that I can say I've been busy spending my entire break prepping for interviews. I've gotten in some skiing and sightseeing (highly recommend the Tim Burton exhibit at MoMA!) and visiting and board game playing. But tonight I work so that tomorrow my friend and I have time for fun and celebrating her birthday.

For those of you prospective students who have tuned in to read about my thrilling interview prepping life, I'll give a quick background of on-grounds recruiting at Darden. First, companies spend the entire first semester doing company visits and wooing you with closed event parties and dinners. The next step is dropping resumes, which for me occurred mostly on December 4, the last day of classes. After that, some of the companies which previously wooed you break your heart, others surprise you with interview invitations. Interviews then run from January 11 onward, with second and final rounds, depending on the company. Classes do not start until January 18, giving companies a jump start on the interview process.

In addition to being invited for interviews, you can also bid on interview slots. Everyone is given a certain number of bid points, and you allocate these points to each company, depending on your level of interest.