Word: petered
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...Peter identifies with Horan: after applying to 20 companies during fall recruiting, he didn’t receive a single job offer. What makes Peter’s situation different (and arguably worse) is that he transferred to Harvard during his junior year from another Ivy League school to stave off future rejection. Now, with the fear of having to move back to Michigan to live with his family, he regrets the transfer. “I thought coming here would give me additional opportunities,” he says, “but ironically I feel like I have...
Whereas Horan accepts that she isn’t good at “networking” and “self-promotion”—skills essential to landing a job—Peter more pointedly blames the “petty” and “competitive” student body whose talents make him less marketable. He feels that many of his supposed friends have buttressed their self-esteem through his failure...
During fall recruiting, Peter claims to have dealt with one particularly unsupportive friend who made the entire process more stressful. “He told me, ‘You better not interview in my group because I will totally make you look bad,’” Peter remembers. “He thought that by discrediting me he would be less likely to be rejected.” Peter recalls that friend “slyly” bring up recruiting to brag about his own success in an effort at self-aggrandizement...
Zach, the student Peter deems “insensitive” and arrogant,” was hesitant to speak with FM. “I got lucky in the recruiting process and was hoping my friends would be happy for me,” he says. “Some of them weren’t, and that might simply be due to resentment.” He also reports that far from discouraging Peter, he actually helped Peter with his resumes and cover letters—acts of kindness he says were overlooked and underappreciated...
Michael S. Goonan ’05, a chemistry concentrator in Pforzheimer House, doubts that schadenfreude is as pervasive as Peter wants us to believe. Over the past five semesters, Goonan has regularly notified students that they have not earned a spot in The Opportunes—a task he dreads. Each fall, 90-110 students apply for roughly four openings in the group. During the first three nights of auditions, lists of students advancing to the next round are posted on the Internet, minimizing personal contact and making the process “pretty painless” for Goonan...