Hell week @ HBS

Trying to beat 900 other students to land a good internship at a time when the economy is not doing very well and the balance of power has clearly shifted towards the employer can induce a lot of stress in students. However, as an experience, hell week (the dedicated interview week with no classes) is a one in a lifetime experience. With interviews lined up everyday of the week with about 8-10 firms on average for each student, the interview location, Doubletree hotel was quite a novel scene. With eager students waiting outside hotel rooms nervously awaiting their turn while one of their classmates would be interviewing inside the same room.
I was interviewing mainly with consulting firms and my results have been mixed. I had 2nd round calls with 2 of the firms and have an offer from one of them while I am still awaiting the results of the other. Fingers crossed for the results of the other as it is my top choice firm.
In general, my feeling is that placements this year have been better than the last and while its still early to make a generalization, I see more happy faces than sad. A lot of it is about managing expectations and I think the career services has done a good job managing them.
I can say for sure that the banking scene has definitely improved as most of my sectionmates who were serious about banking and spent their time networking (schmoozing), got offers.
Well, its time now to go back to cases

xoxo

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