DomoDomo@INSEAD

Recruitment time finally gets moving

"Domo,
I'm a regular reader of your blog. It would be nice if you could put a detailed post on how campus recruitment has been this year, so far, that would be very useful for applicants like me. What is your impression of type of companies? how many were around this time? how is the recruitment going on? We don't see much of that for INSEAD on blogs, whereas we see more info from top US schools."

Here's a message I've just received. Thanks first for your interest in this blog. It's in the nick of time, because everything is really starting NOW.

Actually, in reality, you have 2 recruiting periods: one during your P2 (that is the previous intake's P4), and your own P4. Both are open to all INSEADs, all campuses, with a priority to P4s -although to me, a good candidate is a good candidate to the company.
I have seen mostly Investment Banks being ready to offer jobs in P2.

In P4, that is now, all jobs are on offer.
This week is the main one for Consulting (McKinsey dinner on Friday, Bain and Booz cocktails). During the week, companies present their offers, and candidates who have already applied and been selected are invited to interviews.

Still, it's not just Consulting. The talk of the day is Google. There are presenting tonight, followed by a cocktail party. Then all big 3 Consulting firms have their days, then on Monday next week there's a big Campus Job Fair.

This week, Careers Service also organises Mock Interviews sessions with a specific profile (like VC, or Consulting type interviews), and sessions about other relevant issues (like Negotiating Salary for Women, Body language...)

To synthesize:
- Locations seem to me from all over the world, with a slight emphasis to London. You'd expect more exotic countries than in other BSchools (Middle East seems pretty strong)
- Industries are across the board, not just Consulting or Finance

Examples of job postings received this week:
- one service company in high-tech looking for grads in Amsterdam, London, NY, Philly, Boston
- Google looking in all fields in all countries
- Alumni firms looking for grads in London
- 2 boutique consulting looking for offices all around the world
- 1 VC looking for London office

In the Career Fair, I'll try to enquire whether there will be others. INSEAD has invitations to other Career Fairs in Europe, but on campus, I only see 34 firms for Monday -one third in various Consulting, 50% in industry (big names and smaller), one NGO, and 4 Financial Institutions (most IB already recruited during P2).

The Careers Service at INSEAD is a common scapegoat of Students. I have no objective criteria to assess this. I know that so far, people who have secured a job are either sent by their companies, or in Banking from P2. Then people who are having interviews had them though the Career website (either applying to firms or them searching for you).
The next wave of interviews probably will come from Career Fair and Consulting...

In a way, it's good to see my fellows getting in the mood for job, but I'm seeing them a bit stressed... As to me, I have decided to give a chance to entrepreneurship. I definitely will report the job process though.

I promise to write a recap post at the end of the week.

Labels: Job search, Recruitment

posted by DomoDomo@INSEAD @ 7:59 PM