Career focus is huge at business school. You will meet with the Career Management Center staff during Orientation and your new career work group (a group of students interested in your same career led by second years) within the first couple weeks of school. Also, the recruiters start arriving a month after school begins. If you are even the least bit unsure of what career you wish to pursue, I would suggest spending some significant time over the summer investigating careers. Great resources are the WetFeet and Vault Career Guides. They break down the different functions, jobs, and show you what your daily life will look like. You also need to be drop-dead honest with yourself. Do you want to work 100 hours a week? Do you want to travel 4 days a week? What impact will those choices have on your life? Cornell gave us a free subscription to CareerLeader which is a diagnostic test -- similar to Myers Briggs but focused on business school careers.
I wanted time to explore different careers, be thorough, and make sure I was making a good choice. There just isn't the time, unfortunately, to do that. If you can narrow it down, you won't run yourself ragged at company briefings and cocktail hours.
