Recruiting, a lesson in patience and trust

After leaving my internship with Sears Holdings I was torn. I really enjoyed my experience with Sears, I had a great boss, I learned a lot, and Heidi and I were able to make a lot of great friends, both at Sears and in our ward - but at the same time, I was felt that Sears was not the right place for me to start my career.

Why? I'm still not entirely sure. The thought simply never sat well with me, and, now that things have settled and an acceptance letter has been signed, I can kind of see why - God had something else in mind for me. Why God cared that much about my career when I had such a solid offer as mine at Sears, I don't yet know. but He did and does, I know that for a fact.

Months passed in Provo with little more than bad news in the recruiting front. In fact, I'd planned in my head a blog post titled "Decepcionante," that was going to work through that wonderfully colorful Spanish word that has no good translation in English. It's most direct translation is "Dissapointing" but that translation entirely eschews the Spanish root that gives it so much power - "Deception." Truly disappointing things are so because, in my opinion and experience, one had deceived exceptions, whether that deception be the person's own fault or because another misled him. That is true disappointment - decepcion.

Thankfully, I was entirely freed from that feeling the day I received the no-go from LEK Consulting, following my fly-out to their L.A. office. In fact, I missed the HR manager's phone call which was to deliver the bad news, because I was in the middle of my first phone screen interview with a firm named Oliver Wyman. That interview went superbly well, and after hanging up I listened to LEK's bad news, and, to my surprise, realized that I didn't mind at all. I was fine. Things were going to work out and I knew it.

But why did I apply to Oliver Wyman in the first place? I was practicing cases one evening with my good friend Paul and he mentioned at some point Oliver Wyman, a firm I was aware of but hadn't caught my attention before. As soon as he mentioned the firm however, I knew I needed to apply that evening. As soon as our practice was over, I ran to a computer and filled out my application. Soon after I received the invitation to do an online pre-assessment (GMAT-esque math questions), which I didn't feel I did superbly on but was apparently good enough to get me passed on for the first phone screen interview I mentioned in the last paragraph.

I received a call back from the same evening of the first phone interview by the woman who interviewed me, to invite me on to the second phone screen and to provide some feedback. Again, feelings of calm and peace were pervasive. Whenever I thought that I might not get an offer at OW, I again felt frustrated and withdrawn.

That second phone interview came and I didn't do spectacularly well on it, not, at least, like I had on the first phone interview. Some corporate delays also meant that I heard the results back from that interview 48 hours later as opposed to the promise 24, which of course added to my anxiety. However, even at this point, the thought kept ringing in my head: "Relax. You're supposed to get this job. How can you get the job if you don't pass this round?"

Despite the pervasiveness of that thought, I didn't dare share it with anyone but Heidi. It wasn't until I received the invitation to fly out to the Dallas office for final rounds that I began to admit to myself just how miraculously everything had pieced together. I felt inspired to apply to the firm in the first place, I was very well prepared for the first interview simply because my interests aligned closely with the subject of the case interview (gadgets), and I'd made it through the second phone interview despite a lackluster (in my opinion) performance.

Finals in Dallas consisted of four 45 minute interviews, one entirely focused on my resume and the other three working through business cases. I feel I performed well in each interview, and more importantly, I honestly thoroughly enjoyed each interview and interviewer. They enjoyed my company too, I suppose, as evidenced by the offer to join their office.



This semester has been hard and wearing on me. I've dealt with more disappointments in these last few months than perhaps during any other time in my life, but during the same period I've also experienced some exquisite joys, principally the birth of my first child, little Evette. She has continued to bring joy to me every time I see her. And then, returning to the topic of recruiting, everything in that arena worked out wonderfully well for me, too - better than I had imagined, in fact, as many of the unique selling points of Oliver Wyman align better with what I was looking for than many of the other firms I had been looking at. I have been richly blessed and I am thankful.