As told by our 1st Year blogger...."Mocktails"

Hi everyone!

Now that our first year class has completed orientation and is getting settled in on campus, I will be introducing you to our new guest bloggers for the year. This week, meet Chloe Williams!



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Hi Prospective Students!!

My name is Chloe Williams and I am a 1st year student here at Booth. I am originally from the Midwest – Wisconsin, but recently moved to Chicago from the Los Angeles area. I graduated from Boston University with a degree in Manufacturing Engineering and started with MillerCoors in Milwaukee, WI in a Rotational Management Development Program. After finishing the program I moved to the California Brewery and worked as a Packaging Team Leader. I came to Booth to pursue a career change into Management Consulting.

I chose Booth because of the people I met through campus visits, interviews, and Admit Weekend. I was impressed with how humble and approachable the students were and felt comfortable being myself. After spending a few days surrounded by current students and other admitted students during admit weekend, I knew I belonged here. I hope all of you have similar experiences when you come to visit! If you have any questions feel free to email me through the link on the blog!

This week, I’ll be blogging from Mocktails.

Booth dedicates a tremendous amount of resources to recruiting preparation. The first years in particular are given extensive training and coaching so we can put our best foot forward. The most useful training is by far interactive simulations. Tonight’s event was Mocktails, an event which helps first years adjust to networking at recruiting events. Second years act as recruiters (from the companies they interned at and in some cases are returning to), and first years practice networking with them, going through introductions and small talk. This seems intuitive, but it’s nice to be put in this situation in a risk-free environment to see what could or should actually happen.

I was in the group for consulting which has a fairly big base at Booth. We did two networking simulations and were given feedback at the completion of each of them. Some non-obvious learnings occurred quickly. For instance some people realized how to hold a drink, a plate, and still have a free hand, to shake if need be. Other people realized they should either do the drink or the plate (it really is hard to balance). Another key learning was how to successfully enter and exit a conversation. The most important take away for me was learning how to navigating “crop circles.” I know you’re probably thinking what in the world could patterns created by flattening crops have to do with Business School? A lot, if you want to get a job! A crop circle is the circle that forms around a recruiter or an employee of a company who is recruiting on campus. For most major recruiting events, it is inevitable that crop circles will form. It’s a little awkward and uncomfortable at first, but at least we were able to make mistakes in front of friends instead of in front of real recruiters.

I think everyone walked away feeling more confident about the process and realizing what they need to work on before recruiting events start. All in all, it was great to do a dry run with the people that I will be working besides for the next two years, and it gave us another experience to bond over!