I the hypochondriac think I have an ulcer. My mother the pharmacist doesn't believe me. But as long as I don't eat anything, I feel just fine, so it's okay.

So after two weeks or so, I'm all career searched out. I'm not the networking, small talk type. So many pointless words. But the vast majority of people don't seem to agree with me and seem compelled to talk all the time and say so many things out loud that I just don't think need saying. For instance, so many classes more than necessary seem to think class discussion is an important part of the class. Now, there are a few classes, like English classes or classes about controversial opinion-related things, where you need to spend most of the class discussing. But there is no need to discuss articles about medieval Russian history as though my uninformed classmates have something meaningful to add to what the article says or to what my professor could say much more succintly and accurately and interestingly if he would just spit it out instead of spending half the class asking us for our "thoughts."

And then there is the really disgusting phenomenon that I really don't get: construction worker-type men in pickups whistling or yelling things out the window at female pedestrians. A few years ago, i would have thought this is something that only happens in movies, but since moving off campus and spending time walking alone down streets with traffic, I have discovered that, no, it is actually a rather common behavior. And it obviously has nothing to do with any particular sort of girl; it's not like I have a habit of wearing revealing clothing or that I have anything to reveal if tried or that they can even see anything that closely while speeding by in a car. What, then, makes them feel the need to make such comments out loud, loud enough that you can hear them while walking down the street? What good can come from this? Do people just not know how to think inside their heads? Maybe the word "think" is an exagerration here, though.

Why is it 4:00?

- posted by Darcey @ 3:41 PM

 
Allow me to explain some more about the business school career center. It is best described as &!*@#&)@*. I believe this describes it much better than actual words, and it is much more fun to type. To apply for jobs through them, you must complete registration. I believe you can do this at the artsci center in a mere one or two steps. Not so in the b-school. In the b-school, it takes at least two years. You think you've done most of it your junior year, but then you have to redo it all your senior year, "updating" and then of course giving a #$^*& hard copy of everything you update on the computer to the career center, because of course you can't be trusted to just go and update your address all by yourself without supervision. And whenever you think you're done, surprise! There's another !%#@#& form, or another meeting. Because of course they can't just tell you about all the requirements all at once.

Then once you do that, you can start going to information sessions and applying for jobs. I went to my first informations session last night, just to see what it was. It was for a company called Accenture, a consulting firm. I wasn't sure whether there was an actual presentation, or whether you could just wander in, say hi to somebody, and leave. Turns out there's a presentation, and it starts at 6:00. I got there at 6:05. I don't think the company gave a #$^%*. But, today, an e-mail was sent out from the career center about information session etiquette. One of the major points was ARRIVE ON TIME, NOT 3 or 5 MINUTES LATE. It went on to say that this was also true about events hosted by the career center. Rebel that I am, I was also late for one of the surprise extra registration meetings. (This was not my fault; I was waiting for a !%^@ shuttle that never came.) Apparently, though, I was punished because they started without me and I missed "valuable" information. Who knew? I would have thought a few minutes less of listening to them talk about networking was a great reward.

As far as actual job searching goes, most of the companies recruiting right now are accounting or finance firms that have regular college recruiting procedures every fall, and only in the fall. There are also a few other places recruiting now, and these seem to be mostly "consulting." The problem with these, as I learned about in my information session last night, is that they want you to travel, up to 50% of the time. This seems quite depressing to me, for a number of reasons. First, I do not like sleeping in hotels, much less living in them. I would be tired and cranky and dazed, and then I would be fired. Second, I have recently developed a fear of flying. While I am very quick to be worried about all sorts of silly things at a moment's notice, I have never before had a lasting fear of one specific thing. It is quite irrational and inconvenient. Third, I am boring and, unlike most anyone I know, I would really rather live near home and stay there. This is why I have decided to move to Cincinnati. Apparently, this is the mid-sized Midwestern city of choice among companies recruiting on campus this fall, as opposed to the mid-sized Midwestern city where I was born or the one where I go to school. I don't know much about Cincinnatti, though I suppose it is pretty much the same. And King's Island is cool. Of course, this plan involves large companies with regular campus recruiting all over the country, only one of which I think I might really be interested in. I'm thinking that maybe when it gets closer to graduation time, small firms that happen to have job openings at that time will come to campus, and those will probably be local. So maybe I will stay in St. Louis instead. If not, I will have to learn to spell Cinncinnati. (Review the above paragraph - I think the first one is right?)

- posted by Darcey @ 7:46 PM

 
Hello, blog. It seems like I should finally have something to write about, now that I'm here going to class and such. But nothing particularly interesting comes to mind. I've been to classes. They were class-like. I have decided upon taking Consumer Behavior, Database Management, Exposition, Islamic Civilization, Russian Civilization (those two are back to back - I love my civilizations), and a business seminar thing that I haven't been to. There seem to be a lot of little papers to write, but nothing too strenuous. Apparently I'm also supposed to be busy trying to find a job, which just seems an entirely unnecessary and frightening thing to do in September.

And we have cable. Cable is nice. You can turn it on while eating lunch and become mesmerized by a movie about the behind the scenes world of the Partridge family because you're too lazy to find anything else. You could do this, theoretically, it's not like I'm definitely saying I did this or anything.

And things just keep taking over my computer, and these assorted things (as I think I mentioned last week, but feel the need to emphasize here) are EVIL. No computer-related task can ever just work on the first try, there must be endless, time-consuming complications. Must go now...head going to explode...computer will try to publish blog...slowly, so slowly...

- posted by Darcey @ 3:49 PM