Internship Recruiting Is Underway
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Internship recruiting season has descended upon us, and the school has been transformed . Hallways and classrooms are full of suits and business attire, the recruiting suites are packed, and stress and uncertainty is easily detected in every smile and every uttered word. The objective: to secure a summer internship.

I already interviewed with BCG on Tuesday, and as expected, the interview was intense. The first 45-minute interview warmed up with a couple of fit questions, and then went right into case analysis. The interviewer established the case: the client, a gift-wrap manufacturer with a plant located in Kansas City, was wondering whether or not to outsource operations to China. After asking a couple of questions about the current cost structure of the KC operation, I was presented with several charts. At one point in the interview I had to divide 1 by 50. I sat there dumbfounded, but after struggling with it for several seconds I managed to scribble '0.2' next to the equation. Needless to say, this interview did not go so well.

The second 45-minute interview took on a much different tone. This interviewer was much more personable than the first one. We spent time talking about my previous experiences and why I decided to come back to business school (I seem to get this question a lot). The interviewer then presented me with the case: a manufacturer of PDAs and cellphones is considering the launch of a new product feature; an integrated scanner function that will enable users to scan proprietary bar codes in magazine advertisements in order to be connected directly to the advertiser's offer. I started my analysis by looking at the cost of the product launch and then at the attractiveness of the market. The numbers seemed more straightforward, and I was not presented with any complex graphs, although quite a bit of quantitative market analysis was warranted. At the end of the interview, I had little expectation of a callback, and my inclination proved correct when I received the fated 'ding' call yesterday.

That was my first (and will be my only) consulting case interview for summer internships. The rest of my internship search is concentrated primarily on Tech Marketing or Product Marketing roles in the High Tech Industry.

Today I have a phone interview with Microsoft for a product planner position. Later today I will interview with Siebel Systems for a product marketing role.

I am also on the closed interview list for a Product Manager role at Microsoft, a Marketing role at WalMart.com, and a Marketing/Strategy role at StorageTek. I also bid on, and won, a spot on Amazon.com's interview schedule.

eBay has pushed its interview date out to March 8th, so I am concerned that the recruiting team might decide not to come. I have, therefore, been ramping up my off-campus internship search.

The recruiting season will only become more difficult as my classmates start to receive offers while I am waiting on the latecoming hi-tech internships to materialize.

Then again, I can always deliver pizza over the summer.

posted by Jake B. @ 7:17:00 AM