On recruiting processes

Recruiting season moves on. There are loads of things to write. Most of it is, unfortunately, not suitable for print. Some random comments from the past week:

Quote from a partner at one of the top-three consulting firms:

The case interview is a very unnatural process. Unfortunately it is a little bit like democracy in that, paraphrasing Churchill, it is the worst form of recruitment process, except for all the other forms.

Quote from a recruiter at one of the consulting firms to one of my class mates:

You have a great personality and fit the culture but you should practice interviews more

So, basically, "I know you'd be great working at our company, but you should practice the interview more." Interesting.

So far, for me, the first interview caught me by surprise. They were, seriously, quizzing me on basic math. Maybe I should have laughed less at their question - that might have helped me to not get a ding after the first interview round.

The outcome of the second interview was not as much of a surprise. I did crap on the case, and the guy interviewing me had to basically walk me through the case. I can make all kinds of excuses, but basically I had never come across that kind of case before. As a result, my framework wasn't really up to scratch.

Oh well, at least the guy was kind enough to call me up today and give me feedback. Which will come in very handy as I interview with the top three consulting companies (The McBain Consulting Group) over the next week and a half.

In the meantime, most industry companies ding me. Most of my "age-right tailers" are in the same category. I guess most industry companies are looking for 27 year old MBA grads.

Somehow I feel that Career Services, who get these companies to come on-campus would either tell us oldies not to bother applying to their standard jobs, or (even better) prepare the companies for the fact that INSEAD MBA students are older, wiser, more experienced, (and better looking) than your average non-INSEAD MBA student.