As I sit on the plane coming back from a final round of
interviews, it’s easy to reflect upon the past eight months, as well as the
future eight months. I can’t
believe this year has gone by so quickly.
I can’t believe I’m actually interviewing for internships. I can’t believe I don’t have one
yet.
We were all so hopeful when we started in the fall. The economy wasn’t healthy, but it
wasn’t in demolition mode like it is now.
People still worked for Lehman brothers. Retailers were still churning out profits. We all talked about our “dream jobs”
and how they seemed so close at hand.
This was the time to land that job you had always wanted. We networked, we sent emails,
made phone calls, polished our resumes and felt like maybe it was possible we
could end up doing what we always dreamed of. I still feel that way, to a certain extent. But I also feel like the world pulled
the rug out from under us.
When companies like Wal-Mart and Dollar General are
canceling their internship programs, it’s just painful for a bunch of
excitable MBA students. Just a
couple of weeks ago we got the Wal-Mart news in class, and you would have
thought the world was exploding.
We have so little to hang onto at this point, and it was just another
blow. Long gone are the days where
MBA students had multiple offers, bonuses and other luxuries. It’s a buyer’s market, and I’m
definitely a seller.
What’s most frustrating is that a lot of us were really
relying on the summer experience to propel us into a different echelon of
experience. Many are career
switchers, or like myself, have only worked for small companies. We all want to get that big-name
experience that we had been promised, or led to believe we could achieve. And it’s still attainable, it’s just
available in much smaller numbers.
Companies that took 20 interns last year are taking 6, and that’s a good
statistic. Competition is fierce,
and some of us are considering the dreaded f-word – working for free.
As a first year, I’m stressed out about internships. But the second year students are
stressed out about jobs. It’s alarming how many people are still
looking. And from what I
understand, that’s the case among all business schools. Pretty soon we’re going to have a bunch
of unemployed MBA graduates.
I’m somewhat disappointed in some of these companies and how
they have given the ax to what should be their pipeline of talent. I agree that cutting costs is integral,
but at what future cost? The cost of keeping 10 interns around for the summer and having a
future talent pool versus cutting back on salary expenses is off balance. I applaud those companies that have
managed to keep the intern program, even if it has been significantly
decreased in numbers.
It’s tough out there, and this overdose of economic reality
is far from over. I’m not sure how
MBA students fit into the current climate, but at times we feel like we’re on
the outside looking in. We’re not
on the front lines, we don’t have jobs to worry about losing, and, at least as
first years, we know we’re relatively safe until May 2010. What’s somewhat ironic to me is that I
have yet to take an ethics course or anything that discusses right from
wrong. I know it’s coming, but it’s
interesting to me that amidst all of the lying, cheating and scamming we haven’t
discussed any of it at length in a classroom setting.
What will the future hold for us? I hope that when my class is running businesses, we will
have learned our lesson from the immoral leaders of today. Hopefully from this experience, we’ll
learn not only what to do, but also what not
to do.
Read the full article: My, How Things Have Changed