Summer internship

For the past month, I've been pretty occupied in securing a summer internship. I apologize for my late responses in the inquires that my blog readers has sent me through my emails. If I have not gotten back to you, please email me again

So what's new in the spring semester? Not much actually. First of all, the social activities have significantly reduced as most of us are busy dropping resumes, practicing consulting cases and going for interviews. Everyday there are people dressed in suit and tie. There is a mix of frustration, hope and relieved among the small community. The “Any good news so far?" can became a pretty sensitive topic... Second of all, pretty much everyone is "settled in" with their group of friends, not to mentioned some have found a steady partner at Haas (or outside of Haas..)

Out of all the summer internships, investment banking recruits the earliest. By now most of us have either secured an offer or need to quickly move to plan B. Next are the consulting firms. Since most people have interview invitations with more than 3 firms, each firm has 2-3 rounds; the process can be pretty painful and long. The feedback I've heard from some people is that McKinsey interview tends to be tougher than BCG or Bain's since the McK consultants take more control of the case and constantly challenge your answers/questions. Nevertheless, so far we have 4 McKinsey summer offers, 4 BCG offers. The last type, which is on-going, is the industry corporate recruits. I heard from my classmates that these interviews require a significant time of preparation since these companies tend to ask company-specific questions to gauge your interest in working for them (eg. Which company product does you like the best? If you could change one thing about our product xxx, what would it be? )

Having gone through so many investment banking interviews and speaking to my classmates, here is my perspective on three most important success key factors in landing a summer internship:

• Know and be able to convey clearly why you want to do the job your are interviewing for. The interviewer wants to know your motivation
• Show your enthusiasm for the job. How? 1. Know the job well. 2. Know what ability is required to perform the job well and 3. be able to convince your interviewer that you can bring value to the job from day one
• Focus on the interview process, not the actual result. I believe one reaches his/her maximum potential when they are driven by excitement ( of the process) , rather than fear (of the end result, i.e. failure)