One picture says it all: Hustle

wolfy:

Each card is a handwritten thank you card I brought to the post office. All these people I met did not come to my school. I sold my stuff, took the bus down from Amherst to Boston and met at BC, BU, MIT, Harvard, HBS, Mt. Holyoke, Smith, etc. I really, really appreciated their help. I keep in touch, refer my students to internships, and receive a lot of jobs before they are posted.

Hope all is well. If you remember, we met at the last XXXXX conference in 2009. You have followed with a very thoughtful holiday card at the end of 2009 but unfotunately I was travelling out of the country and got caught up with a lot of backlog tasks once I came back.

Since the 2010 convention is starting tomorrow, I was wondering if you were planning to attend and if yes, I would like to catch up with you and see how things are going with you. Do keep in touch and hope to see you soon.

Regards,

PwC Senior Finance Manager"

"Hi James,

Thank you for sending along your portfolio and your resume. I really appreciate the work that you have out in for this application!

Also, I received your note, thank you for sending that along as well.

I would like to set up a time for us to have a quick phone interview for about 30 minutes next week if you are available. Would Monday at 11AM work?

Thanks, Bain & Company"

"James,

Your resume was forwarded to my attention by XXXX GS VP, with whom you met at our XXXX event. At this time, we have filled our incoming 2010 full-time XXXXX analyst class; however, I have forwarded your resume to some colleagues for consideration towards other roles that you may be a fit for. Someone will contact you if suitable opportunities arise. Thank you for your interest in opportunities at Goldman Sachs.

Sincerely, GS VP"

" James, XXXX from XXX forwarded me your resume. I am a Director in the technology investment banking group at RBC Capital Markets (www.rbccm.com). I'd be interested in speaking to you about an open analyst position in our Boston office. Please call me at 617-XXXX-XXX if you are interested in discussing. Thanks XXX

==================================== XXX Director | XXXX Technology Investment Banking P: XXXX"

Dozens more. Never underestimate a sincere Thank You.

Would you send out cards only after you've met the people in real life?

Steinig:

How long did it take you to build up a network like that? Must have devoted lots of resources.

I received my degree Feb 10 but I walked May 09. I spent 120 hours a week from May 09 to April 2010 networking, emailing, cold-calling, thinking of ways to meet people, visiting every place I could.

1.5 years in total until I came to Asia. More if you count junior-senior year. After April 2010, I started building meaningful relationships in Korea, Japan, Beijing, and Singapore.

Note that I really didn't want to network. I needed a job to make rent, pay student debt, and personal debt. I was ashamed each time I got excited about receiving an interview, then told my girl sorry I failed.

I met a lot of people,

However, because competition was really bad, and I was a Comm. major with no financial coursework, well, I had a lot of disappointments when a phone call didn't happen when I got on the plane.

Although I'm studying for grad school now and broke, the events I crashed, people I met, buddies who teamed up with me to practice--I really wouldn't trade it back.

But I kept at it. And at it. And at it. I used to hate the world because of this, but I gained a lot of people skills. Most importantly, narrative.

Life, it goes on. I learned more these 2 years of OCR misery than the rest of my life combined. Lucky I didn't die.

2x2Matrix:

wolfy:

This is last Thanksgiving and Christmas for me. I wanted a job to see my girl.

You will get it. Good luck.

Happy holidays, ... Night after night sleeping in the computer lab, "I will not go home until I get an interview."

Does anyone else have no idea whatsoever what this means?

I think he has a baby girl in singapore and networked his ass off to get a job in that vicinity. Or it could be his girlfriend. I just gathered that from reading his other posts.

2x2Matrix:

Interesting story, and it's interesting that you're still so gung ho about the networking process after coming up empty. I'm glad to hear that you enjoyed networking, but, to ask a pointed question, what are you trying to get across? That people are nice to you when you're persistent? That persistence is better than no persistence? You apparently did a lot of unconventional networking stuff, didn't get a job, and remain very optimistic. Are you saying that you recommend the same thing to another prospective monkey?

Holiday cards are nice, but there are more time-efficient and cost-effective tactics that have actually gotten people jobs.

Hey Matrix, this is actually my last topic for the year before heading off to get the apps done.

I'm gung ho about it because my last 2 top-tier internships offers were through networking. Previously uncreated positions for MBAs, the Director and CMO had to create it.

I did get a job. And I got FT offers from my internships that I declined, because I'm aiming for a very specific thing. Sorry if I didn't make that clear. This was just supposed to be a 1 picture thread.

I think people with hiring power need to see a reason for submitting a new item on the budget: you. Jobs, esp. in Asia, don't come with a posting. You and everyone know this already. When you're out of cycle, out of school, and in the middle of a recession--shit, who is going to hire you because of a resume drop?

The learning lesson I wanted to leave was, very, very simple things that may take a lot of time--can get your foot in the door. My regret is, it takes me so much effort to get in the door, I wish I could have used my time elsewhere. Had I not networked at all, and left it to the resume drop... I can honestly say I did over 3,000 applications online. This vs. networking. I got 1% from submit and pray; 50% and higher higher (this means interviews) from networking.

Just imagine the odds of getting an email back, having your resume picked from a book, passing a phone interview with HR, making sure 5 people like you, do it again, pass the techncials--do it again, and sometimes you come up short anyway. It didn't matter if you made it to superday. If you don't get the phone call, it's still a 0.

Then you have to start over again. The same cold-email, the same crashing a networking event. It gets discouraging. This happened to me about a dozen times. The pic is to remind students the extra steps needed these days, because from what I'm seeing in mentee requests, they're still doing the same thing. These are target students having trouble. Caltech, Columbia, Berkeley, NYU, etc. It's shocking.

If I never sent the thank you cards, which took 8-12 minutes to write each, I would not received an interview as a non-target, whose school never had a single decent posting for consulting or finance, aside from First Investors and GS Ops (which I applied to as well: kids got there 3 weeks before I even spoke to the alum). Sending a holiday card increased the response rate I got, especially if I followed up, even when I followed up a year later to help my underclassmen. I got them internships through someone I met a year ago but stayed in touch with.

I did get a job. I got 5 offers this April in tech consulting, at a startup, a pharmaceutical company, etc. By then, I already said fuck it, if I came all this way already, I'm not going to settle. So I bought a one-way to Beijing to take an internship at the world's top ad agency. This is after I attended a lecture at HBS. Getting an ordinary job wouldn't get me into my choice of b-schools (which, is my dream--because one day in high school I got lost, ended up at the HBS campus, and a MBA offered to buy me lunch to talk about college and his experiences).

For the prospective monkey: I'd recommend anything that increases their chances at an interview and an offer. But not to risk humiliation or be on Dealbreaker.com

Every professional who's received a thank you card from me, still remembers that card. Brings it up. Says, more people should be just like you. This is the first card I got in 5 years.

in 09, the cards were stacked against me, really stacked. So it wasn't just ace the interview. There was no interview. If there was no opportunity, I had to create it.

Again, what I'm trying to say is, if something's not working, build a better relationship, take some risks, go to the store and buy these cards. I'm sure a lot of 08, 09, 10 grads will tell you, outside of OCR, getting a job is like winning the lottery.

I worked on a lot of PR, ad campaigns for blue-chips, financial clients, etc. this summer. What I did during OCR and what I'm advising WSO-ers to do now is analogous with what clients pay us to do. I recommend reading up on David Ogilvy and Ogilvy & Mather.

Hope that helps. I only started posting again on WSO because around this year, you'll see all the I give up posts. This is the proof that you keep going, you'll get it, eventually. Give up, you're always on the couch.

Don't give up, you earn your place--and all the doors open.