Operation: Find a Job

I survived! From Wednesday through Saturday I was in Orlando, Florida at the 29th annual National Black MBA Association conference (NBMBAA). This year, the Johnson School was fully represented with 17 current Johnson students in attendance. After enduring two full length days of pitch delivering, networking, and mini reunions with former colleagues, old friends, and fellow fellowship members & alumni, I am exhausted! Of course, this exhaustion is enhanced by the number of social events and travel to and from Orlando. In the end, the trip was well worth it on a number of different levels:

Career - One of the advantages to these types of conferences is that many times firms that do not recruit directly with my school but do have a an MBA recruiting program are present. This was my first time at the NBMBAA conference, but I did attend the National Society of Hispanic MBAs (NSHMBA) conference in Cincinnati last year so I had some idea of what to expect and how to prepare. Prior to the career fair portion of the event, I uploaded my resume to the online database and took advantage of the online resources available such as job search and application components. I also looked at the list of exhibitors and mapped out which companies I wanted to target and when applicable, which positions I wanted to discuss with the companies - a total of 30 firms made my list. On my first day, I quickly found that I had high expectations of my ability to navigate through the list. By the closing bell at 4:00 pm I had only been able to see 12 firms and I had started at 10:00 am! Something I found interesting was that not all firms had MBA recruiting processes. In fact, some firms were there as a resource for individuals already in the workforce looking for direct hire positions. From these firms I was told to look at online job postings beginning around February or March. By the end of day 2 of the fair, I had met with about 20 of the 30 firms, saving the remaining for my trip to Houston for the 2007 NSHMBA conference in a few weeks.

Networking - You might be wondering what the heck I was doing during these long career fair hours to not have had the opportunity to speak with all of my targeted firms. Well, a huge component of this conference is networking. I don't mean to brag, but I have a pretty extensive network, mostly as a result of the past work experiences and the programs I have participated in (i.e. The Riordan Programs, Toigo Foundation, Forte Foundation, LEAD Program in Business, NSHMBA, and an extensive Cornell alumni network) but also from a social standpoint (like friends from my days in Los Angeles). Throughout the two days on the floor as I was walking around I would run into folks I know and took the time to catch up and meet some of their classmates or colleagues. It felt like a big reunion! In fact, there were times I was in a conversation with several people all from different previous experiences but were all also connected in some other way. Perhaps they were now classmates or had mutual friends. Its moments like these that remind me how small the world really is! (especially the world of Black and Latino MBAs) I am sure the 6 degrees is more like 2 degrees of separation here.

Other - This trip was also a great opportunity to just get away. I know I've only been in school three weeks, but its good to break away from the 24 hour day of being an MBA student every so often. One of my closest friends here at Johnson is Meloney (Mel). Mel and I rented a convertible for the weekend pledging to have the top down as much as possible! Fortunately, the daily rain showers that plague Orlando didn't get in the way too often :) Mel spent some of her "growing up" years in Orlando so she was a great navigator to the city. Although we didn't budget time to go to any of the theme parks, we did get to go to Citywalk at Universal Studios for the Diageo hosted event featuring DJ Jazzy Jeff and Biz Markie as well as the House of Blues event hosted by Courvoisier at Downtown Disney, where Shaq made a guest appearance. Aside from these late night events, we also contributed to the Orlando economy by doing a little mall shopping and as patrons at some local restaurants. I am still amazed at how much we were able to fit into a day!

It is good to be back in Ithaca again where it is already beginning to look and feel like fall - my favorite time of year here! The leaves will be changing more rapidly soon, but the air is already crisp calling for a light fleece when I go outside. This was a longer entry than usual, but hopefully as enjoyable as others. I'll be back soon with more stories of my Johnson adventure.

Cheers!