Professor Carr post:

I hope each of you as a graduate student regularly read business news in outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, The Economist, etc.  If I owned a company and you interviewed with me, one of the first questions I would ask you to verify if you were truly interested and passionate about business in general (versus a technician just picking up a graduate degree) would be a current events type of a question along the lines of, “It’s great to be able to interview you.  What have you been reading about in the Wall Street Journal or Financial Times or other that has peeked your interest?  How does that relate to my company and industry and/or what you studied in your MBA program?”

If you were silent, stumbled or babbled … not good … and I might move on the the other five people I brought in to interview for the position.  Don’t shoot the messenger, and on that note …

Please see/read this week’s Wall Street Journal article, Expanding Abroad?  Avoid Cultural Gaffes.  A nice article that will come to life even more when you visit China (or India).  But also be thinking above and beyond the “don’t look like a fool” issue that this article raises.    That is, ask yourself, “What business opportunities do I see not being met or satisfied that exist due the cultural differences I am seeing?  Could I build a business around them?  If so, how?”   This is not an meaningless academic exercise.  Many of you will work for firms that do or one day will do business in or with markets like China, India, Brazil, Russia, etc. have clients based there, work with colleagues or clients from those markets, etc.