Typical Johnson School

Once again I have to apologize for my lack of recent posts, but I hope to make it up to you with a few smaller posts over the next couple of days (which are VERY busy with end-of-quarter assignments and finals). My post today deals with something that actually happened awhile ago, but it came to mind recently and I wanted to share it with prospective students reading this blog. Basically, this is a story about what it really means to be a student at the Johnson School.

I was speaking with a classmate of mine shortly after classes started this semester. Steve's an Accelerate MBA who is going to be working for the same company I am after graduation. We ended up, quite coincidentally, at final rounds for this company on the same day (they held multiple days of final rounds). Another one of our classmates, Dawn, was also there on this day. On this Friday in December, I didn't really know Steve very well - I just knew his name, that he is an AMBA and that we occasionally frequent the same bars in Collegetown. Other than that, I didn't know much about him. I knew Dawn a bit more since she's another second year student and so we've had much more time together over the past two years. But nonetheless, we all were talking with each other, discussing winter break plans and such right from the moment we saw each other in the lobby.

So there we all were for this day of networking with current MBA Associates at the company, back to back interviews with VPs, lunch with the CEO and a mini training session where they introduced us to their full line of medical devices. Also present this day were applicants from Harvard and MIT (very nice people from what I remember). The whole day went by in a whirlwind of activity and before I knew it, it was over. But during the whole day, the three of us from JGSM joked between interviews and at lunch and showed the camaraderie which just naturally happens here. It didn't matter that we didn't know each other very well - it just mattered that we were from the Johnson School. We had been through the same classes, eaten in the same Atrium and therefore we were very supportive of each other in the final round process. I even offered Dawn a ride back to Ithaca so that she didn't have to deal with the hassle of possible flight delays due to the bad weather which had rolled into the Philly area.

Now fast forward to January when I'm talking to Steve and he mentions to me that he had met with some of the VPs again during a return visit after he got his offer. He said that they were very impressed with the Johnson School candidates, particularly the camaraderie and warmth that we all displayed to each other. They asked if we knew each other beforehand and Steve honestly said that he knew us a little, but not very well. They mentioned that they were impressed by this type of behavior and I guess it showed - there were four open positions at this company and all four Johnson School finalists (another attended a different final round day) got offers! When Steve told me this story, I just laughed because there was no other question in my mind that it would be this way. That's just the Johnson School way.