Africa Club

The Milk Round (Part II) - Akin

At the start of the Milk round, I looked the part courtesy Moss Brothers sales. But I had to make up my mind about what I wanted to do. I knew for sure I didn’t want to do what I did before the MBA: auditing. But it definitely had to be a career in finance given my strengths and interests. I always had always fancied Investment Banking, but I wasn’t 100% sure. I wasn’t going to tell my interviewers that of course, so going into Milk Round, I had to have a story and stick to it.

I did what most people did, applied to all the banks that presented and hoped for the best. In addition, I applied for an internal finance function at one the big banks. Then when the first two batches of shortlists were released and I was unsuccessful, I panicked and started doing what most people would do, applied to everything, consulting, industry, etc.

Eventually, Helen Green e-mailed me four times. For those of you who haven’t read Part I, that means I got four finance interviews, out of about 11 applications I made. I’d convert one or two, I hoped.

Then I started preparing for the interviews. All my applications to investment banks were for core corporate finance roles, but of the three investment banking first round interviews I got, two were for corporate finance associate positions and one for a markets associate position (if you don’t understand all this terminologies, fret not, I didn’t understand most of them before coming to London). I hadn’t applied for a markets position, but I wasn’t complaining. Interviews were scarce resources, and you had to use them, however.

It’s funny how life works out. I had been preparing all along for corporate finance interviews but I absolutely got hammered in the two corporate finance first round interviews I had. I converted the markets and internal finance interviews into second round interviews, and thankfully converted the internal finance second round interview into an offer.

It would be my only offer. So be it; I had a pretty decent internship, not as well paying as investment banking, but as they say, money isn’t everything. For me, the Milk Round was finally over. I could try to be a student again, after five weeks of classes. I’m still struggling to catch up with exams just three weeks away, but I guess it was worth it. For prospective MBA students, no words can truly communicate the experience but I’ve done my best. Hopefully, you’ll have good experiences with your Milk Rounds.

The Milk Round (Part I) - Akin

When conducting my research to apply to London Business School and reading student comments, I kept coming across the term “Milk Round”. I found out what it meant almost immediately I got to school. The focus on recruitment here at LBS is almost alarming. From day 1, the Career Services people are already on our case to craft out career strategies, prepare CV's, start networking, etc. For me, it was so strange; I mean I wasn’t even sure what I wanted to do, but here I was already pitching myself as an investment banker.

According to Wikipedia, the Milk round is the term commonly used in the UK to describe the phenomenon of companies touring universities each year, in order to advertise their opportunities and recruit students. It’s truly a phenomenon; having just gone through the process, I must say I am a changed man.

At LBS, first year students spend the summer vacation doing internships and projects in various organizations. As such we have our special Milk Round process beginning in January and ending by March.

To prepare for the Milk round, I waited till the Sales Windows at Moss Brothers opened up, rushed there and picked up two sharp suits for a bargain amount. On the technical/interviewing side, I picked up some nine books from the school’s library on interviewing, pitching oneself, writing killer CVs, etc and Vault guides on Finance and Consulting jobs. I was hoping I’d get to read all this before the Milk Round commenced in early January ’07, but it didn’t quite work out that way. Christmas was fun, and New Year celebrations extended for longer than I expected.

The Milk round process at LBS this year was as follows:

The first week was the Corporate Partners week. During this week, four top firms (mostly finance and consulting, few industry) made presentations to us, four a day. Each presentation lasted for about one hour and thereafter, there were 1.5 hour networking sessions. Other firms presented on campus later on but by then classes had started so there was only one firm per day. At the networking sessions, you’d hope to make a good impression on the company’s representatives by engaging them in conversation, listening thoughtfully and carefully, nodding your head intelligently, asking those specially crafted questions that’d show you how smart you were and what a good fit you were, and finally exchanging business cards. Only problem was there were some 150 students doing exactly what you were doing, so I couldn’t help but feel most of the sessions were a waste of time.

Then if you were versed in English etiquette (I wasn’t, not initially anyway), you sent thank you mails to the people you met and made connections with, no matter how tenuous the connections were. In the mail, you’d typically thank them for all the time they took out to help clarify anything you had wanted (all of five minutes) and tell them how they had positively impacted you.

The actual application. In addition to the application form, there was the new concept of the COVER LETTER. For me, I just found it unnerving; you’d basically pour your heart out in the letter and explain your motivation for applying and what was special about you and why you should be hired. Africans living in Africa, beware! It’s a totally un-African concept and I really struggled here. If you had done the earlier step properly, you could better customize the cover letter by mentioning the contacts you had established at the company. Some people just had templates and changed the names and addresses of the companies, me inclusive.

Then the agonizing wait. Typically, the companies would contact LBS Career Services who in turn would contact short listed people via email. Helen Green became known as the Rain Maker; she was the Career Services person in charge on Finance jobs, basically the banks. If a shortlist was out, you’d open your mailbox praying that there was something from Helen Green, anymail from her was better than no mail. Otherwise, it was a ding.

Then the interviews. Could be one round, usually two rounds, could be more and for some organizations interested in torturing you, up to five rounds. In each round, you could have up to four interviews, so do the math.

Then gratification for the successful few, THE OFFER.

I know people who got multiple offers, that happens every year. But for most people it is a totally nerve racking and often time painful process that should only be experienced once.

For my personal experience of the Milk Round, see Part II.

Exams - Akin

The Autumn term went by so fast it was alarming; yet it’s the longest term in the first year calendar. I can only imagine how quickly the Spring and Summer terms will fly by. Anyways, you know what comes at the end of school terms, yes EXAMS!

For a proper Nigerian guy, exams at London Business School need getting used to. Ever heard of take home exams? Or for the Finance and Accounting courses, crib sheets (basically double-sided A4 paper with pretty much anything you want written on them)? Some of you probably have, but a better question would be, have you ever experienced any of these things? I’d say for most of you, NO, because our schools just don’t have exams like these; instead, we’d be expected to cram stuff and then churn it out.

On the flip side I was alarmed about the crib sheets. Could this be signaling the complexity of those exams? I guess so, because here at LBS, the curve reigns supreme. Basically, you don’t get graded based on your absolute grade, but instead on your performance relative to everyone else in your class. Thus, professors would seek ways to differentiate students, typically by placing strategic bombs in questions for students to get caught in. Issues, issues, issues.

I particularly hated the take home exams, because I agonize over stuff a lot and the longer the submission period was, the more agonizing it was for me.

Anyways, in characteristic Nigerian style, I adapted. The take home exams did traumatize me, but the trauma would end once I turned the papers (for Strategy and Economics). For a hardcore Nigerian guy, Finance and Accounting went very well; once I faltered on my crammed information, I had the crib-sheets to fall back on.

Once the annoyance of exams were out of the way, I started looking forward to the Christmas/New Year holidays, and the frightening prospect of the Milkround- that deserves it’s own article, so watchout.

Holidays (Road Trip) – Akin

The Christmas and New Year holidays were looming and I didn’t have a clue of what to do. It would have been prohibitively expensive to go home because I didn’t book a plane ticket early. Plus after spending some 27 Christmases in dear Nigeria, I figured I needed a change.

Ade, the other Nigerian on the program suggested that we get together and go on a road trip before Christmas, touring England, seeing some of the World Heritage sites and historical landmarks in England. Not exactly my idea of having fun (I always struggle to appreciate the “finer/cultural” things in life), but hey, I wanted a well rounded education.

The trip lasted two days and we had some fun. Ade had two of his friends over from the US and we discussed some pretty interesting things on the trip (don’t think they appreciated my ipod mania though). I didn’t get to drive (still find the English road conventions confusing, plus Ade wouldn't let me), but it was fun being the co-pilot and brushing up my map reading skills.

Where did we go, you might ask? First we headed south for the Stonehenge, and made it there right as the grounds were closing for the day. Took some dark distant pictures, definitely not postcard quality and then headed out to the ancient city of Bath where we spent the night. We had a Turkish dinner (a first for me), then hung out outside the buildings that contained the ancient Roman baths, saw some churches and an ancient cathedral.

We left Bath the next morning and headed north, or so we thought, After being on the road for two hours, my map reading skills were called into question, and we realized we had been heading south all the while, and had reached Exeter. We quickly assessed the financial viability of heading north and figured we could by slightly exceeding our budget.

We cheerfully turned around, covered the two hour distance back to Bath in some three hours and then proceeded north. We pretty much spent the day in the car and arrived at Yorke at 7 p.m. It was painfully cold, my first experience of freezing temperature, and a terrible one at that. We had a quick dinner and took the famous Ghost tour for four pounds, in my opinion, money well spent.

We woke up early the next day determined to catch up on the hours we had lost, had a traditional English breakfast, and took the tour of the famous Yorke cathedral. The wonders of modern architecture and engineering; the basement was very well preserved and I enjoyed it immensely. We then went to some ancient lighthouse facility and I spent the worst three pounds of my life, paying the said amount to go up to a moderate height and then look down! In my opinion, money not well spent.

We left Yorke for London at 12.30 and I looked forward to warmer weather. I was to be disappointed. Winter had officially kicked in, and five hours later when we arrived in London, I realized I would have to get used to very cold weather for a while.
I still had the Christmas and New Year holidays to get through, but as far as my cultural education was concerned, I figured I had done a good job for 2006. I got back home, reflected on the trip, typed up this blog and completely forgot to post it until now.

The Milk Round

We've all heard about Milk Round before, but until you're actually a part of it, it's pretty difficult to understand. Milk Round this year started off with a Corporate Partners week, being the first week of term, with no lectures, and 4 company presentations a day. Yes, very tiring...! An interesting part of the whole week was watching how people change when they're around recruiters - transforming from nice people into something quite different right in front of you! The first week was only banks and consulting firms, but still attracted a massive number of people. I only applied to the banks, and was fortunate enough to secure an internship with Goldman Sachs in investment banking. The process was really quick (4 days), but nonetheless new and interesting. A Friday afternoon of 4 interviews, with 6 people, is a very steep learning curve! When I left the office, I was told I'd hear back by Tuesday, but was lucky enough to get the call later that evening. A feeling pretty difficult to describe. A lot of my friends have also secured internships, while there are still many that haven't, especially those looking to work in industry, as their recruiting is only getting into full swing now. A pretty crazy experience, Milk Round, but something I'm happy I went through...