INSEAD, Week 7

Socializing is an integral part of life at INSEAD, although the students I'm sharing the library with this Sunday might debate that. Partaking students call it "networking". I can be on board with that. I've been doing a whole lot of networking recently.
The workload has been lower the past week, perhaps to give us more time to focus on career identification. Sometimes the school, vaunted as it is, resembles an exalted careers placement service on steroids based on the emphasis that is put on job finding in the form of on-campus events, CV reviews, and industry info sessions. Of course the school is excellent, and I'm not just saying that to promote the brand. The professors are tops, the students are engaged and serious, and the alumni network is far reaching. I'm confident that given the diligence I'm supplying, the school will enable me to find, earn, and accept the position that is best suited to my growth as an individual while also satisfying material needs (in spades, hopefully). I thought I'd illustrate the socializing-career connection through the attached images. First image (grainy, above) is a recent party near campus. Remember, this is network-building. Second image (below) came from my tooling on the two alumni network databases to which I have access. It is a listing of number of school alums by work country, filtering for a few randomly-thought-of nations. Yes, some countries still aren't making either list, but I thought this was a reasonable illustration of network breadth. So when you're trying to set up that all-important business deal or emerging market entry into Cambodia, you know who to talk to. Well, this is an anonymous blog after all - if you don't know me, you'll have to exercise the 'Comments' feature. In fact though, just because someone shows up in a database doesn't mean a lot can come from reaching them. In my limited experience with this, connecting with people via an alumni database simply removes one or two layers of unfamiliarity, but you still have to 'prove yourself' to the person to whom you're reaching out. The partying from the first photo? Maybe it serves to strip off a few more layers . . . of unfamiliarity. And to have a really, really good time while we're all trying to learn the nuts and bolts of modern business.

INSEAD Week 6

It's still very icy and cold here in the Fonty forests. The township I live in is as innocently charming as ever, as you can see by the photo I've included today. This past week was a Culture Week, which means that one of the many ethnicities on campus organizes and hosts a set of themed events. Since this week's was Latin week, everyone from South and Central America participated in organizing events such as a Cuban musical group playing mostly Buena Vista Social Club hits to accompany a Cuban dinner, a Caiperinha night, and a Mariachi band to kick off the week. . .
The Indians are also pretty good about hosting Culture Weeks almost every year. One thing I haven't heard talked about is Anglo-Saxon week. The professors certainly refer to this group frequently enough when talking about financial norms, and it's a common phrase in French parlance to refer to those barbarians across the channel. So I began asking people what they would like to see in an Anglo-Saxon party, but unfortunately whatever springs to their mind just doesn't capture their imagination in the same way that a crowded room full of brightly-colored clothing clad folks dancing meringue with sloshing glasses of Herra Dura in hand does.
Life is *just starting* to settle into a rhythm around here. . . thank God . . . I have a Prices and Markets (Microeconomics) exam in the morning, time for me to get some sleep.

INSEAD Week 5

The focus of the past week has been for financial services industry presentations. These have taken place in the evenings after classes, with successive sets of representatives from Barclay’s Capital, Nomura, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, Citibank, and the venerable Goldman Sachs. From the presentations I attended, I noted on average 40 people attending each presentation and networking/drinks event that always follows. However the Goldman Sachs presentation saw some 150 people show up, easily half of the Fontainebleau class. The hiring drive on the part of banks in general is much greater than last year, it seems the directors of the planet’s financial resources are making up for lost time from 2008-9.
Attached photo is the audience during the Goldman presentation. I found the Goldmanites (I have no idea what they call themselves) to uniformly speak in very hushed tones, even when addressing the full amphitheater – as if to implicitly advertise the emphasis they place on discretion with clients’ information. By comparison, Morgan Stanley who presented right afterwards were very lively and animated, showcasing their culture in direct contrast to the Goldmanites. Most of the other bank presentations I saw fell somewhere in between in terms of energy shown during the presentation.
The schedule at INSEAD is becoming increasingly rigorous. Courses alone wouldn’t stress me out, but add them to personal administration with respect to localizing/registering in France, and job searching activities and all of a sudden the 1-year MBA becomes much more challenging in practice than it sounded. The school’s Career Services is truly a machine, and the hiring process particularly with respect to financial firms is extremely regimented. In contrast to the intended order behind this approach, all parties (banks, school, and students) universally agree that the only way to actually *get* an internship with a bank is to network relentlessly with alums and friends who currently work for them. Because otherwise, the banks don’t have any way of differentiating among the hordes of similarly highly qualified CVs they receive.
This weekend saw an American themed party in one of the biggest chateau residences featuring frat-style drinking games and people dressed in football jersies. Americans, like every nationality, are a minority on the campus. Kind of funny to look in on how others perceive your culture. Actually, I felt honored that there were enough salient aspects of American culture that it would be even possible to have an American themed party. Cheers!