Trying Trojan on for size

Yesterday I got my first solicitation from a recruiter, Church & Dwight, a company that owns Arm & Hammer, OxiClean and, among other things, Trojan condoms. We'll be having a phone interview for their summer marketing internship sometime over the next two weeks. Today I have an interview with Unilever, a CPG company that owns everything consumed in the United States other than Arm & Hammer, OxiClean and Trojan.

Shortly after today's interview, I'll be meeting with some of my Australia-bound classmates to start working on a project in advance of our "international experience." Our trip group divided itself into six small groups of four, and each of us is going to research and present information about a particular aspect of Australia's economy. We're doing mining, and specifically I'm doing laws and safety, which I picked because my dad was at one time an attorney for a coal mining company, and oddly I had long conversations with him about it over winter break.

So far, this quarter has had a distinct sort of tone and feel. In some ways, it's the best quarter yet. The classes are interesting, the professors are great, the students have gotten to know each other, and I think people have a handle on the work load. But there's a new sense of tension, and maybe even disconnectedness. One reason is that our cohorts are less unified because of electives and a few swaps (to accommodate electives). And, perhaps more importantly, we're all in internship-interview mode. The environment isn't necessarily competitive, but I don't think it would be unreasonable to say that (a) some of us are measuring ourselves against one another, and (b) there's a lot of hope and rejection in the air. I'm relatively relaxed about recruiting, though. I get nervous before an interview, of course, but I do believe that match is what matters, and that the right match will unfold.

Anyway, I'm hoping to have at least a hint of fun this weekend -- I'm going to a small dinner party tomorrow. Naturally most of my time will be spent in study. I'd like to get ahead for once!