Ready, Set, Network!

It's a good thing I added that "or tomorrow" at the end of my promise. I actually meant it as a joke, but here we are - and it's tomorrow. So I'll get to the point (because I actually still have school related things to do - more on that later on).
The first week has been very hectic. Some of the sessions we have are about getting to know the resources Cornell offers us. Some are about leadership (next week is going to be all about that). Most of the sessions we've been having are about what career path we want to take after we graduate and how we go about achieving that. Unfortunately the last part is still rather vague and taken out of a coffee table book. Points that are stressed are:

• Be authentic
• Know what you want
• Work hard at making and keeping contacts
• Remember to write the contacts you meet Thank You notes
• Make sure the Thank You notes/emails are spelled correctly.

This are all valid, of course - and, good student that I am, I've already written my first Thank You email (I hope I spelled everything correctly) but I sort of want to get the fluffy stuff over with and get to actually learning the skills that will get me the job. So far, all references to that have been in one of two ways: Either by say something like "Fit is really important to recruiters... Obviously having the skills is important to, but you'll all have that...". Or by remarks like "Once the Core (ie the classes that teach core skills) starts, you'll have absolutely no time".
Tiny sidetrack to stress how much they have been saying that second part: On the second or third day, while the MBA students where in a session about Ethics, the school had a session for the spouses to speak with them both about what they will be going through, and what the school offers them. Uri's report was that all they talked about was how busy we (this is "we, the students", not "we, Uri and I") will be and that they should get used to not seeing us much. I think it was on the next day that we got our TV (Sony HD 32 inch that we found on sale). At this point I'll refer back to the beginning, when I said that I still have school relate stuff to do, I doubt that I will have anytime in the near future when I won't have school related stuff to do.
Back to the story - the last type of sessions that were on our schedule we "Networking Socials". What does this mean? It means that there are specific times the school put in our itinerary for the week in which the whole class, 270 people, stand in the school's Atrium with the goal of meeting each other. After a whole week of this I can honestly say that I can not think of a more tiring and useless way of meeting people. It feels a bit like speed dating on crack (not that I've tried either one). [They also told us to manage our online presence, so this I write this whole paragraph rather hesitantly]. Anyway, the point I'm trying to make, is that the first 5 people you approach you can have a nice conversation with, but by the time you get to 6 your capacity to remember everything she/he tells you (and you always talk about the same thing - where they are from, what they did, what they want to do) is starting to dwindle. And since the "Networking Social" is scheduled until 5pm, and you still have an hour to go, you continue to the 7th person, and then 8, 9, 10... Maybe I should be writing "I" and not "you". I'm sure there are some of you out there (Mom, Shai...) that do have the capacity for this type of thing. But I'm pretty sure it's not just me who doesn't. Just so the recruiters that will be reading this in 6 months don't think I have no social skills, I will say that I have met some terrific people. I few of them I've actually met during a"Networking Social", but most of them I met either during or after breakout sessions, where we were in smaller groups and had a recent common experience to talk about. Oh - and it really helped that we didn't have the specific goal of meeting people. I will end this section by saying that the hardest part of networking (again, when it is done for the sake of networking) is ending the conversation. Off the bat, you would think that the hard part is starting the conversation - but it's really not, because everyone has the same goal: to network, so anyone you start talking to will happily talk to you. However ending the conversation is really hard. Once you finish hearing where they are from, what they previously did and what they want to do in the future and tell them the same about you, that should pretty much be it. You are in a room with at least 268 other people all talking at the same time, so the chances of finding a common subject to talk about and going into a more deep conversation in which you'll really get to know the person are pretty slim. Add to that the fact that both of you are looking around at the other 268 people and are thinking "I still have to meet all these people" (The Dean said so). The Save is usually one of you saying "I'm going to get a drink" or "I have to go to the restroom". So - I have to go to the restroom.